Giving Up the Ghost A Memoir

In postwar rural England, Hilary Mantel grew up convinced that the most improbable of accomplishments, including "chivalry, horsemanship, and swordplay," were within her grasp. Once married, however, she acquired a persistent pain that led to destructive drugs and patronizing psychiatry, ending in an ineffective but irrevocable surgery. There would be no children; in herself she found instead one novel, and then another. Hilary Mantelis the critically acclaimed author of eight novels, includingA Change of ClimateandEight Months on Ghazzah Street. She lives in England. ANew York TimesNotable Book In postwar rural England, Hilary Mantel grew up convinced that the most extraordinary feats were within her grasp. At nineteen, however, she acquired a persistent pain that led to destructive drugs and patronizing psychiatry, ending in an ineffective but irrevocable surgery. There would be no children; in herself she found instead one novel, and then another. This is a dazzling, wry, and visceral memoir that will bring new converts to Mantel's dark genius. "Dazzling written . . . A highly unorthodox account of what is essentially unsayable about the inward uncharted life."Joyce Carol Oates "Mantel's angular wit is as unquenchable as her anger; the reading experience is reliably exhilarating because of the sheer excellence of the writing."The New York Times Book Review "Blazing insights [and] poetic discourses that rattle the soul . . . Mantel doesn't simply hit close to home, she knocks at our closets and opens our doors."The Boston Globe "Mantel's talents are stronger than her misfortunes . . . [This book comes] from the mind of a fine author, whose body has imposed its own terrible penances."The Washington Post "No book this year has given me more pleasure than Hilary Mantel's astonishing, ravishing memoir,Giving Up the Ghost."Susan Sontag,The Times Literary SupplementBooks of the Year, 2003

Hillary Mantel is the critically acclaimed author of eight novels, including A Change of Climate and Eight Months on Ghazzah Street. She lives in England.

"Dazzlingly written...a highly unorthodox account of what is essentially unsayable about the inward uncharted life."--Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Review of Books
"The matter is bitter, but Mantel's angular wit is as unquenchable as her anger; the reading experience is reliably exhilarating because of the sheer excellence of the writing."--New York Times Book Review
"Blazing insights [and] poetic discourses that rattle the soul...Mantel doesn't simply hit close to home, she knocks at our closets and opens our doors."--The Boston Globe
"Mantel's talents are stronger than her misfortunes...[this book comes] from the mind of a fine author, whose body has imposed its own terrible penances."--The Washington Post