WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR FICTION

In inimitable style, Hilary Mantel's New York Times bestselling Wolf Hall is a darkly brilliant reimagining of life under Henry VIII. . . . Magnificent. (The Boston Globe).

The basis for the TV series on BBC and PBS Masterpiece starring Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell.

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. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and 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?

A twisty, historical witchy escape. --Entertainment Weekly

A woman's secret. A deadly Plague. Unleash the hidden magic...

1348. As the Black Plague ravages Italy, Ginevra di Gasparo is summoned to Florence after nearly a decade of lonely exile. Ginevra has a gift--harnessing the hidden powers of gemstones, she can heal the sick. But when word spread of her unusual abilities, she was condemned as a witch and banished. Now the same men who expelled Ginevra are begging for her return.

Ginevra obliges, assuming the city's leaders are finally ready to accept her unorthodox cures amid a pandemic. But upon arrival, she is tasked with a much different mission: she must use her collection of jewels to track down a ruthless thief who is ransacking Florence's churches for priceless relics--the city's only hope for protection. If she succeeds, she'll be a recognized physician and never accused of witchcraft again.

But as her investigation progresses, Ginevra discovers she's merely a pawn in a much larger scheme than the one she's been hired to solve. And the dangerous men behind this conspiracy won't think twice about killing a stone witch to get what they want...

In this thrilling novel of friendship and betrayal at the royal court, the New York Times bestselling author of the Six Tudor Queens series explores the rise of Thomas Wolsey, who was Henry VIII's chief adviser--until the king accused him of treason.

Cardinal Thomas Wolsey enjoyed one of the most meteoric careers in history. His rise from humble beginnings coincided with young Henry VIII's ascension to the throne in 1509. The two grew to be cherished friends, and by 1515 Wolsey, now a cardinal, had become the controlling figure in all matters of church and state.

Wolsey operated on an international stage and worked hard to broker universal peace. All was going dazzlingly well until Henry fell in love with Anne Boleyn--the woman whom Wolsey would one day call the night crow--and sought to end his marriage to his first wife, Katherine of Aragon. Swept up in the maelstrom of the Divorce, Wolsey, who had successfully given his master everything he wanted, found himself in an impossible situation. As he drew the ire of the future queen, the cardinal found his privileged life and his relationship with Henry crumbling around him.

Alison Weir's poignant novel tells the story of Wolsey the man--his incredible rise to power and his tragic fall. She delves beyond the splendor and political machinations of the Tudor court to reveal the secrets of Wolsey's private life, the mistress and children he was devoted to, and the tragedy that overtook them. It is a tale of two women, one who loved him and one who hated him--and also a tale of two men, king and commoner, the special, deep-rooted bonds that brought them together and the forces that drove them apart.

The brilliant #1 New York Times bestseller

Named a best book of 2020 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, The Guardian, and many more

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?

Eagerly awaited and eight years in the making, The Mirror & the Light completes Cromwell's journey from self-made man to one of the most feared, influential figures of his time. Portrayed by Mantel with pathos and terrific energy, Cromwell is as complex as he is unforgettable: a politician and a fixer, a husband and a father, a man who both defied and defined his age.

From critically acclaimed author Nicole Galland comes a vibrant and thought-provoking historical tale of love, political intrigue, and gender-swapping set in the theatre world of Elizabethan London.

Alexander Sander Cooke is the most celebrated boy player in the Chamberlain's Men, William Shakespeare's theatre company. Indeed, Sander's androgynous beauty and deft portrayal of female roles have made him the toast of London, and his companionship is sought by noblewomen and -men alike. And yet, now at the height of his fame, he teeters on the cusp of adulthood, his future uncertain. Often, he wishes he could stop time and remain a boy forever.

Joan Buckler, Sander's best friend, also has a dream. Though unschooled, she is whip-smart and fascinated by the snippets of natural philosophy to which she's been exposed. And while she senses that Sander's admiration for her is more than mere friendship, Joan's true passion is knowledge, something that is nearly impossible for her to attain. As a woman, she has no place in the intellectual salons and cultural community of the day; only in disguise can she learn to her heart's content.

