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Human Croquet

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Human Croquet

By: Kate Atkinson
Narrated by: Susan Jameson
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About this listen

Once it had been the great forest of Lythe - a vast and impenetrable thicket of green.And here, in the beginning, lived the Fairfaxes, grandly, at Fairfax Manor, visited once by the great Gloriana herself.

But over the centuries the forest had been destroyed, replaced by Streets of Trees.The Fairfaxes have dwindled too; now they live in 'Arden' at the end of Hawthorne Close and are hardly a family at all.

But Isobel Fairfax, who drops into pockets of time and out again, knows about the past. She is sixteen and waiting for the return of her mother - the thin, dangerous Eliza with her scent of nicotine, Arpège and sex, whose disappearance is part of the mystery that still remains at the heart of the forest.

 Contemporary Fiction Genre Fiction Funny Thought-Provoking Mind-bending

Critic reviews

Vivid, richly imaginative, hilarious and frightening by turns
Huge, exhilarating, loving and detailed eruption of a novel...an utterly intoxicating display of novelistic elan...big and joyous, literary and accessible...storytelling at its buoyant best
Wonderfully eloquent and forceful Kate Atkinson goes at the same pace in her second novel as she did in her first...welcome back, wild north-easter...brilliant and engrossing
Vivid and intriguing...fizzles and crackles along...a tour de force
Part ghost story, part murder mystery, this is an exquisitely written, literary novel that reads as compellingly as any thriller
A stunner of a second novel...a gutsy book, wrenched from the heart and written with tremendous force, immersing you in its strange, eccentric world
The quirky imagination, subversive humour and instinct for domestic chaos that Atkinson displayed in her first novel...are rampantly evident again
All stars
Most relevant
The initial plot seems a bit like her first novel but with less focus. By the end more and more characters are added and I found myself lost in a careering plot. I suspect it was me not seeing the underlying subtlety but ai saw no reason the narrator changes from first person to third person and back again. At the end things seem summed up quickly and unsatisfactorily. A rather frustrating listening experience with bursts of vivid entertainment.

Well written but confused

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Human Croquet is a book I never wanted to end, but couldn’t stop listening to. Susan Jameson’s performance was perfection.

Simply perfect

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I love Kate Atkinson books, the way she jumps and leads you hither and thither and you wonder where on earth she's going and then when it hits you and you think - how clever is that! loved this book, I had to buy hard copy as well so I can really enjoy it all over again at my own pace!

another great story

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thre narrator is perfect. great balance of lightness and humor with sincerity and pathos - just like the story.
so much richness in the telling

such a delight

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I find the inter- twining of lives and stories absolutely remarkable. So clever as to be mind bending. The narration makes the stage complete. Just wonderful.

Staggering

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