The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel review / A shoo-in for the Booker prize

BOOKS OF THE YEAR

BOOK OF THE WEEK

The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel review – a shoo-in for the Booker prize

The final novel in Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy is, true to form, another masterpiece

Stephanie Merritt
Sun 1 Mar 2020 07.00 GMT

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hen Hilary Mantel gave her BBC Reith lectures in 2017 on the subject of historical fiction, she was asked by one audience member if she was really writing ghost stories. She replied emphatically: “Yes,” almost before he had finished the question. Ghosts have peopled her fiction from her first novel, Every Day Is Mother’s Day, and her memoir, Giving Up the Ghost, made clear how permeable the boundary between the living and the dead can seem.

The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld review / A fearless vision of toxic masculinity

 

Books of the year

The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld review – a fearless vision of toxic masculinity

Spirits haunt this gothic tale of male violence against women, set across three time frames on the coast of Scotland

Justine Jordan
Sat 21 Mar 2020 07.30 GMT

I

n her award-winning first two novels, 2009’s After the Fire, A Still Small Voice and 2013’s All the Birds Singing, Anglo-Australian author Evie Wyld wrote with intensity and precision about toxic masculinity and emotional damage. The past was always snapping at the heels of her characters, coming to hunt them down.