Take Nothing With You cover art

Take Nothing With You

A richly absorbing novel of boyhood, coming of age, confusion and desire

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Take Nothing With You

By: Patrick Gale
Narrated by: Patrick Gale
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About this listen

 From the bestselling author of A PLACE CALLED WINTER comes a new novel of boyhood, coming of age, and the confusions of desire and reality. For all readers of Ian McEwan's ATONEMENT or L P Hartley's THE GO-BETWEEN.

1970s Weston-Super-Mare and ten-year-old oddball Eustace, an only child, has life transformed by his mother's quixotic decision to sign him up for cello lessons. Music-making brings release for a boy who is discovering he is an emotional volcano. He laps up lessons from his young teacher, not noticing how her brand of glamour is casting a damaging spell over his frustrated and controlling mother.

When he is enrolled in holiday courses in the Scottish borders, lessons in love, rejection and humility are added to daily practice.

Drawing in part on his own boyhood, Patrick Gale's new novel explores a collision between childish hero worship and extremely messy adult love lives.

(P)2018 Headline Publishing Group Ltd©2017 Patrick Gale Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Highlander

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Critic reviews

Absolutely one of his complete best. So many funny and tender and terrific scenes. He hovers between social comedy and apocalyptic tragedy without the move appearing artificial or contrived. Just a wonderful, wonderful read (Stephen Fry)
Safe in the arms of Patrick Gale's BEAUTIFUL writing again - I could weep with joy. (Joanna Cannon)
A wonderful, intelligent and enriching novel. Gale draws his protagonist with compassion and empathy, and the book is populated by some terrific supporting characters, such as former star cellist Naomi, who had to give up performing because of stage fright and becomes a surrogate sibling in Eustace's life. Ultimately, it is a forceful reminder of the emotional power of music. As Eustace is told by his teacher at summer school: "Music knits. It heals. It is balm to the soul." The same could be said for this book
Sexy, joyous, funny and tender. I relished it (Sarah Winman)
Joyous and full of light. I only meant to read a chapter and I greedily gobbled down the whole lot in one go. He is a beautiful and empathetic writer. (Cathy Rentzenbrink)
A compelling story of how a passion for music can be the gateway to self-discovery, and lead a young teenager to find his tribe. The storytelling is so vivid, you can actually hear the music, and the intense fusion of artistic and erotic exploration will stir up memories for quite a few readers. (Jonathan Dove, composer)
A fascinating story, gripping, moving and exquisitely written, this is a wonderful gift of a book from one of the best writers working today. (SJ Watson)
Very well done indeed - brilliantly sustained (Rachel Johnson)
A tender and touching coming of age story from the always eminently readable Patrick Gale
Patrick Gale has created such a wonderful character, I was bereft to leave him
A compassionate and funny coming-of-age and coming-out novel. If you haven't read Gale before, start now
A beautiful novel about longing, growth, music and family
Gale is an enticing and quietly subversive storyteller . . . its depictions of strangeness and toxicity of under-the-surface conventions of middle-class life take it into darker and more surprising territory. In elegant, restrained prose, Gale writes with an eye on impermanence, showing how loss can be tinged with hope, and new beginnings with the threat of mortality. . . he taps into a range of experiences and emotions that are both specific and beautifully universal
Gale is excellent on the hot, messy nature of self-discovery and sexual awakening
Beguiling, vivid, wise and moving
Beautifully told with understated glee and humanity, this novel raises smiles and shocked tears
This coming-of-age story is gorgeously written, full of warmth and humour
As elegiac and contemplative as one might expect . . .suffused with the joy and wisdom of Gale's mid-life reconnection with music
All stars
Most relevant
Rather good coming put story entwined with a story of developing a love of music.

Coming out in Weston-super-Mare

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I got slightly bored of the technical cello descriptions in the beginning but stuck with it and absolutely loved it!

Really enjoyed it. Great writing!

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I enjoyed this tale of coming of age and the twirl between the older and younger self.
Full of learning about music and full of emotion that will ache and keep you riveted and some sex for added pleasure.
Get it, you won’t regret.

An enjoyable and thoughtful story

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A superbly authentic and empathic novel, brilliantly read by the author. Certainly the best I have "read" this year of its genre and one I am unlikely ever to forget. I suspect I will be revisiting this one more than once in the future. Surely a modern classic and certainly rewards at so many levels. Not the first I have read by Patrick Gale, but I will now be exploring many more.

Breathtaking!

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I really enjoy Patrick Gales voice and the book felt real, growing up gay, very sexy too, and the characters and their questing to find meaning and closeness. He has a tenderness that can tell the various characters story without judgement when to say they are good or bad would be too simple — and shows not only compassion for the human condition but believable motivation. Great writing, can’t wait to download the next one.

Oh my, this tapped nostalgic emotions.

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