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Milkman
- Narrated by: Bríd Brennan
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
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Seven Sisters
- By: Katherine Kovacic
- Narrated by: Tanya Schneider
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Naomi started grief counselling prepared to run for cover as soon as her therapist, Mia, pulled out a crystal or tried to align her chakras. When Mia suggests that she join a support group, Naomi is skeptical: how could she begin to describe what it felt like to lose her sister, Jo? How could she possibly share her loss and rage to a room full of people? How could she express her helplessness that Jo's killer walks free on a suspended sentence? And how could she share her deepest desire to see Jo's killer dead by her hand?
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Extremely satisfied.
- By Katie on 04-03-2023
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Macbeth: A Novel
- By: A. J. Hartley, David Hewson
- Narrated by: Alan Cumming
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Macbeth: A Novel brings the intricacy and grit of the historical thriller to Shakespeare’s tale of political intrigue, treachery, and murder. In this full-length novel written exclusively for audio, authors A. J. Hartley and David Hewson rethink literature’s most infamous married couple, grounding them in a medieval Scotland whose military and political upheavals are as stark and dramatic as the landscape in which they are played.
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Brilliant transposition of the story of Macbeth!
- By Nathan on 28-07-2021
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The Woman Who Knew Too Little
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- Narrated by: Fiona Macleod
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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December, 1948. Officer Kitty Wheeler is a member of the Women Police, responsible for "upholding the moral virtue" of Adelaide's at times unruly and amorous citizens. Patrolling Somerton beach one night, Kitty and her partner spot a man leaning against the sea wall, apparently drunk. It's late, they're tired, and they leave him to sleep it off...
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Addictive
- By Anonymous User on 03-05-2023
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The Iliad & The Odyssey
- By: Homer
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 28 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Little is known about the Ancient Greek oral poet Homer, the supposed 8th century BC author of the world-read Iliad and his later masterpiece, The Odyssey. These classic epics provided the basis for Greek education and culture throughout the classical age and formed the backbone of humane education through the birth of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity.
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Epic
- By Anonymous User on 22-05-2023
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The Lawson Sisters
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- Narrated by: Rebecca Macauley
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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Story
For many years Elizabeth Lawson has battled single-handedly to run the family's historic horse stud in memory of her beloved father. But a devastating loss puts her dreams at risk. With no options left, Liz is forced to turn to her estranged sister Kayla for help. Kayla has built a new life in the city as a wedding planner, far removed from the stableyard sweat and dust of her rural upbringing. She never thought she'd go back. But when Liz calls out of the blue, Kayla forms a plan that could save their childhood home.
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sadness, guilt, happiness & love
- By Alana on 22-05-2020
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House of Kwa
- By: Mimi Kwa
- Narrated by: Mimi Kwa
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Mimi Kwa ignored the letter for days. When she finally opened it, the news was so shocking her hair turned grey. What kind of father sues his own daughter? This most recent collision was over the estate of Mimi's beloved Aunt Theresa, but its seed had been sown long ago. In an attempt to understand how it had come to this, Mimi unspools her rich family history in House of Kwa.
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It brought out so many emotions
- By Anonymous User on 09-08-2021
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Seven Sisters
- By: Katherine Kovacic
- Narrated by: Tanya Schneider
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Naomi started grief counselling prepared to run for cover as soon as her therapist, Mia, pulled out a crystal or tried to align her chakras. When Mia suggests that she join a support group, Naomi is skeptical: how could she begin to describe what it felt like to lose her sister, Jo? How could she possibly share her loss and rage to a room full of people? How could she express her helplessness that Jo's killer walks free on a suspended sentence? And how could she share her deepest desire to see Jo's killer dead by her hand?
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Extremely satisfied.
- By Katie on 04-03-2023
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Macbeth: A Novel
- By: A. J. Hartley, David Hewson
- Narrated by: Alan Cumming
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Macbeth: A Novel brings the intricacy and grit of the historical thriller to Shakespeare’s tale of political intrigue, treachery, and murder. In this full-length novel written exclusively for audio, authors A. J. Hartley and David Hewson rethink literature’s most infamous married couple, grounding them in a medieval Scotland whose military and political upheavals are as stark and dramatic as the landscape in which they are played.
