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Trio

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Trio

By: William Boyd
Narrated by: Hannah Arterton
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About this listen

A producer. A novelist. An actress.

It is summer in 1968, the year of the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. While the world is reeling, our trio is involved in making a rackety Swingin' '60s British movie in sunny Brighton. All are leading secret lives.

As the film is shot, with its usual drastic ups and downs, so does our trio's private, secret world begin to take over their public one. Pressures build inexorably - someone's going to crack. Or maybe they all will.

From one of Britain's best-selling and best loved writers comes an exhilarating, tender novel that asks the vital questions: what makes life worth living? And what do you do if you find it isn't?

©2020 William Boyd (P)2020 Penguin Audio Fiction Historical Fiction Literature & Fiction

Critic Reviews

"William Boyd has probably written more classic books than any of his contemporaries." (Daily Telegraph)

"Simply the best realistic storyteller of his generation." (Sebastian Faulks)
All stars
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This is full of great characters who entertain one. The trio all change and grow. He William Boyd is a fantastic author. And Hannah’s narration is seamless.
I have read quite a few of his books here’s hoping I can find some more well written novels. And not some dreadful books I have to send back.

So well written

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Just before the release of this title, I listened to the new Audible version of 'Any Human Heart'. Of course, it demonstrates Boyd's brilliance and I was delighted that it filled the gap until this novel was released. However, Trio turned out to be such a disappointment and the only Boyd book that I have returned.

The characters felt weak and I found it impossible to engage with any of them. Perhaps they represented the superficial nature of the film industry, but I had to give up after 20 chapters as I just did not care about or connect with anyone. I thought I might be misjudging Boyd because this is so unlike him, so I even tried a second time, but gave up a second time!

As for the narration, this was truly dreadful. Hannah Arterton was clearly an extremely bad choice as she has absolutely no ability to pronounce even the most basic French. Hard to imagine that this escaped Boyd, his agent and the Audible production team. A major failure in execution. Let us hope that Boyd returns to form with his next novel.

Such a dissapointment

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