Beyond Black is a 2005 novel by English writer Hilary Mantel. It was shortlisted for the 2006 Orange Prize for Fiction.[1][2]

Beyond Black
First edition (UK)
AuthorHilary Mantel
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreGothic novel
PublisherFourth Estate (UK)
Henry Holt and Co. (US)
Publication date
2005
Media typePrint (Paperback)
Pages384 pp
ISBN0-00-715775-4
OCLC57382720

Plot summary edit

The book's central character is a medium named Alison Hart who, along with her assistant/business partner/manager, Colette, takes her one-woman psychic show on the road, travelling to venues around the Home Counties, and providing her audience with a point of contact between this world and the next. On the surface, Alison seems like a happy-go-lucky woman, but this persona is only a mask she wears for her public. In truth, she is deeply traumatised by memories and ghosts from her childhood, and a knowledge that the afterlife is not the wonderful place her clients often perceive it to be. She spends much of the story trying to exorcise her demons, and by the end is ultimately able to overcome them.

References edit

  1. ^ "Beyond Black | Hilary Mantel | Macmillan". US Macmillan. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  2. ^ Mantel, Hilary (2005). Beyond Black. Harper Perennial. ISBN 9780007157761.

External links edit