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Brilliant transposition of the story of Macbeth!
- By Nathan on 28-07-2021
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The Woman Who Knew Too Little
- By: Olivia Wearne
- Narrated by: Fiona Macleod
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
December, 1948. Officer Kitty Wheeler is a member of the Women Police, responsible for "upholding the moral virtue" of Adelaide's at times unruly and amorous citizens. Patrolling Somerton beach one night, Kitty and her partner spot a man leaning against the sea wall, apparently drunk. It's late, they're tired, and they leave him to sleep it off...
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Addictive
- By Anonymous User on 03-05-2023
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The Iliad & The Odyssey
- By: Homer
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 28 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Little is known about the Ancient Greek oral poet Homer, the supposed 8th century BC author of the world-read Iliad and his later masterpiece, The Odyssey. These classic epics provided the basis for Greek education and culture throughout the classical age and formed the backbone of humane education through the birth of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity.
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Epic
- By Anonymous User on 22-05-2023
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The Lawson Sisters
- By: Janet Gover
- Narrated by: Rebecca Macauley
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For many years Elizabeth Lawson has battled single-handedly to run the family's historic horse stud in memory of her beloved father. But a devastating loss puts her dreams at risk. With no options left, Liz is forced to turn to her estranged sister Kayla for help. Kayla has built a new life in the city as a wedding planner, far removed from the stableyard sweat and dust of her rural upbringing. She never thought she'd go back. But when Liz calls out of the blue, Kayla forms a plan that could save their childhood home.
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sadness, guilt, happiness & love
- By Alana on 22-05-2020
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House of Kwa
- By: Mimi Kwa
- Narrated by: Mimi Kwa
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Mimi Kwa ignored the letter for days. When she finally opened it, the news was so shocking her hair turned grey. What kind of father sues his own daughter? This most recent collision was over the estate of Mimi's beloved Aunt Theresa, but its seed had been sown long ago. In an attempt to understand how it had come to this, Mimi unspools her rich family history in House of Kwa.
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It brought out so many emotions
- By Anonymous User on 09-08-2021
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Trespasses
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- Narrated by: Brid Brennan
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
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One by one, she undid each event, each decision, each choice. If Davy had remembered to put on a coat. If Seamie McGeown had not found himself alone on a dark street. If Michael Agnew had not walked through the door of the pub on a quiet night in February in his white shirt. There is nothing special about the day Cushla meets Michael, a married man from Belfast, in the pub owned by her family. But here, love is never far from violence, and this encounter will change both of their lives forever.
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Enthralling and very moving
- By Anonymous User on 10-05-2023
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The Signature of All Things
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Everything about life intrigues Alma Whittaker. Her passion for botany leads her far from home, from London to Peru to Tahiti, in pursuit of that rare specimen: knowledge. But as her careful studies draw her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, she meets the man who she will come to love - whose perspective, radically different from her own, will transform the way she understands the world.
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An Incredible Story
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Martin Dean spent his entire life analyzing absolutely everything - from the benefits of suicide to the virtues of strip clubs - and passing on his self-taught knowledge to his son, Jasper. But now that his father's dead, Jasper can fully reflect on the man who raised him in intellectual captivity, and the irony is this: theirs was a great adventure. From his prison cell, Jasper Dean tells the unlikely story of his scheming father Martin, his crazy Uncle Terry and how the three of them upset - mostly unintentionally - an entire continent.
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Extraordinary in every regard.
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People Person
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Dimple, Nikisha, Danny, Lizzie and Prynce are half-siblings who don't have much in common except abandonment issues. But when a catastrophic event forces them to reconnect with each other and with Cyril Pennington, the absent father they never really knew, things start to get complicated fast . . .
