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The Giant, O’Brien
Hilary Mantel
Fourth Estate
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
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London SE1 9GF
This edition published by Fourth Estate 2010
First published in Great Britain in 1998 by Fourth Estate
Published in paperback by Fourth Estate 1999
Copyright © Hilary Mantel 1998
Hilary Mantel asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
The quotation from ‘The Cleaver Garden’ on page vii is reproduced
by kind permission of the late George MacBeth
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Ebook Edition © JUNE 2010 ISBN: 9780007354900
Version 2019-09-27
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This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
For Lesley Glaister
…But then
All crib from skulls and bones who push the pen. Readers crave bodies. We’re the resurrection men.
George MacBeth, The Cleaver Garden’
Table of Contents
Excerpt from Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
‘Bring in the cows now. Time to shut up for the night.’
There came three cows, breathing in the near-dark: swishing with the tips of their tails, their bones showing through hide. They set down their hoofs among the men, jostling. Flames from the fire danced in their eyes. Through the open door, the moon sailed against the mountain.
‘Or O’Shea will have them away over the hill,’ Connor said. Connor was their host. ‘Three cows my grandfather had of his grandfather. Never a night goes by that he doesn’t look to get the debt paid.’
‘An old quarrel,’ Claffey said. They’re the best.’
Pybus spat. ‘O’Shea, he’d grudge you the earache. If you’d a boil he’d grudge it you. His soul is as narrow as a needle.’
‘Look now, Connor,’ the Giant said. His tone was interested. ‘What’d you do if you had four cows?’
‘I can only dream of it,’ Connor said.
‘But for house-room?’
Connor shrugged. ‘They’d have to come in just the same.’
‘What if you’d six cows?’
The men would be further off the fire,’ Claffey said.
‘What if you’d ten cows?’
‘The cows would come in and the men would squat outside,’ said Pybus.
Connor nodded. ‘That’s true.’
The Giant laughed. ‘A fine host you are. The men would squat outside!’
‘We’d be safe enough out there,’ Claffey said. ‘O’Shea may want interest on the debt, but he’d never