The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore
Written in crisp, enthralling prose . . . the sense of deja vu surrounding the story makes it all the more chilling. . . . Tense and engaging.--The New Yorker A perfect ghost story.--The Independent Helen Dunmore is a bestselling novelist and poet whose historical novels have been compared to Tolstoy, Emily Bronte, and Virginia Woolf. In her new novel, Dunmore once again dives into the past with an evocative and sophisticated ghost story about a love affair between a neglected wife and a mysterious soldier. In the winter of 1952, Isabel Carey moves to the East Riding of Yorkshire with her husband, Philip, a medical doctor. With Philip spending long hours on call, Isabel finds herself lonely and vulnerable as she strives to adjust to the realities of being a housewife. One evening, while Philip is at work, Isabel is woken by intense cold. When she hunts for extra blankets, she discovers an old RAF greatcoat hidden in the back of a cupboard. Sleeping under the coat for warmth, she starts to dream. And not long afterward, she is startled by a knock at her window. Outside is a young RAF pilot named Alec, whose powerful presence both disturbs and excites her. They begin an intense affair, but nothing has prepared her for the truth about Alec's life, nor the impact it will have on her own. A spectral tale of love and war that blurs the line between the real and imaginary, The Greatcoat is an atmospheric and accomplished literary chiller about quiet temptations and the lasting trauma of battle.
Helen Dunmore (1952-2017) was a poet, novelist, short story and children's writer. Her poetry books received a Poetry Book Society Choice and Recommendations, the Alice Hunt Bartlett Award, and the Signal Poetry Award. Bestiary was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize in 1997. Inside the Wave won the 2017 Costa Poetry Award and went on to be named Costa Book of the Year. She won first prize in the Cardiff International Poetry Competition in 1990 with her poem 'Sisters leaving the dance', and first prize in the National Poetry Competition in 2010 with 'The Malarkey'. After making her debut with The Apple Fall in 1983, she published all her poetry with Bloodaxe. Her earlier work was collected in Out of the Blue: Poems 1975-2001 (2001), which was followed by Glad of These Times (2007), The Malarkey (2012), and Inside the Wave (2017), her tenth and final collection. A new retrospective, Counting Backwards: Poems 1975-2017, is due from Bloodaxe in February 2019. She published twelve novels and three books of short stories with Penguin, including A Spell of Winter (1995), winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, Talking to the Dead (1996), The Siege (2001), Mourning Ruby (2003), House of Orphans (2006) and The Betrayal (2010), as well as The Greatcoat (2012) with Hammer, and The Lie (2014), Exposure (2016) and Birdcage Walk (2017) with Hutchinson. A posthumous story collection, Girl, Balancing and Other Stories, followed from Hutchinson in 2018. Born in Beverley, Yorkshire, she studied English at York University, and after graduating in 1973 spent two years teaching in Finland before settling in Bristol.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780802121783 |
| ISBN 10 | 0802121780 |
| Title | The Greatcoat |
| Author | Helen Dunmore |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Black Cat |
| Year published | 2013-10-15 |
| Number of pages | 224 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |