The Blue Afternoon cover art

The Blue Afternoon

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Blue Afternoon

By: William Boyd
Narrated by: Kate Handford
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Winner of the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award

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.

©2020 William Boyd (P)2020 Penguin Audio 20th Century Fiction Historical Fiction

Listeners also enjoyed...

 William Boyd: A BBC Radio Drama Collection cover art
The Fine Art of Invisible Detection cover art
White Feathers cover art
The Warden cover art
The Untouchable cover art
Exposure cover art

Critic reviews

"Achingly memorable." (The Times)

"The finest storyteller of his generation." (Daily Telegraph)

"An extraordinary story." (John Mortimer, Sunday Telegraph, Books of the Year)

All stars
Most relevant
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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I always enjoy this author, whose stories are never repetitive or formulaic. It took me a while to understand where it was going which I believe was intended. Hang in there, the twists and turns and multiple layers are a satisfying journey worthy of the author and your time.

An engaging and complex story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews