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The Closed Circle

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The Closed Circle

By: Jonathan Coe
Narrated by: Nicholas Burns
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About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Closed Circle by Jonathan Coe, read by Nicholas Burns.

On Millennium night, with Blair presiding over a superficially cool, sexed-up new version of the country, Benjamin Trotter finds himself watching the celebrations on his parents' TV. Watching, in fact, his younger brother, Paul, now a bright young New Labour MP who has bought wholeheartedly into the Blairite dream. Neither of them can know that their lives are about to implode.

Set against the backdrop of a changing Britain and the country's increasingly compromised role in America's 'war against terrorism', the characters struggle to make sense of the perennial problems of love, vocation and family.

©2019 Jonathan Coe (P)2019 Penguin Books Ltd Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction

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Having really liked the Rotter's club I was pleasantly surprised to find this book is even better. The narrative arc it forms with the first book is very clever but it's amazing how much you feel for the characters too. The book is much more than just political commentary. Oh, and the narration is excellent too.

Stunning follow on to the Rotters club

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Love Jonathan Coe and this novel is the brilliant conclusion of the “Rotter’s Club”. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed revisiting those fascinating characters

Another brilliant novel from Jonathan Coe

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Really enjoyed this sequel to The Rotters Club.
Jonathan Coe is great at capturing the feeling and political mood of the New Labour years. It’s great to hear about the local Birmingham and Midland landmarks and references, but also the feelings, the fear and impact of the IRA years, the humour and drama of that period.

The narration is excellent and perfectly matches the content and dialogue.

Brilliant!

The Rotters Return

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A good fun read from Jonathan Coe and a step up from The Rotters Club in terms of quality of writing - or perhaps it was just tighter editing. I am the same age as Coe so found this brought back so many memories, lots of very funny moments and plenty of cringeworthy ones too. Looking forward to listening to the next installment.

Millennium Madness

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For many in my generation this ( mid-trilogy) novel reflects our own experiences through relationships / friendships / maturing.

Story of our lives …

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The sequel to the Rotters' Club is even better in my opinion. Brilliantly read by Nicholas Burns too.

More excellent prose from JC

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Really love this story the second time around after reading The Rotters Club again. Also enjoyed the narration but was staggered to hear him belch in chapter 37! Perhaps someone should have edited it out?

Did anyone hear the belch?!

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Brilliantly read and flawlessly executed portrait of Blair’s Britain. Great to catch up with Benjamin, Lois, Doug et al, 25 years on from the events of the equally enjoyable Rotter’s Club. Can’t wait to see where they all go next.

Honest and hilarious depiction of Blair era Britain.

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This is a good and thoroughly enjoyable novel, though listeners may gain best advantage by reading the first novel in the Rotters’ sequence of three novels – ‘The Rotters’ Club’. In the print version of ‘The Closed Circle’ there is a summary of the first novel at the end of the book. As a reminder of that novel, it might have been a good idea for this to have been included as a part of the Penguin audio-book. For me ‘The Closed Circle’ is better than TRC. I found myself fully engaged with ‘The Closed Circle’ resenting at times having to stop listening to do something else or to go somewhere. Coe has great skill in making things funny, even when a grimacing or embarrassing situation triggers the humour. He crafts coincidences and situations so well that every scene is fresh. You gasp sometimes. At times there are levels of excitement more common in a detective story. This novel sees characters that have matured and moved on (or not) within a changed political world. This world equally comes under Coe’s keen and just political scrutiny. I was more than once surprised at some of the plot developments that forced a re-adjustment of what has gone before. This made the listening experience all the more absorbing and dynamic. By the end of this audio-book the imperative to listen to the third novel in the sequence – ‘Middle England’ – is near to overwhelming; the desire to see more developments within this group of characters, resolutions, surprises and perhaps some hope of justice for at least one of the characters. The audio-book is very well performed and sympathetic. Do, please do, take to this audio-book.

Resolutions and Unfinished Stories – Excellent

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A very enjoyable novel that sums up Britain in the Blair years, but somewhat marred by the dull reading. The lack of vocal differentiation between characters made it hard to follow at times, and the reading was occasionally stilted and hesitant. For a book set largely in Birmingham, I would have thought an actor with a local accent more appropriate. Some of the ex-Longbridge workers were made unintentionally comical by the incongruity of their Home Counties accents, but generally I felt the flat reading failed to capture the humour of the book. Disappointing.

Disappointing reader

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