NON-FICTION
Also by
Hilary Mantel
The Bestselling Author of
Winner of the Man Booker Prize
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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.
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Copyright © 2012 by Hilary Mantel
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mantel, Hilary, 1952-
Bring up the bodies: a novel / Hilary Mantel.—1
p. cm.
“A John Macrae book.”
Sequel to: Wolf Hall.
ISBN: 978-1-4299-4765-7
1. Cromwell, Thomas, Earl of Essex, 1485?-1540--Fiction. 2. Great Britain--History--Henry VIII, 1509-1547-- Fiction. I. Title.
PR6063.A438B75 2012
823’.914--dc23
2012006335
Originally published in the U.K. in 2012 by Fourth Estate
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
