Evocative and beautifully written.

Started this as a sort of antidote to a surreal and violent Murakami novel. Found it at once absorbing, gentle and evocative of a time before my own. The characters' voices are wonderfully scripted in the gentle Irish brogue one might expect. This is all about the mores of the time, the way lives were lived, the relationship between individuals and what they had to do to get by; to remain in their expected roles or to break out and reinvent themselves. Love, loyalty, duty, the church; it's all there. Some reviewers didn't enjoy Edna O'brien reading her own work. It worked for me; some of the unusual pronunciations and the sound of breath during pauses seemed to add to the simplicity of the book.

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Spoken Language

Loved Edna O Brien’s voice accent and the pace of her delivery. Captivating and very typical account of young lives in Ireland in the fifties and sixties

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book should have been narrated by a young woman

the book should have been narrated by a young woman, but a good authentic story

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3 people found this helpful

Interesting and worth a listen

I am glad that Edna O'Brien narrated the book as I think she did an excellent job. I was taken back in time to an old Ireland a world far apart from anywhere I had been to before. I did travel around a part of Ireland back in the 1970's and I remember how old fashioned and how narrow their world was. Yet to go back even further in time you can imagine how life would have been for young people and how confined they must have felt. Of the three books I really think this one is the best. I went onto listen to the others but the last one was quite disappointing.

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Brave, lyrical and sad beautiful.

it wasn't so long ago that women were trapped in their societal roles in the way Edna O'Brien describes. Ireland was even more conservative than England but the same strictures applied as they do to women now in patriarchal societies.
She bravely expressed her real experience despite everything and told a beautiful story.

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Loved hearing the author reading her own words

I enjoyed this book very much. She was a wonderful writer. I’m grateful that she was brave enough to write this book. May she rest in peace.

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Read By the Author

I normally really appreciate when Audiobooks are read by the author. That’s not to say I didn’t appreciate it this time around and although Edna narrates beautifully, her voice just isn’t the right fit.

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Captivating

Brilliant novel, gripping, compelling, laced with dry humour… a phenomenal insight into the sometimes tragic inner world of a girl coming of age at a time when this perspective was very rare.

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Authors should not read there own books

Fabulous story, but Edna O’Brien’s voice is so wrong for it. A real shame as it puts me off listening to the rest of the trilogy.

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3 people found this helpful

Very true to its time & treatment of young girls & women

Loved that this gave an insight into a time in Ireland’s history, when girls and women were treated in a less than equal way.

Also gave me personal insight into a time when my mother would’ve been a young girl growing up in Ireland

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