Circle of Days
The epic new novel from the No. 1 bestselling author of The Pillars of the Earth
Published on 23. September 2025
Book
Hardback
608 pages
978-1-5294-4234-2 (ISBN)
Description
'Monumentally epic . . . a superb novel' LEE CHILD
'A tour de force' PETER JAMES
From the master of epic fiction comes the deeply human story of one of the world's greatest mysteries: the building of Stonehenge.
A FLINT MINER WITH A GIFT
Seft, a talented flint miner, walks the Great Plain in the high summer heat, to witness the rituals that signal the start of a new year. He is there to trade his stone at the Midsummer Rite, and to find Neen, the girl he loves. Her family lives in prosperity and offers Seft an escape from his brutish father and brothers, within their herder community.
A PRIESTESS WHO BELIEVES THE IMPOSSIBLE
Joia, Neen's sister, is a priestess with a vision and an unmatched ability to lead. As a child, she watches the Midsummer ceremony, enthralled, and dreams of a miraculous new monument, raised from the biggest stones in the world. But trouble is brewing among the hills and woodlands of the Great Plain.
A MONUMENT THAT WILL DEFINE A CIVILISATION
Joia's vision of a great stone circle, assembled by the divided tribes of the Plain, will inspire Seft and become their life's work. But as drought ravages the earth, mistrust grows between the herders, farmers and woodlanders - and an act of savage violence leads to open warfare . . .
Truly ambitious in scope, Circle of Days invites you to join master storyteller Ken Follett in exploring one of the greatest mysteries of our age: Stonehenge.
NOW AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER!
'A tour de force' PETER JAMES
From the master of epic fiction comes the deeply human story of one of the world's greatest mysteries: the building of Stonehenge.
A FLINT MINER WITH A GIFT
Seft, a talented flint miner, walks the Great Plain in the high summer heat, to witness the rituals that signal the start of a new year. He is there to trade his stone at the Midsummer Rite, and to find Neen, the girl he loves. Her family lives in prosperity and offers Seft an escape from his brutish father and brothers, within their herder community.
A PRIESTESS WHO BELIEVES THE IMPOSSIBLE
Joia, Neen's sister, is a priestess with a vision and an unmatched ability to lead. As a child, she watches the Midsummer ceremony, enthralled, and dreams of a miraculous new monument, raised from the biggest stones in the world. But trouble is brewing among the hills and woodlands of the Great Plain.
A MONUMENT THAT WILL DEFINE A CIVILISATION
Joia's vision of a great stone circle, assembled by the divided tribes of the Plain, will inspire Seft and become their life's work. But as drought ravages the earth, mistrust grows between the herders, farmers and woodlanders - and an act of savage violence leads to open warfare . . .
Truly ambitious in scope, Circle of Days invites you to join master storyteller Ken Follett in exploring one of the greatest mysteries of our age: Stonehenge.
NOW AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER!
Reviews / Votes
There could be no better match between author and subject than Ken Follett writing about Stonehenge. His trademark blend of the intensely human and the monumentally epic works to perfection here - a superb novel * Lee Child * A tour de force - Follett so brilliantly and engagingly immerses us in a world and society at the time of the creation of Stonehenge that feels indelibly real. It utterly grips and fascinates, and made me realize that apart from technology, so very little has changed between then and now in how we behave * Peter James * A hugely enjoyable family saga. Books like this are a sort of anti-social media: just a reader turning pages, lost in a different world. Follett is one of the great storytellers * Conn Iggulden * A must-read, wonderful saga for anyone who's ever gazed at Stonehenge in awe. The monument and the people that built it, brought to life like never before * Chris Hadfield * One of the great, bestselling novelists * Daily Telegraph * Follett is a master * The Washington Post * Ken Follett is unquestionably a master storyteller but his unique skill is animating the ordinary lives that history too often fails to record. In Circle of Days, like Pillars of the Earth he breathes life into iconic stone, to fill histories silences with living breathing people * Mariella Frostrup * Another fabulous tale from the master storyteller, packed with passion, heartache and compelling historical detail. No-one does it better * Ed Balls * Grand in scope but earthy in tone, this is historical fiction as rich as it is thrilling * The i Paper * Follett brings to rich and vibrant life this epic family saga . . . An addictive tale . . . Thrilling * The Sunday Post * Follett's origin story of Stonehenge is always entertaining * The Times * Thrilling * The Courier * Nobody writes big blockbuster historical stories quite like Follett . . . A fascinating subject that comes to life in the usual Follett way, through the characters he creates that leap off the page * Peterborough Telegraph * [A] giant of the literary world * Hello! magazine * Follett's gift for making his fiction seem tantalisingly authentic, and a plot that takes in murders, a famine, tribal warfare, and a drought, the distant past has never felt so viscerally alive * Press Association *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
N/A
Dimensions
Height: 239 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 49 mm
Weight
865 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5294-4234-2 (9781529442342)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Ken Follett
Circle of Days
The epic new novel from the No. 1 bestselling author of The Pillars of the Earth
E-Book
09/2025
Quercus Publishing
€15.99
Available for download
Person
Ken Follett is one of the world's best-loved authors. More than 198 million copies of the thirty-eight books he has written have been sold in over eighty countries and in forty languages.
He started his career as a reporter, first with his hometown newspaper, the South Wales Echo, and then with the London Evening News.
Ken's first major success came with the publication of Eye of the Needle in 1978, which earned him the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America.
In 1989, The Pillars of the Earth, Ken's epic novel about the building of a medieval cathedral, reached number one on bestseller lists everywhere. It was turned into a major television series produced by Ridley Scott, which aired in 2010.
Ken has been active in numerous literacy charities and was president of Dyslexia Action for ten years. He is also a past chair of the National Year of Reading, a joint initiative between government and business. He lives in Hertfordshire, England, with his wife Barbara. Between them they have five children, six grandchildren and two Labradors.
He started his career as a reporter, first with his hometown newspaper, the South Wales Echo, and then with the London Evening News.
Ken's first major success came with the publication of Eye of the Needle in 1978, which earned him the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America.
In 1989, The Pillars of the Earth, Ken's epic novel about the building of a medieval cathedral, reached number one on bestseller lists everywhere. It was turned into a major television series produced by Ridley Scott, which aired in 2010.
Ken has been active in numerous literacy charities and was president of Dyslexia Action for ten years. He is also a past chair of the National Year of Reading, a joint initiative between government and business. He lives in Hertfordshire, England, with his wife Barbara. Between them they have five children, six grandchildren and two Labradors.