Man Booker Prize
Fiction
2009 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Hilary Mantel presents a masterful fictional revision of the court of King Henry VIII, as seen through the conniving eyes of Thomas Cromwell, the king's chief minister, who is often credited with engineering England's break from the Church of Rome. History has often portrayed Cromwell as a selfish opportunist who reaped enormous personal riches by parlaying the king's lust for Anne Boleyn into a seismic political and religious shift, now known as the English Reformation. Mantel provides details of Cromwell's childhood, which was marked by abuse and poverty, and his education among the merchants of Italy, where he learns the intricacies of political intrigue. She also fills in the context of his rise to power, which was indeed based on his support of Henry's decision to declare himself the head of the English Church in order to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Mantel garnered the coveted 2009 Man Booker Prize for this riveting historical epic.