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Beatlebone

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Beatlebone

By: Kevin Barry
Narrated by: Kevin Barry
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WINNER OF THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE IRISH BOOK AWARDS 2015

He will spend three days alone on his island. That is all that he asks . . . John is so many miles from love now and home. This is the story of his strangest trip.

John owns a tiny island off the west coast of Ireland. Maybe it is there that he can at last outrun the shadows of his past.

The tale of a wild journey into the world and a wild journey within, Beatlebone is a mystery box of a novel. It's a portrait of an artist at a time of creative strife. It is most of all a sad and beautiful comedy from one of the most gifted stylists now at work.

©2015 Canongate Books Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction
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Critic Reviews

"Casually lyrical, formally inventive, funny and moving, it is a small wonder"
"Gloriously freewheeling . . . a tale of fame, freaks, bad liquor and bad weather"
"Books like this come along once in a generation"
"Beatlebone is as gloriously confounding and as wondrously welcome as a hatching hawk's egg in a Christmas cracker"
"The most arresting and original writer to emerge from these islands in years" (IRVINE WELSH)
"Beatlebone is a rule-breaking novel, a strange and fascinating look at the mystery of creative inspiration"
"A strange and brilliant experiment into showing your working. It's thematically dense yet supremely readable"
"

I think Kevin Barry is two kinds, if not three kinds, of a genius . . . wonderful storytelling . . . enormously cinematic

" (TOM SUTCLIFFE)
"Superb . . . Beatlebone is a novel of necessary invention: profound, funny, hard to pin down"
"Mingling surreal black humour and breakdown, Beatlebone is a wild cascade of language and imagery, rich in wordplay and referential resonance. Beneath the glittering surface Barry is giving us a vanitas on fame and celebrity. Remember the date is 1978. The real-life endgame will be played out very soon"
"As ever with Barry, the dialogue is a joy, tappi9ng into a rich vein of humorous melancholy . . . this is a sharp, likeable book that moves deftly between warm comedy and a grimmer concern with Lennon's parentless childhood with the 'dead love stories' that 'make us'"
"A profound, mad and intriguing novel. Too often novels about great artists shy away from attending to those very creative processes that made them great. Beatlebone is a committed, brutal portrait"
"The kind of next-level literature that inspires, even incites another generation of natural-born wordsmiths to write big and bold"
"There's music to Barry's prose: Smart rhythms dart through his sentences; taut bridges join his paragraphs; the tinge of hysteria serves to animate his characters and their surroundings. His dialogue is whimsical, sometimes hilarious, catching the idiom of the local life, and, in Beatlebone, nailing John Lennon, the wittiest and darkest Beatle, spot on"
"A genius of the language, teasing out impressionistic riffs that channel emotion into words"
"Beatlebone is glorious, savoury stuff ? part lark, part meditation, and a tiny part excavation"
All stars
Most relevant
I absolutely adored this novel. I think it's a modern classic. want more Kevin Barry!

fabulous story, great narration

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Where does Beatlebone rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of the best

What other book might you compare Beatlebone to, and why?

"The Narrow Road to the Deep North" has the same poetic quality that relies a lot on repetition of words, phrases and names

Have you listened to any of Kevin Barry’s other performances? How does this one compare?

No

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It was very poignant

Any additional comments?

Gets to the heart of what it must have been like to be John Lennon, particularly in the 1970s when he struggled to find some meaning to his life. Wonderfully read by the author.

Captivating

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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.