The Greatcoat

4.50 out of 5 (1 ratings)

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Format:: Hardback
Pages:: 208
Publisher:: Cornerstone
Publication Date:: 02 February 2012
Category:: Horror and Ghost Stories
ISBN:: 9780099564935

Description

In the winter of 1952, Isabel Carey moves to the East Riding of Yorkshire with her husband Philip, a GP. With Philip spending long hours on call, Isabel finds herself isolated and lonely as she strives to adjust to the realities of married life. Woken by intense cold one night, she discovers an old RAF greatcoat hidden in the back of a cupboard. Sleeping under it for warmth, she starts to dream. And not long afterwards, while her husband is out, she is startled by a knock at her window. Outside is a young RAF pilot, waiting to come in. His name is Alec, and his powerful presence both disturbs and excites her. Her initial alarm soon fades, and they begin an intense affair. But nothing has prepared her for the truth about Alec's life, nor the impact it will have on hers...

Reader Reviews

Showing 1-1 out of 1 reviews.

The cover of my edition carries an endorsement from a newspaper review, saying that "Dunmore is a writer of quiet, deadly power". This, I think is what her very different books all have in common, they all carry a powerful punch! I've recently read two of her historical novels which had a wide political and historical focus. The Greatcoat is a short novel, maybe a novella and the focus is narrower but its impact is just as great.It is a cold winter in the early 1950s and newly wed Isabel Carey is living in an East Yorkshire market town with her doctor husband in dark, damp rooms which are crammed with furniture and smell of brussel sprouts! An unpleasant landlady lives above. Dunmore describes perfectly the claustrophobia of Isobel's situation and I felt like I was living through it with her. There is also a back story of a young man who flew a RAF plane in the second world war. When Isobel discovers an old greatcoat and uses it to keep warm, the two worlds start to merge. Dunmore initially brings the 1950s to life and then the memories of those living at this time become increasingly real too.I loved the atmosphere and emotional resonance of this book. If you enjoy atmospheric ghost stories I would recommend this book. If ghost stories aren't usually your sort of thing but you like well written fiction which is good on historical detail, give it a try anyway. Most of all, I recommend it to women who loved books like Charlotte Sometimes, Come Back Lucy and Tom's Midnight Garden when they were girls. I did and this one felt a bit like a grown-up version of those spooky time-slip stories!

4.50 out of 5

Soupdragon

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