An unsettling read: A Cupboard Full of Coats

What can I say about a book that made me want to give the writer a long, hearty, hug? Yvvette Edwards, in this debut novel, makes such a powerful statement about abuse and love, desire and forgiveness. She makes you sit up and pay attention. Woman, you are so cool.

The book was long-listed for the Booker in 2011 and other than being a thumping good read, is a critical voicing of issues that are often only whispered about. It tells the story of Jinx, a Caribbean-origin, British girl, brought up by her widowed mother, the lovely and luminous Joy. The narrative begins 14 years after the violent murder of Joy by her abusive boyfriend. It works around a series of relationships and traces patterns of love, dependence, and almost debilitating desire.

It is incredible how Edwards is able to detail a history of abuse through the evocation of the simplest images. She cajoles her characters into remembering and narrating, thereby expiating themselves of the guilt each of them seems to have been carrying for years on end. Hers is a nuanced exploration of the burdens of motherhood, of the secret, keen pleasure of desiring someone completely "wrong", of being utterly selfish in love. How then, can you not fall in love with the book? It has a searing honesty that is impossible to ignore or to devalue.

A Cupboard Full of Coats might not be the most well-written book of the year. It sure is the most powerful.