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Wolf Hall
HILARY MANTEL

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
2222 reviews (2009) (560p)
National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction Winner
Man Booker Prize Winner
TIME Magazine Best Fiction Books
Amazon.com Best Books

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Book Description

In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII's court, only one man dares to gamble his life to win the king's favor and ascend to the heights of political power

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years, and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. The quest for the king's freedom destroys his adviser, the brilliant Cardinal Wolsey, and leaves a power vacuum.

Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell is a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people and a demon of energy: he is also a consummate politician, hardened by his personal losses, implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?

In inimitable style, Hilary Mantel presents a picture of a half-made society on the cusp of change, where individuals fight or embrace their fate with passion and courage. With a vast array of characters, overflowing with incident, the novel re-creates an era when the personal and political are separated by a hairbreadth, where success brings unlimited power but a single failure means death. 


Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, October 2009: No character in the canon has been writ larger than Henry VIII, but that didn't stop Hilary Mantel. She strides through centuries, past acres of novels, histories, biographies, and plays--even past Henry himself--confident in the knowledge that to recast history's most mercurial sovereign, it's not the King she needs to see, but one of the King's most mysterious agents. Enter Thomas Cromwell, a self-made man and remarkable polymath who ascends to the King's right hand. Rigorously pragmatic and forward-thinking, Cromwell has little interest in what motivates his Majesty, and although he makes way for Henry's marriage to the infamous Anne Boleyn, it's the future of a free England that he honors above all else and hopes to secure. Mantel plots with a sleight of hand, making full use of her masterful grasp on the facts without weighing down her prose. The opening cast of characters and family trees may give initial pause to some readers, but persevere: the witty, whip-smart lines volleying the action forward may convince you a short stay in the Tower of London might not be so bad... provided you could bring a copy of Wolf Hall along. --Anne Bartholomew


Other Award Winning Books by Hilary Mantel
The Mirror and The Light by Hilary Mantel
60 reviews (2020) (p) (PW Fiction) (Amazon Top100) (NYT100) (Time Top10) () (PW ANMCT) () (TIME1) (TIME)
Read Reviews | Visit this book's Amazon.com page
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher: Stories by Hilary Mantel
74 reviews (2014) (256p) (Amazon Top100) (NYT100)
Read Reviews | Visit this book's Amazon.com page
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
1639 reviews (2012) (432p) (Amazon Top10Lit) (Amazon Top100) (PW Top10) (B&N Fiction) (WP Top10) (NYT100) (NYT Top10) (Time Top10) (Econ) (Booker) (NYTimes) (TIME) (Amazon)
Read Reviews | Visit this book's Amazon.com page

Hilary Mantel Award Stats
Major Prize* Nominations 3  
Unique Books Nominated for a Major Prize* 2  
Pulitzer Prize Wins 0  
Pulitzer Prize Nominations 0  
National Book Critics Circle Award Wins 1 Wolf Hall ·  
National Book Critics Circle Award Nominations 1 Wolf Hall ·  
National Book Award Wins 0  
National Book Award Nominations 0  
Man Booker Prize Wins 2 Wolf Hall · Bring Up the Bodies ·  
Man Booker Prize Nominations 2 Wolf Hall · Bring Up the Bodies ·  
PEN/Faulkner Award Wins 0  
PEN/Faulkner Award Nominations 0  

*Major Prize = Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, National Book Award, Man Booker Prize, and PEN/Faulkner Award

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