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The Friendly Ones
- Narrated by: Chetan Pathak
- Length: 22 hrs and 56 mins
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The Friendly Ones
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Summary
‘It’s the book you should give someone who thinks they don’t like novels … Here is surely a future prizewinner that is easy to read and impossible to forget’ Melissa Katsoulis, The Times
The things history will do at the bidding of love
On a warm Sunday afternoon, Nazia and Sharif are preparing for a family barbecue. They are in the house in Sheffield that will do for the rest of their lives. In the garden next door is a retired doctor, whose four children have long since left home. When the shadow of death passes over Nazia and Sharif’s party, Doctor Spinster’s actions are going to bring the two families together, for decades to come.
The Friendly Ones is about two families. In it, people with very different histories can fit together, and redeem each other. One is a large and loosely connected family who have come to England from the subcontinent in fits and starts, brought to England by education, and economic possibilities. Or driven away from their native country by war, murder, crime and brutal oppression – things their new neighbours know nothing about. At the heart of their story is betrayal and public shame. The secret wound that overshadows the Spinsters, their neighbours next door, is of a different kind: Leo, the eldest son, running away from Oxford University aged eighteen. How do you put these things right, in England, now?
Spanning decades and with a big and beautifully drawn cast of characters all making their different ways towards lives that make sense, The Friendly Ones, Philip Hensher’s moving and timely new novel, shows what a nation is made of; how the legacies of our history can be mastered by the decision to know something about people who are not like us.
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Critic reviews
‘This is a profoundly generous and good-hearted book, one that leaves you missing its characters as you would fondly remembered friends. Hensher is one of our most gifted novelists and this is certainly his best novel yet’ Guardian
‘Sometimes today even clearly talented novelists don’t seem interested in trying to show us how people actually think, feel and live. Hensher does all this, and does it with sympathy and intelligence. Years ago he wrote a marvellous novel, The Mulberry Empire. I thought it unlikely he would ever do anything better, but he has’ Scotsman
‘Hensher’s novel is well-observed and often incisive … with sustained concentration and a satirical gaze, he examines the markers of status that underpin the beliefs of so many in this story’ TLS
‘Slyly plotted … unlike many a modern novel it is full of interesting characters who do – and say – interesting things’ The Tablet
‘It is Hensher’s superbly subtle awareness of the difficulties in the way of true engagement and true relationships that makes the late flowering, gloriously argumentative friendship in this novel infinitely touching’ Spectator
‘Hensher’s 11th novel is his biggest and most ambitious yet’ Mail on Sunday
‘At the heart of this kind and profound book, though, is something serious: Hensher’s sense of how deeply the histories that neighbours keep from each other run, how unthinkable are the experiences of violence and betrayal that some people endure, how terribly families are torn asunder by their different allegiances, and how hard it is, in the end, to make peace with that’ Financial Times
'Marvellous Daily Mail
‘Beautifully written and intelligent new novel … It’s mesmerising’ Attitude
‘Majestic … reminiscent of an engrossing yet challenging Victorian classic’ Independent
What listeners say about The Friendly Ones
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mrs G
- 24-03-18
Novel for our times
What did you like about this audiobook?
The most attractive feature of the book is in describing how people from very different places, cultures, religions, when brought together can become friends. It tackles immigration and gives a very humane description how it feels to be incomer, what sacrifices lie behind people who move from one continent to another and how much they need support and how they get it from unlikely people like grumpy old doctor. The book describes hardly mentioned war for independence of Bangladesh and sacrifices those people went through in early seventies. Descriptions how one Bangladesh middle class family tries to fit in with customs of English middle class suburbia are warm and funny. Light was shone on racism intentional and unconscious with humour and deep understanding.
How has the book increased your interest in the subject matter?
The story describes ordinary lives of people through occasional encounters and it covers lives from children being born to schooling , weddings, death. We learn a lot about many characters, but descriptions leave enough for listeners imagination to build up on what we are told by the author. The best part is slow development of friendship between youngish professor of engineering and old doctor.
What did you find wrong about the narrator's performance?
Perfect performance.
Do you have any additional comments?
I can fully recommend listening but I wish I could recommend this book for some official prize.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Alex Marsh
- 19-03-19
Flawed novel peppered with occasional good writing
This is a very generous three stars for what really should be two and a bit stars. For context, I enjoyed Hensher's The Northern Clemensy tremendously but was less keen on The Emperor Waltz. This one was very frustrating, as it is really two novels in one. The first half reveals patches from the lives of the Spinster family, and is often excellent. The boy Josh's struggles with his superior, amoral cousins stands out in particular, as does the character of Blossom. The patriarch central to the story, Hillary, also leaps off the page as a three dimensional character. The same cannot be said, though, of the Belgali family next door, who most of the same second half of the novel is about. They are a collection of names with very few ideocyncracies and much of their story is historical - a description of the 1971 Bangladesh genocide perpetrated by Pakistan. I felt that the novel would have been infinitely tighter had it only focused on the Spinsters (who themselves are not entirely all totally believable) and left the neighbours alone, who you sense Hensher never truly believes in.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Fee Fee
- 08-12-19
Strongly recommended
Really enjoyed this book. The characterisation was excellent and interested to learn a bit about a piece of history (Bangladeshi independence) that I knew little about. One of those books you never want to finish.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- C. Kirk
- 24-06-19
Interesting in parts
I struggled with this. Some parts were very interesting, others were a bit bland. I learned a lot about Bangladesh, something I was completely ignorant of before.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- AWH
- 15-03-18
Sadly disappointing
What disappointed you about The Friendly Ones?
King of the Badgers is one of my all time favourite books and the Emperor Waltz, although flawed, is still very enjoyable. This however is incredibly dull. It just plods on and on without anything truly interesting really happening. The passages set during the 1971 Pakistan-Bangladesh war had all the potential of being a fascinating insight into a little known event but instead is simply rendered plodding and uninteresting. Such a disappointment
What will your next listen be?
Bock 3 in Mick Herron's Slow Horses series
Which character – as performed by Chetan Pathak – was your favourite?
The twins
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
Disappointment. Such disappointment
Any additional comments?
This book is vast in length. It gives all the impression of simply not having been subject to any real editorial control. There is probably a good book of half the length in there somewhere.
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2 people found this helpful