{"product_id":"book-f66f","title":"Learning to Talk","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"The multiple performances in this audiobook are uniformly adept, providing listeners the disarming experience of adults unflinchingly looking back at childhood.\" -AudioFile on Learning to Talk\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLearning to Talk\u003c\/i\u003e is a dazzling collection of short stories from the \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003etwo-time winner of the Man Booker Prize \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eand #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of the Wolf Hall Trilogy.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWith a new foreword by Hilary Mantel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the wake of Hilary Mantel's brilliant conclusion to her award-winning Wolf Hall Trilogy, this collection of loosely autobiographical stories locates the transforming moments of a haunted childhood.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSharp and funny, these drawn-from-life stories begin in the 1950s in an insular northern village \"scoured by bitter winds and rough gossip tongues.\" For the child narrator, the only way to survive is to get up, get on, get out. In \"King Billy Is A Gentleman,\" the child must come to terms with the loss of a father and the puzzle of a fading Irish heritage. \"Curved Is the Line of Beauty\u003cb\u003e\"\u003c\/b\u003e is a story of friendship, faith, and a near-disaster in a scrap-yard. The title story sees our narrator ironing out her northern vowels with the help of an ex-actress with one lung and a Manchester accent. In \"Third Floor Rising,\u003cb\u003e\"\u003c\/b\u003e she watches, amazed, as her mother carves out a stylish new identity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith a deceptively light touch, Mantel illuminates the poignant experiences of childhood that leave each of us forever changed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A book of her short stories is like a little sweet treat...Mantel's narrators never tell everything they know, and that's why they're worth listening to, carefully.\" -\u003ci\u003eUSA Today\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Her short stories always recognize other potential realities...Even the most straightforward of Mantel's tales retain a faintly otherworldly air.\" -\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Macmillan Audio","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49359016919344,"sku":"BDf66f","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/f66f-cover.jpg?v=1761768111","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-f66f","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}