- Hardcover: 265 pages
- Publisher: Holt Rinehart & Winston; 1 edition (Sep 1983)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0030632579
- ISBN-13: 978-0030632570
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 16 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 61,805 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Synopsis
After Marie Davenport's husband is killed in a tragic motorboat accident, his body mysteriously disappears from the morgue.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Back Cover
On holiday in the south of France, Dr Alex Davenport is caught up in a fatal accident at sea. His wife, Marie, suddenly finds herself in the bitterly ironic position of a woman who has lost the husband she had been planning to leave for another man – she had just been waiting for the right time to tell him. A day later, however, she is summoned to the hospital to be told hat his body has disappeared from the morgue. Returning in confusion to the hotel, she then discovers that his clothes, passport and plane ticket have also gone …
Moving from the Riviera to the coast of California, 'Cold Heaven' is a compulsive and hypnotic tale of the bizarre, the inexplicable, the supernatural and the eccentricities of everyday life.
“A master of narrative … deeply compelling … classic Moore.”
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
“Striking and strange, 'Cold Heaven' is told with the panicky sense of urgency at which Moore excels.”
OBSERVER
“A brilliant novel.”
IRISH PRESS
“'Cold Heaven' is extraordinary … such an absorbing story that we take the miraculous in our stride.”
DAILY TELEGRAPH
'No Other Life, The Colour of Blood, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne' and many other novels by Brian Moore are available in Flamingo.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An intriguing, concise and brilliant novel - exploring belief, unbelief and paranoia. Marie is on a post-conference jaunt with her pathologist husband, Alex, planning to tell him that she is leaving him for Daniel, also a doctor, when Alex is hit by a speedboat in an accident while swimming and is taken to a French hospital where he is pronounced dead. But Alex is not dead. The blow to his head has induced symptoms which slow his heart down so radically that he can relapse and seem dead, even though he is not. He walks out of the hospital (dressed in doctor's scrubs) and leaves France without telling his wife. It is possible that he has forgotten her altogether at this point, since his memory is faulty. However, Marie tracks him down to their apartment in New York and there follows something of an adventure as he relapses and recovers in various states and in various cities. They end up in Carmel, California, where a year ago Marie had a strange religious experience - even though she is profoundly anti-religious. She becomes convinced that she is being persecuted and that, somehow, her husband's recovery depends on her actions in relation to the religious experience. This scenario is delicately enhanced and worked through to a satisfactory ending.
Brian Moore is one of the best novelists working in the form - each of his books has a depth and intelligence beyond many of the writers of today. His prose is plain and yet subtle, bringing characters to life with just a few words of dialogue. His creativity is ingenious as he tussles with some of the concepts - religious belief and non-belief in this novel - that would defeat other writers. Human beings are strange creatures and there is no one better than Moore when it comes to explaining why they do the wrong thing or the right thing (or indeed anything!), and why it is sometimes arbitrary that they have self-knowledge or even a half-understanding of some of their own actions, thoughts and feelings.
Brian Moore is one of the best novelists working in the form - each of his books has a depth and intelligence beyond many of the writers of today. His prose is plain and yet subtle, bringing characters to life with just a few words of dialogue. His creativity is ingenious as he tussles with some of the concepts - religious belief and non-belief in this novel - that would defeat other writers. Human beings are strange creatures and there is no one better than Moore when it comes to explaining why they do the wrong thing or the right thing (or indeed anything!), and why it is sometimes arbitrary that they have self-knowledge or even a half-understanding of some of their own actions, thoughts and feelings.
Format:Paperback
I was disappointed by this book. The initial urgency and tension were slowly suffocated by monotony. He didn't seem to go anywhere with his ideas and ultimately I felt I didn't understand the main character or what her thought processes were. By the end of the story she seemed illogical and two dimentional - along with the rest of the characters!! I SO wanted a good ending to a good start, but was left very disappointed.
Nini
Nini
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
15 reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Fascinating, absorbing, perfectly-crafted thriller
18 July 1997
Format:Paperback
Having read many recently published books and not found many that I would give a rave review, I asked myself what book WOULD I rave about and thought about "Cold Heaven", which I read several years ago yet remember as vividly as if it were yesterday. The novel pulled me in with its unique, "Twilight Zone" plot, then deftly introduced other themes on the nature of love, sanity, spirituality and Catholicism. It is truly a gripping, haunting book, and a good introduction to Moore, who has written several other superb novels--although none, in my opinion, as memorable as this. One final note: avoid at all costs the film based on the book, a botched job if there ever was one
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Mostly Succeeds
14 July 2001
Format:Paperback
This is the second Brian Moore novel I've read and if there is a pattern emerging it is that his books are intensely readable. I defy you to read the first ten pages of this book and try to set it down. It isn't going to happen. That said, though, the book does not completely succeed from an artistic standpoint.
The story starts off as a simple mystery. An American woman is vacationing in France with her husband. She wants to separate from him and is indeed planning to announce this to him when he is involved in a boating accident and killed. The following day, she returns to the hospital to which he was taken, and is told that his body has disappeared.
Pretty gripping, admittedly, and sure enough, the reader finds himself happily engaged in discovering what this mystery is all about. But very quickly, we sense something unusual about this woman. Her thoughts and actions do not seem normal; in fact, they become somewhat bizarre. It is then that we learn that there is something else going on here; something much larger than the mystery at hand. We realize that the husband's disappearance is only a minor element of this other aspect.
I cannot reveal what it is; it would ruin the experience of the earlier mystery. Let me just say that there is a supernatural element which leads to a thought-provoking theme: what is it that we want from this life? Salvation? Freedom? Privacy? It would appear that not all of us are involved in a lifelong, soul-searching quest for enlightenment, even when it is handed to us on a silver platter. And that this is not necessarily a bad thing.
My complaint with the novel lies in the fact that not all the pieces fit together. There are several threads which are begun and left in the air and one gets the disturbing sense that this was deliberate. They are red herrings meant to deceive us. What were the husband's notes, for example? Much time is spent in showing us his writing them and her searching for them. And then they are never mentioned again. What was that about? And the fat man with the dogs. He appears out of nowhere, seems to have a malevolent presence at several significant events, then vanishes. Why is he even there? Of course, the entire beginning subplot steers us in the wrong direction to begin with.
Clearly, these things are intentional, and I'm not sure why. Leading the reader into blind alleys does not advance the novel thematically or in any other way. But it is nevertheless an enjoyable book, and will inspire at least a little thoughtful introspection on the part of the reader.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
The most interesting book about Catholicism I've ever read
22 April 2000
Format:Paperback
Moore asks, how we would we react, today, to a religious vision? I'd run like hell, and so does the heroine. All of Moore's books are fascinating, but I think this is his best. And the ending is perfect. (By the way, the movie was dreadful.)
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