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An excellent
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Operation Mincemeat
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- By: Ben Macintyre
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- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
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April, 1943: A sardine fisherman spots the corpse of a British soldier floating in the sea off the coast of Spain and sets off a train of events that would change the course of the Second World War. Operation Mincemeat was the most successful wartime deception ever attempted, and the strangest. This is the true story of the most extraordinary deception ever planned by Churchill’s spies: an outrageous lie that travelled from a Whitehall basement all the way to Hitler’s desk.
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Fascinating account of a long held secret.
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The Yield
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Knowing that he will soon die, Albert 'Poppy' Gondiwindi takes pen to paper. His life has been spent on the banks of the Murrumby River at Prosperous House, on Massacre Plains. Albert is determined to pass on the language of his people and everything that was ever remembered. He finds the words on the wind. August Gondiwindi has been living on the other side of the world for 10 years when she learns of her grandfather's death.
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The Yield
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Little Women
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Little Women, set in the 19th century follows the lives of four sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March as they live, learn, love, and grow as young pilgrims and blossom into fine little women. Based on the author's childhood, Little Women is one of the most beloved stories in American literature. It continues to touch listeners both young and old. Alcott takes you on a prolific journey which will make your heart swell, your soul laugh, and your heart ache as we experience the lives of the March sisters as they endure their lessons, scrapes, castles in the air, their romances, and more.
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Siri Reads Little Women
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The Rush
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The first drops start to fall when Quinn spies the body. With no reception and nothing but an empty road for miles, does she stop to help or keep driving to safety? Back at the iconic country pub where Quinn works, Andrea is sandbagging the place in preparation for heavy rains. Alone with her sleeping son in the back room, she reluctantly lets a biker in to wait out the storm. Out on the wet roads, tensions arise among four backpackers on their way to Darwin. They haven’t prepared for this kind of weather and the flooding isn’t the only threat on the horizon.
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A well rounded and engaging story
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The Maid
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- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Molly the maid is all alone in the world. A nobody. She’s used to being invisible in her job at the Regency Grand Hotel, plumping pillows and wiping away the grime, dust and secrets of the guests passing through. She’s just a maid—why should anyone take notice? But Molly is thrown into the spotlight when she discovers an infamous guest, Mr Black, very dead in his bed. This isn’t a mess that can be easily cleaned up.
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An incredibly well written, enjoyable book
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A Boy Called Christmas
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- Unabridged
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Story
You are about to listen to the true story of Father Christmas. If you believe that some things are impossible, you should stop considering listening right away. Because this audiobook is full of impossible things. Are you still there? Good. Then let us begin. A Boy Called Christmas is a tale of adventure, snow, kidnapping, elves, more snow and an 11-year-old boy called Nikolas who isn't afraid to believe in magic.
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Awesome
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This Is Happiness
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Seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe is idling in the unexpected sunshine when Christy makes his first entrance into Faha, bringing secrets he needs to atone for. Though he can't explain it, Noel knows right then: something has changed. As the people of Faha anticipate the endlessly procrastinated advent of the electricity, and Noel navigates his own coming-of-age and his fallings in and out of love, Christy's past gradually comes to light, casting a new glow on a small world.
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This is beautiful
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What Lies Between Us
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- Unabridged
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Nina can never forgive Maggie for what she did. And she can never let her leave. They say every house has its secrets, and the house that Maggie and Nina have shared for so long is no different. Except that these secrets are not buried in the past. Every other night, Maggie and Nina have dinner together. When they are finished, Nina helps Maggie back to her room in the attic, and into the heavy chain that keeps her there.
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OMG!
- By Anna on 30-05-2020
Publisher's Summary
Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2018
Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2019
In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman.
But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes 'interesting'. The last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed and to be noticed is dangerous.
Milkman is a tale of gossip and hearsay, silence and deliberate deafness. It is the story of inaction with enormous consequences.
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What listeners say about Milkman
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Dr. Sue Tait
- 12-09-2018
magic
I love the way these words are put together. I want to listen again now. I miss these people. The narrator is amazing.
