By the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lie. Forbidden love, intimate betrayal and the devastating power of exposure drive Helen Dunmore's remarkable new novel.
Helen Dunmore was an award-winning novelist, children's author and poet who will be remembered for the depth and breadth of her fiction. Rich and intricate, yet narrated with a deceptive simplicity that made all of her work accessible and heartfelt, her writing stood out for the fluidity and lyricism of her prose, and her extraordinary ability to capture the presence of the past. Her first novel, Zennor in Darkness, explored the events which led D. H. Lawrence to be expelled from Cornwall on suspicion of spying, and won the McKitterick Prize. Her third novel, A Spell of Winter, won the inaugural Orange Prize for Fiction in 1996, and she went on to become a Sunday Times bestseller with The Siege, which was described by Antony Beevor as a 'world-class novel' and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel of the Year and the Orange Prize. Published in 2010, her eleventh novel, The Betrayal, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize, and The Lie in 2014 was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the 2015 RSL Ondaatje Prize. Her final novel, Birdcage Walk, deals with legacy and recognition - what writers, especially women writers, can expect to leave behind them - and was described by the Observer as 'the finest novel Helen Dunmore has written'. Helen was known to be an inspirational and generous author, championing emerging voices and other established authors. She also gave a large amount of her time to supporting literature, independent bookshops all over the UK, and arts organisations across the world. She died in June 2017.
Helen Dunmore delivers a deceptively simple masterpiece, a new take
on the lives of the men and –particularly – the women caught up in
the cold war … Exposure is magnificent
*Independent on Sunday*
Dunmore packs an impressive amount on to a compact canvas. Full of
convincing detail, the novel is as much about sexuality in the age
of the Chatterley ban as about Whitehall skulduggery … A dramatic
mix of domesticity and derring-do … Like many of the best spy
novels, Exposure sets out to unsettle Britain’s view of itself.
*Sunday Telegraph*
Under its smooth, naturalistic surfaces, Exposure has a tightly
wrought plot gripping as any thriller. But it is the union of this
plot with complex, challenging characters that makes the book such
a surprising and fulfilling read…will haunt you for months, if not
years.
*Guardian*
It is an intriguing set-up, and with Dunmore at its helm this tale
of divided loyalties never lets up for a minute … Dunmore is such a
class act … she sticks to the human essentials of her story, does
not over-complicate things, and comes up trumps yet again.
*Mail on Sunday*
Hers are expert hands at turning 20th-century history into gripping
fiction.
*The Times*
Exposure succeeds as a Cold War thriller as well as a psychological
drama. It deals with some lurid events, but evokes the texture of
time … It offers in fact what Dunmore does best: a story of
“desperate urgency, cloaked in the everyday”
*Sunday Times*
One of our most outstanding writers, Helen Dunmore has drawn
inspiration from the classic spy novel for her latest book ...
While it has all the thrill and menace of a John Le Carré novel,
Dunmore is more interested in the personal ... An atmospheric read
full of vivid characters – if you only buy one book this month make
it this one.
*Good Housekeeping, Book of the Month*
The danger with ‘literary thrillers’ is simple: the more literary a
story is, the less thrilling it can be. There’s a balance to be
found, and Dunmore expertly weights both sides. She revels in
layers of concealment. Beautiful poetic phrases, quite startling at
times, enliven the eye and the mind.
*Spectator*
Helen Dunmore's subtle tale of espionage and fear has a
refreshingly human scale… It is, in many ways, a romance where
salvation comes through a late, unexpected and generous act of
love.
*Independent*
Dunmore’s treatment is distinctive. Her work as both a poet and a
novelist, is characterised by its rich sensuality and the stark
emotional truths at its core. This sensibility, along with the
small domestic and personal details at which she excels, transcend
genre…
*Financial Times*
Exposure is the sort of winter read you hanker for…the period is so
meticulously re-created that you almost hear the hiss of the gas
streetlamps
*The Times*
An intricately observed and emotionally powerful Cold War thriller
that combines subtlety and complexity to create a deeply satisfying
and moving book
*Sunday Express, S Magazine*
Dunmore is one of our best modern historical novelists and fans of
her previous books will be eagerly awaiting this new one. [Exposure
is] set during the Cold War and follows a woman determined to
protect her family against the odds.
*Metro*
Dunmore is a very astute and skilful novelist… Exposure is as good
as anything she has written; and that’s very good indeed
*The Scotsman*
A novel about belonging, loneliness, love and the idea of home....
Exposure is a fine addition to the shelves of cold war
literature
*Observer*
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