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The Carer

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The Carer

By: Deborah Moggach
Narrated by: Patience Tomlinson
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About this listen

 James is getting on a bit and needs full-time help. So Phoebe and Robert, his middle-aged offspring, employ Mandy, who seems willing to take him off their hands. But as James regales his family with tales of Mandy's virtues, their shopping trips and the shared pleasure of their journeys to garden centres, Phoebe and Robert sense something is amiss. Is this really their father, the distant figure who never once turned up for a sports day, now happily chortling over cuckoo clocks and television soaps? Then something happens that throws everything into new relief, and Phoebe and Robert discover that life most definitely does not stop for the elderly. It just moves onto a very different plane – changing all the stories they thought they knew so well.©2019 Deborah Moggach (P)2019 Bolinda Publishing Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Ancient Greece Greek Mythology Feel-Good

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Critic reviews

'Unputdownable, fun and tender with characters that jump off the page. Perfection.' (Marian Keyes, bestselling author of Again, Rachel)
'Beautifully written, oozing interesting characters that you genuinely care about.' (Adele Parks, bestselling author of Just My Luck)
All stars
Most relevant
Nice family story, Deborah Moggach has a special skill for describing people and their feelings and habits.
Good narrator

Back to her original best

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i throughly enjoyed this book, the narration was very real on each character , the story was sad and happy and quite funny at times, but so true to life..

A golly good listen

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I was left deflated by this book. After the revelation of why the carer is there, and initial responses, nothing at all happens. It's all reflection. The characters have few redeeming features - the parents are aloof, self absorbed, stuffily middle class and snobbish. The only real and honest relationship is between the two siblings, who live very different lives and are both unhappy in their own way. The changes in their lives don't happen because of the carer; one feels that they would have happened anyway.

The narrator is fine performing the female parts (although there is some blurring of accents) but during the male chapters I couldn't help wondering if I'd drifted into a Bertie Wooster tale. And they all sounded the same.

There is something to learn, I guess, about family dynamics and secrets, but all families have issues to contend with, and many seem to me to be so much more complicated and interesting than those presented here. Not one of my favourites.

A lot of book about so little.

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Starts at first as an average story but soon totally absorbed in the characters and their lives ,with a good twist to the story line .

Interesting concept

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An interesting but not over-dramatic story featuring mature characters. I found the narration quite off-putting in parts (especially the gruff old man voice) but otherwise found it a pleasing enough story to keep me entertained during lockdown.

Enjoyable for those of a certain age

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