A Sweet Obscurity cover art

A Sweet Obscurity

A tender, heartfelt novel of a child having to grow up too soon

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A Sweet Obscurity

By: Patrick Gale
Narrated by: Patrick Gale
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About this listen

 Bittersweet and startling, A SWEET OBSCURITY is a novel of childhood, love and the consequences of how lives are lived.

'Intriguing and impressive. A memorable study of a child forced cruelly, even tragically, to grow up too soon' Sunday Times

Since her mother's death, nine year old Dido has been living with her eccentric aunt, acting as peacekeeper between Eliza, her estranged husband Giles and his girlfriend. They are each cruelly burdened in different ways. Chance draws them down to Cornwall, where a country idyll offers to lighten their urban cares. Eliza falls in love with local farmer, Pearce, an event that causes the four adults to re-assess their lives, with some painful and unforeseen consequences for adults and child alike.

(P)2018 Headline Publishing Group Ltd©2003 Patrick Gale Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction

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Critic reviews

Intriguing and impressive. A memorable study of a child forced cruelly, even tragically, to grow up too soon
Flawless
A rich comedy of sexual and familial confusions...a rare and welcome fictional voice
It amuses, startles and occasionally bewilders. A Sweet Obscurity is worth every minute of your time
All stars
Most relevant
Went on a little, glad I didn't have to read it or I would have given up. Not very exciting.

Slow

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Packed with different characters, all convincing, and varied settings, urban, academic and far west Cornwall, this is one of Gale’s longer novels beautifully read by himself. I enjoyed it very much.

A really satisfying and involving listen

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I’ve listened to several of Patrick Gale’s novels. They never disappoint, and a couple of times I’ve gone straight back to the beginning and listened again.
This is another enthralling story that held me until the last page.
It is beautifully read and performed by Patrick Gale.
Thank you

An enthralling story beautifully read

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I have read several of Patrick Gale's novels and I particularly enjoyed this one. It is captivating throughout and is beautifully read by the author.

Delightful

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Multi-charactered stories interest but don’t ignite.
I am a huge fan of Patrick Gale, and one can never deny the quality if his writing or indeed his storytelling.
For me though, this novel was a little less engaging than I usually find with him.
Too many characters thrown at me all at once in early chapters, so it was a long time before I could connect with any emotionally.
In one strand of the book Gale tackles a challenging topic intelligently and sensitively.but i found myself stepping back from the story a little due to the subject matter. My favourite books are those in which i am always with the characters not observing them from a safe distance.
The convoluted narrative didn’t gel for me, in that it felt (for a while) a bit like a high quality soap that i had dipped into for a while. Multiple things happening for multiple characters who had connections etc, but without ever revealing a singular idea or theme or even a particular point of view of any kind. The richness of Gales language and the details along the way in any story of his are here and make this a worthwhile read, but for me its one of his lesser novels (which of course still puts it head and shoulders above 99% of all modern novels)!

Multi-charactered stories interest but don’t ignite.

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