Mr. Chartwell: A Novel

by Rebecca Hunt Narrated by Susan Duerden

Overview

July 1964. Chartwell House, Kent: Winston Churchill wakes at dawn. There's a dark, mute “presence” in the room that focuses on him with rapt concentration.

It's Mr. Chartwell.

Soon after, in London, Esther Hammerhans, a librarian at the House of Commons, goes to answer the door to her new lodger. Through the glass she sees a vast silhouette the size of a mattress.

It's Mr. Chartwell.

Charismatic, dangerously seductive, Mr. Chartwell unites the eminent statesman at the end of his career and the vulnerable young woman. But can they withstand Mr. Chartwell's strange, powerful charms and his stranglehold on their lives? Can they even explain who or what he is and why he has come to visit?

In this utterly original, moving, funny, and exuberant novel, Rebecca Hunt explores how two unlikely lives collide as Mr. Chartwell's motives are revealed to be far darker and deeper than they at first seem.

Editorial Reviews

JUNE 2011 - AudioFile

Winston Churchill suffered from bouts of deep depression, which he famously referred to as a big, black dog. Rebecca Hunt takes the reference literally, personifying Mr. Chartwell as a mysterious six-foot talking dog. The novel follows Churchill and Esther, a young widow with a room to let. The only applicant for the room is Mr. Chartwell—who is also known as Black Pat. Thanks to a remarkable performance by Susan Duerden, Hunt’s novel is engaging—if not always engrossing. The sections featuring Churchill’s encounters with the sentient embodiment of his illness are both well written and flawlessly read, with Duerden offering artful vocal alterations and seamless transitions from character to character. The sections between Esther and Black Pat are less interesting, but Duerden’s reading remains top-notch. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

In her sad, hopeful and very original debut, Hunt examines two battles with depression, one that has already been lost and one where there is still a possibility of winning. The story follows the parallel lives of a lonely young London librarian, Esther Hammerhans, and the celebrated statesman, Winston Churchill, during the days before he retires in July of 1964. Esther, whose husband committed suicide two years earlier, is renting out the spare room in her home, but when she opens the door to her new tenant, Mr. Chartwell, she finds herself face to face with a huge talking, upright walking, black dog. Esther soon learns that when Chartwell (aka Black Pat) leaves the house, it is to pay regular visits to Churchill and psychologically torture him, which he has been doing for years. Chartwell is no mere talking dog; he is a dark, lingering presence that has come to try to torment Esther into depression, much like he did her late husband. Taking a hard look at the demons that haunt people, Hunt's story is an clever illumination of the suffering of so many, their status on the social scale offering no protection. (Feb.)

Library Journal

When librarian Esther Hammerhans decides to rent a room in her London flat to Mr. Chartwell, she has no idea what she's allowing into her solitary life. Mr. Chartwell, aka Black Pat, is, you see, a dog—a huge, odiferous, walking, talking physical mess of an animal, who inexplicably exudes a most charming, seductive manner. He has, he confides to Esther, a final job to do at the home of Winston and Clementine Churchill in nearby Kent. History has noted Sir Winston's long battle with depression, his bête noire as he called it, the "black dog" that accompanied him throughout his life. So what does Black Pat now want with Esther? How will she avoid falling prey to his dark, hulking presence? Please, willingly suspend disbelief and allow Hunt's vivid imagination to take you on this exuberant funhouse ride through a week in the lives of Esther, Winston, two matchmakers, the easygoing love interest, and the buttoned-up library director at the House of Commons. VERDICT Already published in Hunt's home country, Great Britain, this debut novel cleverly combines historical detail, a marvelously subtle sense of humor, and the wit of J.K. Rowling to give readers a quirky assortment of characters they can root for with abandon.—Sally Bissell, Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Ft. Myers, FL

JUNE 2011 - AudioFile

Winston Churchill suffered from bouts of deep depression, which he famously referred to as a big, black dog. Rebecca Hunt takes the reference literally, personifying Mr. Chartwell as a mysterious six-foot talking dog. The novel follows Churchill and Esther, a young widow with a room to let. The only applicant for the room is Mr. Chartwell—who is also known as Black Pat. Thanks to a remarkable performance by Susan Duerden, Hunt’s novel is engaging—if not always engrossing. The sections featuring Churchill’s encounters with the sentient embodiment of his illness are both well written and flawlessly read, with Duerden offering artful vocal alterations and seamless transitions from character to character. The sections between Esther and Black Pat are less interesting, but Duerden’s reading remains top-notch. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169151237
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	02/08/2011
Edition description:	Unabridged

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