{"product_id":"9780312429980","title":"Wolf Hall : A Novel","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eWolf Hall\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Hilary Mantel\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE 2009 MAN BOOKER PRIZE\u003cbr\u003eWINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR FICTION\u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEngland 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? \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn inimitable style, Hilary Mantel's \u003ci\u003eWolf Hall\u003c\/i\u003e is \"a darkly brilliant reimagining of life under Henry VIII. . . . Magnificent.\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Hilary Mantel's \u003ci\u003eWolf Hall\u003c\/i\u003e is a startling achievement, a brilliant historical novel focused on the rise to power of a figure exceedingly unlikely, on the face of things, to arouse any sympathy at all . . . . This is a novel too in which nothing is wasted, and nothing completely disappears.” —\u003ci\u003eStephen Greenblatt, The New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Nothing in the last few years has dazzled me more than Hilary Mantel's \u003ci\u003eWolf Hall\u003c\/i\u003e. . . . Magnificent.” —\u003ci\u003eElizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eWolf Hall\u003c\/i\u003e, Hilary Mantel­’s epic fictionalized look at Thomas Cromwell’s rise to power, came out in 2009, but I was a little busy back then, so I missed it. Still great today.\"—Barack Obama \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“On the origins of this once-world-shaking combat, with its still-vivid acerbity and cruelty, Hilary Mantel has written a historical novel of quite astonishing power. . . . With breathtaking subtlety--one quite ceases to notice the way in which she takes on the most intimate male habits of thought and speech--Mantel gives us a Henry who is sexually pathetic, and who needs a very down-to-earth counselor. . . . The means by which Mantel grounds and anchors her action so convincingly in the time she describes, while drawing so easily upon the past and hinting so indirectly at the future, put her in the very first rank of historical novelists. . . . \u003ci\u003eWolf Hall\u003c\/i\u003e is a magnificent service to the language and literature whose early emancipation it depicts and also, in its demystifying of one of history's wickedest men, a service to the justice that Josephine Tey first demanded in The Daughter of Time.” —\u003ci\u003eChristopher Hitchens, The Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Whether we accept Ms Mantel's reading of history or not, her characters have a lifeblood of their own . . . . a Shakespearean vigour. Stylistically, her fly-on-the-wall approach is achieved through the present tense, of which she is a master. Her prose is muscular, avoiding cod Tudor dialogue and going for direct modern English. The result is Ms Mantel's best novel yet.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Economist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A novel both fresh and finely wrought: a brilliant portrait of a society in the throes of disorienting change, anchored by a penetrating character study of Henry's formidable advisor, Thomas Cromwell. It's no wonder that her masterful book just won this year's Booker Prize . . . [Mantel's prose is] extraordinarily flexible, subtle, and shrewd.” —\u003ci\u003eWendy Smith, The Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A huge book, in its range, ambition . . . in its success. [Mantel's] interest is in the question of good and evil as it applies to people who wield great power. That means anguish, exultation, deals, spies, decapitations, and fabulous clothes . . . She always goes for color, richness, music. She has read Shakespeare closely. One also hears the accents of the young James Joyce.” —\u003ci\u003eJoan Acocella, The New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Dazzling . . . .Thomas Cromwell remains a controversial and mysterious figure. Mantel has filled in the blanks plausibly, brilliantly. \u003ci\u003eWolf Hall\u003c\/i\u003e has epic scale but lyric texture. Its 500-plus pages turn quickly, winged and falconlike . . . . both spellbinding and believable.” —\u003ci\u003eChristopher Benfey, The New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Mantel's abilities to channel the life and lexicon of the past are nothing short of astonishing. She burrows down through the historical record to uncover the tiniest, most telling details, evoking the minutiae of history as vividly as its grand sweep. The dialogue is so convincing that she seems to have been, in another life, a stenographer taking notes in the taverns and palaces of England.” —\u003ci\u003eRoss King, Los Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Darkly magnificent . . . Instead of bringing the past to us, her writing, brilliant and black, launches us disconcertingly into the past. We are space-time travelers landed in an alien world . . . history is a feast whose various and vital excitements and intrigues make the book a long and complex pleasure.” —\u003ci\u003eRichard Eder, The Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Arch, elegant, richly detailed . . . [\u003ci\u003eWolf Hall\u003c\/i\u003e's] main characters are scorchingly well rendered. And their sharp-clawed machinations are presented with nonstop verve in a book that can compress a wealth of incisiveness into a very few well-chosen words . . . Deft and diabolical as they are, Ms. Mantel's slyly malicious turns of phrase . . . succinctly capture the important struggles that have set her characters talking.” —\u003ci\u003eJanet Maslin, The New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Brilliant . . . A provocative, beautifully written book that ends much too soon.