Burntcoat: A Novel

Written by Sarah Hall

Narrated by Louise Brealey

A NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE NOMINEE

""An extraordinary work that will stand as blazing witness to the age that bore it.” -- Sarah Perry

A ""masterpiece"" (Daisy Johnson) of mortality, passion, and human connection, set against the backdrop of a deadly global virus—from the Booker–nominated writer

You were the last one here, before I closed the door of Burntcoat. Before we all closed our doors . . .

In an unnamed British city, the virus is spreading, and like everyone else, the celebrated sculptor Edith Harkness retreats inside. She isolates herself in her immense studio, Burntcoat, with Halit, the lover she barely knows. As life outside changes irreparably, inside Burntcoat, Edith and Halit find themselves changed as well: by the histories and responsibilities each carries and bears, by the fears and dangers of the world outside, and by the progressions of their new relationship. And Burntcoat will be transformed, too, into a new and feverish world, a place in which Edith comes to an understanding of how we survive the impossible—and what is left after we have.

A sharp and stunning novel of art and ambition, mortality and connection, Burntcoat is a major work from “one of our most influential short story writers” (The Guardian). It is an intimate and vital examination of how and why we create—make art, form relationships, build a life—and an urgent exploration of an unprecedented crisis, the repercussions of which are still years in the learning.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Nov 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9780063138056

Sarah Hall

Sarah Hall was born in Cumbria. She is the prizewinning author of six novels and three short story collections. She is a recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters E. M. Forster Award, Edge Hill Short Story Prize, among others, and the only person ever to win the BBC National Short Story Award twice. 

Reviews for Burntcoat

[castlelass · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Protagonist Edith Harkness is a fifty-something sculptor living in England. She is looking back twenty years to a period of a virulent global pandemic. The titular Burntcoat is the name of Edith’s studio and home. Edith speaks of relationships, her mother’s disability, and the impact of the disease on the people close to her.

I like the concept of this novel, and the parts on art and the process of making art. The segment on burnt wood is fascinating. The mother-daughter relationship is complex, and for me, the only true storyline. I think the take on rampant disease is something we can all relate to after going through COVID-19.

However, this book contains way too much explicit sex for my taste. The disease includes bodily excretions that are described in excruciating detail. The prose is elegant when not describing sex or disease. I got the impression that the book is supposed to be structured in an abstract way, similar to the artwork Edith creates. The unfortunate side-effect it that it is a bit chaotic. I found it a relevant but somewhat unpleasant read.

“I’m the wood in the fire. I’ve experienced, altered in nature. I am burnt, damaged, more resilient. A life is a bead of water on the black surface, so frail, so strong, its world incredibly held.”

[dreesie-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A post-apocalyptic-ish pandemic novel that is way more of a (not-happy-ending) romance than I personally had any interest in.There are a lot of things going on here in just 300 pages: Esther's childhood with her ill mother; her father's abandonment of them and move to Canada; her mother's career; Halit's immigration and business; Esther and Halit's relationship; Esther's career as an artist' Nova (the virus) and their illnesses; the after. It all felt choppy; a different organization and some cutting could have done wonders for this.

[elkiedee · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a short, intense novel. Edith looks back on her life, including growing up with her mother, who nearly died when Eidth was a child but recovered enough to keep her daughter with her after her husband leaves. Edith eventually built her own life fas an artist.Central to her story is a love affair with Halit, a man who has settled here after being forced into exile. But the lovers haven't been together long at the start of a pandemic, and a society hit by crisis, fear and food shortages, and xenophobia.I think this novel will be one of the best books I've read this year, but it isn't always easy reading, with very explicit descriptions of sex and illness. Edith is looking back several decades later, and Sarah Hall in this story imagines a situation in which things got much, much worse, though eventually there was some return to a new normal. This may be a book that people should read, if they want to, in a time and place when they are ready for it.

[janerawoof · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Burntcoat is the studio of the main character, Edith, a sculptress in a technique she learned in Japan. Although writing was beautiful, the novel as a whole was depressing. First, after a car accident, her now-brain-injured mother dies. Then a pandemic forces Edith and her Turkish lover into lockdown. He dies after contracting the disease, and then, she contracts it herself. Waiting for death, she reminisces on her life: the main thrust of the book. There was too much graphic sex for my taste and too much mention of bodily fluids, which I tried to ignore.

[muddyboy · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

For me to like a novel I either have to like a character or two or there has to be a very "good" villain. There is nothing here. These characters are so bland that they do not move me at all. I don't care if they live or die. The main character is an "artist" who builds (not her) large sculptures. She has two uninspiring love interests and there is her mother. The plot does involve a pandemic but even that is generic. The cover says Hall was nominated twice for the Booker Prize. Really? This is artsy fartsy with little substance.