Under A Fur Coat
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PFD QUEER FICTION PRIZE 2024
I became obsessed with Seurasaari, with the curative properties I assigned to it in my desperation for an action, a ritual - something that could fix everything...
Vivienne, a photographer from Manchester, arrives at a boarding house on a tiny Finnish island hoping to rekindle her creativity and heal her broken heart. Although her fellow guests welcome her into their makeshift family, her camera still hangs at her side unused.
Vivienne quickly grows close with Ilya, the affable caretaker, and Gagarin, a rebellious mycologist. And when she discovers they're searching for a mythical bracket fungus - the Bigfoot of mushrooms - Vivienne throws herself headfirst into the cause.
The days pass in a blur of snow and birch trees and vodka. Yet the longer Vivienne spends in the forest, the more it consumes her. Haunted by lost time, inexplicable acts of violence, and rising tensions among the guests, Vivienne begins to suspect there's something darker behind Gagarin's determination. Because ambition always requires sacrifice. She's just not sure whose...
Reviews
Surreal, sharp and deeply moving, UNDER A FUR COAT is a novel of outstanding reach and polish. A distinct and dazzling new gothic.
Vatomsky takes us on a brilliantly visceral journey of what it means to rearrange your life after heartbreak slices it in two. UNDER A FUR COAT is simply mesmerising - an account of what it's like to face some of our deepest fears. I want to stay lost in the cold, dark woods with Vivienne, Gagarin and Ilya
An astute depiction of the grief after betrayal and the destructive side of obsession with dark and unsettling undercurrents giving us glimpses of the fantastic. An accomplished debut novel.
A dark pastoral, a haunting winter song, Under A Fur Coat spins a ferociously consuming tale of lost identity, chosen family, art as both ritual and survival, and learning to be ruthless - but only a little - in the pursuit of becoming whole
Crawling with folky unease, UNDER A FUR COAT is a stunning debut. Vatomsky magically balances the eerie with the hilarious, creating characters that I’m desperate to follow into the woods. The landscape dazzles and the folklore they explore is classic storytelling at its best. I’ve never read anything like it
Steeped in folkloric mystery and longing, this is a book pulled directly from the earth. I loved it.
UNDER A FUR COAT pulls off the enviable trick of seeding the blood and guts of folk horror with genuine heartbreak, and populating a sinister, snowbound, off-season museum with characters so richly drawn--and just plain likeable--you miss them when they're gone. Absolutely magical.
Thrilling and aching in equal measure: this is a sharp novel about the nature of what it means to be an artist and the fragile transformative nature of human connection.
I loved this: UNDER A FUR COAT is a truly compelling, transformative and ultimately tender story, exciting and distinctive in every sentence and in its entire queer island shape. I really cannot wait to see what Sonya Vatomsky might bring us next.
UNDER A FUR COAT is a textural gothic novel that will crawl beneath your skin and make you shiver. Full of vivid characters and taut mythologies, Vatomsky maps the fine line between tenderness and ruthlessness in our reach for human connection. I knocked it back like a shot of liquorice vodka and felt myself change from within.
Brittle and unsettling, UNDER A FUR COAT is a queasy, utterly original fairy tale. A story of obsession set against the stark Finnish landscape, Vatomsky deftly conjures the messy, fascinating inhabitants of Seurasaari, each of them stumbling through the woods in search of redemption. A novel that does not flinch from the bloody business of betrayal and obsession.
I loved this freaky book. UNDER A FUR COAT is a trippy vodka-soaked nightmare of a novel laced with creeping isolation, spores of strange behaviour and a mycelium of dread. Sonya Vatomsky is the fly agaric of writers: unmissable, hallucinogenic and deadly.
A visceral, all-consuming obsession that will haunt you long after the final page. You will gulp it down and enjoy the hallucination.
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