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Breakdown
- Narrated by: Gráinne Gillis
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
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Breakdown
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Summary
One winter morning on an ordinary day in contemporary Dublin, an ordinary middle-class woman wakes up in her ordinary suburban home. Her husband is next to her in bed, her teenage children sleeping nearby.
Without thinking much about it, she walks out the front door and never comes back.
She travels first by car, then train, then ferry. Along the way, she finds herself in service stations and shopping centres, hotel bars and hairdressers - and in the beds of strange men.
Finally, forty-eight hours later, alone in a cottage in Wales, the woman faces up to what she has been ignoring inside herself, her family, modern society: signs of breakdown.
From one of Ireland's most provocative and admired writers, this is a story of rage and reckoning, joy and transformation.
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What listeners say about Breakdown
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Deirdre Mulcahy
- 16-02-24
Very disappointed having heard all the hype
Felt it was a bit far fetched, am similar age & found a lot of her actions unbelievable
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 10-04-24
Great story - poor narration
Beautifully written and a compelling read. Narrator was wrong for the book for me - v irritating accents and did it no justice.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Grace.K
- 23-04-24
A book for reading
I stopped halfway through the audio. I don’t think the tone is right - almost a stereotypical caricature of a South County Dublin middle-class woman (verging on West Brit). I imagine the writing is more subtle than the audio narration. I think it’s a book that, if it can be read, should be read, given the format, some fonts, etc. I’ve started reading it and am enjoying the story much more.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Jenny Langley
- 29-03-24
Awful voice
Couldn’t get beyond second chapter. Voice entirely wrong. Really grated - horrible to listen to….. don’t listen
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 30-03-24
Narrator
Couldn’t really get into it no matter how much I tried as I felt the narrators voice wasn’t suitable or pleasant to listen to so gave up half way.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rachel
- 20-04-24
Loved the story - hated the performance
I kept wishing I had read this one - didn’t rate the performance at all
… shame
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- andrea doyle
- 06-03-24
short
was waiting for it to start when it was over just never went anywhere felt unfinished
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Chris and Alison
- 25-01-24
Short but still too long.
The protagonist has a nasty case of navel-gazing affluenza, and that’s about it. Unfortunately for the reader, despite some smart and sharp writing, there’s a limit to what an author can make of that. That’s why it is a short novel. and that is why (in my view) it should really have been a (not particularly long) short story instead. There just not enough there to spin a novel out of, I’m afraid. Disappointing.
The audiobook narrator should not have been let loose on Welsh characters before she had done a little homework, however rudimentary.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- homedaq
- 09-02-24
Extremely poor
This was one of the worst books I’ve ever listened to, the narration was so bad, the story line was so badly written. It was a typical privileged Dublin 4 mentality.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Mum
- 11-02-24
Dull
I thought this was going to be a great story but the story was limited and the writing boring. To much reliance on listing things at every given opportunity. Found myself waiting for the next list and didn’t have to wait long! Couldn’t finish listening.
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