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Cover of Giving Up the Ghost

Historical Fiction · 2004 · PG

Giving Up the Ghost

by Hilary Mantel

Hilary Mantel's own story — childhood, illness, and the ghost child who followed her.

'Like Lorna Sage's Bad Blood ... A masterpiece' RACHEL CUSK 'Giving up the Ghost' is award-winning novelist Hilary Mantel's uniquely unusual five-part autobiography. Opening in 1995 with 'A Second Home', Mantel describes the death of her stepfather which leaves her deeply troubled by the unresolved events of her childhood. In 'Now Geoffrey Don't Torment Her' Mantel takes the reader into the muffled consciousness of her early childhood, culminating in the birth of a younger brother and the strange candlelight ceremony of her mother's 'churching'. In 'Smile', an account of teenage perplexity, Ma

For10+GenreHistorical FictionLength243 pagesRead time~6.5 hours

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What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.

Violence

None

No violence; illness

Language

None

No profanity

Sexual Content

Barely any

Brief sexual references

Substance Use

None

No substance use

Emotional Intensity

Some

Themes of illness, memory, and the ghost of an unlived life

What this book is about

Mantel's 2003 memoir about her childhood in Derbyshire and her long battle with endometriosis. Quiet, moving, and haunted. For older teens and adults.

Notes for sensitive readers

Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.

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