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Burntcoat

£6.495£12.99Clearance
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One thing that really stood out for me was how damage is depicted as leading to strength, as we see with the Shou Sugi Ban art technique she uses, or how her mother becomes a really strong woman after such a catastrophic brain bleed, or how Burntcoat rises like a phoenix from a history of neglect and dilapidation. Just like her narrator Edith, in Burntcoat Sarah Hall has given us a poetic tribute to the all those who have suffered losses during Covid. The Welsh doctor who has cut the bottom off a large water cooler and placed it over his head as a mask– ripples in the plastic amplifying the ripples in his brow; he would be among the first medical staff to die.

Not only is Edith a carrier, she is also finalising a national memorial for the dead, an installation set to endure long after her death. We are figures briefly drawn in space; given temporary form in exchange for consciousness, sense, a chance.The original purpose of Shou Sugi Ban was to weatherproof and preserve the wood, but it has become popular as a design element in the home. I could appreciate the mastery and craft that went into the product, but man-oh-man… sometimes less is more. I recently read Sarah Moss’s “The Fell” and while it does not have anything the artistic ambition or imagination of this novel it was brave enough to actually deal with the real situation we have been living through – and to try to capture the experience of COVID (or more accurately lockdown) at a very specific time and place (England, November 2020 and the unexpected national lockdown).

Burntcoat stands at the edge of the old industrial part of the city, where the riverbank links workers’ cottages, trade buildings and docks. Photograph: Richard Thwaites View image in fullscreen Sarah Hall: ‘alights on the sort of authentic detail that brings a scene alive’. I could have dyed a dozen shades inspired by the imagery in this book but I ended up with these five.Two of Hall's previous novels have been Booker longlisted, and this feels an early contender for the 2022 Prize. Unfortunately, due to prohibitive packaging rules/costs we do not curently dispatch to France or Spain. Burntcoast it is extraordinary, proving once again (to quote the first line) that “those who tell stories survive. The novel is presented in sections, almost like a series of extended vignettes, a structure that gives it a wonderful sense of fluidity as we move backwards and forwards in time, alighting on various elements of Edith’s richly-textured life.

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