Joan's covert intellectual endeavors, coupled with Sander's theatrical triumphs, attract the attention of none other than Francis Bacon: natural philosopher and trusted adviser to Queen Elizabeth. It is through their connection with Bacon--one of the greatest minds of their time--that their lives will be changed forever as they become embroiled in an intricate game of political intrigue that threatens their very survival.

Brimming with heart, curiosity, and rich historical detail, Boy offers an intimate glimpse of the moral complexities of a singular artistic era, and the roles we all choose to play on the world's stage.

Stellar historical fiction imbued with a rich sense of place.--New York Times Book Review

Witty, resilient, and fiercely intelligent, Judith emerges as a heroine for the ages. Her journey, rich in historical authenticity and imaginative storytelling, offers insights that resonate across the centuries.--Christina Baker Kline, New York Times bestselling author of The Exiles

For readers of Hilary Mantel and Madeline Miller, a deeply engrossing work of historical fiction--a tale about a woman of the Shakespeare family struggling to manage both her private grief and public danger.

At the age of sixty-one, Judith Shakespeare, a midwife-apothecary and twin of the long-dead Hamnet, must flee provincial Stratford on horseback to avoid arrest for witchcraft. Her traveling companions are a zealous Puritan woman and child who have been displaced by civil war--the bloody seventeenth-century strife between Royalists and Roundheads. Judith is also leaving her marriage, which has foundered since the wrenching loss of two adult sons to the plague.

The sequel to the author's My Father Had a Daughter, a tale of Judith in her youth, The Owl Was a Baker's Daughter revisits this character for the ages--Shakespeare's sharp-tongued, witty youngest child, no less feisty in her maturity. Four-hundred years after Judith's death, Grace Tiffany brings her back onto center stage. Judith's latest tale offers profound insights--into friendship, motherhood, marriage, religious extremism, and war--which remain resoundingly true today.

The legendary figure of notorious seventeenth-century Italian poisoner Giulia Tofana, thought to be the first female serial killer in history, is brought to life in this feminist retelling.

Palermo 1632: Giulia is thirteen when she learns her mother greatest secret: Teofania makes an undetectable, slow-acting, lethal poison--Acqua Tofana--which she uses to free the broken and abused women of Palermo. Now Teofania wants to pass her recipe on to her daughter, and Giulia soon realizes that in a time when women have no voice, justice is sometimes best served in a cup of wine or broth.
Rome, 1656: Years later, within the alleys and shadows of the Eternal City, Giulia forms her own circle of female poisoners, who work together under the guise of an apothecary shop to sell poison to women in need.
But even in a time of plague, when death looms over the city, it doesn't go unnoticed that the men of Rome are starting to fall like flies. And with the newly elected pope determined to rid the city of witches and heretics, Giulia is more vulnerable than ever. How far is she willing to go to continue her mother's legacy?

Weaving together the stories of the women Giulia helped, the men she killed, and those who wanted her dead, this is a tale of magic, secrets, vengeance, and sin in the back streets of Rome--and, ultimately, a fight for power.

[An] engrossing story...endearing and memorable.
--Boston Herald

[An] arresting hybrid of mystery, fairy tale, and historical novel.
--Detroit Free Press

A tale so movingly told that you will say at the end of the first reading, 'It's been a long time since I've read a book this good.'

--Nashville Tennessean

Gregory Maguire proves himself to be one of contemporary fiction's most assured myth-makers (Kirkus Reviews) with Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, his ingenious and provocative retelling of the timeless Cinderella fairy tale. Perhaps best known for his dark and breathtaking Oz series The Wicked Years--including the novel Wicked, which inspired the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical--Maguire is a master at upending the ordinary to help us see the familiar in a brilliant new light.

★ A fascinating fictional exposé [with] a touch of mysticism and an LGBTQ twist.--Booklist (starred review)
★ A delightfully impish heroine... a tempestuous erotic connection... a captivating imagining of the life of the Dark Lady, the illusive inspiration for Shakespeare's later sonnets.--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

My name has only been whispered, heretofore...

England, 1591. Rose Rushe's passion for life runs deep--she loves mead and music, meddles with astrology, and laughs at her mother's warnings to guard her reputation. When Rose's father dies and a noble accuses her and her dear friend Cecely of witchcraft, they flee to the household of respected alchemists in London. But as their bond deepens, their sanctuary begins to feel more like a cage. To escape, they turn to the occult, secretly casting charms and selling astrological advice in the hopes of building a life together. This thriving underground business leads Rose to fair young noble Henry and playwright Will Shakespeare, and so begins a brief, tempestuous, and powerful romance--one filled with secret longings and deep betrayals.

