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Beyond Black

A Novel

By Hilary Mantel

(16)

| Paperback | 9780312426057

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Book Description

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year Colette and Alison are unlikely cohorts: one a shy, drab beanpole of an assistant, the other a charismatic, corpulent psychic whose connection to the spiritual world torments her. When they meet at a fair, Alison invites Colette at once to joiContinue

Critics

Other voices

Hilary Mantel's new novel, Beyond Black, tells the story of Alison, a Home Counties psychic, and Colette, her pragmatic, flint-hearted assistant. - Alison talks to the dead and relays their messages - 'Granny says she likes your new kitchen units' - ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

Enfield, where the dead go to live

Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel 464pp, Fourth Estate, £16.99 Hilary Mantel has done something extraordinary. She has taken that ethereal halfway house between heaven and hell, between the living and the dead, and nailed it on the page. She has taken th ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

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5 Reviews

2 people find this helpful

Beyond Black is odd. Its very bleak, and at times depressingly dark and nasty. But it's not the ghosts that plague Al in her dreams and every waking minute that provide the shocks - it's middle England and human nature. A wide range of colourful characters, both dead and alive, weave in and out of a ... (continue)

Beyond Black is odd. Its very bleak, and at times depressingly dark and nasty. But it's not the ghosts that plague Al in her dreams and every waking minute that provide the shocks - it's middle England and human nature. A wide range of colourful characters, both dead and alive, weave in and out of a story that manages to pull together everything that makes us human - forgiveness, happiness, humour, lust, greed and revenge.
At times its difficult to know what's real and whats not... which is where the book both excels and falls down. There were a few occasions that broke the hypnotic nature of the book. I found myself struggling to comprehend quite what was going on and it meant I had to pull out of the gloriously constructed world and go back and reread parts - however, by keeping you a little unsteadily on your toes the book does manage to throw you around.
I enjoyed Beyond Black for all the right reasons - it's original (not often do the ghosts in a ghost story get upstaged by the 2.4 children family next door who just happen to be obsessed with the neighbourhood watch and the weather) its sharp, witty and clever - and its very real. But sometimes there were just a few too many voices at once which slightly obscured the descriptive storytelling beneath.

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Kieran Delaney said on Dec 29, 2008 | Add your feedback

Such a good title

This is the third book by Mantel that I've read and I'm very struck by how different it is from the other two. There's almost no common ground except her tendency to slip back and forth between the two main characters' points of view constantly, even sometimes within the same paragraph. The subject ... (continue)

This is the third book by Mantel that I've read and I'm very struck by how different it is from the other two. There's almost no common ground except her tendency to slip back and forth between the two main characters' points of view constantly, even sometimes within the same paragraph. The subject matter is fascinating and as usual, very well researched. I did wonder at times how she planned to wrap it up - it is a bit shapeless in the middle - but the end is suitably fitting.

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Top of the pile said on Sep 2, 2011 | Add your feedback

A difficult books and style to get into, but eventually it becomes quite easy to ready. The story is definitely weird and something I've never read before, that's for sure. It gets slow at times, but all in all a quite nice book.

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Bleedindarklove said on Jul 1, 2011 | Add your feedback

This book was highly recommended to me by some colleagues. Yes, it is a good book and well written but it didn't really hit the spot for me. I am a sceptic when it comes to clairvoyance, crystal balls, palmistry etc, and maybe that is why the book didn't really grab me.
Alison has not had the best ... (continue)

This book was highly recommended to me by some colleagues. Yes, it is a good book and well written but it didn't really hit the spot for me. I am a sceptic when it comes to clairvoyance, crystal balls, palmistry etc, and maybe that is why the book didn't really grab me.
Alison has not had the best upbringing, raised by a terrible mother who had tried to get rid of her baby. This "gift" was obviously already in the family, but Alison's mother had another way of earning money. Therefore, it is not surprising that Alison is haunted by some terrible ghosts from the past that she must confront before she can rid herself of these demons.

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Booketta said on Apr 17, 2011 | Add your feedback

another weird and disturbing book, it can be read as a "normal" ghost story, or as the story of an overweight and unloved woman, thrown across the line to the dark side of existence. very good, very real.

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Elsastella said on Feb 27, 2009 | Add your feedback