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  • Backpack

  • By: Emily Barr
  • Narrated by: Emma Fenney
  • Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (124 ratings)
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Backpack cover art

Backpack

By: Emily Barr
Narrated by: Emma Fenney
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Summary

The wonderful first novel from the critically acclaimed author of The Sleeper and The Sisterhood.

It's New Year's Day and the year isn't kicking off well for Tansy: her mother's dead, she's a cocaine addict and her boyfriend has just left her. A trip around the world seems like the only option except that she's not interested in seeing the world, just escaping from it, and the last people she wants to hang out with are backpackers.

Like a lot of travellers on the Lonely-Planet-led Asian Grand Tour, Tansy is intensely irritating at first. Always on the look out for the "real" Vietnam--the one in which she can walk around "like a model, fanning myself gently, strolling into ancient temples and learning about inner peace"--she is opinionated, narrow-minded and remarkably naive (for a supposed media luvvy). Once she has shrugged off her addiction to lines of coke, skinny lattes and Nicole Fahri jumpers, she becomes more appealing. So by the time she's fallen for Max, a fellow traveller, she'll have won you over and you'll be just as worried as she is about the serial killer who appears to be on her trail.

Emily Barr has written columns and travel pieces for the Observer and the Guardian for several years, and her previous novels have all been critically acclaimed. She lives in Cornwall with her husband and three children.

©2001 Emily Barr (P)2014 Audible Studios

What listeners say about Backpack

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

A solid 4 star listen - enjoyable.

What did you like most about Backpack?

For me, it was hearing about Tansy as she travelled the world. In essence she is seeking an escape from her life in the UK and the fact that she is not the stereotypical travelling kind of person ensured this captured her cynicism perfectly! Lightly humorous and good expression in the narrators voice.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Backpack?

The backpack travels were told with subtle humour and I found the moments when Tansy encountered over travellers kept this story feeling fresh.

Which character – as performed by Emma Fenney – was your favourite?

Tansy - without a doubt. This is her story and I loved seeing how much she changed over the course of her travels.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No probably not. I listened to this over several days and it was great to get little chunks of the backpack experience.

Any additional comments?

A solid narration of a very good book. A solid 4 star - perhaps not setting the world alight but a really great story to get into and some nice moments of humour.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
  • V
  • 20-01-17

fantastic visuals and a good plot

really excellent in terms of conjuring up images of all the amazing places Tansy visits. she is such an unlikeable character in the beginning but the author and narrator are very successful in making you want to stick with her. The serial killer storyline almost feels irrelevant as Tansy's personal journey is more than interesting enough but it is well executed regardless. Only wish the ending was a little less abrupt!

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3 people found this helpful

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

Great Story, Great Narration!

Having read/listened to other books by Emily Barr, I had no qualms in using my monthly credit to download 'Backpack'. I found out that 'Backpack' is one of Emily Barr's early books; in fact I believe it is her first, and as I am familiar with her style and plot choices in later books, I did see the main reveal at the end of the book coming. However, it is still a great story and there were other smaller surprises along the way.
The author creates an honest and tangible description of Asia and the main character, Tansy, starts off quite hateful (yet some of her comments are laugh out loud funny) but she really goes on a "journey" ending the story as a much more enlightened and balanced young woman. I loved the narration and thought that Emma Fenney was fantastic at conveying pace and emotion and her accents for different characters were pretty darn good too! All around an excellent listen!

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3 people found this helpful

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

BRIDGET JONES' BAD BIG SISTER BACKPACKING MURDER!

If you love Bridget Jones, fabulous travelogs and murder mysteries - then this is the one for you! Terrible tearaway Tansy, journalist and party girl is like Bridget Jones on crack, though coke is her preferred drug of choice along with copious amounts of drink. This goodtime girl is so very well read by narrator Emma Fenney, that it had me in fits of laughter, while the wonderfully evocative descriptions of a trek through Vientnam, Laos, Thailand, China and Tibet really made me feel like I was there. The murder mystery which runs in tandem with the travels added drama and menace to the fun proceedings and the journey of course is as much about the character as the route as she faces her demons while never losing her sense of humour. I did guess the murderer before the reveal, but really the book was far more than a whodunnit, hilarious though the subject matter was gritty and so very different from this author's other excellent thrillers like Sleeper and Stranded which I adored also. This is a unique book and I loved every minute. I have never had any great wish to visit Asia and definitely not to backpack anywhere but now thanks to this book I feel I actually have done both in really hilarious company. So well written and a real breath of fresh air. I do so hope Audible will offer more of Emily Barr's books to us in the future like "Cuban Heels" and the sequel to this book "The Life You Want" as well as "The Sisterhood", "Out of My Depth" and "First Wife" ...... as they all look excellent but now am so hooked on audio books I would prefer them to be read to me!!!

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2 people found this helpful

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

Guessing till the End

I didn't even even guess that it was him. Great writing once again by this brilliant author. Will read more.

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2 people found this helpful

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

Escape

I read this on my first round the world trip so it has special memories for me. I enjoyed the audible version, it also transported me away from grey oppresive London to the energy and life of a holiday in Asia.

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2 people found this helpful

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

unfinished

The use of bad language put me off finishing this book. That's just my preference. Probably quite humorous!

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

Ok, but far too long

It started off well,with good descriptions of Asia, but only to be expected from a travel journalist, but a third of the way through the story it lost its way, far too much unnecessary ramblings, just went on and on, in fact I skipped several chapters, and it didn’t seem to matter! I suspected who the baddie was early on and it became very far fetched. Good narration though.

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

This was fantastic !

I couldn’t stand this Character initially She was a total Bitch! So selfish,
Sometimes hilarious Put downs and opinions of others. Then as her Journey continues the layers and self awareness show up someone quite different. Then there’s more a lot more to Tamsey, Dare she wish for it.

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

Fairly lightweight travel-romance-whodunnit.

But the performance: the narrator is great at conveying emotion in a restrained, limited way but it’d be nice if she knew the difference between a Peak District and a generic eebegum Yorkshire accent and knew how to pronounce the names of the places the travellers visit. Every time she pronounced the ‘s’ on the end of ‘Laos’ it made me flinch.

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