In this world of dazzling masques and decadent feasts, where the stars decide futures, Rose will write her own fate instead.

From the author of The Book of Gothel comes the lush, magical story behind Shakespeare's sonnets, as told by one of his most famous subjects--the incendiary and mysterious Dark Lady.

From the author of The Swift and the Harrier comes The Players, a gripping historical tale of espionage, treason, and surprising alliances set against the backdrop of the Bloody Assizes--the trials that would determine the fate of over one-thousand treasonous rebels.

England, 1685. Decades after the end of the English Civil War, the country is once again divided when King Charles II's illegitimate son, the Protestant Duke of Monmouth, arrives in Dorset to incite rebellion against his Catholic uncle.

Armed only with pitchforks, Monmouth's army is quickly defeated by King James II's superior forces and charged with high treason. Those found guilty will be hanged, drawn, and quartered.

As Dorset braces for carnage, the formidable Lady Jayne Harrier and her enigmatic son, assisted by the reclusive daughter of a local magistrate, contrive ways to save men from the gallows.

Compelling and powerful, The Players is a story of guile, deceit, and compassion. Secrets are kept and surprising friendships formed in a dangerous gamble to thwart a brutal king's thirst for vengeance ...

WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR FICTION

In inimitable style, Hilary Mantel's New York Times bestselling Wolf Hall is a darkly brilliant reimagining of life under Henry VIII. . . . Magnificent. (The Boston Globe).

The basis for the TV series on BBC and PBS Masterpiece starring Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell.

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. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and 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?

The #1 New York Times bestseller from the queen of royal fiction (USA TODAY) Philippa Gregory is a rich, compelling novel of love, sex, ambition, and intrigue surrounding the Tudor court of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and the infamous Boleyn family.

When Mary Boleyn comes to court as an innocent girl of fourteen, she catches the eye of the handsome and charming Henry VIII. Dazzled by the king, Mary falls in love with both her golden prince and her growing role as unofficial queen. However, she soon realizes just how much she is a pawn in her family's ambitious plots as the king's interest begins to wane, and soon she is forced to step aside for her best friend and rival: her sister, Anne. With her own destiny suddenly unknown, Mary realizes that she must defy her family and take fate into her own hands.

With more than one million copies in print and adapted for the big screen, The Other Boleyn Girl is a riveting historical drama. It brings to light a woman of extraordinary determination and desire who lived at the heart of the most exciting and glamorous court in Europe, and survived a treacherous political landscape by following her heart.

The New York Times bestselling author of the Six Tudor Queens series explores the dramatic and poignant life of King Henry VIII's daughter--infamously known as Bloody Mary--who ruled England for five violent years.

An exquisitely drawn, poignant portrayal of one of history's most complex, maligned, and fascinating figures.--Tracy Borman, author of Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I

Born from young King Henry's first marriage, his elder daughter, Princess Mary, is raised to be queen once it becomes clear that her mother, Katherine of Aragon, will bear no more children. However, Henry's passion for Anne Boleyn has a devastating influence on the young princess's future when, determined to sire a male heir, he marries Anne, has his marriage to Katherine declared unlawful, brands Mary illegitimate, and banishes them both from the royal court. But when Anne too fails to produce a son, she is beheaded and Mary is allowed to return to court as the default heir. At age twenty, she waits in vain for her own marriage and children, but who will marry her, bastard that she is?

Yet Mary eventually triumphs and becomes queen, after first deposing a seventeen-year-old usurper, Lady Jane Grey, and ordering her beheading. Any hopes that Mary, as the first female queen regent of England, will show religious toleration are dashed when she embarks on a ruthless campaign to force Catholicism on the English by burning hundreds of Protestants at the stake. But while her brutality will forever earn her the name Bloody Mary, at heart she is an insecure and vulnerable woman, her character forged by the unhappiness of her early years.

In Alison Weir's masterful novel, the drama of Mary I's life and five-year reign--from her abusive childhood, marriage, and mysterious pregnancies to the cruelty that marks her legacy--comes to vivid life.

