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Offshore

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Offshore

By: Penelope Fitzgerald, Alan Hollinghurst - introduction
Narrated by: Jot Davies, Stephanie Racine
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WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE
FEATURED ON BBC’S BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB

Penelope Fitzgerald’s Booker Prize-winning novel of loneliness and connecting is set among the houseboat community of the Thames, with an introduction from Alan Hollinghurst.

On Battersea Reach, a mixed bag of the temporarily lost and the patently eccentric live on houseboats, rising and falling with the tide of the Thames.

There is good-natured Maurice, by occupation a male prostitute, by chance a receiver of stolen goods. And Richard, an ex-navy man whose boat, much like its owner, dominates the Reach. Then there is Nenna, an abandoned wife and mother of two young girls running wild on the muddy foreshore, whose domestic predicament, as it deepens, will draw this disparate community together.

 Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Satire Urban Comedy
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Critic reviews

Praise for Penelope Fitzgerald and Offshore:

‘An astonishing book. Hardly more than 50,000 words, it is written with a manic economy that makes it seem even shorter, and with a tamped-down force that continually explodes in a series of exactly controlled detonations. Offshore is a marvellous achievement: strong, supple, humane, ripe, generous and graceful.’ Bernard Levin, Sunday Times

‘She writes the kind of fiction in which perfection is almost to be hoped for, unostentatious as true virtuosity can make it, its texture a pure pleasure.’ Frank Kermode, London Review of Books

‘Perfectly balanced…the novelistic equivalent of a Turner watercolour.’ Washington Post

‘Reading a Penelope Fitzgerald novel is like being taken for a ride in a peculiar kind of car. Everything is of top quality – the engine, the coachwork and the interior all fill you with confidence. Then, after a mile or so, someone throws the steering-wheel out of the window.’ Sebastian Faulks

‘This Booker prize winner is a slightly dark, witty novel … The brilliant Fitzgerald takes a subtle squint at thwarted love, loneliness and the human need to be necessary’ Val Hennessy, Daily Mail

All stars
Most relevant
I would have expected a polished style of narration, for this book, a voice full of character and gravitas, given that this novel won the Booker Prize. Sadly the narration, for me, sadly let down the great quality of writing.
The cast of characters in this wonderful story was varied and the narrative drew me into a world of outsiders living a bohemian life on Thames barges. It's a charming, poignant tale which has moments of humour and real sadness.
Overall, a little disappointing. A different voice and style of narration could have made it great.

An accomplished story, spoiled by the narration.

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Found this difficult to get into with characters arriving too quickly and confusingly named after their boats. Didnt care for the narration. Hollinghurst had a strange didactic way of speaking that grated on me. Story did grow on me and humour and pathos wonderfully mixed.

Not Fitzgeralds best

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When you listen to the promotional clip you don't get a chance to hear the narrator of the actual story or indeed the content. The book itself is fine, if a bit short, but it's hard to even know if I liked it because it had two fawning introductions, and then the narration was EMPHATIC in the STYLE of a CHILDREN'S book. I suspect the book is good, hence the 4 stars, but it was almost impossible to enjoy it in a fresh way because of the layers of hype you have leading into it, and then the delivery.

Despite the Hype

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The story is set next to the river Thames in the 1960s, with a group of people who live on barges moored alongside the banks. It evokes a now distant time with very interesting details. Unfortunately, the narration is absolutely awful. It almost sounds like an electronically generated voice it is so bad. The introduction and preface are both informative.

Nice story; awful narration

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This is a beautiful story but it is read like the Saturday afternoon football results on match of the day.

Great book, not so great narrator

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