Learning to Speak

A collection of stories by the two-time Booker Prize laureate. Hilary Mantel manages to convey the painful, soul-stirring experiences of childhood that each of us has had. The characters, already grown adults, return to the places where they grew up and evaluate their past in a new way—finding in it old ghosts and old friends. These sharp, sometimes funny stories taken from life belong to the early 1950s. Their protagonists live in a closed world of a factory settlement in the north of England. And even Mantel’s simplest tales keep a slightly otherworldly atmosphere. In “King Billy—Gentleman,” the main character must come to terms with losing his father and with an unsolvable riddle of a fading Irish inheritance. “The Path of Beauty Winding” tells of the power of friendship and (almost) a catastrophe in a dump. In “Learning to Speak Properly,” Hilary Mantel adjusts her Northern accent with the help of a former actress—who has “only one light” and a very noticeable Manchester accent—while in “On the Third Floor,” the heroine watches in astonishment as her mother gains a new identity, despite prejudices.