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Turning for Home
- Author
- Barney Norris
- Publisher
- Transworld
- Publish Date
- 11 January 2018
- Run Time
- 7 hours 46 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
Random House presents the audiobook edition of Turning for Home by Barney Norris, read by Eleanor Wyld, Paul Hickey and Timothy West.
'Isn’t the life of any person made up out of the telling of two tales, after all? People live in the space between the realities of their lives and the hopes they have for them. The whole world makes more sense if you remember that everyone has two lives, their real lives and their dreams, both stories only a tape’s breadth apart from each other, impossibly divided, indivisibly close.'
Every year, Robert's family come together at a rambling old house to celebrate his birthday. Aunts, uncles, distant cousins - it has been a milestone in their lives for decades. But this year Robert doesn't want to be reminded of what has happened since they last met - and neither, for quite different reasons, does his granddaughter Kate. Neither of them is sure they can face the party. But for both Robert and Kate, it may become the most important gathering of all.
As lyrical and true to life as Norris's critically acclaimed debut Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain, which won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize and Debut of the Year at the British Book Awards, this is a compelling, emotional story of family, human frailty, and the marks that love leaves on us.
'One of our most exciting young writers' - The Times
'Norris writes beautifully, unearthing extraordinary depths in the everyday... a memorable writer, mature beyond his years.' - Sunday Times
'Norris has a gift for tapping in to ordinary lives and finding the extraordinary in them' - Daily Mail
Critics Review
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Courageous . . . memorable . . . so moving that one wonders why as a society we are so much more eager to hear about young love than old . . . it is incidental moments that remain vivid in memory once the book is closed, small glimpses of unsuspected inner lives.
Guardian
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This novel firmly establishes Barney as one of the most insightful and attuned writers of his generation. He negotiates all the huge and hugely important themes - love, family, loss, conflict, pain, the storm-blown paths we all travel - with such grace and absolute empathy. It's a life-affirming, beautiful and achingly poignant book.
Donal Ryan
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Deeply moving . . . readers would do well to make the acquaintance of Barney Norris, who has the potential to become a hugely significant novelist in the decades ahead.
John Boyne
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Norris handles his themes – loneliness, regret, reconciliation – with great sensitivity’
The Observer
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Utterly convincing...profound and elegiac
Daily Mail
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Remember the name Barney Norris. He's a new writer in his mid-twenties, but already outstanding.
The Times
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Everything he writes about love, loss, grief, desolation and moments of hope and illumination rings absolutely true. It's the real stuff.
Michael Frayn
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Barney Norris is a rare and precious talent
Evening Standard
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Impressive
Financial Times
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Turning for Home is a resonant portrayal of memory, and Barney Norris a writer of impressive talent.
Times Literary Supplement
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Barney Norris
- Narrator
- Timothy West, Paul Hickey, Eleanor Wyld
- Duration
- 7 hours 46 minutes
- Release Date
- 11 January 2018
- ISBN
- 9781473558830
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Transworld
- Genre
- Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary
Synopsis
Random House presents the audiobook edition of Turning for Home by Barney Norris, read by Eleanor Wyld, Paul Hickey and Timothy West.'Isn’t the life of any person made up out of the telling of two tales, after all? People live in the space between the realities of their lives and the hopes they have for them. The whole world makes more sense if you remember that everyone has two lives, their real lives and their dreams, both stories only a tape’s breadth apart from each other, impossibly divided, indivisibly close.'Every year, Robert's family come together at a rambling old house to celebrate his birthday. Aunts, uncles, distant cousins - it has been a milestone in their lives for decades. But this year Robert doesn't want to be reminded of what has happened since they last met - and neither, for quite different reasons, does his granddaughter Kate. Neither of them is sure they can face the party. But for both Robert and Kate, it may become the most important gathering of all.As lyrical and true to life as Norris's critically acclaimed debut Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain, which won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize and Debut of the Year at the British Book Awards, this is a compelling, emotional story of family, human frailty, and the marks that love leaves on us.'One of our most exciting young writers' - The Times'Norris writes beautifully, unearthing extraordinary depths in the everyday... a memorable writer, mature beyond his years.' - Sunday Times'Norris has a gift for tapping in to ordinary lives and finding the extraordinary in them' - Daily Mail
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