The Bookshelf

The 2009 Booker Prize committee has selected Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel as this year’s winner of best novel written by an author from Britain, Ireland, or the Commonwealth nations. James Naughtie, leader of the panel of judges, described Wolf Hall  as “a thoroughly modern novel set in the 16th century,” which “probes the mysteries of power by examining and describing the meticulous dealings in Henry VIII’s court, revealing in thrilling prose how politics and history is made by men and women.”