{"product_id":"9781250182494","title":"The Mirror \u0026 the Light : A Novel","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eThe Mirror \u0026amp; the Light\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Hilary Mantel\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe brilliant #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestseller\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNamed a best book of 2020 by \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, The Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, and many more\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith \u003ci\u003eThe Mirror \u0026amp; the Light\u003c\/i\u003e, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with her peerless, Booker Prize-winning novels, \u003ci\u003eWolf Hall \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eBring Up the Bodies\u003c\/i\u003e. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man’s vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe story begins in May 1536: Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith’s son from Putney emerges from the spring’s bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Cromwell, a man with only his wits to rely on, has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to the breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. All of England lies at his feet, ripe for innovation and religious reform. But as fortune’s wheel turns, Cromwell’s enemies are gathering in the shadows. The inevitable question remains: how long can anyone survive under Henry’s cruel and capricious gaze?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEagerly awaited and eight years in the making, \u003ci\u003eThe Mirror \u0026amp; the Light\u003c\/i\u003e completes Cromwell’s journey from self-made man to one of the most feared, influential figures of his time. Portrayed by Mantel with pathos and terrific energy, Cromwell is as complex as he is unforgettable: a politician and a fixer, a husband and a father, a man who both defied and defined his age.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"The \u003ci\u003eWolf Hall\u003c\/i\u003e trilogy is probably the greatest historical fiction accomplishment of the past decade.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Mirror \u0026amp; the Light\u003c\/i\u003e is the triumphant capstone to Mantel’s trilogy on Thomas Cromwell, the son of a blacksmith who rose to become the consigliere of Henry VIII...The world is blotted out as you are enveloped in the sweep of a story rich with conquest, conspiracy and mazy human psychology…. Mantel is often grouped with writers of historical fiction, [but] the more apt, and useful, comparison might be with Robert Caro, the biographer of Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson, the great anatomizer of political power.\" —\u003cb\u003eParul Sehgal, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The searing finale of Hilary Mantel’s magnificent trilogy...Mantel is clear-eyed yet compassionate in depicting her coldly calculating, covertly idealistic protagonist and the equally complex people he encounters in his rise and fall from power. Dense with resonant metaphors and alive with discomfiting ideas, \u003ci\u003eThe Mirror \u0026amp; the Light\u003c\/i\u003e provides a fittingly Shakespearean resolution to Mantel’s magisterial work.\" —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eWolf Hall\u003c\/i\u003e, a decade ago, was a sensational character study that electrified an often-visited slice of history. The\u003ci\u003e Mirror \u0026amp; the Light \u003c\/i\u003emarks a triumphant end to a spellbinding story.\" —\u003cb\u003eNPR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Cromwell [has] a depth at once Shakespearean and modernist. He could be Hamlet, or the title character of one of Freud’s case studies...The dissolution of Cromwell coincides with his unmooring in time... One moment he is sucked into his childhood; the next, he is hurled into the sphere of the angels.\"   —  \u003cb\u003eJudith Shulevitz, \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Breathtaking...The plot here is shaped as meticulously as any thriller…. With this trilogy, Mantel has redefined what the historical novel is capable of...Taken together, her Cromwell novels are, for my money, the greatest English novels of this century. Someone give the Booker Prize judges the rest of the year off.\" —\u003cb\u003eStephanie Merritt, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Is it as good as the first two books? Yes. Is it a masterpiece? Yes...Mantel may be unique among modern novelists in her ability to make the past as viscerally compelling as the present. A sensualist, she re-creates an age rife with beauty and dread...She re-creates the wicked, bawdy humor of the age, and her action scenes rival Shakespeare. She is an intricate and flawless plotter...But her overriding genius is for characterization.\" —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Los Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A masterpiece...A novel of epic proportions [that is] every bit as thrilling, propulsive, darkly comic and stupendously intelligent as its predecessors...The trilogy is complete and it is magnificent.\" —\u003cb\u003eAlexandra Harris, \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Brilliant... From that opening sentence—‘Once the queen’s head is severed, he walks away’—axes and the shadow of death are everywhere...Mantel takes what is known of Cromwell—his meteoric rise, his autodidactic scholarship, his reformist tendencies—and weaves them into a masterful portrait of a man at mid-life, facing up to his past.