I was a few pages into Wolf Hall and knew immediately I was reading something very special - the perfect Heather's Pick. When the novel was nominated for the coveted Booker Prize, I kept my fingers crossed that it would get the nod. In fact, a few weeks ago, Wolf Hall emerged the 2009 Booker winner. And winner it is.

Wolf Hall is rich, historical fiction with a totally new perspective on the intrigue-filled court of Henry the VIII. All the usual suspects are present: Henry's first wife Katherine of Aragon; his second wife Anne Boleyn and her sister Mary; Thomas Wolsey, the Archbishop of York; William Warham, the aging Archbishop of Canterbury; the Seymour family; the Pope and many others.

But the real protagonist in this deftly woven story is Thomas Cromwell - political genius, briber, bully and full-on charmer. It is through Cromwell's intelligent and piercing eyes that we become voyeurs at the famous Tudor Court. The events and circumstances surrounding Cromwell's rise to power are breathtaking. Rising from personal disaster - the loss of his young family, and of Wolsey, his beloved patron - he picks his way deftly through a court where "man is wolf to man". Pitting himself against parliament, the political establishment, and the papacy, he is prepared to reshape England to his own and Henry's desires.

This is a time when the crown jewels went to those who could get and keep power, but, as Anne Boleyn discovered, a fall from grace meant nothing short of the gallows.

P.S. For the first few pages, you may find it hard to keep track of all the characters - worry not, there is a "cheat sheet" of characters tucked into the book.

This book has a very different style that most people in North America will not have seen before. It is very difficult to get into, and try as I might, I could not finish this book, which is extremely rare. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.

the story is told with detail at a level that is difficult to follow if you haven't already read about the era - and the writing style is somewhat forced and ackward - but, I finished it, so it must have had something going for it

During the reign of King Henry VIII, there was one very influential figure that played a prominent role in the crowning of Queen Anne Boleyn: Thomas Cromwell. Wolf Hall focuses on Cromwell's background and his time at court during the height of the Boleyn rule. There's a large cast of characters to explain how Cromwell went from being the son of an abusive blacksmith, to a soldier for the French, to a money trader, to an adviser of Cardinal Wolsley, to finally one of the most powerful men in England.

It's hard to tell how much of this novel is from actual accounts and how much is made up, but Mantel does a good job of portraying Cromwell as a brilliant, yet emotionally distant man. Cromwell obviously cares strongly for his family but he finds a way to detach himself from work. You can't help but think that if Cromwell lived in current times he would be one of the guys that gets away with the downfall of a major company like Enron or AIG because of his mischievous ways.

Due to the fact that there are so many characters in this novel, if you have a background in the area (my background was only watching The Tudors and having read another book or two in the same time) you'll find things much easier to remember. Even with some knowledge of the characters, I still found it hard to determine who was speaking to who and what subject they were talking about. For this reason, it took quite a while for me to get into the book.

The book goes up to Thomas More's trial for refusing to take an oath of Boleyn's heirs and that Katherine was no longer Queen. I would have liked it to go up to Cromwell's downfall, and think it could have if it hadn't dwelled on less important points. When I picked this book up I was really looking forward to it but overall found it mildly disappointing.