Coventry
A Novel
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3.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A stunning novel of love, loss and redemption, Coventry was published to rave reviews and became an instant bestseller in 2008. The Gazette (Montreal) called it “a small gem. . . . A beautifully sculpted, meticulously researched work.” The novel opens on the fateful evening of November 14, 1940, when from her post as a firewatcher on the roof of Coventry Cathedral, Harriet watches the waves of German bombers approach. As the city is consumed by firestorms, Harriet flees alongside a young firewatcher named Jeremy, in search of safety and Jeremy’s mother, Maeve. But Maeve has escaped to the countryside, and when she and Harriet finally unite, it is Jeremy they hope to find alive. Coventry captures the unspeakable pain of loss and the ways in which we remember those we love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Humphreys's lethargic latest depicts the intertwining lives of two British women during the world wars. Harriet and Maeve meet on the streets of Coventry, England, in 1914. Both are of troubled mind: Harriet's husband has just left for the battlegrounds of France, and Maeve can't shake a deep sense of loneliness. The women share laughs on a bus ride, but afterwards their lives continue on different paths. Harriet's husband, Owen, goes missing (and is presumed killed) in action, and Harriet spends the next two decades mourning his loss. Maeve becomes pregnant out of wedlock and works a string of odd jobs to raise her son, Jeremy. In the chaos of the German bombing of Coventry in 1940, Harriet befriends Jeremy, who, at 22, stirs intense memories of Owen. Together, they search the town for Jeremy's mother and forge an intense bond. Humphreys's characters are given to poetic tendencies that occasionally yield interesting insights on the nature of loss and change, though the cast tends toward the indistinct and the narrative feels too in service of the historical record.