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33 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 29-07-2018
Unique
Such a unique ,humorous, well written book. Anna Burns has build on her previous novels' subject of The Troubles to create this masterpiece. Brid Brennan's Irish lilt and delivery suits the book's pace and narrator.
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22 people found this helpful
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- sally
- 08-11-2018
Too much waffle for me
Firstly the narrator was excellent. I enjoyed listening to her voice but not enough to finish the book.
For me there was waaaaay too much waffle. Story seemed to go around in circles, it was repetitive (just with slightly different words). I found myself losing interest, thinking "just get to the point already".
The book starts talking about one thing and then deviates off and dribbles on... and on.... before getting back to the original topic. I abandoned the book after about 2 hours.
Someone with a lot of patience that is in for the long haul will enjoy it.
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19 people found this helpful
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- Sue
- 24-10-2018
Thought provoking & timely
Very quirky, unusual style which creates a compelling story and unique perspective of The Troubles in late 1970’s Northern Ireland. It underscores aspects of toxic violence, particularly male violence which share common threads with all conflict zones, from Ireland to Afghanistan, Iraq and the burgeoning far-right gangs such as the Proud Boys in contemporary US culture. Really interesting, particularly as it’s written in the voice of a young woman wishing to simply avoid the violence and go about her teenaged life freely without threat and harassment.
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12 people found this helpful
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- Paula Clayton-Beatts
- 25-11-2018
Sorry - I had to return this book
I tried for quite some time to listen to this book and while the history included was interesting I could not tolerate the writing style. I had to return this book.
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10 people found this helpful
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- Rachael
- 05-11-2018
my new favourite
If people think this book is a hard read then they should listen to it. The combination of writer and reader is superb. Together they lay bare both familiar and surprising quirks of family, religion, sexual politics. This book is a tribute to women and girls set in and spoken in the beautiful Irish. Outstanding.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Lynlee
- 22-11-2018
Just couldn’t get into it
Just couldn’t get into it. Might be better to read from paper but the accent of narrator, added with the long winded descriptions replacing character names a lot of the time, just made it hard to engage with over audio.
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5 people found this helpful
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- M Kelly
- 18-11-2018
Great narrator
The narration makes this wonderful story even better. It is a perfect match. Gorgeous lyrical writing.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Michelle
- 18-11-2018
Speechless
OMG, I loved it, blew my mind, couldn’t put it down! Highly recommended this story.
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3 people found this helpful
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- John Trimble
- 10-10-2020
hard work
life's too short to wait for the pay off. Opaque and dull. in other words perfect for the booker prize.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Nicole Del Sesto
- 27-07-2018
Beyond the Pale
What a great start to Booker season! I loved this book. I thought the writing clever and the story engrossing. It's an unnamed time and an unnamed place (actually Northern Ireland during the "troubles") with unnamed characters.
Through the voice of our narrator ("middle sister" and "maybe girlfriend" and "friend") we explore issues of the time including: politics; feminism; family; individuality, conformity and love. What it's like to group up in a place where everybody knows you and if you stick out even a little bit, to assume the worst about you.
There's a psychological element as well, which added a layer of suspense to the whole story which I thought was done extremely well.
I listened to the audio which only added to my enjoyment. The narrator was perfect and the parts of the writing which would have been outstanding in the reading of them were really enhanced.
A top 2018 read for me.
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11 people found this helpful
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- Jennifer S. Leblanc
- 20-08-2018
Exquisitely narrated!
The narration is so good on this wild story that it makes it worth reading.
I struggled thru the first half of this book, confused by the circumstances and what seemed like to much character development without enough context development. By the last hour, it all came together beautifully and I loved the story. But I admit that I might not have gotten that far without the brilliant work of the narrator.
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9 people found this helpful
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- ibillinsly@gmail
- 30-09-2018
4.40 stars......different
Finally, something a bit different. Anna Burns' manages to do something different in an age when everything has already been done. It's nothing drastic, but Milkman really is a good book. I had my doubts at first, but I hung in there due to one of the best performances I've ever heard. Brid Brennan is a goddess when it comes to narration.
