La Belle Sauvage
The Book of Dust, Volume One
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La Belle Sauvage
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Narrated by:
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Michael Sheen
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By:
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Philip Pullman
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
The British Book Awards Audiobook of the Year 2018
2019 CAMEO Book to Audio
Best Solo Narration - New York Festival Radio Awards
Shortlisted Best Audiobook Narrator - Audio Production Awards
Penguin presents the audio download edition of La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman, read by Michael Sheen.
Eleven-year-old Malcolm Polstead and his dæmon, Asta, live with his parents at the Trout Inn near Oxford. Across the River Thames (which Malcolm navigates often using his beloved canoe, a boat by the name of La Belle Sauvage) is the Godstow Priory where the nuns live. Malcolm learns they have a guest with them; a baby by the name of Lyra Belacqua . . .
"As a reader and a fan, I was hugely excited on hearing that Phillip was returning to the story of Lyra and Dust and challenging the Authority. And, as an actor, it was a true privilege to be asked to record La Belle Sauvage, the first book of this new work." Michael Sheen
"The best piece of narration I've ever heard" - The Bookseller
"Michael Sheen's narration of Philip Pullman's new novel is better than an army of voice actors his voice is impressive, from the crisp, definitive consonants of its higher registers to the rumbly bass notes Sheen summons when some menace enters the scene, to the vast, buttery expanse of his middle range." Slate
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This is a tale told with a much pared down narrative style compared to the dark materials trilogy, and all the better for it.
And Michael Sheen’s reading sets the bar very high for the rest - frankly if he recorded the train timetable I’d probably buy it now. It seems to be reported Mr P has already written the next instalment of this trilogy and I hope it appears soon. I also pray someone at his publishers had the nouse to book Mr Sheen else I fear whoever gets to narrate it may not do it justice.
Until you hear this you don’t know great narration
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Stunning story, brilliantly read
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Exceptional book - kept me gripped throughout!
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This first part to Pullman’s three-part prequel to His Dark Materials is brilliant on every level – and there are many levels including the inter-woven political, mythical, scientific, biblical, religious, magical, allegorical (the list could go on!), to the everyday real world of working, home and cooking, and the intensely dramatic, terrifying boat journey on the flood pursued by villainous men.
The bare bones of the story goes back in time from His Dark Materials to when baby Lyra is being looked after in the Priory, but preyed upon by evil Bonneville intent on capturing her for reasons which will become apparent. 11-year-old Malcolm helps his father in the family’s pub by the river in Oxford and he hears of these plans, and also warnings of a tremendous all-enveloping flood that is coming. With Alice, the barmaid a little older than himself, he manages to snatch the sleeping Lyra from the nuns and together they start the perilous water-journey to London on the flood in La Belle Sauvage, his slowly disintegrating little canoe in order to return Lyra to her father, the mysterious and imperious Lord Asriel.
It is an intense, deep book which would reveal further depths on subsequent readings or listenings without losing its freshness and power. The characters’ fantastic, constantly metamorphosing guardian-daemons have personalities which express the inner souls of their human hosts. Bonneville’s 3-legged hyena-daemon is an example of the darkness which lurks not far below the surface of the story – he is a cruel man who has hacked the leg off his own snarling daemon.
Apart from all the deep content, there is a simple emotional element created with a touching delicacy: Malcolm and Alice’s defensive love and tender concern for baby Lyra and Malcolm’s maturing feelings towards feisty Alice. There are also many scenes of tremendous drama: the seductive Faerie Queene (Spenser is only one influence in the narrative) breast feeding baby Lyra and refusing to give her back; the escape from the dark Priory with baby Lyra and the violent fight with their pursuers.
And then there’s the beyond superb narration! 5 stars aren’t enough for Michael Sheen’s creation of dialogue, pace and character beyond the reach of the reader. But then he is working with Pullman’s image-rich story-telling where even details are sensuously stunning – just tiny things like the nimbus of light around the lamps making them look like golden dandelions.
Flight on the flood, daemons, dark matter and Dust
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