Coventry [Hardcover]

Helen Humphreys (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 25, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0002007266 | ISBN-13: 978-0002007269 | Edition: 1st Printing

“Elegant . . . illuminates the impact of war on ordinary people . . . an elegy and a celebration.”—Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle

On the evening of November 14, 1940, Harriet Marsh stands on the roof of the historic Coventry cathedral and marvels at the frost glittering beneath a full moon. But it is a bomber’s moon, and the Luftwaffe is coming to unleash destruction on the city. For Harriet; for the young fire watcher, Jeremy, standing beside her; and for his artist mother, Maeve, hiding in a cellar, this single night of horror will resonate for the rest of their lives. Coventry is a testament to the power of the human spirit, an honest and ultimately uplifting account of heartache transformed into compassion and love.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From 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. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“Packs a tremendous emotional punch . . . adeptly depicts how the random intersection of lives can impact destiny.” (Booklist )

“Starred Review. With stark, precise poetry, Humphreys builds a palpable, almost unbearable sense of inevitability and loss that echoes both Jon Hersey’s Hiroshima and Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach.” (Kirkus Reviews ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 177 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins Canada; 1st Printing edition (August 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0002007266
• ISBN-13: 978-0002007269
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,720,701 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Packs a Powerful Emotional Punch, February 17, 2010

By 

Stephanie DePue (Carolina Beach, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Coventry: A Novel (Hardcover)

"Coventry" is a poetic novel that revisits one of the most significant events of World War II; the night of November 14, 1940, when German planes bombed and smashed the British industrial midlands city of Coventry to a moonscape, causing great civilian casualties, and destroying, among other important buildings, its famous medieval cathedral, at the heart of the city, of which it had been so proud. This bombing, amply covered in the media of the time, set off strong shock waves in America, as well as other countries, and certainly helped encourage the United States to follow Great Britain into war with Germany and the other Axis powers. It was also thought for many years that this bombing, and the carpet bombing of London, enraged the famous, widely esteemed British Prime Minister at the time, Winston Churchill, so greatly that he forgot his wiser bombing strategy of going for German industrial sites in favor of inflicting more civilian damage in revenge. However, as British World War II files have been opened to historians, it has been shown that Churchill changed his bombing strategy more to infuriate the Germans, and actually to motivate them to inflict more civilian damage, in order to distract them from his nascent, critically important radar network, without which the war could not be won. See:British Strategic Bombing Policy Through 1940: Politics Attitudes and the Formation of a Lasting Pattern (Studies in British History, Vol 12).

At any rate, Helen Humphreys, the author of this book, does not touch upon this question of British air strategy, though she has evidently done a great deal of research on the subject of the bombing. She presents us a block by block, burnt to death bird by bird, terrified horse by terrified horse, vivid picture of the overwhelming night in question. She tells her story through two women, Harriet Marsh, widowed as a young bride by World War I, and Maeve Fisher, an artist, mother of the young man Jeremy, who is a fire watcher on the roof of the cathedral, with Harriet. Humphreys is author ofThe Lost Garden, which "The Boston Globe" called a "stunningly beautiful little gem;" two New York Times Notable Books: Leaving Earth: A Novel, winner of the Toronto Book Award, and Afterimage, winner of the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. She lives in Kingston, Ontario.

It's not for the squeamish, but neither was the event. It packs a powerful emotional punch as it shows us these women, and this city, rebuilding their lives, and the rise of the new, modern Coventry Cathedral.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Book Review: Coventry, June 24, 2009

By 

A Novel Menagerie (Huntington Beach) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Coventry: A Novel (Hardcover)

The Review

This novel, which reads as quickly as a novella, spans the lifetimes of Harriet, Jeremy and Maeve and yet primarily occurs over the course of a bombing raid that fell upon them overnight. In reading the story of the bombing of Coventry on November 14, 1940, I felt saddened as I watched a city be shamelessly destroyed and lives pitifully wasted in the name of "war." I viewed the bombings through the eyes of these characters and shook my head in disgust for what happened in our not-so-distant past.

As horses ran free and buildings turned to ash, these characters made life-or-death decisions not evening knowing if those decisions would keep them safe from the bombs. That kind of fear I cannot even begin to imagine. How do you know if you stay.. and, if so, where?.. or to exile... and, if so, to where? Viewing this story from there eyes was unsettling, to say the least.

In the aftermath of that fateful night, the reader accompanies both Harriet and Maeve as they assess their immediate losses in the wake of this WWII destruction and recall the great tragedies suffered at the hands of WWI. Much of their lives and loves were lost to the senseless acts of war. It makes me ponder such great loss... the loss of your lover or your child... how do you recover, if ever?

The most memorable quote of this book for me came in the form of a poem:

"For hours, for no reason that I could imagine, I drew black swans. Hunched over a piece of cardboard on the floor of the hotel room, the coal softened to dust on this surface beneath me.

What I wanted was the simple pleasure of seeing you again. But you didn't come, couldn't come. I don't know how to make you return to me.

But I did come to know the black swan. I knew the long snake flex of its neck, knew the shape of the body was a leaf, a wing, an open hand, the human heart. I fastened these images to paper, called them swan. And then I rose, black dust dripping from my hands, my arms spread to the empty sky, as I walked out through broken sheets feathered with shadow-darkness lifting me home."

There is another fantastic review of this book at Anna's website... one of MY PERSONAL FAVORITES... Diary of an Eccentric.

On Sher's "Out of Ten Scale:"

This book was a difficult story to absorb, yet very beautifully written. The story is thought provoking and shadowed with sadness. But, like other good historical fiction that I've read, I learned something from reading this book and I'm glad that I ventured to read this story. For the genre Fiction:Historical, I am going to rate this book a 8.5 OUT OF 10.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Coventry, January 8, 2011

By 

Sharon - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Coventry: A Novel (Hardcover)

My mother grew up in Coventry. At the Cathedral Convent School. This book was like listening to my mom and my aunt talking about when they were young. It was a novel so it had some extra story (the 'romance') but I could see the streets, feel the bombs and the fires because we had so many stories about Coventry when we were little. I brought copies for my brothers and sisters and asked that their children read the book too!! Thank you for reminding me of what heroes I grew up with.