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Treacle Walker
- Narrated by: Robert Powell
- Length: 1 hr and 48 mins
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Treacle Walker
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Summary
Shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize and a Guardian Best Fiction Book of 2021
An introspective young boy, Joseph Coppock squints at the world with his lazy eye. Living alone in an old house, he reads comics, collects birds’ eggs and plays with his marbles. When, one day, a rag-and-bone man called Treacle Walker appears, exchanging an empty jar of a cure-all medicine and a donkey stone for a pair of Joseph's pyjamas and a lamb's shoulder blade, a mysterious friendship develops between them.
A fusion of myth, magic and the stories we make for ourselves, Treacle Walker is an extraordinary novel from one of our greatest living writers.
A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR • A TLS BOOK OF THE YEAR • A GUARDIAN BEST FICTION BOOK OF 2021
Critic reviews
"Treacle Walker is a small miracle." (New Statesman Best Books of 2021)
"It’s a strange, austere, uncompromising book, leagues ahead of anything else I’ve read this year." (Peter Thonemann, TLS)
"Treacle Walker is a circular narrative, made of smaller interlocking circles, with actions and whole paragraphs repeating: in its end is its beginning. This late fiction also works the seam opened up in Garner’s very first novel, inspired by the story handed down to his grandfather about enchanted sleepers under Alderley Edge.... Playful, moving and wholly remarkable work.... There’s a life’s work inside this little book" (Guardian)
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What listeners say about Treacle Walker
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
- Glamourpuss
- 11-11-22
Strange and Mesmerising
Wasn’t sure what to expect. I hadn’t read any Alan Garner since I was at school (a long time ago!) but this had me from the first. I found the language of Treacle Walker so strange and beautiful - it mesmerised me. Loved every minute and beautifully performed by Robert Powell. He made the characters really come alive. Fabulous. I will listen again. I’m sure there will be things I missed the first time.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Clive roberts
- 03-12-22
Four stars for now
I like Treacle Walker; it feels like a breath of fresh air in what is beginning to feel like just more of the same old same from the literary world. I thought the narration was very well done, also. I have given it four stars for now, simply because I need to listen to it again to peel away the story's layers.
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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
- Geraldine Canniford
- 21-10-22
A magical read.
I listened to this wonderful book with a smile, all the way through.
It took me to many places especially to Yorkshire and my Grandparents.
I will buy the book to read at will
Thank you for your magical I’m agitation and poetic use of words.
Geraldine
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Teddy_Ed
- 23-12-22
Confusing for my small brain
Beautifully written, clever and confusing. I got lost, very lost, but it was well read and I enjoyed listening to it. Maybe I’ll try again when I’ve grown some more brain cells. Or maybe I won’t
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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
- Amazon Customer
- 19-11-21
Absolutely
I really enjoy a book that does a lot more than tells a story. This one will engage your mind and make you think, even if you start by categorising it as youth/teenage fiction.
The narrator makes it come alive.
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6 people found this helpful
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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
- A P Harris
- 30-07-22
Beautiful words, beautifully read
Although this story contains many complex words and sentences it's rhythms, it's heart, its songs are wonderfully simple.
I know of very few writers who's words are so entrapping and engaging as Garners. This book is as fresh today as when it was written and is like nothing else.
Nothing else that is than another Garner novel, here beautiful read by Robert Powell. An absolute classic.
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4 people found this helpful
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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
- Ebray
- 07-09-22
Can’t wait to listen again
What an intriguing and mystifying story, Full of depth, riddle and meaning in such simple dialogues, full of beautiful dialect. It is enchanting.
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3 people found this helpful
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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
- Prof. J. Mark Bishop
- 11-10-22
A short book that warrants multiple engagements
This is a book full of word magic; obscure language, multi-layered and multiple meanings. It repays many readings at one time in your life, as you learn to engage with its depth and will no doubt repay re-reading at different times in your life as your perspective evolves. A tiny, but truly magical read…
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 27-04-22
Late Garner unexpected
Robert Powell reads this short fable superbly. In one way it is about the relationship between an old rag-and-bone man and a boy who is Ill but like most of Garner it is also about the nature of reality. It is full of riddles and gnomic sayings. The boy has the glamourie, he can see what isn’t literally there with one eye. He can converse with a bog-body who has roused from the Neolithic and can enter the world of his comic, Knockout. This is recommended for all who enjoy the world of Alan Garner. It is a beautiful spare narrative,
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7 people 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
- Ms. K. Suttill
- 23-01-23
Interesting but not my usual listen
This was an interesting book but not what I’d usually read. I struggled so picture the characters and their place in time/location but maybe that was the point.
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