THE MIRROR & THE LIGHT (Thomas Cromwell Trilogy, #3)

Henry Holt, 2020. 1st Edition 2nd Printing. Hardcover. New/New. CONDITION: NEW 2020 Henry Holt hardcover (blue boards, 2 lbs.) & dust jacket (in mylar cover), first US edition, second printing. Deckle edges. CONTENT: This is a book in 6 parts with lots of information to keep the reader on track: Cast of Characters, Simplified Tudor Genealogical Chart, and an interesting Author's Note. Named a best book of 2020 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, The Guardian. With The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with her peerless, Booker Prize-winning novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man's vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage. The story begins in May 1536: Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith's son from Putney emerges from the spring's bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour. Cromwell, a man with only his wits to rely on, has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry's regime to the breaking point, Cromwell's robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. All of England lies at his feet, ripe for innovation and religious reform. But as fortune's wheel turns, Cromwell's enemies are gathering in the shadows. The inevitable question remains: how long can anyone survive under Henry's cruel and capricious gaze?