Lighthousekeeping

Lighthousekeeping
Jeanette Winterson

From one of Britain’s best-loved literary novelists comes a magical, lyrical tale of the young orphan Silver, taken in by the ancient lighthousekeeper Mr. Pew, who reveals to her a world of myth and mystery through the art of storytelling.Motherless and anchorless, Silver is taken in by the timeless Mr. Pew, keeper of the Cape Wrath lighthouse. Pew tells Silver ancient tales of longing and rootlessness, of the slippages that occur throughout every life. One life, Babel Dark’s, a nineteenth-century clergyman, opens like a map that Silver must follow, and the intertwining of myth and reality, of storytelling and experience, lead her through her own particular darkness.A story of mutability, talking birds and stolen books, of Darwin and Stevenson and of the Jekyll and Hyde in all of us, Lighthousekeeping is a way into the most secret recesses of our own hearts and minds. Jeanette Winterson is one of the most extraordinary and original writers of her generation, and this shows her at her lyrical best.

Lighthousekeeping

Jeanette Winterson

For Deborah Warner

‘Remember you must die’

MURIEL SPARK

‘Remember you must live’

ALI SMITH

Table of Contents

Cover Page (#u1612e824-c976-5a54-849f-73c466b90e98)

Title Page (#ub6359308-b268-5d69-a219-39c09a193115)

Epigraph (#u8991553c-7e17-570b-a16a-abeab219c429)

TWO ATLANTICS (#u844e4ef5-2721-58cb-b9c8-991a43676eaf)

My mother called me Silver. I was born part precious metal part pirate. (#u339d5615-3b08-5fd5-8ced-df7ec06fe1b5)

A beginning, a middle and an end is the proper way to tell a story. But I have difficulty with that method. (#ufaee3da3-90c4-504d-b0d9-c8a080f6665c)

KNOWN POINT IN THE DARKNESS (#u0a7c9d0f-b1e3-5a04-ae74-a14a112441d3)

As an apprentice to lighthousekeeping my duties were as follows: (#ub84c7581-9ed7-5098-86ff-a883156605c8)

Cliff-perched, wind-cleft, (#ud3fd9560-316c-573b-af09-cdadc13dfb1c)

Tell me a story, Pew. (#uedf979d5-ea0e-577b-b0b1-a679a6dbb71a)

To make an end of it Dark had decided to marry. (#u032857ce-774e-5658-86e1-2eabe2057fdf)

TENANT OF THE SUN (#litres_trial_promo)

The moon shone the night white. (#litres_trial_promo)

The door was his body. (#litres_trial_promo)

Tell me the story, Pew. (#litres_trial_promo)

GREAT EXHIBITION (#litres_trial_promo)

This way to the Cobra. Wonders of the East! (#litres_trial_promo)

Pew – why didn’t my mother marry my father? (#litres_trial_promo)

A stranger in his own life, (#litres_trial_promo)

How were you born, Pew? (#litres_trial_promo)

The mystery of Pew was a mercury of fact. (#litres_trial_promo)

That day in the lighthouse (#litres_trial_promo)

Eyes like a faraway ship, Pew was sleeping. (#litres_trial_promo)

Tell me a story, Pew. (#litres_trial_promo)

A PLACE BEFORE THE FLOOD (#litres_trial_promo)

Dark was walking his dog along the cliff path (#litres_trial_promo)

It was our last day as ourselves. (#litres_trial_promo)

A place before the Flood. (#litres_trial_promo)

Tell me a story, Silver. (#litres_trial_promo)

NEW PLANET (#litres_trial_promo)

This is not a love story, but love is in it. That is, love is just outside it, looking for a way to break in. (#litres_trial_promo)

Dark was looking at the moon. (#litres_trial_promo)

I sometimes think of myself, up at Am Parbh. (#litres_trial_promo)

TALKING BIRD (#litres_trial_promo)

Two facts about Silver: It reflects 95% of its own light. It is one of the few precious metals that can be safely eaten in small quantities. (#litres_trial_promo)

The seahorse was in his pocket. (#litres_trial_promo)

1859 (#litres_trial_promo)

Tell me a story, Silver. (#litres_trial_promo)

SOME WOUNDS (#litres_trial_promo)

Some wounds never heal. (#litres_trial_promo)