Review of Hilary Mantel's "Bring Up the Bodies" by Martin Rubin

Book review: ‘Bring Up the Bodies’ is a compelling re-creation
Hilary Mantel returns to the vicious world of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell’s maneuverings.
May 20, 2012 – Los Angeles Times – By Martin Rubin

Hilary Mantel’s novel about the Tudor political puppet-master supremo Thomas Cromwell, “Wolf Hall,” winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize for fiction, was so richly packed with character and action that it was bound to burst its banks. Originally intended to take Cromwell through the four years that it took him to fall from the pinnacle of power (where we left him at the end of “Wolf Hall”) to his own appointment with the executioner’s ax, “Bring Up the Bodies” forms the middle volume of what is to be a trilogy. . . . Mantel is so adept at referring here to his past, from the crucible of his childhood with an abusive father to the travels and travails that educated his mind and fired his ambition, that “Bring Up the Bodies” stands magnificently on its own.

For Martin’s full review, click here or visit latimes.com.