Author: Hilary Mantel
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Paperback
Staff Pick! Sam says…
Hilary Mantel's epic novel about the first French Revolution was her first (though not the first to be published), and took 20 years to write. I picked it up on a whim in the weeks after my mum died (on the promise of the title) and the escape it offered makes the experience of reading it indelible. It swirls around Danton, Robespierre and Camile Desmoulins, sweeping from cafés and drawing rooms to desperate streetlights and bloody executions. What makes it so unforgettable (and so full of solace) is how, among the stampede of events that shaped the coming centuries, she never loses the gossamer threads that tie these three figures at the centre together: the moments where they break bread together are as memorable as the storming of the Bastille. That was Mantel's gift – she was a great humanist (and republican), we're going to miss her voice, I'll always be grateful for this book and the place it provided!