Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth is Oprah Winfrey's latest book club selection.

The Pillars of the Earth by author Ken Follett, seen here signing books in Rome in September, is the latest novel to be chosen by talk show host Oprah Winfrey for her book club. The 973-page Gothic romance came out in 1989.
(Stefano Massimo/Associated Press)

The 973-page book is a departure from Follett's usual fare, which includes thrillers such as Lie Down With Lions, The Key to Rebecca and Eye of the Needle.

Winfrey, who launched her book club segment in 1996, called Follett "a best-selling author that everybody has heard of, but this novel is unlike any of his books he's known for around the world."

Pillars of the Earth is a love story set in 12th century England. Follett, born in Wales, recently published a sequel to it, World Without End.

Follett says he was inspired by the Gothic cathedrals of Europe to write the novel.

"Every time I stood in one of these remarkable buildings, I would wonder: Why is it here? My book is the answer to that question," he told CBC's Words At Large.

The book, which came out in 1989, still sells about 100,000 copies a year in the U.S.  Back in 1989, the book stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 18 weeks.

"It's also the book I'm most proud of," Follett, 58, says on his website.

"It recreates, quite vividly, the entire life of the village and the people who live there. You feel you know the place and the people as intimately as if you yourself were living there in the Middle Ages."

Follett began his writing career as a journalist. His first stab at novel writing,Eye of the Needle, won the Edgar Award and was adapted as a film starring Canadian Donald Sutherland. That was followed by four more highly successful thrillers: Triple, The Key to Rebecca, The Man from St. Petersburg, and Lie Down with Lions.

Other Oprah Winfrey picks this year have included Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, The Road by Cormac McCarthy — which captured the Pulitzer Prize for fiction — and Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Love in the Time of Cholera.

She has 700,000 registered members of her book club. A selection by Winfrey guarantees millions in book sales.

With files from the Associated Press