Reader recommendation: Wolf Hall

Monitor readers share their favorite book picks.

June 26, 2013

Hillary Mantel's award-winning novel on Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall, gives a more sympathetic rendition of Thomas (not Oliver) Cromwell, chief advisor to King Henry VIII, than most historians accord him. The book is written in excellent prose, built on modern and early English languages. It flags a little at the end but is an excellent read. Mantel's second book of this trilogy "Bring up the Bodies," won the Booker prize but I have not read it yet.