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Giving Up the Ghost [A Memoir]
by Mantel, Hilary
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Near Fine Plus/Near Fine Plus
- ISBN 10
- 0805074724
- ISBN 13
- 9780805074727
- Seller
-
Comox, British Columbia, Canada
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Henry Holt, 2003. 223 pages.. First American Edition, First Printing. Hard Cover in Dust Jacket. Near Fine Plus/Near Fine Plus.
Synopsis
At no. 58 the top of my head comes to the outermost curve of my great-aunt, Annie Connor. Her shape is like the full moon, her smile is beaming; the outer rim of her is covered by her pinny, woven with tiny flowers. It is soft from washing; her hands are hard and chapped; it is barely ten o'clock and she is getting the cabbage on. 'Hello, Our Ilary,' she says; my family has named me aspirationally, but aspiration doesn't stretch to the 'H'.Giving Up the Ghost is award-winning novelist Hilary Mantel's wry, shocking and uniquely unusual five-part autobiography of childhood, ghosts, illness and family.It opens in 1995 with 'A Second Home', in which Mantel describes the death of her stepfather, a death which leaves her deeply troubled by the unresolved events of childhood. 'Now Geoffrey Don't Torment Her' begins in typical, gripping Mantel fashion: 'Two of my relatives have died by fire.' Set during the 1950s, it takes the reader into the muffled consciousness of her early childhood, culminating with the birth of a younger brother and the strange candlelit ceremony of her mother's 'churching'. In 'The Secret Garden' Mantel moves to a haunted house and mysteriously gains a stepfather. When she is almost eleven, her family flee the gossips and the ghosts, and resolve to start a new life. 'Smile' is an account of teenage perplexity, in a household where the keeping of secrets has become a way of life. Convent school provides a certain sanctuary, with tacit assistance from the fearsome 'Top Nun.' In the final section, the author tells how, through medical misunderstandings and neglect, she came to be childless, and how the ghosts of the unborn, like chances missed or pages unturned, have come to haunt her life as a writer.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Purpora Books
(CA)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 18478
- Title
- Giving Up the Ghost [A Memoir]
- Author
- Mantel, Hilary
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Near Fine Plus
- Jacket Condition
- Near Fine Plus
- Edition
- First American Edition, First Printing
- ISBN 10
- 0805074724
- ISBN 13
- 9780805074727
- Publisher
- Henry Holt
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 2003
Terms of Sale
Purpora Books
Upon receiving your order, books will be held until payment is received: cheque, money order, or PayPal, or payment via Biblio.com's options. Shipping: by surface mail within Canada, add $13.00 US for the first book and $2 for each additional book; for airmail service to the U.S. (note there is no longer surface mail service to the U.S. A. from Canada) add $17.00 US for the first book, and $10.00 for each additional book; for international surface mail, add $18.00 US for the first book, or for international airmail, add $40.00 US. For customers in Canada, the HST/GST is included in the price. Shipping costs are based on books weighing up to 2.2 LB, or 1 KG. If your book order is heavy or oversized, we may contact you to let you know extra shipping is required. All books are shipped well protected. Reciprocal discount offered to the trade. Book condition is based on the following guidelines: Fine - a copy with only a very minor flaw and may actually be new and unread; Near Fine - a copy with a more significant flaw or several minor flaws and/or with an overall feel and appearance of a lightly used book; Very Good - a more worn copy but still in collectible condition. Book plates, remainder marks, previous owner names, price-clipped dust jackets and store stamps are always mentioned. A scan of a book cover is available upon request.� 30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged. Please notify Purpora Books prior to return.
About the Seller
Purpora Books
Biblio member since 2009
Comox, British Columbia
About Purpora Books
Purpora Books is a full-time business specializing in literature first editions, signed copies, poetry broadsides and fine press. Over 50% of our inventory is devoted to Canadian authors. We are committed to finding and providing our customers the nicest and most interesting copies available. Our bookroom is open by appointment - please phone ahead. We are always interested in buying books, from single collectible items to complete libraries.
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