"WOLF HALL" BY HILLARY MANTEL; HENRY HOLT, 532 PP., $27

Fans of historical fiction — or great writing — should howl with delight that Hilary Mantel’s deft, original but complicated novel “Wolf Hall” won Britain’s Man Booker Prize last week.

Wolf Hall,” published in Britain in April, arrived in U.S. stores Tuesday.
Set in 16th-century Tudor England, “Wolf Hall” thrusts the reader into Henry VIII’s seething court, where the players include Anne Boleyn, her sister Mary, Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas More and Jane Seymour.
At the book’s center: Thomas Cromwell, the ruthless blacksmith’s son who rose to power under Henry VIII because of his intelligence, cunning and work ethic.
These historical figures are not exactly moldering in obscurity, thanks to the Tudors miniseries and the novels of Philippa Gregory (“The Other Boleyn Girl”) and C.J. Sansom. Henry VIII’s struggle for a son has spawned a fertile entertainment cottage industry.
Mantel’s novel is less about Henry’s sex life and more about power: how to get it, wield it, keep it, particularly if you — like the low-born Cromwell — lived in a merciless world ruled by the rich and titled.
Cromwell usually is presented as a bully utterly lacking scruples, but Mantel’s Cromwell is a sympathetic character modern readers will understand. “Wolf” is like a Tudor-era version of “American Gangster,” with Cromwell as Denzel Washington.
One caveat: “Wolf Hall” assumes a deep knowledge of English history that most Americans - other than the Tudor-obsessed - lack. The novel ends in 1535, five years before Henry VIII had Cromwell executed. Happily, Mantel is at work on a sequel.