As I make my way through the Booker longlist, Milkman is my pick as of now. Sadly, I predict many people will give up on it too soon, as not a lot happens immediately. I also enjoyed The Mars Room and Snap. Warlight is my least favorite of the four contenders I've listened to. While I'm not sure if Milkman is the best written story of this bunch, it's the best audiobook. If there's a better one on the list, I'll be glad to hear it.
Overall rating: 4.40 stars
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8 people found this helpful
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- Robin
- 05-12-2018
Brilliantly read
I approached this book warily, having found most previous Booker winners unreadable, and I’m pretty sure I would find this unreadable too in text form. It’s written from deep inside the narrator’s head, with many lengthy stream-of-consciousness passages of a type that I usually find impenetrable.
What saves it is the absolutely brilliant reading by Brid Brennan. She brings an enormous intelligence to the reading, and has obviously done an enormous amount of work to understand the rhythms and complexity of the prose, and as a result the attentive listener will have little difficulty following the narrative and the flow of events.
Others have written about the subject matter more or less informatively. For me what stands out is the powerlessness of the 18-year-old narrator to resist the restrictions that surround her and the constraints that are put upon her by the overwhelmingly oppressive society and circumstances into which she was born and in which she lives. The sense of foreboding is so intense that at times I was reluctant to read further for fear of what might happen next.
This is a highly rewarding book, and I cannot speak highly enough of Brid Brennan’s reading.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall

- Mary Ann Cullinan
- 14-03-2021
OUTSTANDING
I loved reading Anna Burns' brilliant novel when it first came out, but Brid Brennan's outstanding narration here vastly enriched this novel for someone like me ( a 5th generation African person of Irish descent, but obviously now not attuned to Irish manners & etiquette), and so less able to imagine tone, nuance or how dialogue might be delivered.
Listening to her, I was able to apprehend so much more of what the interpersonal exchanges of the characters implied for the unfolding of the plot. In particular with Brennan's narration, the darker, more moving emotions as well as the razor sharp wit and utterly delightful humour in the dialogue stood out far more, and consequently I came away even more impressed by Anna Burns' writing. Quite wonderful!
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- M. J. Walsh
- 26-11-2020
Stale milk to market
Set in Northern Ireland in the 1970s when the conflict between republicans and loyalists was out of control and Britain had sent in troops, this book might have been a blast of fresh air 50 years ago.
Might have been is the point.
It's a mix of humour and hopelessness, topicality and tension, with vivid language masking an almost total failure to communicate as its characters blunder about in a brooding atmosphere of conflict and damaged dreams.
Although the writing trys so hard to seem fresh it actually seems so stale and so long ago. It may not have been in the bottom drawer for a long time but it sure feels that way. Working class magic realism meets the troubles, with Brid Brennan's reading as the saving grace.
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- Tanya
- 05-01-2020
Genius
Compelling right from the beginning. Both writing and narration exemplary, natural and incredibly clever without being obnoxious. Haven’t enjoyed a book so much in a long time. Anna Burns is masterful.
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- Anonymous User
- 14-06-2019
incredibly hard listen
it was very hard to listen to this book. the unstructured sentences, the writing style, the lack of a smooth flow - pain for my ears and for my brain.
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- Anonymous User
- 24-05-2019
Extraordinary
If this were the Oscars, Anna Burns would win for Best Story and Bríd Brennan for Best Performance: Really just extraordinary.
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- Sarah
- 08-04-2019
brilliant
I loved every minute of this story. brilliant and informative. Intelligent, funny, enlightening and heartbreaking.
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- David M
- 20-10-2018
Very, Very Good
This is about Middle Sister, 18 years old, perhaps slightly geeky and a social misfit trying to cope with the troubles by avoiding them. She doesn't like the 20th Century so absorbs herself in 19th Century literature which she reads while walking in the park. That in itself upsets the community.
