Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Lanny cover art

Lanny

By: Max Porter
Narrated by: Annie Aldington,Clare Corbett,David Timson,Jot Davies
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £7.99

Buy Now for £7.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Stranger Times cover art
The Big Dark Sky cover art
A Bachelor Establishment cover art
Though Waters Roar cover art
Before Safe Haven: The Complete Box Set cover art
Jane Eyre cover art
Her Last Words cover art
A Snake Falls to Earth cover art
Margot & Me cover art
Orwell: The Essays cover art
Killer Women cover art

Summary

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2019

Not far from London, there is a village. This village belongs to the people who live in it and to those who lived in it hundreds of years ago. It belongs to England's mysterious past and its confounding present. It belongs to Mad Pete, the grizzled artist. To ancient Peggy, gossiping at her gate. To families dead for generations, and to those who have only recently moved here. But it also belongs to Dead Papa Toothwort who has woken from his slumber in the woods. Dead Papa Toothwort, who is listening to them all.

Chimerical, audacious, strange and wonderful - a song to difference and imagination, to friendship, youth and love, Lanny is a globally anticipated novel from Max Porter.

©2019 Faber & Faber (P)2019 Faber & Faber

What listeners say about Lanny

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    444
  • 4 Stars
    116
  • 3 Stars
    43
  • 2 Stars
    13
  • 1 Stars
    8
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    465
  • 4 Stars
    65
  • 3 Stars
    15
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    373
  • 4 Stars
    120
  • 3 Stars
    44
  • 2 Stars
    11
  • 1 Stars
    7

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Clever Stuff That Took Me Out Of My Comfort Zone!

Well, I fancied something just a little different from my normal audio diet of crime thrillers, historical fiction and a bit of fantasy. This really hit the spot, it's very clever stuff both in the initial writing and the audio production. It doesn't flow in quite the conventional sense. It has a stuttering and staccato style and uses the multiple narrators to represent the thoughts, feelings and emotions of the village setting overall through scattered thoughts and snippets of conversation. It's a powerful and effective technique, often saying much and moving aspects of the story forwards in very few words. The often confused and meandering thoughts of Dead Papa Toothwort are backed by repeating sound effects that add to the ethereal feel of him. If all this sounds difficult to imagine the sample Audible provides includes a snatch of these aspects. Some people might find those sounds effects distracting.

It's a normal English village that's pretty much like any other except that it's home to the three pivotal characters. A retired old artist who finds joy in his later years from his friendship with Lanny, Dead Papa Toothwort who is an ancient and ethereal presence and of course Lanny himself, an enigmatic loner of a child. It's a story of an unlikely friendship and human relations but it is always underpinned by the dread presence of Toothwort.

In truth, it took me a while to quite settle with Porter's style of writing but once I did I found myself massively enjoying the seemingly effortless way it took me on a journey. The clever method using scattered thoughts and snippets of conversation moved the story on cleverly meaning there is much more story in this than the short running time might suggest even if you do have to do some of the work yourself.

Being as different to the norm as this is I am sure it will split opinions but I am very glad that I stayed with it. Bravo Mr Porter for taking me out of my comfort zone!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

70 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Dense with meaning, yet skips along lightly.

Not the kind of thing I would normally read, but I very much enjoyed it. A simple setting and scenario is examined from several perspectives, creating a vivid, self-contained world, in which
ambiguities are created and resolved.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I Absolutely Loved This Book!

This book is a rare and precious thing. For the tight fisted among you, it isn’t many minutes for your credit, but it is worth every penny and more. I absolutely loved it and didn’t want it to end.
I’d describe it as a tale about an unusual boy, a fairy story for adults, full of humour, but also, drama & sadness.
The narration was perfect & every voice fitted perfectly.
What a joy to find it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

21 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

a download like no other

I was impressed by the sheer originality and verbal power of Max Porter's Grief is the thing with feathers. I'm very glad I ignored the Saturday Times review that slammed Lanny as a tedious re-working of Ted Hughes' Iron Man (wrong) - I loved Lanny. It's not perfect but bursting with experimentation, exuberance and awareness of nature.

