The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore

Dunmore has a fascinating style. She writes quite obliquely and doesn’t over-explain. The reader has to let the story wash over them, confident that the meaning will evolve. It’s an act of faith.

Set in the fifties this is a story of a young woman’s possession by a World War Two airman, although Dunmore doesn’t let her tale take obvious routes or arrive at an expected outcome. Although this is her first published ghost story she has an innate understanding of what the story needs in order to work. She has a poet’s sensibility and her writing has a meticulous structure as the reader begins to question reality and the influence that the past exerts on the present.

Dunmore makes a conscious authorial decision that her protagonist won’t be frightened by the airman, despite his provenance, which doesn’t quite ring true. Her acceptance of him into her life and her bed is the one area that jarred slightly, although this didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the book.

Beautifully constructed and elegantly delivered this short novella will resonate with you long after you close the final pages.