This is a story set in 1990s Ireland by well-known Irish poet, Maighread Medbh, who is the author of five published poetry collections and a literary study of solitude, Savage Solitude: Reflections of a Reluctant Loner.
The Body Coat is a novel in the fantasy realist genre, combining prostitution, murder, family abuse and community hysteria with New Age philosophies and traditional beliefs. The main character, Jacqui Byrnes, is trying to believe that she can set up a normal family life in a new town. Victim of an abusive childhood, she finds herself again exploited by her husband. Is it desperation that makes her buy into local beliefs in the supernatural, or are the strange happenings really the actions of the spirit beings who live in the hill? Either way, her life and those near her undergo complete metamorphosis in a very short space of time. The book begins with her diary, then pans out in third person narrative to involve other lives, the world of the Si (Shee), and the collective life of the town of Drumnashee.
Set during the economic recession of early 1990s Ireland, the atmosphere of this novel pulses with the controversies of the time: reproductive rights; teenage pregnancy; unemployment; political corruption; and abuse within religious institutions. In the tension between realities, we experience the transition from the traditional to the modern.