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The Paying Guests

shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction

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About this listen

 'I raced through it, breathing fast and when I had finished had to reread parts of the wonderful early chapters. I don't like historical novels but this is the exception. I shall let a few months go by and then read it all over again with, I'm sure, undiminished pleasure' Ruth Rendall, Guardian

It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned, the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa, a large silent house now bereft of brothers, husband and even servants, life is about to be transformed, as impoverished widow Mrs Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers.

For with the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the 'clerk class', the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. And as passions mount and frustration gathers, no one can foresee just how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be...

This is vintage Sarah Waters: beautifully described with excruciating tension, real tenderness, believable characters, and surprises. It is above all, a wonderful, compelling story.©2014 Sarah Waters Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Women's Fiction Scary Thought-Provoking England

Critic reviews

Absolutely brilliant
Another wild ride of a novel . . . magnetic storytelling
A page-turning melodrama and a fascinating portrait of London on the verge of great change
This novel magnificently confirms Sarah Waters's status as an unsurpassed fictional recorder of vanished eras and hidden lives
I raced through it, breathing fast and when I had finished had to reread parts of the wonderful early chapters. I don't like historical novels but this is the exception. I shall let a few months go by and then read it all over again with, I'm sure, undiminished pleasure
You know you are in the hands of a skilful, confident writer when you read a Sarah Waters book. She slowly reels you in. She weaves plots and themes that creep up and entangle you while you are innocently following her characters. They go about their shadowy business and by the time you raise your head from the page to take a breath, you're hooked
The Paying Guests demonstrates the writerly qualities for which Waters is esteemed, proving as 'fantastically moody and resonant', in terms of the rendering of domestic space, as a novel the author herself described as such and which she once said she would like to have written: Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca
Sickeningly tense - and thumpingly good
You will be hooked within a page . . . At her greatest, Waters transcends genre: the delusions in Affinity (1999), the vulnerability in Fingersmith (2002), the undercurrents of social injustice and the unexplained that underlie all her work, take her, in my view, well beyond the capabilities of her more seriously regarded Booker-winning peers. But The Paying Guests is the apotheosis of her talent; at least for now. I have tried and failed to find a single negative thing to say about it. Her next will probably be even better. Until then, read it, Flaubert, Zola, and weep
A nod towards Little Dorrit also seems perceptible in the book's quiet ending amid the bustle and clamour of London. Unillusioned but tentatively hopeful, it is a beautifully gauged conclusion to a novel of ambitious reach and triumphant accomplishment
A masterpiece of social unease . . . It isn't so much the plot that makes you read on - the novel's armature is a comparatively uncomplicated suspense narrative but barnacled to it is an astonishing accretion of detail . . . A virtuoso feet of storytelling
A seductive thriller
The Paying Guests is so evocative and compelling that all the time I was reading, I had a feeling it was me who had done something terrible, instead of her characters
Brilliantly involving . . . juicy, beautifully observed and not afraid to be explicit
Waters's page-turning prose conceals great subtlety. Acutely sensitive to social nuance, she keeps us constantly alert . . . From a novelist who has been shortlisted for the Booker three times, this is a winner
All stars
Most relevant

Where does The Paying Guests rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I think this is one of the best 'together' books I've heard. The narrative was so careful and spare, and I couldn't wait to listen to the next part and the narration by Juliet Stevenson was the icing on the cake.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Frances. She seemed so ahead of her time as a woman (but not unnaturally so).

Have you listened to any of Juliet Stevenson’s other performances? How does this one compare?

No, I haven't - I will go back and see what else she has done.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

Sarah Waters is wonderful. Each book is so different.

Wonderful

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A suspenseful book, that had me totally absorbed - I even found myself dreaming about the plot... and waking up with the same fear as the characters at the height of the drama! Always a sign of a great book when the plot rattles around your head when you're not reading it.

Completely absorbing

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What made the experience of listening to The Paying Guests the most enjoyable?

Juliet Stephenson was another triumph and the story was fascinating and tense. But left wondering whether it might have been more interesting if Frances had caused the dramatic turn.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Paying Guests?

The murder
The party
the court scenes

What about Juliet Stevenson’s performance did you like?

She hit every character perfectly!

Fantastic, but

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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. It is an unusual, well-written story superbly read.

What about Juliet Stevenson’s performance did you like?

Juliet Stevenson seems to understand and convey the essence of the story without introducing anything that does not belong there. A nuanced performance.

Juliet Stevenson did this justice

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I really enjoyed this wonderful book so much and the narration by Juliet Stevenson only added to it and made it even more enjoyable.

Wonderful book and wonderful narration.

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