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  • The Best of Adam Sharp

  • By: Graeme Simsion
  • Narrated by: David Barker
  • Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
  • 3.8 out of 5 stars (87 ratings)
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The Best of Adam Sharp cover art

The Best of Adam Sharp

By: Graeme Simsion
Narrated by: David Barker
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Summary

The heart-warming new novel from Graeme Simsion, the international best-selling author of The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect.

Can you define your life by a single song? Adam Sharp - former pianist in a hip Melbourne bar, now a respectable IT consultant in Norwich - can. And it's 'You're Going to Lose That Girl'....

On the cusp of 50 and a happy introvert, Adam is content. He's the music expert at his local pub quiz, and he and his partner, Claire, rumble along. Life may not be rock n' roll, but neither is it easy listening. Yet something has always felt off-key. And that's his nostalgia for what might have been, his blazing affair - more than 20 years ago, on the other side of the world - with Angelina Brown, a smart and sexy, strong-willed actress who taught him for the first time, as he played piano and she sang, what it meant to find - and then lose - love. How different might his life be if he hadn't let her walk away?

Then, out of nowhere, Angelina gets in touch. Adam has sung about second chances, but does he have the courage to believe in them?

The Best of Adam Sharp is about growing old and feeling young, about happy times and sad memories, about staying together and drifting apart, but most of all it's about how the music we make together creates the soundtrack that shapes our lives.

©2017 Grame Simsion (P)2017 Penguin Audio

What listeners say about The Best of Adam Sharp

Average customer ratings
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Compelling Listen

Fascinating book full of twists and turns and emotional tugging. I felt for all of the characters in turn and found myself on the seesaw being portrayed!

Brilliantly written, very clever, totally recommend

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Roller Coaster

Would you listen to The Best of Adam Sharp again? Why?

hey, it's a great listen, is it a two timer, probably not

What did you like best about this story?

it's not Rosie, but it keeps you indulged until the end

Have you listened to any of David Barker’s other performances? How does this one compare?

First David Barker performance, very good....

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

won't spoil the end, it's a good book

Any additional comments?

stick with it, you will enjoy

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A bit over indulgent

Well narrated but at times over indulgent.
Got a bit bizarre all the sequences in France and not very believable
But overall listenable and amusing in parts

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Would make a great film

I chose this as I loved the two Rosie books. It's not at all like them. I still really enjoyed it. The first part was, for me, reminiscent of Juliet Naked (Nick Hornby - I'm waiting for a sequel). I loved the piano scene at St Pancras International. Part two was surprising. Difficult to see which way it would go, both in the short term and after. Really interesting view of different relationships and characters. The main theme of the book was nostalgia, fed by music.
The best novel I've read this year.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A very different book to the Rosie Project

I wrong (and probably unfairly) presumed this book would be similar to the previous two in the 'Rosie' series. The synopsis on audible also indicated this. It's not a simile book and I wouldn't have guessed it was the same author. I didn't mind it but it dragged on a bit and took a long time to get anywhere.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

nothing like the Rosie project

loved it. but i don't think I would have loved it a few years ago.
it's for an older audience.
lots of flawed humans. lots of perspective. lots of wisdom gleaned over the years. and well written.
the music is really good too... the playlist. I'll try to read it with the playlist one day.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

Got off to a good start but second half was boring and the characters’ actions were surprising and unbelievable.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Massively disappointing

I had high hopes for this. I loved The Rosie Project and its sequel, but here, the characters are boring, the narrative is weak and confused and the writing mediocre at best. It lacks any of the humour I so loved in TRP.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Navel gazing and melancholy times. Unlikeable characters and predictable outcome.

It felt like a bad play that you didn't have the energy to walk out of at the interval just in case it didn't turn out as you expected. It did.
Unlikeable characters going monotonously through all the questions everyone ever has about a young love which doesn't work out. Just made me feel sad for the world. Disappointing, especially after The Rosie Project.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing and slightly tawdry

I loved The Rosie Project and liked The Rosie Effect so really looked forward to this despite it not being a comedy. Graeme Simsion writes poignancy very well and the beginning of the romance between Angelina and Adam was quite sweet and engaging. Unfortunately it all turned a bit bleugh in the second half with the characters indulging in some pretty inane and unpleasant behaviour and I quickly fell out of love with the whole thing.

This novel uses music as the backdrop to the story and it is a nice touch making the playlist available on Spotify but to be honest I found the selection not as amazing as the author clearly thinks it is. I also wanted to narrator to sound a bit less flat and bored.

Overall this was a nice try but sadly lacking in Graeme Simsion's characteristic charm.

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10 people found this helpful