Beyond Black: A Novel (54 page)

Alison checks her rearview mirror. She pulls out to overtake a truck; she puts her foot down. She moves into the fast lane, half hidden by the spray. Unmolested, unobserved, they flee before the storm. If the universe is a great mind, it may sometimes have its absences. Maureen Harrison pipes up from the back: “This cake we’re having: could we have it iced?”

BY THE AUTHOR

Hilary Mantel writes reviews for The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, and the London Review of Books. She lives in England. Her many critically acclaimed works include:

Muriel Axon Novels (Black Comedy):

1. Every Day is Mother’s Day -1985
   
2. Vacant Possession - 1986
   

Eight Months on Ghazzah Street: A Novel - 1988

Fludd: A Novel – 1989
(Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize, Cheltenham Prize, and Southern Arts Literature Prize)

A Place of Greater Safety: A Novel – 1992
(Sunday Express Book of the Year)

A Change of Climate: A Novel - 1994

An Experiment in Love: A Novel – 1995
(Hawthornden Prize)

The Giant, O’Brien: A Novel - 1998

Giving Up the Ghost: A Memoir – 2003
(MIND Book of the Year)

Learning to Talk: Short Stories - 2003

Beyond Black: A Novel – 2005
(Orange Prize for Fiction Shortlisted, and Commonwealth Writers Prize Shortlisted)

Thomas Cromwell Trilogy (Historical Fiction):

1. Wolf Hall - 2009
   (Man Booker Prize, Walter Scott Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, Specsavers National Book Awards “UK Author of the Year”, Orange Prize for Fiction Shortlisted)
   
2. Bring Up the Bodies - 2012
   (Man Booker Prize, Costa Book Awards Book of the Year, Specsavers National Book Awards “UK Author of the Year”)
   
3. The Mirror and the Light -
   not yet published
   

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher: Stories - 2014