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  • City of Bohane

  • By: Kevin Barry
  • Narrated by: Kevin Barry
  • Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (135 ratings)
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City of Bohane cover art

City of Bohane

By: Kevin Barry
Narrated by: Kevin Barry
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Summary

Shortlisted for the 2011 Costa First Novel Award. Winner of the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award.

Forty years in the future. The once-great city of Bohane on the west coast of Ireland is on its knees, infested by vice and split along tribal lines.

There are the posh parts of town, but it is in the slums and backstreets of Smoketown, the tower blocks of the Northside Rises and the eerie bogs of Big Nothin' that the city really lives.

For years, the city has been in the cool grip of Logan Hartnett, the dapper godfather of the Hartnett Fancy gang. But there's trouble in the air. They say his old nemesis is back in town; his trusted henchmen are getting ambitious; and his missus wants him to give it all up and go straight... And then there's his mother.

©2011 Kevin Barry (P)2013 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd, Random House Audiobooks 2013

What listeners say about City of Bohane

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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  • YA
  • 16-02-15

Impressive Debut

Visceral,powerful first novel. Witty and yet unforgiving. Unusually the author's reading adds a credible sense of place, pace and characterisation.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A Work of Genius

This is an astonishing book. The incandescently good writing coupled with the phantasmagorical landscape and cast of characters makes for an unforgettable listening experience. It's a kind of mix of Clockwork Orange, Mad Max, and Blood Meridian replete with brute savagery but with an undertow of great humour throughout. I think it is best listened to rather than read as Barry is an outstanding narrator and he brings the exotic characters to life with their mixture of Cork and Limerick working class accents (Barry is a native of Limerick and worked for some years in Cork). That said, I intend to buy the hardcopy version in order to dip into it every now and then to savour the brilliant writing and renew acquaintance with some of the disreputable types who populate the pages. The only other book I do that with is Joyce's "Ulysses". I was sorry when the story came to a close as inhabiting the City of Bohane for an hour or two per day was something to be savoured. Without a doubt, one of the best Audible experiences I've had.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A gripping story poetically narrated by the author

This novel, as distinct from the sometimes sterile readings by professional readers, is narrated by the books author. His attention to language and flow is brought to light in his passionate reading of his own work.

The novel itself is at times gruesome but also emotive in those moments. One is drawn by the in-depth character depictions into this dark, cruel world where surviving the year is a success. His descriptions of their clothes are overly elaborate and take somewhat from it as you can't skip it, like with a book.

Overall it's a complex and exciting story well told by the books own writer.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Kevin Barry reading his own work is just wonderful.

The story is odd and incredibly told. Kevin Barry’s characters and world is something everyone should experience.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Genius

So good, I listened to it three times back to back. An amazing story teller.

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

Sure, it's very stylish but...

It has the undeniable noir-tinged lyricism of Hammet and Chandler with a good dose of Irish West Coast patter, but it's characters are all archetypes with no-one to root for. Rambling gang-warfare and love trists with nowhere to go.
Kevin Barry's narration is occasionally a thing of beauty to listen too, but all too often stilted and frustrating, especially when he stops to describe each character's outfit practically down to the colour of their socks each time they appear.
I had no problem with the Irish gumshoe lingo, but this had the air of something desperate to be cool.

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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

Stunning

I’ve read the book twice and I’m in awe of the way Kevin Barry has created this city that feels like a character in its own right, and such memorable protagonists. I can’t write a review that properly expresses how blown away I was by this book - the audio book is just delicious. Amazing!

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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

Enjoyable fiction with a lot of Irish dialect.

I struggled a little to catch everything narrated, as I am not a native speaker and the language used in the book is quite descriptive. Louds of low frequency words. However I enjoyed the book and intend to listen to it again in order to catch some of the missed details. I really enjoyed the dialect as it the tipical one for the Limerick city. I think the Boham is actually Limerick city as the river and everything described matches. Six miles bridge had been named eight mile bridge in the book.

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

Limerick slang boy!!

very nicely read by the author 👌
Great world he has created, hope he dose a second book following on from this one 👍

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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

Sex, Drugs, Fashion, Feuds and lots of Violence

This is a very original novel that is beautifully read by the author and, heaven knows, it would make an amazing film or TV series. Don't expect an easy ride though as it is not an immediately accessible narrative and it does make the listener/reader work for their rewards but once you do tune in it is poetically beautiful with utterly gorgeous imagery. It is highly original but also has echoes of Clockwork Orange, Mad Max and Peaky Blinders with the added ingredient of melancholic Irish mysticism, romance and ultra - violence. That's a powerful cocktail in my estimation. Anyone who loves language and the poetry of language will adore this novel.

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