The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher

by Hilary Mantel

Overview

Named a Best Book of the Year by
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Guardian (London), The Independent (London), Kirkus Reviews, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times Book Review, The Telegraph (London), The Washington Post

In The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, Hilary Mantel's trademark gifts of penetrating characterization, unsparing eye, and rascally intelligence are once again fully on display with stories of dislocation and family fracture, of whimsical infidelities and sudden deaths with sinister causes. Cutting to the core of human experience, Mantel brutally and acutely writes about marriage, class, family, and sex. Unpredictable, diverse, and sometimes shocking, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher will brilliantly unsettle the reader in that unmistakably Mantel way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250074720
Publisher:	Picador
Publication date:	09/01/2015
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	923,040
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 5.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Hilary Mantel twice won the Booker Prize, for her best-selling novel Wolf Hall and its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies. The final novel of the Wolf Hall trilogy, The Mirror & the Light, debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and won critical acclaim around the globe. Mantel authored over a dozen books, including A Place of Greater Safety, Beyond Black, and the memoir Giving Up the Ghost.

Table of Contents

SORRY TO DISTURB 1
COMMA 37
THE LONG QT 61
WINTER BREAK 71
HARLEY STREET 85
OFFENSES AGAINST THE PERSON 113
HOW SHALL I KNOW YOU? 131
THE HEART FAILS WITHOUT WARNING 167
TERMINUS 191
THE ASSASSINATION OF MARGARET THATCHER 203
CREDITS 243

Editorial Reviews

An event with a capital 'E' . . . Breathtaking” —NPR

“Scintillating . . . Like the Olympic gymnast who nails her landing every time.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A book of her short stories is like a little sweet treat.” —USA Today (four stars)

“[Mantel is at] the top of her game.” —Salon

“Genius” —The Seattle Times

“[Mantel is] an international literary star.” —Elle

“One of the best novelists writing today.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Mantel's] writing is cinematically exquisite… you can't help but get sucked in.” —The Chicago Tribune

“The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher delivers on its promises: the promise built by Mantel's reputation as one of the unquestionably great contemporary writers, the promise made by its shocking title, and the promise inherent in the genre of short stories...Mantel pokes and prods and scratches at our tiny collective wounds, opening them into something much bigger. Readers may find the stories uncomfortable, but also hard to put down.” —A.V. Club

“A book of her short stories is like a little sweet treat.... Some of the stories are so brief and twisted...they have a hint of the cruelty of Roald Dahl's short stories (the ones that were definitely for grown-ups).... Mantel's narrators never tell everything they know, and that's why they're worth listening to, carefully.” —USA Today (4 stars)

“Here is the Mantel of her earlier, darker kitchen-sink novels: harsh and comic, even derisive.” —Los Angeles Times

“Mantel] evokes a shadowy region where boundaries blur and what might have happened has equal weight with what actually occurred…. Despite the plethora of sharply observed social detail, her short stories always recognize other potential realities…. Even the most straightforward of Mantel's tales retain a faintly otherworldly air.” —Washington Post

“[A] barnburner of a title story...It's not the plot that matters as much as the superb little touches with which Ms. Mantel punctuates it.” —New York Times

“Hilary Mantel has escaped from King Henry VIII's court.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Mantel is not just a novelist, however, but a great political novelist at the top of her game.” —Salon

“The stories are artfully constructed and share a muted gothic tone marked by the same ‘heightened, crawling quality' that one of Mantel's narrators, a writer, finds at a moldering hotel.” —New Yorker

“The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, untied from the historical record, she gives her characters freer rein to rattle their chains, and the results...are satisfyingly chilling.” —The Daily Beast

“Here are stories in which horror shudders between the high gothic of Grimm and the menacing quotidian. Oppression comes from air conditioners that 'labor and hack' and from 'the smell of drains.' Cruelty is made manifest by a wayward young girl who finds an even more outcast target in the form of a severely deformed child.... These are Ms. Mantel's signature strokes - freaks made human and humans made freakish, and always with the expiation of a dark and judgmental humor.” —Pittsburg Post-Gazette

From the Publisher

Hilary Mantel's last two books (Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies) both won Man Booker Prizes; now she enters the field again with her first short story collection in a dozen years. For most American readers especially, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher will be a great treat. In addition to the previously unpublished title story, the book contains appealing stories such as "The Heart Fails Without Warning," "The Long QT," and "Winter Break" that were available before only in UK publications. An apt choice for book clubs and nighttime reads.

Elegantly clipped and beautifully precise, Jane Carr’s delivery of this innovative story collection, by the author of the Booker Prize-winning WOLF HALL, is simultaneously hypnotic and engaging. She captures the diverse tales with a unifying reserve that frees the listener to embrace and ponder Mantel’s distinctive style. These are challenging stories in both style and content, so Carr’s accessible voice and delivery are well employed throughout the collection. Somehow Carr maintains a brisk pace, yet her momentum makes the words and images even more lively, more real. Whether focused on issues of family tension or something more fantastical—ghost stories? vampires?—Mantel’s words and Carr’s voice combine to create an enriching listening experience. This collection is an excellent introduction to Mantel’s celebrated work. L.B.F. 2015 Audies Winner © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2014 - AudioFile