First audiobook. Realy enjoyed listening.

narrator's diction so pure and clear. Every word enunciated with flair and passion. Loved the characters and the gentle humour.

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1 person found this helpful

Wonderful listen

I really enjoyed this for its insight into the vagaries of the human condition. Recommended.

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1 person found this helpful

We can't all enjoy the same book can we?

I have read the reviews and they were mixed. I am not going to remember this as a 'feel good read'. I found that I wasn't feeling that there was any characters that I empathised with. I feel that there were undercurrents that made me uncomfortable. I wasn't keen on the flow of the story ar all. Usually I happily read my books from start to finish at least twice. I wasn't likely to want to read this again, I am sad to say. Not my best choice of read!



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Back to her original best

Nice family story, Deborah Moggach has a special skill for describing people and their feelings and habits.
Good narrator

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10 people found this helpful

a beautiful picture of unravelling frailties ...

Not often a person to write reviews, but i was surprised and drawn into this book... normally I'd choose a fast paced psychological thriller... this offers a watchful and well observed venture into complicated lives and the difficulties of managing human relationships ...sensitive and positive about aging. thank you.

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A lot of book about so little.

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.

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Good Story

I enjoyed this book quite emotional and inspirational. the narrator was good couldn't stop listening.

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The Carer

Very slow to get going but a good story in the end and quite believable!

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Life is even messier than they imagined!

This is a splendid book which makes wry humour and scalpel-sharp insights about a most unpromising topic for a novel - home care for the elderly.

Robert and Phoebe's old father has broken his hip and now needs home care. In steps Mandy - a bulky Brummie with Rosemary West specs who all too quickly is calling the fiercely academic old man 'Jimmy' and taking him off on trips to the shopping mall. What's her plan? Why is she rooting in his desk drawers? Is James being forced to change his will in her favour? How does Mandy know so much about the family?

Each member of the family has his or her own voice in separate sections: James's dead wife whose demure obedience masked a nest of secrets; Phoebe with her sex sessions with a loner in a caravan; Robert's no-good marriage to a a woman who constantly belittles him, not least for his never-to-see-the-light-of-day novel he's writing; James himself ..... but I mustn't spoil the story. It's all worked out in detail, everything finally fitting into place with everyone (including us) learning a great deal about themselves and facing a whole host of unpleasant candid facts about growing old.

I loved it - the plot's twists and turns hold the listener and the hard-hitting observations about life are swathed in wit & humour . The narration by Patience Tomlinson is just right: warm, forthright with voices and accents completely real and natural.

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51 people found this helpful

Really enjoyable right to the end

I bought this as a deal of the day on impulse without reading the overview or reviews so went in to it not having a clue what to expect. So glad I did, it’s like the book equivalent to a hug. All of the characters have varying degrees of unlikeable traits and yet I ended up empathising and even liking all of them with their flaws and dysfunctional lives and relationships, I’ve only just finished this and I’m missing them already!

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