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A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom

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A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom

By: John Boyne
Narrated by: Tim McInnerny
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Some stories are universal. They play out across human history. And time is the river which will flow through them.

It starts with a family, a family which will mutate. For now, it is a father, mother and two sons. One with his father’s violence in his blood. One who lives his mother’s artistry. One leaves. One stays. They will be joined by others whose deeds will change their fate. It is a beginning.

Their stories will intertwine and evolve over the course of 2,000 years - they will meet again and again at different times and in different places. From distant Palestine at the dawn of the first millennium to a life amongst the stars in the third. While the world will change around them, their destinies will remain the same. It must play out as foretold. It is written.

A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom is the extraordinary new novel from acclaimed writer John Boyne. Ambitious, far-reaching and mythic, it introduces a group of characters whose lives we will come to know and will follow through time and space until they reach their natural conclusion.

©2020 John Boyne (P)2020 Penguin Audio Coming of Age Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Destiny Magic
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I get fictionalised timeline, but no Europeans had parents from South Australia before 1830. Also, Tasmania was Van Diemen’s Land in 1790s & no Euros were residing there. Ned Kelly, more realistically had a strong Irish lilt to his accent (re: narration).

Fantasy timeline

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goin threw all that for that rubbish ending. almost like he left a liberal woke teenager to finish

utter tripe ending

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This was a strange book. Not riveting but entertaining enough. I did find myself wishing it would wrap up, though.

It seems everything is politicised today, and this is an example of the author promoting his political views . The ending is just absurd and the author really delights in killing off a real-life person, which isn’t okay, regardless of one’s political views.

John Boyne is such a great story teller and one of my favourite authors but this one just didn’t do it for me. It just wasn’t what I thought it would be.

Very Political- terrible ending

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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.