REVIEW:

My reading experience with Burntcoat was a little like dining at a Michelin star restaurant when I would have been fine just swinging by a drive-thru. I could appreciate the mastery and craft that went into the product, but man-oh-man… sometimes less is more.

Burntcoat is a literary fiction novel that puts the lit in literary. Written in the second person, it tells the story of English artist Edith as she deals with the long-haul effects of a pandemic virus. It’s not COVID, but it’s like COVID - only worse. Readers are taken from her past to present and back again, as the timeline shifts fluidly in her remembrances.

Speaking of fluids, there are a lot of them. Some from the virus’s ravaging of Edith’s quarantine lover, Halit, and some from Halit’s sexual ravaging of Edith. For someone who is pretty averse to sex scenes, it was too much to take. Again, less is more.

While it seems that Sarah Hall may not be the right writer for this here reader, many other reviewers have praised Burntcoat for its poetic phrasing and metaphorical storytelling. I applaud Hall for her efforts and those other readers for their appreciation, even if the best thing about Burntcoat for me was the absolutely stunning cover. Now that’s lit.

My thanks to the author and Custom House for the advance print copy to review. Burntcoat is now available.

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

An electrifying novel of mortality, passion, and human connection, set against the backdrop of a deadly global virus - from the "astonishing, miraculous" (Daisy Johnson) Man 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" (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.