The Pillars of The Earth by Ken Follett. If you've read it, you'll know why.

WOW.

I've read it 16 times.

But there are so many others!! Oooohhh so many.... I don't think there's enough of a word-count in this thread to handle the numbers...

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We've got rules and maps and guns in our backs, but we still can't just behave ourselves. Even if to save our own lives, we are a brutal kind. The Shins