Historical fiction
Wolf Hall
by Hilary Mantel
Quick take
History buffs and The Tudors fans alike will love this entertaining literary portrait of the infamous Thomas Cromwell.
Good to know
400+ pages
International
Critically acclaimed
First in series
Synopsis
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. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and 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?