Anna Burns' writing gives us insight into what it was like to live amidst the Northern Ireland troubles of the 70s and 80s. The no-go areas, over the road, over the water, our religion, the other religion, punishment, behaviour beyond the pale.
Mostly the characters are only given nick-names; Ma, Pa, Elder Sister, Second Sister, First Brother-in-Law, Tablet Girl, Nuclear Boy etc. This makes it really easy to keep track of who everybody is. I wish more books would do that.
There are some wonderful snippets such as...'the only time anybody would call the police would be to shoot them. They know that and don't come.' While the reader is absorbing such snippets the narrator continues relentlessly,so you have to keep stopping and winding back 30 seconds.
Mostly the story is told by a sometimes complex series of diversions before getting back to where the author left off. The reader is tempted to lose concentration during such diversions, but shouldn't. The diversions are really what the book is all about and contain the finest writing. I love the way the author seems to delve into a thesaurus to find the best word to use and finds she can't choose the best word so we get them all... it really amazes me how the author kept up the fine writing for all 14 hours 11 minutes. There really is no padding.
I particularly liked the narration by Brid Brennan, unlike a certain prominent politician from the time, she really makes the N. Ireland accent sound quite beautiful. She seemed to have an appreciation of the work and relished every word that she was reading.
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217 people found this helpful
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- John Blair
- 11-08-2018
Hugely Enjoyable
Firstly, Brid Brennan delivers an outstanding narration of Anna Burns work. You can hear her own love for the work she's narrating in every sentence spoken.
The work itself is stunning. Yes, it's set in the time of The Troubles and it's depiction of that place is detailed. But it's the way Anna Burns writes about people, their 'psychologicals', their complex, contradictory simple behaviour that makes this so compelling. Special mention to the 4 hour passage that takes us from a classroom to outside the family home in a stream of divergencies. You wonder at Burns skill holding the narrative together but she does. This is one of those rare books that you keep within you. I loved it. "Yes but"...
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57 people found this helpful
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- Manda N
- 06-10-2018
Brilliant but terrifying!
The Troubles in N. Ireland back then seemed largely a world away from the Midlands of England growing up. This an account of a teenager’s life on the Catholic side of town is beautifully written yet terrifying how what happened almost felt normal.
Shortlisted for the Man Booker this year and has to be a worthy contender to win.
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55 people found this helpful
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- Clare L Hutton
- 29-09-2018
Remarkable and important
This astonishing book, with a unique voice, is a profound reconstruction of what it was like for an under confident 18 year old girl to live through and be formed by the Northern Irish troubles in the 1970s. Essentially this is a story about stalking and psychological terror. It is sad, gripping, funny and compelling. The reading by Bríd Brennan is flawless, with a particularly good rendition of child voices (the wee sisters).
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54 people found this helpful
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- Mixed Feelings
- 19-11-2018
Brilliant!
I feel like I've been waiting for this book to come along for years. Beautifully written prose that reflects the fractured and disjointed culture of a society that has been deeply divided by political and religious factions as seen through the eyes of a teenage girl who is trying to make sense of it all as she is innocently and helplessly drawn into the web of local political 'players', gossips and rumor-mongers.
Anna Burns' beautiful language echo's the rhythm and repetition of the Northern Irish colloquialisms and is brought to life by the wonderful narration of Brid Breenan which gives the novel a living dimension.
Beautifully paced, touching, quietly threatening and laugh out loud in places the incidents and accidents of the main characters made this novel an instant classic for me and is firmly placed in my all time top 10. I just didn't want this to end as I know the next novel I listen to has such a lot to live up to.....I may just listen to it again. Did I say this is a beautiful book? It is, just that.
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- Ruben
- 24-08-2018
Excellent narration and a good book
Third booker read/listen this year and certainly the best so far (Donal Ryan and Michael Ondaatje were a little disappointing). It is about an 18-year old girl and how she tries not to care about what the people in her paranoid and gossip-sick neighbourhood in Northern-Ireland during the troubles think about her. And then how her trying not to care makes things only get worse.
