Beat The Rain, a novel

Beat The Rain

Bestselling JHP Fiction title, Goodreads Choice Awards semifinalist, Best Debut Author

"An unforgettable story of love and loss propelled by blockbuster twists." Love Reading

All relationships start out as love stories. They don't all end as one.

Can Louise move on from the loss of her lover Tom? Can she and Tom's twin brother Adam really find a way to love one another? Or are they trapped on a path of self-destruction, moving towards a tragedy neither can avoid?

Beat The Rain is a moving and vulnerable depiction of a relationship in decline. At times humorous, at times heartbreaking, it explores what it means to live, to love and to lose.

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Endorsements

Gripping storytelling from the very start. A wonderfully written debut from an author with a truly compelling insight into the human condition and all its frustrating and often cruel twists and turns. The book is rich in characters, atmosphere and the element of surprise. It's serious and often sad but also laugh out loud funny all at the same time. A touching and sensitive portrayal of the interconnected mess of everyday life and love. One of those reads that leaves you wanting more. Siobhan Kennedy, Channel 4 News

Beat The Rain is an unforgettable story of love and loss propelled by blockbuster twists. Cooper has a rare knack for presenting flawed characters and their grubby domestic lives... Haunting, touching and at times lyrical, Beat The Rain will undoubtedly draw comparisons with bestseller thrillers such as Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and Girl on The Train by Paula Hawkins.Love Reading

Beat The Rain is a gripping and twisting tale of a dysfunctional couple whose inexorable domestic disintegration is mirrored in their mental collapse with tragic consequences. It's not difficult to understand why this novel has been gathering glowing praise...A triumph in its narrative style... A kitchen sink drama for the 21st century. A unique love - or better, a 'fall out of love' story - set in the cracks of the grimy every day, this psychological thriller is a rollercoaster of a read.Female First

Louise

Wife, mother, voyeur

She stares into the mirror above the faded mahogany dresser in the hallway. This thing that she is, this woman, barely formed, stares back at her, like an alien, a shadow of someone who used to exist. Is loss something she’s supposed to accept in her life, like other people accept doing a job they don’t love or the daily struggle to avoid chips and chocolate cake? She checks her eyes in the hallway mirror to make sure they’re not too puffy and braces herself before opening the front door, mentally preparing her ‘outside’ face, the one that can still smile.

Adam

Husband, brother, father

Adam knows why he left Brighton, of course. Louise. In the end, he couldn’t bear to be near her and Tom. Couldn’t bear to see them together day in day out, so happy. He hadn’t wanted them to split up, he hadn’t wanted that at all, but at the same time, he couldn’t have stayed and watched their love affair for a day longer. And then Tom died. And Adam was left seated in unreality, a black and white figure in the middle of a blood red vignette of family tragedy. Sometimes he feels like the colour never came back to his life, not fully.

Tom

Lover, brother, dead man talking

“We thought it was the glasses giving me the headaches...I went to the hospital. It’s not the glasses. I wish I could tell you, I wish we could sit down and talk through my options. But this is hard for me, Lou. I don’t think you can share it. You see, I don’t feel like I’m dying. By the time you hear this, I'll be dead. And I guess you think I took the bloke way out and avoided the issues, avoided you. Well maybe I did, maybe I am. And really, if you're honest with yourself, you know why I haven't told you. You don't love me anymore..."

Jarvis

Friend, enemy, lover?

“I know I should have told you who I was, why I came looking for you. But things got so complicated so quickly. Before I knew it, we were embroiled in this... triangle, I suppose. But be honest. Tell me one thing, just one. Prove to me you loved me, that you know me and I wasn’t some escape for you, some invention or fantasy to take you away from the boredom of your marriage. What was my favourite food? Film? Book? Something easier then, where did I grow up? Okay, let’s make it even easier. What’s my surname?”