A bold, feminist debut novel, reimagining Mary, Queen of Scots's darkest hour, when she was held hostage in a remote Scottish castle with a handful of loyal women while plotting a daring escape to reclaim her country and her freedom.

Such a vivid, visceral read, you feel you're locked in the tower alongside the characters, acting out a royal family drama. I am moved and impressed. --Tracy Chevalier, New York Times bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring

Scotland, 1567. A pregnant Mary, Queen of Scots is dragged out of her palace by rebel lords and imprisoned in the isolated Lochleven Castle, an ancient fortress surrounded by a vast lake. Her infant son and heir, James, has been captured by her enemies.

Accompanying Mary are two inconspicuous serving women: observant, ambitious Jane and romantic, quick-tempered Cuckoo, who endeavor to keep their mercurial mistress company while sharing the space of a claustrophobic room over the course of their eleven-month forced stay. Their hosts want them dead. They'll settle for Mary's abdication.

After Mary reluctantly surrenders her throne, her closest friend, the reserved, devoted Lady Seton, is permitted to join the captive women. Against the odds, as they hatch a perilous getaway plan, the four women form a bond that transcends class and religion, and for Jane and Seton, becomes something even deeper. At the center of it all is Mary--calculating, charming, brave, and unbowed. Flora Carr's thrilling, feverish debut is a celebration of resilience, a meditation on the meaning of power, and a testament to the unshakeable strength of female friendship, starring one of history's most charismatic leaders.

A thrilling reimagining of the last days of one of the most famed Elizabethan playwrights--Christopher Marlowe--and of a love that flourishes within the margins.

Christopher Marlowe: playwright, poet, lover. In the plague-stricken streets of Elizabethan England, Kit flirts with danger, leaving a trail of enemies and old flames in his wake. His plays are a roaring success; he seems destined for greatness.

But in the spring of 1593, the queen's eyes are everywhere and the air is laced with paranoia. Marlowe receives an unwelcome visit from his one-time mentor, Richard Baines, a man who knows all of Marlowe's secrets and is hell-bent on his destruction.

When Marlowe is arrested on charges of treason, heresy, and sodomy--all of which are punishable by death--he is released on bail with the help of Sir Thomas Walsingham. Kit presumes Walsingham to be his friend; in fact, the spymaster has hired an assassin to take care of Kit, fearing that his own sins may come to light.

Now, with the queen's spies and the vengeful Baines closing in on the playwright, Marlowe's last friend in the world is Ingram Frizer, a total stranger who is obsessed with Kit's plays, and who will, within ten days' time, first become Marlowe's lover--and then his killer. Richly atmospheric, emotionally devastating, and heartrendingly imagined, Lightborne is a masterful reimagining of the last days of one of England's most famous literary figures.

Bart dreams of being an inventor, of building something that matters. When a famous composer asks him to make an instrument that doesn't exist, an opportunity exceeding his imagination presents itself, along with it, struggle and heartache of overwhelming proportions.

When life throws its worst at him, and his decade-long vision is destroyed by his own hands, everything seems lost. But with the help of friends closer than family, his wife, Adele, and a mountain of grit, an idea becomes a reality.

Take a trip to Florence, Italy, and journey back in time to witness firsthand the creation of the most influential instrument on earth. The invention that changed the landscape of music forever. The king of all instruments. The piano.

Be sure to listen to The Creation of Music (Original Novel Soundtrack), available everywhere you listen to music!

Leonardo da Vinci, twelve years old and a bastard, leaves the Tuscan countryside to join his father in Florence with dreams of becoming a painter. Francesco Salviati, also a bastard and scorned for his too-dark skin, dedicates himself to the Catholic Church with grand hopes of salvation. Towering above them both is Lorenzo de' Medici, barely a man, yet soon to be the patriarch of the world's wealthiest and most influential bank. Each of these young men harbors profound ambition, anxious to prove their potential to their superiors--and to themselves. Each is, in his own way, a son of Florence. Each will, when their paths cross, shed blood on Florence's streets.

Fifteenth-century Florence flourishes as a haven of breathtaking artistic, cultural, and technological innovation, but discord churns below the surface: the Medici's bank exacerbates the city's staggering wealth inequality, and rumors swirl of a rift between Lorenzo and the new pope. Meanwhile, the city has become Europe's preeminent destination for gay men--or florenzers, as they come to be crudely called. For Leonardo, an astonishingly gifted painter's apprentice, being a florenzer might feel like personal liberation--but risk lingers around every corner.

