Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Red House cover art

The Red House

By: Mark Haddon
Narrated by: Maxwell Caulfield
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Dead Simple cover art
The Seven Sisters cover art
The Negligents cover art
When God Was a Rabbit cover art
A Prayer for Owen Meany cover art
Elementary, She Read cover art
The Hidden City cover art
Jellyfish cover art
Doomsday Book cover art
Florence Grace cover art
Wicked cover art

Summary

From the best-selling author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and A Spot of Bother comes a superb book about family and secrets.

Two families. Seven days. One house.

Angela and her brother, Richard, have spent 20 years avoiding each other. Now, after the death of their mother, they bring their families together for a holiday in a rented house on the Welsh border.

Four adults and four children. Seven days of shared meals, log fires, card games, and wet walks. But in the quiet and stillness of the valley, ghosts begin to rise up. The parents Richard thought he had. The parents Angela thought she had. Past and present lovers. Friends, enemies, victims, saviours.

Once again Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and A Spot of Bother, has written a novel that is funny, poignant and deeply insightful about human lives.

©2012 Mark Haddon (P)2014 Random House Audiobooks

What listeners say about The Red House

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    9
  • 1 Stars
    3

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
  • T
  • 13-11-14

"There's now't so queer as folk"

I enjoyed this wry insight into family life. Haddon gets inside people's thoughts - sometimes people like us, but also some that we might have met, but wish we hadn't. I guess he's best known for the thoughts of the autistic hero of The Curious Incident. The ground covered here is closer to "normality." That said, put a couple of buttoned-up English families into a holiday let in Herefordshire and quite a lot of autistic thoughts and behaviours can emerge. What we learn of the family members is by turns tragic, funny and occasionally moving.

It's a tricky book to narrate because there's a lot of dialogue, making it easy to miss-cue which character is speaking. Maxwell Caulfield takes a little longer than I would like to get into it - but don't be put off because overall he does a decent job. The book isn't as startlingly original as Curious Incident but is nonetheless a really good read which I preferred to his "Spot of Bother"

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Badly narrated

This book demanded a very competent narrater due the complex and almost poetic nature of the text. Unfortunately, Caufield is so bad I am contempleting returning the book.
I cannot believe Haddon has approved this and he should demand that it is re-narrated.

At least listen to the sample before you even consider buying.

Sorry!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Hmmm

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Quite a good book but I struggled to keep up with the number of characters

Would you ever listen to anything by Mark Haddon again?

Yes definitely, have loved other titles of mark haddon's including 'A Spot of Bother'

Which character – as performed by Maxwell Caulfield – was your favourite?

I Really can't remember, it was very hard to keep up with who was who, maybe they were too similar?

Do you think The Red House needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Probably not because I would struggle to pick the story up again

Any additional comments?

A good book but requires concentration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A great listen

I really enjoyed this. He has such a sensitive and nuanced understanding of mental health and human nature. He writes so beautifully. I did wonder how it would be listening to this as opposed to reading as he sometimes slips into lists and stream of consciousness but it worked well. Highly recommend.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Not what I hoped for.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

It would have been better told as a straightforward narrative. The somewhat experimental format did not work for me, though I think it might have been easier to read than to listen to.

What was most disappointing about Mark Haddon’s story?

I found it very disjointed, just a series of short scenes, seemingly unconnected. There was often little indication of which characters were involved. It needed a proper narrative thread.

What didn’t you like about Maxwell Caulfield’s performance?

He didn't do anything to differentiate between the different characters. There were also some very odd pronunciations, and oddly phrased sentences. (Though I am aware it is easy to criticise and not so easy to do!)

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Red House?

I wouldn't cut, I would add a narrative voice to give continuity.

Any additional comments?

I really liked Mark Haddon's previous books, so this was a disappointment.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!