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The entire trilogy is a brilliant engagement with the exercise and metaphysics of power in 16th-century Europe, an age in which sovereignty was understood to be divinely conferred, channeled through blood...Ms. Mantel has wonderfully conjured the mentality, materiality and channels of power in a vanished age…It is Ms. Mantel’s depiction of Cromwell’s inner workings, so credibly and vividly imagined, that make the work great, as do the characters she summons.\" —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A stunning capstone to an epic that’s both engrossing history and an unsurpassed literary achievement...\u003ci\u003eThe Mirror \u0026amp; the Light\u003c\/i\u003e is a diadem of riches, binding together the complex pieces of Cromwell’s character while leading inexorably toward the scaffold. With the trilogy now complete, Mantel cements her position as one of our greatest literary stylists and innovators.\" —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eStar Tribune \u003c\/i\u003e(Minneapolis)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Majestic and often breathtakingly poetic...What \u003ci\u003eThe Mirror \u0026amp; the Light\u003c\/i\u003e offers—even more than the two previous volumes—is engulfing, total sensory immersion in a world...As with the most powerful and enduring historical fictions, the book grips the reader most tightly when, as is often the case, the writing comes as close to poetry as prose ever may.\" —\u003cb\u003eSimon Schama, \u003ci\u003eThe Financial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A masterpiece...A novel of epic proportions [that is] every bit as thrilling, propulsive, darkly comic and stupendously intelligent as its predecessors...The trilogy is complete and it is magnificent.” \u003cb\u003e—Alexandra Harris, \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Deep, suspenseful, chewy, complex and utterly transporting—truly a full banquet. Most miraculously of all, it’s every bit as good as the first two books, both of which won the Booker Prize. Imagine if the third \u003ci\u003eThe Godfather \u003c\/i\u003emovie had been just as magnificent as the first two: It’s like that. A perfectly executed masterpiece.” —\u003cb\u003eElizabeth Gilbert, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"These novels are sure to be among the books that endure from the early decades of this century…In a novel that could travel far on character and plot, Mantel adds the accelerant of gorgeous language…We are in strange territory, an era that can feel very foreign…But what is not strange—what is achingly familiar and acutely relevant—is the way Mantel meticulously unfolds to us the nature of the human heart, all the old unchanging lusts, avarices, jealousies, hatreds and loves, the desire to live, the fear of death.\" —\u003cb\u003eGeraldine Brooks,\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAir Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This is rich, full-bodied fiction. Indeed, it might well be the best of the trilogy simply because there is more of it, a treasure on every page...The brisk, present-tense narration makes you feel as though you are watching these long-settled events live, via a shaky camera phone... Mantel has…elevated historical fiction as an art form... At a time when the general movement of literature has been towards the margins, she has taken us to the dark heart of history.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Times \u003c\/i\u003e(London)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Fascinating...What Mantel does, often brilliantly, is put movement and muscle on the bare bones of what’s known...[Cromwell’s] bundled contradictions—a polyglot scholar with bruised knuckles, as ruthless in business as he was benevolent at home—are more than mirror and light; they’re real, indelible life.\" —\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Mirror \u0026amp; the Light\u003c\/i\u003e [features] the embroiled, ruthless, visionary hero of Mantel’s masterwork trilogy, the endlessly compelling Thomas Cromwell...Every page is rich with insight, the soul-deep characterization and cutting observational skill that make Mantel’s trilogy such a singular accomplishment.\" —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eUSA Today\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Hilary Mantel has written an epic of English history that does what the \u003ci\u003eAeneid \u003c\/i\u003edid for the Romans and \u003ci\u003eWar and Peace\u003c\/i\u003e for the Russians...As Cromwell approaches his end, cast off by an ungrateful master, Mantel pulls together the strands of his life into a sublime tapestry.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Telegraph \u003c\/i\u003e(UK)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Cromwell is a character for the ages...The stunning success of the novels is in large part the result of Ms. Mantel’s skill in fashioning a voice and persona that, while never anachronistic, make Cromwell seem eerily contemporary...Mantel’s genius is to make his 16th-century instincts, such as a willingness to decapitate anyone standing in his path, seem as plausible as his more familiar qualities.