Coco and Igor

Coco and Igor  

Cover of paperback edition
Author(s) Chris Greenhalgh
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre(s) Fiction
Publisher Headline Review
Publication date 1 July 2002
Media type Print (Hardcover)
Pages 311pp (first edition, HB)
ISBN ISBN 0-7553-0086-6 (first edition, HB)
OCLC Number 49394049

Coco and Igor is a 2002 novel by Chris Greenhalgh.

Set mainly in Paris in 1920, the novel is based on a possible real-life affair between Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky.

Contents

Plot summary

Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring has its Paris premiere on 29 May 1913. Coco is mesmerized by the power of Igor’s composition, but the audience is scandalized by its discordant, rhythmic music and Nijinsky's primitive choreography.

Coco finally meets Igor seven years later, at a dinner hosted by Sergei Diaghilev, impresario of the Ballets Russes. Igor has been forced to flee Russia – with his wife and four children – following the Russian Revolution. Coco invites him to bring his family to stay with her at her villa in Garches – 'Bel Respiro'.

Couturière and composer soon begin an affair. Both experience a surge of creativity; while Coco creates Chanel No. 5 (with perfumer Ernest Beaux), Igor’s compositions display a new, liberated style. But Igor’s wife, Katerina, becomes ill with consumption and an unbearable tension takes hold of 'Bel Respiro' and its occupants.

Structure

The piano keyboard operates as a framework for the novel. There are eighty-eight chapters, corresponding to the number of keys on a piano.

Reviews

Film adaptation

Greenhalgh adapted his novel for the 2009 film Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, directed by Jan Kounen and starring Anna Mouglalis and Mads Mikkelsen.[1] The film was selected to occupy the prestigious closing slot at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival on 24 May 2009.[2]

Editions

English

Translations

Coco and Igor has been translated into several languages, including:

References