Wolf Hall
650 pp.
Winner of the 2009 Man Booker P and the National Book Critics Circle Award. This book is simply excellent. It is a personal look at Tudor times (1500-1535) through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell. Wolf Hall is a fictionalized biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex in the court of Henry VIII of England. Cromwell's rise to power from a working class family was incredible. The Tudor break from the Church of Rome, the divorces and the deaths of Henry VIII's wives, and Cardinal Wolsey demise were only some of the events to which Cromwell was an advisor. The novel ends with another death ordered by Henry, securing Cromwell as one of the most poweful men at Court. Though political in nature, the stories of many individuals are told, making this era come alive and seem relevant today.
