The Greatcoat: A Ghost Story - Hardcover

Helen Dunmore is the author of eleven novels, including The Betrayal, a New York Times Editors' Choice; The Siege, a national best seller and finalist for the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award; and A Spell of Winter, winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction.

"Written in crisp, enthralling prose . . . The dynamics of Isabel's new marriage are conveyed with subtlety and precision, and 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

"Atmospheric . . . Haunting . . . Dunmore's eerie evocation of post-WWII Britian provides the perfect framework for this nifty little ghost story." Booklist

"The Greatcoat is spooky." The Daily Best (Hot Reads)

Conveys a shivery menace . . . This is the most elegant flesh-creeper since Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black.” The Times (UK)

Dunmore has a sharp eye, and a fine pen, for the hairline cracks in a new marriage, for what is not said as passion begins to dwindle.” The Guardian

"A taut, elegantly written ghost story . . . Dunmore is on fine form here, wielding her skill at bringing history to life in the small, dismal details of the post-war period, and showing off her talents as a poet in her mesmerising depiction of a possession. . . . Spines are delicately, deliciously chilled when she reveals just who is doing the possessing ghost stories don’t have to be long or gruesome, to be thoroughly scary." The Sunday Times (UK)

A powerful evocation of the period and of the tricks the mind can play on itself, [The Greatcoat’s] unadorned prose builds a chilling effect reminiscent of The Turn of the Screw.” Prospect (UK)

Dunmore achieves a delicate balance . . . in this beautifully written tale.” The Scotsman

Haunting and exquisitely crafted.” Glamour

Dunmore writes with passion and precision . . . The Greatcoat is a charming character study, a poignant romance, and a fascinating period piece.” The Daily Mail

A deceptively slight tale that catches the reader off guard, revealing the slipperiness of reality . . . The Greatcoat is a gentle tale as war stories go but exposes, all the more searingly for that, the corrosive half-life that lingers on in homes and hearts long after hostilities have ceased.” The Sunday Herald