With grateful thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the review copy.
Helen Dunmore is one of today’s writers that I know I like – and yet oddly enough I haven’t read all her books – yet. Exposure her latest novel is actually due out the week after next and was made available to many readers via Netgalley. I decided to get stuck in to Exposure fairly immediately – set in the cold war of the 1960’s, its thriller style isn’t my usual bag – but it’s unputdownably compelling. This new novel of love, family secrets and betrayal is likely to be a big hit with Dunmore’s legion of fans.
“It turns out that I knew everything. All the facts were in my head and always had been. I ignored them, because it was easier. I didn’t want to make connections. I’ve begun to understand that I’ve been half-asleep all my life, and now I’m waking up.”
Simon Callington is a fairly unambitious middle ranking admiralty officer. It was Giles Holloway who got Simon the job, Giles a secretive, manipulative hard drinker, who Simon knew at Cambridge. Now, Simon is content enough to remain as he is, his happiness lying in his nice home in Muswell Hill, his wife Lily and their three children.
One night as Simon is comfortably seated by his fire, he gets a panic call from Giles. Giles wants Simon to help clear up a serious mess he has made. There’s a file where it shouldn’t be – secret voices on the end of the phone, a shadowy man who lets himself into Giles’s flat. With Giles out of action, Simon is persuaded to help – against his better judgement. He soon comes to regret his decision, a quick glance at the file in question – and he knows it means trouble.
Simon has his own secrets that risk exposure, a life he lived while at Cambridge his wife knows nothing about. Lily finds the file hidden behind the children’s boots in the cloakroom, and fearing for its discovery – buries it in the garden. Simon is arrested, charged with selling secrets to the Russians, the police search the house before turning on Lily. Wanting to know – does she speak German. The police know all about Lily’s past. Born in Germany she came to England before the war in 1937 with her mother Elsa, and from the moment she set foot on English soil Lili became Lily and spoke only English.
“The house is a ship, riding the waves high above London. This is what Lily always told herself at night, when she’s afraid and the noise of the city becomes forlorn, even terrifying, as if anything might happen.
Lily no longer speaks a word of German, but she still hears the noise of thousands and thousands of throats, open, baying. It’s only the traffic, or the wind.”
Lily works part-time as a French teacher – but the headmistress is looking at her oddly now – and any day Lily knows her job will be gone. With Simon on remand – she can no longer afford to live in their home, she feels the eyes of everyone are on her, wondering, judging. Newspapermen lay siege to the house, calling their questions through the letterbox. The children are frightened. Lily and the children leave London for Kent – here close to the sea they rent a tiny cottage – and Lily takes a house keeping job to an elderly widower, while the children walk home from school and collect sea coal from the beach.
“Suddenly, she is sure beyond doubt that there is someone outside the cottage, watching it, just as there was in London. The walls seem to dissolve and leave her naked. If she looked out she would see them, standing on the lane, turned towards her window. They know she’s here.
There aren’t any neighbours. If anything happened, no one would know until morning. Maybe not even then. It’s too dark for her to look at her watch, and she daren’t switch on the light.”
Lily shows herself to be tough, resourceful; she’ll do whatever it takes to protect her children from the men who want to destroy her family.
The Helen Dunmore novels I remember best are those with a strong sense of place, Talking to the Dead, Zennor in Darkness stand out particularly. Exposure is a brilliantly plotted novel, it’s enormously compelling and I gulped it down. Dunmore builds the tension slowly, the atmosphere of fear and creeping shadows is chillingly well done. I especially loved the section set in Kent – that sense of place I loved so much in those previous novels is strong here too.
Helen Dunmore is an excellent writer, and I really must read those books I have yet to get to – I still have The Lie tbr for a start.
Sounds brilliant — I want to read it! Thanks.
Glad you like the sound of it.
Like you, I thought this was completely gripping. Dunmore’s such a fine writer. I hope this one will be a contender for both the Man Booker and the Baileys.
Yes Dunmore is a very good writer. I expect this will do well.
I’m a fan of Dunmore’s as well and this sounds really good. A bit different from her other novels. I like the way she conveys setting- I loved Zennor in Darkness. It was one of my first Literature and War readalong titles.
Zennor in Darkness is excellent – Dunmore’s settings are wonderful.
Same here, The Lie has been on my list for nearly two years. Exposure was my first read from Dunmore and I liked it.
Oh so glad you enjoyed it too. The Lie looks really interesting.
The Lie is arguably her best one so I feel I ought to read it this year.
I’m a fan too and this sounds brilliant. Thanks for the review.
😊 definitely one you’ll like then.
I keep hearing about Dunmore’s novels, but I have yet to read one. It sounds like I can’t go wrong with most of her books, but do you have any suggestions on where to start?
Zennor in Darkness , The Seige or Talking to the Dead would all be pretty good places to start I think.
Dunmore is one of the writers I discovered through the blogging community, and I am so glad about it. I still have quite a few of Dunmore’s books to read, but so far, The Siege has been my favorite.
I read The Siege so long ago I remember little of the detail now – just that it was good – it was probably my first Dunmore too.
I’ve been reading Helen Dunmore for years, but I was so disappointed in her last book that I passed over this. Clearly I shouldn’t have, and I am so pleased that it sounds like a real return to form.
Oh was The Lie the book which disappointed you? That’s the one I have tbr. Yes this is really very good – Talking to the Dead is probably still my favourite though.
This sounds brilliant! I haven’t come across Dunmore before – a serious omission from the sounds of it.
Oh yes you should look out for her books – she won the Bailey’s Prize when it was the Orange prize.
This is on my list to read as soon as I can get hold of a copy. I first came across Dunmore as a writer of children’s fiction, where she often explores areas which could almost be described as magic realism. I think I prefer her work for adults which is definitely realism with a vengeance. This sounds as if it is Dunmore at her best.
It’s certainly up there – I still have a few to read – hope you can get a copy quickly.
Sounds amazing – and interesting to read a book set in Muswell Hill and Kent, two places I know pretty well!
Ah yes, funnily enough I did think about you when those places came up.
[…] For other views on this novel do take a look at the reviews on Shoshibookblog and HeavenAli. […]