Not only is she able to speak to the dead (a term, of course, strictly forbidden in her profession) but she sees various spirit guides, the shapes of those departed, who, in her case, are those who were around in her childhood. The story is about Alison Hart, a woman who has the gift. As she comments, the spirit world is a bit like Aldershot which, for those not familiar with this town, is a fairly grim and bourgeois garrison town in the South of England. The temptation for many a writer would be to mock or to go super-Gothic but Mantel does neither, rather telling her story in a more or less realist fashion but peppered with wit and insight into the life of ordinary people. Once again Mantel shows us that she is one of the finest writers in England today, tackling what could be a tricky subject, that of spiritualism and the spirit world. It is true that if she read aloud the instructions for a device that came with 'Some Assembly Required'.we would still be enthralled by her voice.We might also complete the assembly.Home » England » Hilary Mantel » Beyond Black Hilary Mantel: Beyond Black Her voice itself keeps one in the book,one's mind never wanders. Anna Bentinck ,the perfect reader,always catches the exact tone and voice a book deserves. Suffice it to say that as Woolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies are not available to Audible listeners in Canada I bought two six disc C.D.s, copied them and found out how to transfer them to my iPad. I did not want to be guilty of ‘Spoiler Alerts’.

I hope I have conveyed the essence of the book. I loved this book and was irritated when I realized that I really had to get some sleep. The end of the book arrives without a flourish and with an appropriate conclusion. We laugh with Alison not at her: This gives the reader time to draw breath. Even more unlikely, Alison’s daily life invokes laughter of the ‘out loud’ variety.

Against this unlikely and haunting background ,we follow the life of this equally unlikely heroine following a tale which invokes another unlikely combination of unbearable terror ,sympathy and empathy. Alison is accompanied by spirits from her past, including one who seems to be her side kick who handles the finances. Beyond Black ,an earlier book, presents a biography of Alison a morbidly obese, kind woman with a rotten history of childhood who has the unlikely ‘profession’ as a medium in the outer suburbs of London. I do not read new fiction until after the wave of enthusiasm from the reviewers has died down,and a book is holding its own.This was particularly true following the two years in succession when Mantel won the Booker Prize. This is the first Mantel book I have read.

Beyond black by hilary mantel