Helen Dunmore's Novels of Contemporary Settings: A Thematic Study

Helen Dunmore is a British poet, novelist and children's writer. She was born on December, 1952 in Beverley, East Yorkshire. Dunmore's fictions are varied in forms like war and historical novels, gothic fiction, psychological thriller, magic realism and horror fiction. The multi-faceted Helen Dunmore touches every aspect of human life and explores its several dimensions with great skills. She is specially known as the creator of dream world who dreams herself and makes others dream about their lives. Her novels are the record of various aspects of life such as pleasure and pain, victory and defeat, triumph and tragedy etc. Helen Dunmore's fictional career moves around war historical, and literary themes. This book aims to present major themes in Dunmore's novels of contemporary settings. Her novels of contemporary settings are Burning Bright, Talking to the Dead, Your Blue Eyed Boy, With Your Crooked Heart, and Mourning Ruby. These novels expose the contemporary themes of urban corruption, sexual exploitation, social tensions and gross hypocrisy of society. This thematic exploration is primarily meant to represent an analytic, comprehensive demonstration of the common features.