Brash and breathtaking, this lush historical drama unfolds the machinations of a city on the brink of a new age as it contends with the tensions between public and private lives, the entanglement of erotic and creative impulse, the sacrifices of the determinedly pious, and the risks of fantastic power. With his unforgettable characters and an ever-twisting plot, all told with style, skill, and wry black humor (Tim Leach), Phil Melanson emerges as an enthralling new voice in contemporary fiction.

This meticulously researched and brilliantly told historical novel, the first of the Machiavelli trilogy, recounts the enigmatic life of Niccolò Machiavelli, revealing the complex man behind the infamous political strategist.

October 1502. As Cesare Borgia sets out to invade the Florentine Republic, Niccolò Machiavelli is sent to spy on him and to glean details of his nefarious plan. But when Borgia asks Machiavelli to write his life story, their bond gains complexity and nuance: ultimately, they both aspire to everlasting fame and to achieve it, they need each other, for the one's sword can only rule in eternity via the pen of the other.

Set against the backdrop of the Renaissance, rife with political intrigue and cultural flourishing, Bernini's richly imagined novel masterfully captures a society teetering on the brink of change and revolution, as one man takes his chance at greatness, navigating the treacherous corridors of power with guile and charisma.

The Throne is a captivating reflection on ambition, morality, and the pursuit of power and influence. As elucidating as Robert Caro's The Power Broker, as gripping and stylish as Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, and as atmospheric as Maggie O'Farrell's The Marriage Portrait, The Throne reveals one of the most impactful and controversial minds in political history, and questions and asks to what lengths can one justifiably go to achieve greatness.

A New Yorker Best Book of the Year - A bold, feminist debut novel, reimagining Mary, Queen of Scots's darkest hour, when she was held hostage in a remote Scottish castle with a handful of loyal women while plotting a daring escape to reclaim her country and her freedom.

Such a vivid, visceral read, you feel you're locked in the tower alongside the characters, acting out a royal family drama. I am moved and impressed. --Tracy Chevalier, New York Times bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring

Scotland, 1567. A pregnant Mary, Queen of Scots is dragged out of her palace by rebel lords and imprisoned in the isolated Lochleven Castle, an ancient fortress surrounded by a vast lake. Her infant son and heir, James, has been captured by her enemies.

Accompanying Mary are two inconspicuous serving women: observant, ambitious Jane and romantic, quick-tempered Cuckoo, who endeavor to keep their mercurial mistress company while sharing the space of a claustrophobic room over the course of their eleven-month forced stay. Their hosts want them dead. They'll settle for Mary's abdication.

After Mary reluctantly surrenders her throne, her closest friend, the reserved, devoted Lady Seton, is permitted to join the captive women. Against the odds, as they hatch a perilous getaway plan, the four women form a bond that transcends class and religion, and for Jane and Seton, becomes something even deeper. At the center of it all is Mary--calculating, charming, brave, and unbowed. Flora Carr's thrilling, feverish debut is a celebration of resilience, a meditation on the meaning of power, and a testament to the unshakeable strength of female friendship, starring one of history's most charismatic leaders.

The inspiration for the critically acclaimed Starz miniseries The White Queen, #1 New York Times bestselling author Philippa Gregory brings to life the extraordinary story of Elizabeth Woodville, a woman who rises from obscurity to become Queen of England, and changes the course of history forever.

Elizabeth Woodville is a woman of extraordinary beauty and ambition. Her mother is Jacquetta, also known as the mystical lady of the rivers, and she is even more determined to bring power and wealth to the family line. While riding in the woods one day, Elizabeth captures the attentions of the newly crowned King Edward IV and, despite her common upbringing, marries him in secret.

When she is raised up to be his queen, the English court is outraged, but Elizabeth rises to the demands of her exalted position and fights for her family's dominance. Yet despite her best efforts, and even with the help of her mother's powers, her two sons become pawns in a famous unsolved mystery that has confounded historians for centuries: the lost princes in the Tower of London.

In this dazzling account of the deadly Wars of the Roses, brother turns on brother to win the ultimate prize: the throne of England.