Lanny is the young ethereal son of the metrocentric couple who have migrated from London for the elusive English rural village life. Lanny's father is immersed in typically money-orientated life-crushing issues; his baffled mother is on the verge of making it as a (quite nasty) crime writer. Lanny is a bright sprite in tune with nature and all its treasures. His mother arranged for him to have art lessons with local Mad Pete, an idiosyncratic (not mad) artist of repute. Ageing artist and little boy Lanny together have what was once accepted for what it is: a mutually inspiring friendship centred on art and nature. All goes well until Lanny goes missing. That's when the village voices go into overdrive and Mad Pete is arrested.

Crow from 'Grief is the thing with feathers' was centre stage; similar in some ways is Dead Papa Toothwort, a Green Man-myth man of English folklore - here both a real and an unreal presence, a figure who has been part of the village since time immemorial, a commentator on the present day village.

The brilliantly presented voices of the villagers reminded me of Under Milk Wood with a Alan Bennett at his most acid, expressing of-the-moment opinions and thoughts, such as on the mawkish, prurient 'heroes' searching for Lanny. There's a tremendous mix of voices from the very moving desperate terror of Lanny's mother searching for her child to the vituperative, mean-spirited complaining about the parking on the grass when a child is missing.

Part 3 where all is concluded and dead Papa Toothwort takes a central role I found a disappointment. The ethereal other-worldliness was over-done for me and distracted from the very strong, lean first two parts, but the whole production is still worth a 5 for Porter's sheer originality and risk-taking. It was fully exploited by the cast which I think made the whole a better listening experience than a reading one.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Milk Wood with magic

So good but to describe it is to limit it, and possibly to limit its appeal.
However a review demands some sort of analysis so I’d say it’s a poetic, ethereal tale shot through with elements of thriller, drama, social commentary and folklore.
It’s quite brilliant and the narration elevates it above the print copy. My only criticism would be in calling the boy Lanny. What kind of name is that?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Parental love, nature and painting

Others describe this as a village and as one of my favourites Under Milk Wood. It was enjoyable but it isn't as broad, lyrical or humorous as Under Milk Wood. In essence it is a mothers love for her creative, misunderstood, child, his love of painting and nature, with a Puck type spirit observing and occasionally influencing things.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Under milk wood sort of

This is a multi level very strange book at once a lot like the Dylan Thomas play ‘Under milk wood’ but with a twist. it’s essentially a horror with a whole lot of human truth. I’d give the performance six stars or above if I could but i can’t what really spoils it just a tiny bit is the constant ‘he said’ ‘she said’ aspect but very rivetting nonetheless with a huge amount of atmosphere. It’s a credit well spent if short.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

More Max Brilliance

Another sumptuous text by Max Porter, following on from his heartbreaking 'Grief is The Thing With feathers' . MP has the ability to draw you intimately close and have you weeping with the fragility and preciousness of life . It is an experience truly shared with its generous author, rather than something thrust upon you . Also beautifully performed .

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Intriguing story, very well performed

Listening to a book is quite different from reading one because the narrator mediates the experience, so my impressions of Lanny are as much about the performance as the story itself. There's a small cast and while I've sometimes found this arrangement to be a dire disservice to the material, with Lanny there's an echo of Under Milk Wood to it. The story, about a strange boy with odd ways, could be a straightforward coming of age in the context of oddity, embattled parents, and local characters who feel inclined to chip in. But it isn't; it's an ethereal, magical tale where all is often as it seems - but not quite. I'll be listening to it again at least once, not so much to figure out what I think happened, but to notice details and to savour the hows as much as the whats and whys. For me, this book earned its four hours and its cast did it full justice.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A beautiful book about love and loss

A truly wonderful book that will stay with me for a long time. Beautiful, magical, poetic and heart wrenching. Fantastic sound direction and narration.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful