You Came Back: A Novel [Hardcover]

Christopher Coake (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 12, 2012

Thirty-something midwesterner Mark Fife believes he has successfully moved past the accidental death of his young son Brendan, as well as his subsequent divorce from his college sweetheart Chloe. He's successful, he's in love again, and he believes he's mastered his own memories.

But then he is contacted by a strange woman who tells him not only that she owns his old house, but that she believes it to be haunted by Brendan's ghost. Will Mark--who does not believe in ghosts--come to accept the mounting evidence that Brendan's is real? Will his engagement to his new love Allison be threatened by the reappearance in Mark's life of Chloe--who does believe? If the ghost is real, what can these two wounded parents do to help their son?

YOU CAME BACK examines the beauty and danger of belief in all its forms--not only belief in the supernatural, but in the love that binds parents and children, husbands and wives.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"When I finished the last page of Christopher's Coake's amazing new novel, I set the book down with a sense of wonder. There's a ghost in this story, to be sure, but this remarkable author is less concerned with the supernatural than with the all-too-too real specters that haunt us all-the ghosts of our former selves, the ghosts of the lives we might have lived had just a few things turned out differently. YOU CAME BACK will stay with me forever. What an incredible writer." (Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of She's Not There and I'm Looking Through You )

"Sometimes when you're reading these stories, you forget to breathe...They're beautifully written, and they have bottom, but they're never dull and they all contain striking and dramatic narrative ideas." (Praise for We're in Trouble) (Nick Hornby, author of A Long Way Down, in The Believer )

"Uncanny, clear-eyed...[Coake] is wildly engaging as he explores one theme--love in the face of harrowing death (or near-death)--from seemingly every angle. A-." (Praise for We're in Trouble) (Entertainment Weekly )

"In his striking debut collection, Coake considers how character is revealed under pressure...With unadorned but dramatic, economical prose, Coake explores the human capacity for altruism and cowardice in these high-stakes tales." (Praise for We're in Trouble) (Publisher's Weekly )

"Gripping reading from a talented newcomer." (Praise for We're in Trouble) (Booklist )

Ghost stories, more than most other tales, are at heart love stories. At their core is the fact that someone, on this side or the other, just flat out refuses to let go.

In You Came Back, the compelling debut novel by award-winning writer Christopher Coake, there is no shortage of love. There is the love Mark Fife has for his fiancée, Allison. There is his stubborn, somewhat obsessive love for his ex-wife, Chloe, the college sweetheart who left him. And there is the mountain of love he and Chloe both shoulder for their young son, Brendan, whose death in terrifyingly mundane circumstances will send chills down the spine of every parent.

It is seven years after Brendan's death. Mark is 38, no longer drinks and is on the verge of conquering his misgivings and proposing to Allison. Despite occasional nightmares and the feelings for Chloe he sometimes has to push away, he is sure that he will be happy again.

Then he is paid a visit by the woman who lives in the house where he, Chloe and Brendan lived together, and where Brendan died. She tells him that her fourth-grade son has seen Brendan's ghost, and that the ghost has been calling for his daddy. Mark initially wants nothing to do with the woman. But as the boy's story evolves into something more believable, both he and Chloe are drawn in, and toward each other. For Mark, it is heartbreakingly tantalizing: Can he get it back? Have Chloe, the love of his life, and Brendan, whose death he still feels responsible for?

Coake, named by Granta in 2007 as one of the 20 best young American novelists, received the PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship for Writers for his collection of short stories, We're in Trouble. His first novel is a wrenching journey through the human heart. You Came Back isn't a book to start the night before a workday. It reads like a suspense novel and will keep you turning pages longer than is good for you. Afterward, it will leave you lying in bed in the dark, contemplating its surfeit of pain and beauty.

(BookPage (Fiction Top Pick, June 2012) )

About the Author

Christopher Coake is the author of WE'RE IN TROUBLE, which was chosen for the PEN/Bingham Award of 2005. In addition, Coake was among "Granta's Best of Young American Novelists" in 2007. His stories have been published in several literary journals. A native Hoosier, he received his M.F.A. in fiction from Ohio State University. He now lives in Reno, where he teaches creative writing at the University of Nevada.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; 1 edition (June 12, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9781455506705
• ISBN-13: 978-1455506705
• ASIN: 1455506702
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #583,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great literary thriller May 27, 2012

By donostia

Format:Hardcover

I've been looking forward to reading this novel for a while now-- "We're In Trouble" is one of the most memorable story collections I've read in a long time, and I was interested to see how Coake made the transition from short story to novel. And even though "Trouble" is a favorite of mine, after reading "You Came Back" I'm convinced that Coake is even more at home in the long form.
"You Came Back" is about a lot of things. It's a ghost story that's spooky as hell-- unfortunately, the Amazon review simplifies and gives away a bit too much in this regard-- but I'll just say that the supernatural is handled in a way that supports the larger themes of the novel while simultaneously giving the reader the creeps, which is exactly what a good ghost story should do. But this book is also a complicated, nuanced exploration of faith. More specifically, Coake is looking at faith in the past as it fights against a vision of the future.
A previous reviewer noted a frustration with the main character's (Mark Fife) indecisiveness, which i was surprised to read. I found Mark to be a well-drawn character who is regularly making huge decisions, though not always (in fact, very rarely) the right ones. And this is what I loved about this book-- my willingness to go along with Mark, and even sympathize with him, in these moments of decision. I found myself wanting Mark to follow (just as Mark wants to follow) two contradicting and mutually exclusive paths, and I (just like Mark) had no idea how to reconcile them.
Fortunately Coake does know how to reconcile them. The ending may be frustrating to some readers, but I found it to be true to the the complexity of the novel. A well-written, very enjoyable read that will leave you with a lot to think about long after you've read the last page.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Ambivalent September 22, 2012

By cicadanymph

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

So, as my title suggests, I am torn in my feelings in regards to this book. First off- it is not a thriller! The subject matter handled differently definitely could be thriller material but thats not where Coake takes it. There were some brief moments of suspense and maybe one that was ever so slightly spooky but that was not the pervading atmosphere of this book. This book doesn't provoke fear or even suspense so much as sadness. Its a novel about grief and love.

