Burntcoat cover art

Burntcoat

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Burntcoat

By: Sarah Hall
Narrated by: Louise Brealey
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £18.99

Buy Now for £18.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

An electrifying story of passion, connection and transformation from 'a writer of show-stopping genius' ( Guardian).

'Dark and brilliant.' SARAH MOSS
'A masterpience.' DAISY JOHNSON
'Extraordinary.' SARAH PERRY

'Hall has set a bar . . . Finely wrought, intellecutally brave and emotionally honest.'
THE SCOTSMAN

In the bedroom above her immense studio at Burntcoat, the celebrated sculptor Edith Harkness is making her final preparations. The symptoms are well known: her life will draw to an end in the coming days.

Downstairs, the studio is a crucible glowing with memories and desire. It was here, when the first lockdown came, that she brought Halit. The lover she barely knew. A presence from another culture. A doorway into a new and feverish world.

'Sarah Hall makes language shimmer and burn . . . One of the finest writers at work today.'
DAMON GALGUT

'Wonderful . . . The writing goes down smoking hot onto the page.'
ANDREW MILLER

'I can think of no other British writer whose talent so consistently thrills, surprises and staggers . . . With Burntcoat she has solidified her status as the literary shining light we lesser souls aspire to.'
BENJAMIN MYERS

©2021 Sarah Hall (P)2021 Faber & Faber Contemporary Contemporary Romance Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Romance

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Electric Michelangelo cover art
The Eye of the Beholder cover art
Granta cover art
Here Comes the Miracle cover art
The House by the Sea cover art
The Missing cover art
All stars
Most relevant
Beautifully written & narrated .. very powerful narrative & harrowing descriptions.. sad yet moving, a book for our times

Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved the narration. The book felt very raw and real, will seek out more by Sarah Hall.

Bleak and beautiful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Utterly extraordinary, compelling, memorable, and timely, yet heartbreaking. I can't remember another work like it.

A masterpiece

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is the first book of Sarah Hall's that I have "read".
I found the switching between past and present difficult to cope with at times (particularly because I had just listened to something else that did the same thing); as you would suddenly realise that you weren't where you thought you were. I was also confused by the pandemic - initially thinking that it was referring to Covid but then realising that it was something altogether worse. I didn't like the bits about the pandemic, I have to confess and I found some of the sexual descriptions gratuitously graphic (I don't really want to have menstrual fluid described in detail - I don't believe that it enhances the story).

The narration was a little flat in places but if you rose above it and just listened, it was possibly the best way to perform.

Overall, I enjoyed it and I am glad that I have "read" it.

Enjoyable

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A challenging listen evoking memories of loss during covid. Brilliant descriptions of the art. Lots of stop and think moments, interesting ideas. Graphic in both descriptions of someone dying messily and of sex.

Challenging at times

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews