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The Absolutist

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The Absolutist

By: John Boyne
Narrated by: Michael Maloney
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About this listen

September 1919: twenty-one-year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver some letters to Marian Bancroft. Tristan fought alongside Marian's brother Will during the Great War, but in 1917 Will laid down his guns on the battlefield, declared himself a conscientious objector and was shot as a traitor, an act which has brought shame and dishonour on the Bancroft family.

But the letters are not the real reason for Tristan's visit. He holds a secret deep in his soul. One that he is desperate to unburden himself of to Marian, if he can only find the courage.

As he recalls his friendship with Will, from the training ground at Aldershot to the trenches of Northern France, he speaks of how the intensity of their friendship brought him both happiness and self-discovery as well as despair and pain.

The Absolutist is a novel that examines the events of the Great War from the perspective of two young soldiers, both struggling with the complexity of their emotions and the confusion of their friendship.

 20th Century Fiction Friendship Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction War

Critic Reviews

Extraordinary...The narrative is by turns surprising and tragic in equal measure while its troubling conclusion will stay with readers long after they've closed the book.
Powerful, poignant and beautifully written. This will become a classic war novel.
John Boyne brings a completely fresh eye to the most important stories. He guides us through the realm of history and makes the journey substantial, poignant and real. He is one of the great craftsmen in contemporary literature.
A wonderful, sad, tender book. There are some amazing things about this novel - one is the simplicity and purity of the narrative line; another is the sort of complexity within the characters and the emotions and the motives; another is the sense of the period, with all its restrictions. The book is going to have an enormous impact on everyone who reads it.
A fiercely interrogative novel that asks not just what it means to be a man but also what it means to be a human being in the extreme circumstances of war.
A superb evocation of the Great War and its very human effects.
All stars
Most relevant
one of the best novels I have read for years unlike another comment I read it is better than Birdsong and was not sure that would be possible

review of The Absolutist

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Well written story which kept me captivated till the end. No great surprises but interesting.
Worth listening to.

Interesting story

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I struggled with how to review this book. I noted that in the headline that I found it devastating. I thought I knew how it was going to progress, I thought that I knew how it might end. I was wrong on all counts. I even thought of giving up part way through because I was worried about where it might go next, and I was not sure if I was ready to go there too. I found myself angry, deeply sad and touched.
This surely is the hallmark of great writing.
Michael Maloney' performance is stunning and he pulls you in through the narrative. The story unfolds in such a way that you feel inside the story, rather than outside of it.
If you feel strong enough to be moved, not necessarily to tears, but to the bone, then I strongly recommend this fine achievement of literature.

A devastating journey.

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It’s suffers from overly fake plot device where he kills his best friend in anger while attempting to be emotional misses the Mark compared to some of his other novels

This is a well structured story interesting at a level but not as complicated as Boynes other works

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