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The Folding Star
- Narrated by: Samuel West
- Length: 16 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Historical Fiction
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Summary
Short-listed for the 1994 Booker Prize
Edward Manners - 33 and disaffected - escapes to a Flemish city in search of a new life. Almost at once he falls in love with 17-year-old Luc and is introduced to the twilight world of the 1890s Belgian painter Edgard Orst.
Critic reviews
"As is typical of the best classics, he has fashioned a universal tale of sexual obsession, love and death out of a particular life." (Marie Claire)
"An extraordinary book which takes the reader into a world of obsession and mystery...The Folding Star is lit by insight and humour." (Evening Standard)
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What listeners say about The Folding Star
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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- Allan Robb-McLeod
- 11-07-18
Another Hollinghurst triumph
While not my favourite of Alan Hollinghurst's novels, The Folding Star contains some of his best writing. I found myself not particularly interested the sub-plot regarding the Flemish artist but a flashback of the protagonist's first love was so sublime that it left me gasping for more. I will definitely revisit The Folding Star.
2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 01-08-20
Sam West’s Accents
Hollinghurst writes literature not mere novels, and Sam West is a consummate actor. I’ve listened to both of his Hollinghurst readings (the other being The Swimming Pool Library). My only gripe is that whenever he’s voicing black characters - even native British ones - he adopts a bestial semi-patois accent which robustly pushes the bounds of bigotry. Why can’t he have them speaking like actual human beings the way God and Hollinghurst intended?
1 person found this helpful