Product Description

It is May 1917: war overshadows the haunting beauty of spring in Zennor. As U-boats nose the Cornish coastline, the village is alive with talk of spies. It is a world of call-up and telegrams, secrets and suspicion, and no one is immune. Not D. H. Lawrence and his German wife Frieda, who have retreated from London to a cottage in Zennor. Not Clare Coyne, a young girl who comes under the influence of the Lawrences, nor her beloved cousin John William, who is home on leave from the trenches, shell-shocked. "A beautiful and inspired novel" - John Le Carre.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #309861 in Books
• Published on: 1994-02-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

About the Author
Helen Dunmore is an award winning poet and novelist, children's novelist and short-story writer. BURNING BRIGHT (1994); A SPELL OF WINTER (winner of the Orange Prize 1995); TALKING TO THE DEAD (1996); LOVE OF FAT MEN (1997) are all published by Viking. She lives in Bristol with her husband and children.

Customer Reviews

Haunting and breath-taking
Helen Dunmore's first novel may be overlooked by the more commercial success of "The Siege" and "Talking to the Dead" but it is an outstanding work in its own right.

Set during the outbreak of WW1 it mixes fact (D H Lawrence comes to Cornwall where he is accused of being a spy) with fiction (a young girl's brief love affair with her cousin and its aftermath) in a tangible and totally believable blend. From the outset these are not dim, dusty, historical stereotypes: these are real people, of flesh and bone, and you come to care for them. Dunmore is one of the few writers who can evoke characters from the past and make them as real as your next door neighbour or the girl down the street. It is this talent which has created a wonderful heart-piercing story. Her talent for constructing situations and places is also spot-on; you can almost smell the sea-salt and feel the spray on your face during beach scenes.

I am loathe to say anything more and ruin the book for you. So read it yourself and revel in it.

Zennor in Darkness by Helen Dunmore
This book was recommended to me by a good friend. I was quite disappointed by it. Though the story is well written and the scene beautifully set, I felt that I was treading water and that nothing much happened. I was left with unanswered questions regarding the characters and a feeling that I could have spent my time doing something else instead.

Capturing the times
I highly rate Helen Dunmore's first novel. She captures the spirit of the times and cleverly uses the true story of DHL and wife Frieda's experience of living in Cornwall during WW1 which resulted in their eventual exile owing to Frieda's German origins. I really felt the injustice as they struggled to withstand the bigotry and lies. The novel gives a precious insight to their suffering which is also strongly reflected in the sad experiences of local girl Clare and her widowed father. As the characters connect with each other, I loved the way the cornish scenery was described so vividly that it fully immersed me in the sense of the place and what it was like to live there. Helen Dunmore has a remarkable ability (like DHL) to bring you close to the characters and helps you to feel the desperate nature of their lives during wartime - not even Cornwall escapes war's devastating consequences.

Read it!