That said, I enjoyed the beginning of the book and the last quarter of the book very much. The middle was really long and a struggle to get through. I found myself so bored becauuse at one point I felt like I was rereading the same scenes over and over. The accident that kills the little boy is described multiple times. The father's guilt is rehashed over and over as were his feelings about the women in his life and his former wife's grief. There were two scenes where the father gets drunk in the house that I had to read about and the same thing bascially happens in both which made the second one boring to read. I think some of this middle could have been edited down. Yes, in real life grief and guilt can be tedious and constant but I don't think they have to be written about that way. I will concede that handling the subject matter this way did perhaps add to the gloomy sense of opression but it made the book less entertaining. I did like that it was difficult to tell in which direction the author was going to take the story and how the relationships were going to play out. I was even more interested to find out who was going to wind up with whom than I was to find out if there was a ghost or not.... I also like that the author gave us a fairly definite answer about the ghost instead of leaving it open to interpretation which in this story I think would have been the easy way out and less satisfying.

My second complaint besides the repetitive nature of the middle of the book was the main character. I just found him really unlikeable. Its not that anything he did was so terrible, I have read plenty of books where the main character is much more flawed and yet found them likeable. I gues this guy just didn't have the spark to make me overlook his bad qualities. He is always talking (whining in my opinion) in the book about how terrible a person he is but he continues to do not very nice things right up to the end which made it all come across as kind of insincere. He reminded me of one of those guys that comes across as a spineless but nice guy at first and present that way until you realize they are really not so nice. The type that lies and then tells you they are sorry and don't deserve you and cry and then lies again the next day....I think Coake tried to make him change for the better at the end but to be honest I didn't see any great change made on his part willingly, the change was sort of forced on him because one of the women cuts him out of her life.

Its a small detail but I liked that in this book the women argue with him the way people often do in real life, including swearing and hanging up on him. Sometimes books with flawed male characters have a tendancy to either make the women perfect victims or demonize them and this book didn't do either. This book felt really true to life, not everything is resolved or happy and the characters didn't all grow or even learn from their mistakes.

I can't say it was an enjoyabe read. At times it was dull and when it wasn't it stirred up emotion and hit on some topics I'm dealing with now so that after I finished it I felt kind of disturbed and depressed but it is a pretty powerful book. Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good story, well read, but weak main character July 29, 2012

By Patrick

Format:Audible Audio Edition

The story is indeed enjoyable, if not somewhat predictable, but I struggled to connect with the main character. He frequently relates that he's struggling to not be a sissy (not the exact word he uses, but you get the meaning), and I found myself agreeing that he is. It's not just a character flaw that creates the central tension, but more often I just found the decisions he made to be annoying and sometimes out of character. Other than that though, it was a good story. I loved the father character and appreciated how he moved the plot forward.

I listened to this as an audiobook, and liked the reader, Scott Holst. He kept a perfect pace, and used subtle differences in his voice to define which character is speaking. One of my pet peeves is audiobooks is "over-acting" rather than just telling the story, which Mr. Holst didn't fall prey to in this reading. I'd listen to other books he reads, without question.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An absolutely brilliant novel about grief and the challenge of getting on with life after a tragedy June 26, 2012

By J. Luiz

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

You Came Back is everything you want a literary novel to be - a great premise that draws you in, fully realized characters that provide a deep insight into what it means to be human, and a writing style that gives you the feeling you're in the hands of a talent that won't let you down. Here Coake explores the ramifications of parents who suffered the loss of a child and had their marriage crumble as a result. The novel picks up seven years later when their lives have started to pick up again, and the husband, Mark Fife, has made a new love and is ready to get married again. All that gets turned upside down, though, when the owner of the house he used to live in - where his son died falling down steps - finds him to tell him that her son has heard a ghost in the house that seems to be Mark's dead son, calling for his father. The novel offers an amazingly gripping exploration of the personal havoc that news brings. Mark resists at first, trying to stay committed to his new love and trying not to be overcome once again by grief and the guilt he still carries for his imagined responsibility in his son's death. Complicating matters further is that his first wife, before grief soured their relationship, was the great love of his life.

As serious as the topic, this is not a depressing story or one overcome with explaining the mechanics of inhabitants of a ghost world. It's all about living a life when your most precious dreams and loved ones have been taken from you. There are surprises along the way, and I wouldn't say anymore to avoid giving anything away, but Mark Fife is one terrific character and I think any reader would enjoy spending 400 pages inside his minds as he struggles with these issues.... I normally enjoy strict realism, and got a little concerned when I heard this was a "ghost" story. But my mind had been opened by reading David Long's brilliant "The Inhabited World." Like that novel, this one is much more about the emotional struggles of living a life full of setbacks and tragedies than it is about ghoulish presences. Coake wrote a brilliant short story collection a few years back and I hope this novel will give him enough success to continue writing plenty more novels and collections. Read more ›