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.
