Eight Months on Ghazzah Street. Hilary Mantel

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Название Eight Months on Ghazzah Street
Автор произведения Hilary Mantel
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isbn 9780007354955



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      Eight Months on Ghazzah Street

      Hilary Mantel

       Copyright

      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.

      Fourth Estate

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      Paperback edition published by Harper Perennial 2004

      First published in Great Britain by Viking 1988

      Copyright © Hilary Mantel 1988

      The right of Hilary Mantel to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

      PS section copyright © Fanny Blake 2004

      PS™ is a trademark of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

      Source ISBN: 9780007172917

      Ebook Edition © MAY 2010 ISBN: 9780007354955

      Version: 2017-07-26

       Dedication

       For Vic and Jeanie Camp

      Contents

       Cover Page

       Title Page

       Rabi al-awal

       Rabi al-thani

       Part Two

       Jamadi al-awal

       Jamadi al-thani

       Rajab

       Shaban

       Keep Reading

       P.S.

       About the author

       About the book

       Read on

       About the Author

       Excerpt from Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

       By the Same Author

       About the Publisher

       Note

      Saudi Arabia employs the Hijra calendar, which starts from the year AD 622, when Muhammed left Mecca for Medina. It is a lunar calendar, and the Hijra year is eleven days shorter than the Gregorian year. The months (with many variations in transliteration) are as follows: Muharram, Safar, Rabi al-awal, Rabi al-thani, Jamadi al-awal, Jamadi al-thani, Rajab, Shaban, Ramadhan, Shawal, Dhu-al-qudah, Dhu-al-hijjah. By a recent Royal Decree, a 365-day year has been instituted for fiscal purposes, and 22 December 1986 became 1 Capricorn. The recalculations involved make the fiscal year some forty years behind the Hijra year. So, not the least surprising aspect of life in the Kingdom is that time can appear to run backwards.

       Part One

      CONFIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM

      FROM: Director, Turadup, William and Schaper, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

      TO: All expatriate staff

      DATED: 15 Shawal/3 July 1985

      I need not remind anyone of this week’s tragic events involving Turadup employees. In order to safeguard the company’s position in these very difficult times, I must request all staff and families about to depart on leave to behave as follows:

      A. Refrain from talking to the press – whatever your holiday destination.

      B: Refrain from public speculation about the recent deaths – remember that the matter is still under investigation by the Saudi police and Her Majesty’s representatives.

      c. Exercise