just beautiful

I read this years ago and loved it so thought I'd indulge myself In the audio version and it didn't disappoint! superb all round!

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One of my "Desert Island" books performed well

One of my all time favourite books, performed very well. It was even more engrossing to listen to than to read. Please let's have the sequel "The Lives She Left Behind" so that we can find out what happens next

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Heartwarming

A time honoured favourite… I loved the narration; so well read. I’m always left hoping there’s something true about this story...

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Gets under your skin

I read this book years ago & the story stayed with me, I forgot the title & authors name over the years, on discovering audio books, I set about trying to find it, putting all sorts of descriptions into google, I was so happy I found it, I can honestly say it’s the best book I’ve ever read & listened to & will listen to again, after reading the follow up book, “The lives she left behind”, which arrives tomorrow & will buy the audio once it’s been verbally told. Beautiful story telling in all it’s forms.

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An exquisite recording of an extraordinary book

Eleven out of ten, the narrator brings real character to the world of Ferney through the words of a truly underrated author.

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Absolutely beautiful story of love spanning over many lifetimes

Have just finished for the second time, beautifully written and wonderfully narrated story set in a mystical part of the country Somerset

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Some interesting ideas, but ...

There were things that really grated, including the unconvincing references to Gally's miscarriage. There are self-indulgent references to it all over the place. Most women accept it as pretty common and get on with life as far as my quite significant experience informs me, but for some reason this one needed ongoing special treatment for a very long time. I found that incredibly irritating. There was no mistaking that this book was written by a man. And nobody needs planning permission to replace a door. I found the main premise interesting but not convincingly written so that I was constantly bemused by the lack of plausibility of the plot even within the context of the book. This did not do it for me I'm afraid, I cannot believe it was up for any kind of award. The descriptive passages felt very contrived and self-conscious with ribbons of smoke and tinkling brooks (not literally, but this kind of thing). There were slight issues with the reading, in that emphasis was occasionally unnatural and some of the attempts at expressiveness seemed laboured. I found the narration distracted me from the flow of the story at times. The more I think about this book actually the less I like it. It is everything I don't like about modern fiction - self conscious, contrived and unconvincing. Three stars is possibly generous now I come to think of it.

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Not what I’d hoped

After reading all the reviews about this book I had high hopes, but after listening to it in its entirety I was left a bit disappointed.
I found it had some good moments during the story but the majority of it I found dull, flat and with not very likeable characters.
But the main problem was the narrator who kept forgetting which voice he was doing for which character and so sometimes Ferney sounded like Gally and vice versa which was disconcerting and off putting.

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2 people found this helpful