Like the penguin UK cover by David Pelham when it was called Tyger Tyger

Ghostwritten is amazing equal to cloud atlas imo

Could never get into number9dream

Cloud atlas is obviously exceptional. Black swan green I really like but is very much of his time and place

Never read the autumns of Jacob Zoet, but didn't finish utopia avenue.... dreadful

Such a memorable book

I also like the atom station

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carre

The way he did it was revolutionary at the time. He segues his description of the mass of London commuters with Dante's descriptions of the indecisive angels at the vestibule of hell is amazing. And the contrast of the Philemon/Tereus story in a game of chess with it's mythology of mutilation with the conversation about demob soldiers and their girlfriends and their own sexual fulfilment (or lack). It's still so artfully done

The end of the Mirror and the Light is up there with any part of the trilogy. It is exceptional.

If you like this trilogy I can recommend her biography Giving up the Ghost, and Beyond Black for something very different. And if you want historical fiction, a place of greater safety is less polished, but still captivating.

It's the prose and dialogue. It's so sharp. Mantel is the same in her essays. Unrelentingly perceptive

The new Orleans school segregation protest scene is very powerful

Shame there are doubts as to whether he made the whole book up

I really enjoyed Count Belisarius! Maybe I'm odd