WINNER OF THE 2009 MAN BOOKER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR FICTION
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

安妮•博林，是英格蘭史上最具影響力的王后。亨利八世為了她，不惜拋棄結縭十餘載的凱瑟琳王后，更與權力強大的羅馬教廷反目，歐洲各國勢力因而重新洗牌。然而，當上王后不過三年三個月，安妮就命喪斷頭臺！

湯瑪斯‧克倫威爾，是亨利八世意念的執行者，他到底有何能耐，能夠呼風喚雨，扶起一代王后，又將之推入倫敦塔？

他父親曾說：「說起我兒子湯瑪斯，如果你敢擺臭臉給他看，他一定會把你的眼珠子挖出來。你要是故意絆倒他，他就會把你的腿切斷。然而，如果你不去招惹他，他則是標準的紳士，願意請任何人喝一杯。｣

你絕不會想與他為敵。

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.