If you liked
Books like Wolf Hall
by Hilary Mantel
Wolf Hall rebuilt the historical novel around Thomas Cromwell, the blacksmith's son who out-thought a court full of aristocrats, told in Hilary Mantel's close, present-tense "he" that puts you inside his skull. It won the Booker and changed what the genre was allowed to do. If you want prose and intelligence at this level, read on.
The shortlist
What to read next
Bring Up the Bodiesby Hilary Mantel
“Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel 2012 review. Thomas Cromwell engineers the fall of Anne Boleyn and the rise of Jane Seymour. Booker Prize 2012, the second volume of the Cromwell trilogy, and the rare novel that exceeds an already-canonical predecessor.”
The Mirror & the Lightby Hilary Mantel
“The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel 2020 review. The final volume of the Cromwell trilogy, covering Thomas Cromwell from the execution of Anne Boleyn to his own arrest and execution four years later. The eight-year-awaited closure of the most important historical-fiction project of the twenty-first century.”
Hamnetby Maggie O'Farrell
“Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell 2020 review. The death of William Shakespeare's eleven-year-old son and the four years before Hamlet is written. The Women's Prize winning novel about marriage, grief, and the play that came out of it.”
The Marriage Portraitby Maggie O'Farrell
“The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell 2022 review. Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici recognizes that her husband, the Duke of Ferrara, intends to kill her. O'Farrell's Hamnet follow-up.”
The Pillars of the Earthby Ken Follett
“The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett 1989 review. The building of a twelfth-century English cathedral against the backdrop of civil war. The 1,024-page novel that defined the modern epic historical fiction.”
Cold Mountainby Charles Frazier
“Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier 1997 review. A wounded Confederate deserter walks across the Civil-War-era Carolinas to return home. National Book Award 1997 and the basis for the 2003 Minghella film.”
FAQ
Common questions about Wolf Hall read-alikes
- Do I keep going with the Cromwell trilogy?
- Absolutely. Bring Up the Bodies won Mantel a second Booker, making her the first woman to win it twice, and The Mirror and the Light closes the arc at full scale. The three read as one continuous performance and only deepen.
- I want another writer working at Mantel's sentence level.
- Maggie O'Farrell is the natural next stop. Hamnet reimagines the death of Shakespeare's son and The Marriage Portrait enters a Renaissance Italian court, both with the same intimacy and the same refusal of costume-drama cliche.
- I want the same period with more plot momentum.
- The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett runs on incident and cathedral-building ambition rather than interiority. It is a different pleasure, broader and faster, if Mantel's density ever wears you down.
- I want historical fiction that reads as literature, not costume.
- Cold Mountain sits in that same rank, a Civil War novel with the prose taken seriously. Along with the O'Farrell novels, it is the best answer to "give me Wolf Hall's quality in a different century."
The original