Review: "The Mirror and the Light," Hilary Mantel

By Paul Carrier

The Mirror and the Light is the final entry in Hilary Mantel’s trilogy of novels examining the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell (ca.1485-1540), who began life as a poor, abused boy from a small English town and rose to become the fixer and right-hand man of King Henry VIII. (The better-known Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell, who ruled the British Isles from 1653 to 1658, was the great-grandson of Thomas Cromwell’s nephew.)

At 754 pages and with a list of major and minor characters that runs to more than 100 names, this is no quick read. But Mantel’s signature style is on display yet again, and her Cromwell remains as complex as he was in the earlier novels, Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring Up the Bodies (2012).