Wolf Hall

Slaters inspirierte Lesung des Boooker-Prizegekürten Romans ist eines der besten Hörbücher des Jahres. Die Geschichte um das Streben Heinrich VIII., Queen Catherine durch Anne Boleyn zu ersetzen, ist zwar nicht neu. Mantels Leistung sind seine elegante und bildhafte Sprache, lebendige historische Beschreibungen und ihr Fokus auf den Mann im Hintergrund: Thomas Cromwell. Slater interpretiert die Figuren von Hof, Kirche und Gesetz mit Leichtigkeit und Autorität. Besonders bemerkenswert ist sein komisches Porträt des Kardinals Wolsey, das schneidend und tragisch ist. Unvergesslich auch die genauen Beschreibungen des Lebens um 1520, das Slater uns nur noch näher bringt.

(bär)

In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII’s court, only one man dares to gamble his life to win the king’s favor and ascend to the heights of political power England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years, and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. The quest for the king’s freedom destroys his adviser, the brilliant Cardinal Wolsey, and leaves a power vacuum. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell is a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people and a demon of energy: he is also a consummate politician, hardened by his personal losses, implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph? In inimitable style, Hilary Mantel presents a picture of a half-made society on the cusp of change, where individuals fight or embrace their fate with passion and courage. With a vast array of characters, overflowing with incident, the novel re-creates an era when the personal and political are separated by a hairbreadth, where success brings unlimited power but a single failure means death.