Giving Up the Ghost
A Memoir
by Hilary Mantel
Recommended by Lena Dunham and Rafia Zakaria
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Should I read this?
Recommended by 2 sources and appears in Nonfiction.
In postwar rural England, Hilary Mantel grew up convinced that the most improbable of accomplishments, including "chivalry, horsemanship, and swordplay," were within her grasp. Once married, however, she acquired a persistent pain that led to destructive drugs and patronizing psychiatry, ending in an ineffective but irrevocable surgery. There would...
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Why recommended
Recommended by 2 sources and appears in Nonfiction.
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People and public figures who have recommended this book.
Recommendation Signals
Recommendation proof is sourced from public posts, interviews, reading lists, and cited references.
Rafia Zakaria
“@MargieOrford I know I am so awfully sad about it. Her book Giving up the Ghost is what inspired me to start writing about personal things. | A true Goddess. Her book Giving Up The Ghost is the most searing portrait of living in a female body that can be read. Her work is eternal.”
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“Accidental Presidents offers eight narrative portraits of men who succeeded to the U.S. presidency without election, using anecdote-rich scenes and readable context to show how personality and circumstance interact with office power. It’s strongest as a set of self-contained stories that make succession stakes concrete for non-specialist readers; it does not prioritize dense archival argument or exhaustive methodology, so expect some interpretive generalizations and repeated themes across cases. Use it for fast historical orientation rather than scholarly deep-dives.”
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Giving Up the Ghost
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