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Plain Dealer (Cleveland)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The essential Mantel element . . . is a style--of writing and of thinking--that combines steely-eyed intelligence with intense yet wide-ranging sympathy. This style implies enormous respect for her readers, as if she believes that we are as intelligent and empathetic as she is, and one of the acute pleasures of reading her books is that we sometimes find ourselves living up to those expectations. . . . If you are anything like me, you will finish \u003ci\u003eWolf Hall\u003c\/i\u003e wishing it were twice as long as its 560 pages. Torn away from this sixteenth-century world, in which you have come to know the engaging, pragmatic Cromwell as if he were your own brother--as if he were yourself--you will turn to the Internet to find out more about him . . . But none of this, however instructive will make up for your feeling of loss, because none of this additional material will come clothed in the seductive, inimitable language of Mantel's great fiction.” —\u003ci\u003eWendy Lesser, Bookforum\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Mantel sets a new standard for historical fiction with her latest novel \u003ci\u003eWolf Hall\u003c\/i\u003e, a riveting portrait of Thomas Cromwell . . . Mantel's crystalline style, piercing eye and interest in, shall we say, the darker side of human nature, together with a real respect for historical accuracy, make this novel an engrossing, enveloping read.” —\u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The story of Cromwell's rise shimmers in Ms. Mantel's spry intelligent prose . . . [Mantel] leaches out the bones of the story as it is traditionally known, and presents to us a phantasmagoric extravaganza of the characters' plans and ploys, toils and tactics.” —\u003ci\u003eWashington Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Historical fiction at its finest, \u003ci\u003eWolf Hall\u003c\/i\u003e captures the character of a nation and its people. It exemplifies something that has lately seemed as mythical as those serpent princesses: the great English novel.” —\u003ci\u003eBloomberg News\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Inspired . . . there are no new stories, only new ways of telling them. Set during Henry VIII's tumultuous, oft-covered reign, this epic novel . . . proves just how inspired a fresh take can be. [Mantel] is an author as audacious as Anne [Boleyn] herself, imagining private conversations between public figures and making it read as if she had a glass to the wall.” —\u003ci\u003ePeople Magazine (four stars, People Pick)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A deft, original, but complicated novel. Fans of historical fiction--or great writing--should howl with delight.” —\u003ci\u003eUSA Today\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[Mantel] wades into the dark currents of 16th century English politics to sculpt a drama and a protagonist with a surprisingly contemporary feel . . . \u003ci\u003eWolf Hall\u003c\/i\u003e is sometimes an ambitious read. But it is a rewarding one as well.” —\u003ci\u003eMarjorie Kehe, The Christian Science Monitor\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This masterwork is full of gems for the careful reader. The recurring details alone . . . shine through like some kind of Everyman's poetry. Plainspoken and occasionally brutal, \u003ci\u003eWolf Hall\u003c\/i\u003e is both as complex and as powerful as its subject, as messy as life itself.” —\u003ci\u003eClea Simon, The Boston Phoenix\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Reader, you're in excellent hands with Hilary Mantel . . . for this thrumming, thrilling read. . . . Part of the delight of masterfully paced \u003ci\u003eWolf Hall\u003c\/i\u003e is how utterly modern it feels. It is political intrigue pulsing with energy and peopled by historical figures who have never seemed more alive--and more human.” —\u003ci\u003eEllen Kanner, Miami Herald\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eWolf Hall\u003c\/i\u003e is a solid historical novel that's also a compelling read . . . Mantel's narrative manages to be both rich and lean: there's plenty of detail, but it's not piled in endless paragraphs. The plot flows swiftly from one development to the next.” —\u003ci\u003eDavid Loftus, The Oregonian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[Mantel] seamlessly blends fiction and history and creates a stunning story of Tudor England . . . . With its excellent plotting and riveting dialogue, \u003ci\u003eWolf Hall\u003c\/i\u003e is a gem of a novel that is both accurate and gripping.” —\u003ci\u003eCody Corliss, St. Louis Post-Dispatch\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] spirited novel . . . . Mantel has a solid grasp of court politics and a knack for sharp, cutting dialogue.” —\u003ci\u003eThom Geier, Entertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This is in all respects a superior work of fiction, peopled with appealing characters living through a period of tense high drama‚There will be few novels this year as good as this one.” —\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal, starred review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Mixing fiction with fact, Mantel captures the atmosphere of the times and brings to life the important players.” —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWinner Man Booker Award - Winner (2009), Winner Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction Winner (2010), Winner Audie Award Winner (2010), Walter Scott Prize Winner (2010), Winner National Book Critics Circle Award - Winner (2009), Nominated Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction - Nominee (2010), Winner National Book Critics Circle Awards - Winner (2009)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9780312429980\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Picador","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":40648172404942,"sku":"9780312429980","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_a36081d2-abda-4342-92c9-1ba24ac16ebe.jpg?v=1639191310","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9780312429980","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}