Learning to Talk is a dazzling collection of short stories from
the two-time winner of the Man Booker Prize and #1 New York
Times bestselling author of the Wolf Hall Trilogy.
**With a new foreword by Hilary Mantel.
**
In the wake of Hilary Mantel's brilliant conclusion to her award-winning
Wolf Hall Trilogy, this collection of loosely autobiographical stories
locates the transforming moments of a haunted childhood.
Sharp and funny, these drawn-from-life stories begin in the 1950s in an
insular northern village "scoured by bitter winds and rough gossip
tongues." For the child narrator, the only way to survive is to get up,
get on, get out. In "King Billy Is A Gentleman," the child must come to
terms with the loss of a father and the puzzle of a fading Irish
heritage. "Curved Is the Line of Beauty**"** is a story of friendship,
faith, and a near-disaster in a scrap-yard. The title story sees our
narrator ironing out her northern vowels with the help of an ex-actress
with one lung and a Manchester accent. In "Third Floor Rising, " she
watches, amazed, as her mother carves out a stylish new identity.
With a deceptively light touch, Mantel illuminates the poignant
experiences of childhood that leave each of us forever changed.
"A book of her short stories is like a little sweet treat...Mantel's
narrators never tell everything they know, and that's why they're worth
listening to, carefully." --USA Today
"Her short stories always recognize other potential realities...Even
the most straightforward of Mantel's tales retain a faintly otherworldly
air." --The Washington Post
A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company.
