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The Blue Afternoon

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

WINNER OF THE SUNDAY EXPRESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD
A quest for secrets in the blue afternoon . . .

Los Angeles, 1936. Kay Fischer, a young and ambitious architect, is being followed by an old man. When confronted, he explains that his name is Salvador Carriscant - and that he is her father.

In a matter of weeks Kay will join Salvador on an extraordinary journey as they delve back into his past to not only learn the truth behind her own birth, but also to discover the whereabouts of a woman long thought dead - and to uncover the identity of a killer.

'Achingly memorable' The Times

'The finest storyteller of his generation' Daily Telegraph

'An extraordinary story' John Mortimer, Sunday Telegraph, Books of the Year

'Terrific' Jeremy Paxman, Independent, Books of the Year

'Richly entertaining' Independent

'A brilliant achievement' Time Out

© William Boyd 1993 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

 20th Century Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction
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Do not understand the positive reviews. The writing is not good but more like someone following a guide for how to write well. At times minutiae in describing irrelevant things. The narrator also did not impress. Poor male voicing and poor accents.

Eh.

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I sometimes find myself thinking 'oh I'm not going to enjoy this as much as his others' but sure enough the characters and his fluent storytelling draw you into their world until you almost feel you are living in it.

Another excellent novel by William Boyd

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Plot of story didn’t hold me as much as usual, though I’m not sure why. But the atmosphere of place which he conjures up is masterly, as is his characterisation.

Sense of place

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Long complicated story but I never really cared about any of the characters. Not his usual standard.

Description of life in a time and area I knew little of.

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I love this Author. It’s my 2nd book to read by him. The 1st being “love is blind” which is Excellent.
This tale is so engaging and I looked forward to getting back into the story each day but it really falls down in the end when story goes back to the main character in his present day. It’s like the author just had enough and decided to end the book which was so disappointing as the first 75% of the book had been so engaging. He does not answer so many questions. In fact he does not give reason or closure to anything in the story. Who committed the murders? What was the main character jailed on no evidence of a crime? And do many more important questions to all aspects of the story that I cannot say without divulging the story. It finishes and you say “Why” I would love for the Author to do justice to the book by re writing the final 25%.

Great story but fell down in the end

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