The Rain Before it Falls

Jonathan Coe's RAIN is perfect for audio. Rosamond, 73 and dying, decides to leave 20 carefully selected photographs and the story behind each in a series of audiocassettes to Imogen, the blind granddaughter of her childhood friend. As Rosamond attempts to describe each photo, her mind wanders through the past. She speculates about the meanings behind a smile, a slouch, a grimace and in her digressions reveals the convoluted nature of her relationship with Beatrix, Imogen's grandmother, and Thea, Imogen's mother. Jenny Agutter's performance trembles with intimacy, as if burdened with secrets she must share. Her voice is hushed and intense. Coe's writing captures the elusive quality of memory, and Agutter's perfect diction and genteel tones convey youthful treachery, misplaced affections, animosities, and tragedy. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Starred review from January 28, 2008
In the latest from acclaimed London novelist Coe (The Rotter's Club), the story of two cousins' friendship is keyed to a hatred that is handed down from mother to daughter across generations, as in a Greek tragedy. Evacuated from London to her aunt and uncle's Shropshire farm, Rosamond bonds with her older cousin, Beatrix, who is emotionally abused by her mother. Beatrix grows up to abuse her daughter, Thea (in one unforgettable scene, Beatrix takes a knife and flies after Thea after Thea has ruined a blouse), with repercussions that reach the next generation. All of this is narrated in retrospect by an elderly Rosamond into a tape recorder: she is recording the family's history for Imogene, Beatrix's granddaughter, who is blind, and whom Rosamond hasn't seen in 20 years. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that Rosamond's fundamental flaw and limit is her decency, a quality Coe weaves beautifully into the Shropshire and London settings—along with violence. Through relatively narrow lives on a narrow isle, Coe articulates a fierce, emotional current whose sweep catches the reader and doesn't let go until the very end.