There is a section around half-way where things move a little slow and at some point I was even tempted to give it up, but I am very glad I continued as the end is the best. The beautiful voice of the narrator certainly helped in persevering!
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- JST
- 07-02-2019
Outstanding narration
I absolutely loved this book, which I think is mostly down to Brid Brennan's totally believable delivery of every word.
She made listening to this book an absolute pleasure.
That's not to make light of the excellent story, Anna Burns descriptions of Ireland in the 70's, living in 'The Troubles' and the stifling power of Men, Religion and social expectations, at that time, was amusing and disturbing. Written with humour, it still gets the point across, that if you dare to be different, you can expect to pay for it and if people don't know something, then they will make it up.
I'm off to see if there are any more of Anna Burn's books on here.....
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- Anthony
- 18-11-2018
Growing up with the Troubles
Beautifully written this story offers insights into the relationships within families and the community during Northern Ireland's political struggles. The insights, the humour and the melancholy are all observed close-up, in the day-to-day lives of people trying to live their lives while being drawn into the politics, the suspicion, and the violence of everyday life.
The author barely presents a single name throughout the story - always talking about the milkman, the first sister, third sister, brother-in-law, nearly boyfriend, and a range of others. This conveys the sense that these events and relationships could have occurred, or indeed did occur, in every family, and how disruptive and destructive this was.
It's also a coming of age novel in which the narrator established what her own life and loves are about while trying to fend off the powerful influences and imposed stereotypes of others. The twists and turns reveal some unexpected casualties and events, sensitively shared and narrated.
One of the most distressing scenes I've ever read describes the vicious throat-slitting of all the dogs in a small town by UK government-supported paramilitaries (or perhaps they are UK forces themselves). It brings home, like few passages, the dreadful nature of internal conflict and of the attempts to silence others to gain political advantage. The dogs' crime? To alert the community about the presence of strangers and their foul activities. One can feel the pain, the sorrow, the mournfulness of community members searching through blood-soaked canine cadavers, retrieving their own 'best friend' to cuddle and carry home for burial.
Lots of other by-the-by insights into the undermining of communities resulting from surveillance, false accusations, suspicion, and surreptitious acts of terror. It's easy to see how longstanding the corrosive impact of political violence can be within communities, and invariably is...
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- chriss
- 01-10-2018
Disappointing
This is an interesting book, but I am afraid to say that I found it rather tedious. It is certainly well written, but unfortunately that doesn't make it an enjoyable book to listen to. It is written in a "stream of consciousness" style, narrated as a continuous dialogue of the narrator's thoughts.It's fantastically clever and extremely well written, but, like, I suspect, listening in on most people's thoughts would be, it is mostly boring.
It's very long and drawn out, and I just found that I kept losing interest. Set in the Troubles in Northern Ireland it seems very authentic and there are some parts of it that shine through but they comprise maybe 10-15% of the book.
There are some affectations, such as referring to everyone, including the narrator, by nicknames, which eventually just get in the way of the plot, such as there is a plot.
It might work better as a book than an audio book, I couldn't work out whether the narrator enhanced or detracted from the overall experience.
It promises a lot, but ultimately for me I am afraid to say it failed to deliver and more often than not I found myself wishing it would finish.
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- Musical Anorak
- 18-11-2018
2018's ManBooker Winner
Audiobook Narrator Performance: 5 stars
Plotline: 4 stars.
Writing Style: 3/3.5 stars
Finished reading this last night. This Audiobook was a real mixed bag for me. From inferences throughout the book, I'm guessing that it's set in Belfast in the late 70s/early 80s - at the height of volatile Troubles.
The unconventional writing style, was what drew me to listen to this 2018 ManBooker Winner, in the first place. However, the verbose conversational style, soon turned divisive for the book; making it a bit of a slogg for ninety five percent of the time. A great shame because, I do believe that the plotline, is both interesting and important. It does successfully show the repressive and claustrophobic mindset ,of both sides of The Troubles. Audiobook is strongly recommended for optimum comprehension purposes.
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22 people found this helpful