Best books ... chosen by Hilary Mantel
Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, the winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize, has just been released in paperback. Below, Mantel names six works of historical fiction that have inspired her across her long career.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Anchor, $11). One of the great novels of the 20th century, chronicling the cultural disintegration that follows the arrival of white missionaries in a traditional Nigerian village. The book’s themes are profound, and its main character, tribal leader Okonkwo, achieves a tragic grandeur.
And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov (Vintage, $18). Grigori Melekhov, another flawed, complex, and tragic hero, dominates this controversial and epic account of Don Cossacks caught up in the Great War, the Russian Revolution, and the subsequent civil war. A novel of massive, harsh power, rich in memorable characters, And Quiet Flows the Dawn is a War and Peace for the 20th century.
I, Claudius by Robert Graves (Vintage, $16). Published in 1934, and still an acknowledged masterpiece and a model for historical fiction, this “autobiography” of the stuttering, limping first-century Roman emperor is sympathetic and intensely involving: a great feat of imagination.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Q by ‘Luther Blissett’ (Mariner, $15). From 1999, a weird, confusing, but visceral, engaged, and deeply informed novel of the European Reformation, written, or perhaps thrown together, by four Italian writers hiding their identities. A one-off, like no other historical novel.
The Man on a Donkey by H.F.M. Prescott (Loyola Press, two vols., $14 each). The historian-author H.F.M. Prescott brought both empathy and expertise to her classic and much-loved 1952 novel about the victims and losers of the early English Reformation.
A Dead Man in Deptford by Anthony Burgess (Da Capo, $14). A fast, funny, flawless re-creation of the life and violent death of Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe. This deeply engaging, ingenious novel is a bravura performance, confident and utterly convincing in tone.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Beatriz Williams' 6 timeless books about history and human relationships
Feature The best-selling author recommends works by Jane Austen, Zora Neale Hurston, and more
-
Aysegul Savas' 6 favorite books for readers who love immersive settings
Feature The Paris-based Turkish author recommends works by Hiromi Kawakami, Virginia Woolf, and more
-
Geoff Dyer's 6 favorite books about the realities of war
Feature The award-winning author recommends works by Ernie Pyle, Michael Herr, and more
-
Laura Lippman's 6 favorite books for those who crave a high-stakes adventure
Feature The Grand Master recommends works by E.L. Konigsburg, Charles Portis, and more
-
Thomas Mallon's 6 favorite books from the 80's and early 90's
Feature The author recommends works by James Merrill, Calvin Trillin, and more
-
Anne Hillerman's 6 favorite books with Native characters
Feature The author recommends works by Ramona Emerson, Craig Johnson, and more
-
John Kenney's 6 favorite books that will break your heart softly
Feature The novelist recommends works by John le Carré, John Kennedy Toole, and more
-
Andrea Long Chu's 6 favorite books for people who crave new ideas
Feature The book critic recommends works by Rachel Cusk, Sigmund Freud, and more