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Remainder

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About this listen

 Traumatised by an accident that involves something falling from the sky and leaving him eight-and-a-half million pounds richer, our hero spends his time and money obsessively reconstructing and re-enacting memories and situations from his past. These include a large building with piano music in the distance, the familiar smells and sounds of liver frying and spluttering, lethargic cats lounging on roofs until they tumble off them....But, when this fails to quench his thirst for authenticity, he starts reconstructing more and more violent events, including hold-ups and shoot-outs.© Tom McCarthy; (P) Clipper Audio Contemporary Fiction Genre Fiction Fiction

Critic reviews

"Hypnotically creepy...." ( The New Yorker)
"Strangely gripping....for its intelligence and humour. ( The Times Literary Supplement)
All stars
Most relevant
Reminds me of what I’ve read of Haruki Murakami or Kafka. At points confusing, intriguing, disturbing, frustrating….
It’s definitely worth giving it a go if the story interests you. Also I’d recommend listening to at least an hour; for the first 30 minutes I wanted to give up but as it went on it became clearer to understand and then I was hooked.I don’t think I’ll ever forget it, that’s for sure!

Hard to give a rating out of 5

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3rd reading of Remainder. It keeps calling me back. There is something profound in this apparently conventional narrative. The prose is accessible, the plot simple yet it somehow illuminates something about the human condition. Maybe it resonates more with people with mild autism. A truly original masterpiece.

Brilliant and unique

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If you have stumbled on this review, then do yourself a big favour and get hold of this book, please! The one novel that tips a narrator's hat to Samuel Beckett in a fully deserving way. How the narrative functions as it does, how it manages to twist and snake, slow down, speed up, stop, redouble, back up to the start, leap forward, echo back and all the time beckon us on.....I have absolutely no idea. To sit down and sketch out either the narrative plot to begin work on this novel can only be described as a genius. To describe the machinations of the plot, is simply to miss the point - Remainder arrives complete in front of the reader and must be appreciated for exactly that....it is not constructed it simply flows and runs as an organic whole. Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and the whole of the unsurpassable work of Samuel Beckett stand easy comparison - it really is of that magnitude as an individual work and the author will, undoubtedly be judged on his ability to carry off his current whimsey to the same standard. Sounds convoluted....I'm sure. But regard this review as a piece of extraordinary luck - read it, enjoy it and then describe it to someone else and pass the message on.....this is the most exciting piece of work to come out of Britain for years and years and, at last, is a work that can be pointed to as standing amongst Haruki Murakami and Roberto Bolano as the cutting edge and joins them on the new frontier.

A work of genius - nothing less

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I wonder how I found this book... and I don't have any clue. At a certain point I picked it up from my Wishlist and it landed soon on my ipod. It tied me down to my seat from the first sentences. The best prose I ever read, sincerely. I ended it all with a very satisfying feeling and I decided I really don't want to listen any more Tom McCarthy. He is briliant but I see tendencies in him to go blur. I am particularly not interested on purchasing 'Satin Island' but I would read his literary essays (no available in audio).

I realise this is not a listen for everyone but I recall it with pleasure. The author is a literary genius, the narrator was absolutely fine.

Surely in my Top 5 British Novels

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Great read. quite a slow paced story but that is part of the creepy atmosphere. Not a book for those who want a neat story and satisfying ending but very thought provoking.

Surreal and intriguing and thought prevoking.

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