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Offshore

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Offshore

By: Penelope Fitzgerald, Alan Hollinghurst - introduction
Narrated by: Jot Davies, Alan Hollinghurst, Stephanie Racine
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About this listen

WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE
FEATURED ON BBC’S BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB

Penelope Fitzgerald’s Booker Prize-winning novel of loneliness and connecting is set among the houseboat community of the Thames, with an introduction from Alan Hollinghurst.

On Battersea Reach, a mixed bag of the temporarily lost and the patently eccentric live on houseboats, rising and falling with the tide of the Thames.

There is good-natured Maurice, by occupation a male prostitute, by chance a receiver of stolen goods. And Richard, an ex-navy man whose boat, much like its owner, dominates the Reach. Then there is Nenna, an abandoned wife and mother of two young girls running wild on the muddy foreshore, whose domestic predicament, as it deepens, will draw this disparate community together.

©1979 Penelope Fitzgerald; Introduction Alan Hollinghurst 2013; Preface Hermione Lee 2013 (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Satire Urban Comedy

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Critic reviews

‘An astonishing book. Hardly more than 50,000 words, it is written with a manic economy that makes it seem even shorter, and with a tamped-down force that continually explodes in a series of exactly controlled detonations. Offshore is a marvellous achievement: strong, supple, humane, ripe, generous and graceful.’ Bernard Levin, Sunday Times
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this book is well known and has very good reviews but for me it was disappointing. I found it rather uneventful. I think maybe it's just not my thing.

uneventful

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I would have expected a polished style of narration, for this book, a voice full of character and gravitas, given that this novel won the Booker Prize. Sadly the narration, for me, sadly let down the great quality of writing.
The cast of characters in this wonderful story was varied and the narrative drew me into a world of outsiders living a bohemian life on Thames barges. It's a charming, poignant tale which has moments of humour and real sadness.
Overall, a little disappointing. A different voice and style of narration could have made it great.

An accomplished story, spoiled by the narration.

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I wish I’d read what other reviewers had said about the narrator. They were right. I’m not sure if the book is a good one, because it was read in such a bizarre way.

Poor narration

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Found this difficult to get into with characters arriving too quickly and confusingly named after their boats. Didnt care for the narration. Hollinghurst had a strange didactic way of speaking that grated on me. Story did grow on me and humour and pathos wonderfully mixed.

Not Fitzgeralds best

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This is a beautiful story but it is read like the Saturday afternoon football results on match of the day.

Great book, not so great narrator

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Fitzgerald needs no praise from me. What an incredible novel. But who possessed the editors to allow this gasping ingenu to mince his way through it, rocking and lilting as if he's the barge itself, rising on the incoming tide.

Fabulous book, strangely affected reading

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Great storytelling. A light touch, beautiful dialogue.
Narration odd- rather too buoyant and every other word slightly emphasized- but it does not spoil the performance.

Quirky & compelling

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One of the great authors. Sadly, the forced, repetitive intonation of the reader's performance of this Audible version makes it impossible to listen. Such a shame to ruin this important novel.

Wonderful writing appallingly read

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How did the narrator detract from the book?

He renders the characters' voices well (even when faced with a Canadian accent), but I found his tone when reading the narrative sing-song and infantilising, like he was reading me Winnie the Pooh. Quite unsuitable for a bleak, grown-up novel like this one.

Any additional comments?

Not Fitzgerald's best, but a strong book – compressed, allusive, subtle and often funny, much like her others. The voice of Alan Hollinghurst's baritone reading his insightful Introduction to the reissue is a treat and almost worth the price of the audiobook.

Adequate reading

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The dreadful narration of this one stopped me from finishing it! Too annoying by far!

Awful narration! Spoiled the story.

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