The Girl in the Red Coat
Kate Hamer, 2016
Melville House
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781612195001
Summary
Newly single mom Beth has one constant, gnawing worry: that her dreamy eight-year-old daughter, Carmel, who has a tendency to wander off, will one day go missing.
And then one day, it happens: On a Saturday morning thick with fog, Beth takes Carmel to a local outdoor festival, they get separated in the crowd, and Carmel is gone.
Shattered, Beth sets herself on the grim and lonely mission to find her daughter, keeping on relentlessly even as the authorities tell her that Carmel may be gone for good.
Carmel, meanwhile, is on a strange and harrowing journey of her own—to a totally unexpected place that requires her to live by her wits, while trying desperately to keep in her head, at all times, a vision of her mother …
Alternating between Beth’s story and Carmel’s, and written in gripping prose that won’t let go, The Girl in the Red Coat—like Emma Donoghue’s Room and M. L. Stedman’s The Light Between Oceans—is an utterly immersive story that’s impossible to put down . . . and impossible to forget. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1964-65
• Raised—Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK
• Education—B.A., Manchester University; M.A., Aberystwyth University
• Awards—Rhys Davies Award
• Currently—lives in Cardiff, Wales
Kate Hamer was born in Plymouth, England, but grew up in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Her father was a naval engineer and her mother a public school teacher. When she was 10, the family, including her two older sisters, moved to Wales, where she has spent most of her life and considers home.
Hamer earned her B.A. from Manchester University and pursued a successful 10-year career in television documentaries before turning to fiction. In 2011 she earned her M.A. in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University. While there, she won a prize for the best beginning of a novel—a piece what would turn into her first book, The Girl in the Red Coat.
Another of her stories won the Rhys Davies Award in 2011 and was read on BBC Radio 4. She was also awarded a Literature Wales bursary.
Hamer lives in Cardiff with her husband Mark, a gardener. The couple has two grown children. (Adapted from the UK publisher, Faber & Faber.)
Book Reviews
[G]ripping…. What kicks The Girl in the Red Coat out of the loop of familiarity is Ms. Hamer's keen understanding of her two central characters: Carmel and her devastated mother, Beth, who narrate alternating chapters…. Both emerge as individuals depicted with sympathy but also with unsparing emotional precision…. By cutting back and forth between Carmel and Beth's perspective, Ms. Hamer not only builds suspense but delineates the complicated bonds of love, dependency and resentment that bind mother and daughter. Their separation underscores their need for each other, while muffling memories of their sometimes tense, even testy relationship.
Michiko Kakutani - New York Times
Hamer’s book is a moving, voice-driven narrative. As much an examination of loss and anxiety as it is a gripping page-turner, it’ll appeal to anyone captivated by child narrators or analyses of the pains and joys of motherhood.
Huffington Post
(Starred review.) Hamer's spectacular debut skillfully chronicles the nightmare of child abduction. Telling the story in two remarkable voices...the author weaves a page-turning narrative....[which is] believable and nuanced, resulting in a morally complex, haunting read.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Reading this novel is a test of how fast you can turn pages. Hamer...is a natural storyteller who writes with such a sense of drama, compulsion, and sympathy that most readers will devour this work. —Lisa Rohrbaugh, Leetonia Community P.L., OH
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Hamer’s lush use of language easily conjures fairy-tale imagery.... Although a kidnapped child is the central plot point, this is not a mystery but a novel of deep inquiry and intense emotions. Hamer’s dark tale of the lost and found is nearly impossible to put down.
Booklist
[P]oignantly details the loss and loneliness of a mother and daughter separated.... Hamer beautifully renders pain, exactly capturing the evisceration of loss, but she just falls short with the overall cohesion of the story. Exquisite prose..., but the book could have used more attention to less detail.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. In the beginning of the novel, Beth briefly loses Carmel in a maze. What is the significance of this moment? How did it influence your reaction to the scenes at the festival?
2. Beth tells Carmel that, regardless of what happens, Carmel must stay uniquely "Carmel" inside. Are names an important aspect of this story? Can you think of any examples where names play a significant role in the text?
3. Families, or, more importantly, family difficulties, are central to The Girl in the Red Coat. What are the various family dynamics at work? Where are there parallels and where are there inconsistencies?
4. Discuss Beth and her ex-husband’s shifting relationship. Consider how it is strengthened and changed by Carmel’s disappearance. As Beth says, "we were brother and sister united in this strange bond."
5. Early in the book, Carmel’s teacher, Mrs. Buckfast, refers to Beth as "yet another single mother." Think about the friendships Beth has with her female friends and how they support and teach each other. Are those relationships surprising in any way? How do they evolve?
6. Fairy tales play an important role throughout The Girl in the Red Coat. Discuss the fairy tale imagery (the woods, the significance of Carmel’s red coat) and how it elevates the novel into the realm of the supernatural. Did this affect your reading of the story?
7. How does Beth handle the loss of her daughter over the course of the novel? Did you notice examples of "tiny actions" that helped her cope? How do those actions compare to the more major developments in Carmel’s disappearance?
8. Gramps believes Carmel possesses a divine gift. Do you see evidence of this gift throughout the text? Are you convinced by it? Look closely at pages 225–227.
9. Gramps and Dorothy tell Carmel a number of lies in order to keep her with them. These lies escalate as Carmel becomes more and more suspicious. What are some of these lies and how do they affect Carmel? Is there one that feels like the breaking point, or is it more a matter of accumulation?
10. The word "courage" is a refrain throughout the novel. Discuss the ways in which the book’s protagonists—Carmel and Beth—display courage. How do those demonstrations compare to the "courage" we see in Gramps, Dorothy, and Paul?
11. Beth says she feels "better in an environment that says: "normality is paper thin." How does the world move on as Beth struggles with her grief? Did you notice historical or cultural clues that gave you a sense of when the narrative takes place? Did it matter? Look closely at pg. 247.
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
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