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The Owl Service

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The Owl Service

By: Alan Garner
Narrated by: Wayne Forester
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Summary

After hearing scratches in the attic, Alison discovers a dinner service covered in an intriguing floral owl pattern, and a series of events are set in motion that will change her life forever. Alison, her step-brother Roger, and Welsh boy Gwyn are forced into a cyclical replay of the tragic Welsh legend of Blodeuwedd, in which a woman is turned into an owl as a punishment for betraying her husband.

The Owl Service is a fabulous, multi-layered book of mystery and suspense, but also a contemporary musing on love, class structure and power.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

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Critic reviews

"Garner's remarkable writing is simple and straighforward without one wasted word. He lets the audience figure things out through action and dialogue. Characters are well defined. Experienced narrator Wayne Forester is superb. Not only does he take on the voices of disparate characters with practiced ease, he also manages it so seamlessly and immediately that it seems as though there must be two speakers." (SoundComentary.com)
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The story doesn’t flow easily or make a huge amount of sense. Weaving myths into contemporary stories is a gift of the authors, but this one doesn’t hit the mark for me

Struggled to follow the flow

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Good story line, great characters and enough it mystery to keep you going. Very enjoyable.

A bit of magic and mystery.

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This is one of my all time favorite stories, it's beautiful and thrilling and scary and I love it.
This isn't the best version I've ever herd (that's the version read by Robert Powell) but it's servable and the story is still great.

If you don't know the story and fancy giving it a go, one word of warning the book doesn't hold your hand it has a non-liner style expects you to pay attention and fill in the blanks yourself. But it's totally worth it.

A Second Rate version of a First Rate Story

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I am a kid so you might think I didn’t understand much of it but this is a great book and I did understand it. Yes, it was a little confusing at times and there are chapters missing but overall it is a great mystical book that draws you in. I am a big bookworm so I read a lot but having this read to me I think made me understand it better. I would recommend this book to any child or adult who was great at reading but loved having stuff read to them too. I hope everyone who reads it enjoys it just as much as people who listen to it. This is a great book with dark, bright, sad and happy parts in it and even though there are chapters missing people can still enjoy it so I hope everyone does enjoy it and has fun reading it too!

Weird but wonderful

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This has been one of my favourite books for over fifty years. I had my Dad’s copy of The Mabinogion when l was a teenager and was always fascinated by it, especially since we are all Welsh. Not only is the prose magical, but it shows the awful class system of the time! My Dad was told if he wanted to get on, he had to move to England and try to lose his accent and never never speak his home language. This is a great reading - only teeny gripe is mispronunciation of Blodeuwedd - otherwise full marks xx

Wonderful story by the master Alan Garner

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