Beyond the Black is the most recent novel by British writer Hillary Mantel. Alison is a home counties medium tormented by the men of her youth (now in spirit). Colette becomes her live-in assistant after leaving her husband. This book intruduces the reader in the world of mediums with an affectionate tone and a dose of black humour. The reader will discover the horrors of Alison's childhood: her mother was a prostitute who doesn't even kno who really fathered her child and her house was always full of disreputable men who abused her daughter. Alison castrated one of the men with a pair of scissors and took off someone's eye with a knitting needle. In adulthood, Alison tries to overcome her past by performing a good deed: sheltering homeless Mart in her garden shed.
After Mart commits suicide in the shed, Colette decides she can no longer live in the same house and work for Alison and, perhaps no quite surprinsingly, moves back with her husband after 7 years of separation.
The novel starts the summer Princess Diana dies and ends in the current climate of terrorism anxiety. I am not sure what Mantel was trying to achieve with the 7 year time span or the inclusion of events such as the death of the princess or September 11 but the novel is a good read.
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