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A Theatre for Dreamers

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A Theatre for Dreamers

By: Polly Samson
Narrated by: Polly Samson
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About this listen

The Sunday Times best seller and an Observer Fiction Highlight 2020

Featuring bonus track and original music from Pink Floyd's David Gilmour.

1960: The world is dancing on the edge of revolution and nowhere more so than on the Greek island of Hydra, where a circle of poets, painters and musicians live tangled lives, ruled by the writers Charmian Clift and George Johnston, troubled king and queen of Bohemia.

Forming within this circle is a triangle: its points the magnetic, destructive writer Axel Jensen, his dazzling wife, Marianne Ihlen, and a young Canadian poet named Leonard Cohen. Into their midst arrives teenage Erica, with little more than a bundle of blank notebooks and her grief for her mother. Settling on the periphery of this circle, she watches, entranced and disquieted, as a paradise unravels.

Burning with the heat and light of Greece, A Theatre for Dreamers is a spellbinding novel about utopian dreams and innocence lost - and the wars waged between men and women on the battlegrounds of genius.

© 2020 Polly Samson All music by David Gilmour 'Yes, I Have Ghosts' Lyrics by Polly Samson. Performed by David Gilmour with Romany Gilmour. The moral right of the author has been asserted (p)

2020 Polly Samson under license to W.F. Howes Ltd All music (p) 2020 David Gilmour Music Ltd. All songs Pink Floyd Music Publishers Ltd

©2020 Polly Samson (P)2020 Polly Samson under license to W.F. Howes. All music (P) David Gilmour Music Ltd. All songs Pink Floyd Music Publishers Ltd Ltd. All music to David Gilmour Music Ltd Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Greece Royalty

Critic Reviews

"Delicious." (Nigella Lawson)

"A glorious novel." (Kate Mosse)

"If summer was suddenly like a novel, it would be like this one." (Andrew O'Hagan)
All stars
Most relevant
It was my interest in Leonard Cohen that initially drew me to this novel, but I have been left with a wonderful story of an Australian family that gathered around them a cluster of creatives who lived their twenties in a way many of us wished we had. Sadly, a time that has probably passed forever.
The story could not have been read any better than it is by Polly Samson. I was sorry when it ended.

A Good Story Beautifully Read

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There were some incredible descriptive passages, creating strong images in my mind. Lyrical.

However, I found it hard to like any of the male characters in the story - even Leonard Cohen. They all sounded incredibly selfish and hedonistic and mysogynistic (although I guess that latter was typical for the time where the men sat around "being creative" all day and the women "fed them and looked after them" and did all the housework and childrearing etc - their own creative endeavours being ignored or sidelined.)

And the main protagonist (Erica) came across as being especially inane. She seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time sobbing on Charmiane's shoulder about this or that.

I understand the attempt to differentiate the characters, but the audible narrator should have avoided attempting those different accents - George's supposed Australian accent was atrocious and Leonard Cohen's Canadian accent was also. It was offputting.

Moments of poetry but the story was flimsy

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This would be the best book I have listened to this year. The language and descriptions are beautiful!!

Wonderful!

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I loved this and thought it captured so much of Charmian Clint’s writing without being derivative. I want to visit Hydra so badly now. And the song the author wrote at the end is very beautiful too.

So beautiful and leads to much more reading

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There are words to describe the utter brilliance of this novel, however; I do not possess the ability to weave them together with enough eloquence to adequately describe the adoration both the story & Polly’s storytelling deserves.

All I can say is: listen, just listen…

Magnificent!

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In the 70s I sang Leonard Cohen songs (badly accompanied with guitar) mainly to myself! Saw him live in Aus some years ago - so the story has been interesting.

Interesting history

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I just couldn’t finish this book. Lovely to be hanging out in a Greek Island with hippies — for a while. I would have rather have heard more about the locals than the visitors. The narration was okay but not great. I just couldn’t be bothered listening to the gossip any more.

Got bored

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.