Orders for Wolf Hall, the Hilary Mantel book about history and stuff that just won the Booker, are about a month behind for delivery now. (Online orders placed on October 12 with arrive between November 3 and November 16, says Amazon, which: WTF.) And the few bookstores that remain in New York City say it is sold out. It's not crazy that the publisher, Henry Holt, was taken by surprise that they sold out what was undoubtedly a not huge print run. Though Mantel has a fan base, well, this is America and it's not like they expected a runaway bestseller from a novel about Oliver THOMAS Cromwell. Still, the [...]

"He divides people: those who value heart and flair, against those who are good at adding up on their fingers, sucking their teeth and shaking their heads. If you condemn him you are, like Robespierre, more in sorrow than in anger." That's Hilary Mantel on George-Jacques Danton, from her fantastic review of a new Danton biography ("fantastic" here refers to the review rather than the book, which Mantel is somewhat iffy about) in the new London Review of Books.