The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel
It has been more than a decade since the inaugural novel of Hilary Mantel’s two-time Man Booker Prize winning Thomas Cromwell Trilogy, Wolf Hall, first captivated readers. Fans of Mantel have spent eight years eagerly awaiting the trilogy’s conclusory novel, The Mirror & the Light (Henry Holt and Company), and that wait is finally over.
On sale today, the third and final book follows Cromwell from Anne Boleyn’s execution through his final years as secretary to King Henry VIII and deputy in the English church.
London, May 1536. Cromwell has just witnessed the beheading of England’s queen. Although the masses who had gathered to watch the infamous Boleyn girl’s demise are stunned at what they’ve just seen, Cromwell, content with a job well done, shifts his focus from the dead queen — whose corpse wasn’t even afforded the respect of a coffin and has been shuffled into an arrow chest — to his oncoming hunger. All seems well for Cromwell. He has successfully secured Anne’s death for the king. But by the novel’s end, readers will find themselves in his jail cell awaiting execution.
How does this great man who began the novel watching one execution end it at his own? The answer lies in the beautifully crafted prose of Mantel’s expertly written The Mirror & the Light.
And for those of you who missed the rise of Thomas Cromwell, here’s a brief rundown to prepare you for his fall:
The first novel, Wolf Hall, begins in 1520s England, where Henry VIII’s lack of a male heir threatens the Tudors’ reign. The king wishes to annul his marriage to Katherine of Aragon so he can marry Anne Boleyn, but the Pope and much of Europe stand against him.
Enter Thomas Cromwell, an ambitious man from a poor family with no political influence, who will climb his way to the heights of power in Henry VIII’s court and become one of the strongest advocates for the English Reformation. The Washington Post described Wolf Hall as “a brilliant portrait of a society in the throes of disorienting change, anchored by a penetrating character study of Henry’s formidable advisor,” praising Mantel’s writing as “extraordinarily flexible, subtle and shrewd.”
The second installment of the trilogy, Bring Up the Bodies, explores the downfall of Anne Boleyn, one of the most captivating and 
formidable periods of the Tudor reign. As the lack of a male heir threatened the longevity of the Tudor monarchy during the king’s first marriage, Henry VIII is none too pleased that Anne has failed to give him a son.
Still following Cromwell on his path to power, the sequel sees him allied with enemies as he tries desperately to undermine and wound Anne. As the enticing tangle of conspiracies surrounding the queen begin to unravel, the powerful Boleyn family will deliver Cromwell his biggest challenge yet.
Praised by The New York Times Book Review as “astringent and purifying,” Bring Up the Bodies “strip[s] away the cobwebs and varnish of history, [removing] the antique formulation and brocaded sentimentality of costume drama novels, so that the English past comes to seem like something vivid, strange and brand new.”
After you’ve delighted in the beginnings of Cromwell’s climb to power, enjoy Mantel’s stunning conclusion — trust us, it’s well worth the wait.
The Mirror & the Light will beguile and enchant readers, leaving the story of The Tudors, Thomas Cromwell and the English Reformation feeling like a fresh work of literature, rather than a familiar piece of history.
