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Be Mine

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About this listen

Bloomsbury presents Be Mine by Richard Ford, read by Richard Poe.

Over the course of four celebrated works of fiction and almost forty years, Richard Ford has crafted an ambitious, incisive and singular view of American life as lived. Unconstrained, astute, provocative, often laugh-out-loud funny, Frank Bascombe is, here, once more our guide to the great American midway.

Now in the twilight of life, a man who has occupied many colourful lives — sportswriter, father, husband, ex-husband, friend, real estate agent — Bascombe finds himself in the most sorrowing role of all; caregiver to his son, Paul, diagnosed with ALS. On a shared winter's odyssey to Mount Rushmore, Frank in typical Bascombe fashion faces down the mortality that is assured each of us, and in doing so confronts what happiness might signify at the end of days.

In this memorable novel, Richard Ford puts on display the prose, wit and intelligence that make him one of the world's most acclaimed living writers. Be Mine is a profound, funny, poignant love letter to our beleaguered world.

‘One of the finest achievements of modern American fiction’ The Independent

©2023 Richard Ford (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Marriage Funny
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I enjoy Richard Ford's work and also read memoirs. This book, in spite of its difficult subject matter, is a joy to listen to. Unsure of the narrator at first, he's the perfect choice. Be Mine has a bit of everything and, much like life itself, needs to be savoured and understood for what it is. Frank Bascombe at 74 is magnificent.

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What can you say about steady, thoughtful, occasionally wise Frank. Frank feels so real I've often thought it would be good to have him as a friend. I've invited him on the dinner party game. You know he must be very different to Richard Ford though they've almost become one in my mind. I'll genuinely miss Frank, thinking his way through life.

Frank is quietly wise

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