Turtle Diary cover art

Turtle Diary

Penguin Modern Classics

 Preview
Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Turtle Diary

By: Russell Hoban
Narrated by: Harry Myers, Lucy Paterson
Try Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $21.99

Buy Now for $21.99

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Born to swim thousands of miles in the ocean, the giant sea turtles are now trapped in a tank of golden-green water at London Zoo. But not for much longer. Two lonely people, a bookseller and a children's illustrator, have begun thinking turtle thoughts. As they come together to hatch a plan to release the turtles into the sea, their diaries reveal how they find their own lives changing in imperceptible and quite unintended ways.

'Wonderful, life-saving ... places Russell Hoban among the greatest, timeless novelists' The Times

'Crackles with witty detail, mordant intelligence and self-deprecating irony' Time

'This lovely human fable seems to me one of the best things of its kind - a fine and touching achievement' John Fowles

© Russell Hoban 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

 Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction

Critic Reviews

Russell Hoban is our Ur-novelist, a maverick voice that is like no other.
Worth rejoicing in ... a banquet of whimsical delights. Each Russell Hoban book is surprising ... but you also know what you're getting, which is curiosity, wonder and a world-encompassing empathy. (John Self)
This wonderful, life-saving fantasy places Russell Hoban where he has got to be - among the greatest, timeless novelists.
Crackles with witty detail, mordant intelligence and self-deprecating irony.
[Turtle Diary] has medicinal qualities. I only need to think about it and I'm in a better mood. (Max Porter)
A story about the recovery of life ... Like other cult writers - Salinger for instance, or Vonnegut - Hoban writes about ordinary people making life-affirming gestures in a world that threatens to dissolve in madness.
This lovely human fable seems to me one of the best things of its kind - a fine and touching achievement. (John Fowles)
Tragicomic pleasure ... Metaphysical speculation undercut by dry humour is the signature style of Russell Hoban. (Richard Preston)
No reviews yet
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.