\" —\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Economist\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Mirror \u0026amp; the Light\u003c\/i\u003e bears the stamp of Mantel’s genius; it’s a richly hued mural of meticulous research, enthralling characters, and expressionistic language. She is our literary Michelangelo. In Cromwell, a striver who will do anything to survive, she lets us glimpse the invention of modernity. Teeming with pageantry, intrigue, sex, and salvation, \u003ci\u003eThe Mirror \u0026amp; the Light\u003c\/i\u003e reflects the looming tensions of every era, between those who hoard power and those who crave it.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eO Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Mantel’s prose is rich and vivid…Mantel makes the past feel so immediate that it seems possible Cromwell might actually manage to save himself…Expectations are high for this novel. And it lives up to them.\" —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eVox\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Beautifully written…The book makes for compulsive reading; if it doesn’t win its author her third Booker Prize, there’s no justice.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSt. Louis Post-Dispatch\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Brilliant…. Mantel enthralls with her descriptions of royal life, from its bizarre rites and traditions to its practicalities…. Her research is prodigious, her skill at complex plotting breathtaking, but her greatest strength is her characters and the dialogue she imagines for them.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTampa Bay Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This huge canvas, expertly painted as always, offers many of the pleasures you’ve come to expect of Mantel and her Cromwell books...Cromwell’s execution [is] a brilliantly imagined moment.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Another masterpiece of historical fiction...\u003ci\u003eThe Mirror \u0026amp; the Light\u003c\/i\u003e is superb, right to the last crimson drop...A complex, insightful exploration of power, sex, loyalty, friendship, religion, class and statecraft...A stunning conclusion to one of the great trilogies of our times.\" —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eIndependent \u003c\/i\u003e(UK)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Mantel’s prose is steadily and quietly luminous, occasionally delivering unforgettable surprises...This is a worthy conclusion to what is undoubtedly one of the great historical fictions of the age, sustaining clarity, tension and depth with a rare consistency.\" —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew Statesman \u003c\/i\u003e(UK)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Mantel’s trilogy—historically scrupulous, but quaveringly alert to more recent resonances— is one of the key achievements in English literature.”   —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Spectator \u003c\/i\u003e(UK)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In Mantel’s hands, the story of the Tudors loses all its heavy familiarity and starts to feel like a custom-built vehicle for her muscular prose and savage wit, not to mention her lifelong concern with violence and evil, religion and ghosts...The page-by-page texture of the writing in \u003ci\u003eThe Mirror \u0026amp; the Light\u003c\/i\u003e is just as rich and interesting as ever, the pacing and the distribution of scenes are just as lively, and the details every bit as funny...Mantel’s prodigious feat is to have given Cromwell another face, one that he might even have recognized as his own; she has cast a dazzling new light onto the tarnished mirror of the past.\" —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement: TLS \u003c\/i\u003e(UK)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Magisterial...Mantel's craft shines at the sentence level and in a deep exploration of her themes...The series' first two books won the Booker Prize—the third, rich with memory and metaphor—may be even better.\" —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The longed-for final volume in Mantel’s magnificent trilogy is also a stupendously knowledgeable, empathic, witty, harrowing, and provocative novel of power and its distortions...Astute, strategic, sly, funny, poignant, and doomed, Cromwell rules these vivid pages, yet every character and setting resonates, and Mantel’s virtuoso, jousting dialogue is exhilarating...[A] timeless saga of the burden of rule, social treacheries, and the catastrophic cost of indulging a raving despot.\" —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLong-listed Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year (2020), Nominated Man Booker Award - Nominee (2020), Long-listed Time Magazine Best Books of the Year (2020), Long-listed NPR Best Book of the Year (2020), Long-listed The Independent (UK) Best Books of the Year (2020), Long-listed New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year (2020), Long-listed Minneapolis Star Tribune Holiday Book Recommendations (2020), Long-listed The Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year (2020), Long-listed The Guardian (UK) Best Books of the Year (2020), Long-listed The Telegraph (UK) Best Books of the Year (2020), Long-listed USA Today Best Books of the Year (2020)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9781250182494\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Picador","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":40820556595406,"sku":"9781250182494","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_6d8e8bcc-2dc5-4946-a534-c04a18ceec3d.jpg?v=1643011780","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9781250182494","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}