Learning to Talk
Categories: Literature & Fiction
Hilary Mantel's 2003 collection of six linked short stories draws on her own childhood and adolescence in the north of England in the 1950s and 1960s. The stories follow girls growing up in mill towns and attending Catholic schools, dealing with difficult families, social class, ambition and the struggle to find their own voices. Written with dark humor and sharp observation, they echo themes from her memoir Giving Up the Ghost.
Recommended by 1 person
- Hillary Clinton: “I will read anything by Laura Hillenbrand, Walter Isaacson, Barbara Kingsolver, John le Carré, John Grisham, Hilary Mantel, Toni Morrison, Anna Quindlen and Alice Walker.”