Listen free for 30 days
-
The Spring of Kasper Meier
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Categories: LGBTQ+, Literature & Fiction
People who bought this also bought...
-
An Honest Man
- By: Ben Fergusson
- Narrated by: Joe Jameson
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In West Berlin in 1989, 18-year-old Ralf has just left school and is living a final golden summer with his three best friends. They spend their days swimming, smoking and daydreaming about the future, oblivious to the storm gathering on the other side of the Berlin Wall. But an unsettling discovery about his family and a meeting with the mysterious Oz shatters everything Ralf thought he knew about love and loyalty.
-
-
Loved this book
- By Kate Gould on 23-07-20
-
Hot Stew
- By: Fiona Mozley
- Narrated by: Nneka Okoye
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
London has changed a lot over the years. The Soho that Precious and Tabitha live and work in is barely recognisable anymore. And now, the building they call their home is under threat; its billionaire-owner Agatha wants to kick the women out to build expensive restaurants and luxury flats. Men like Robert, who visit the brothel, will have to go elsewhere.The collection of vagabonds and strays in the basement will have to find somewhere else to live.
-
-
Couldn't turn it off!
- By Peter Maxwell-Lyte on 26-03-21
-
Swimming in the Dark
- By: Tomasz Jedrowski
- Narrated by: Robert Nairne
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Poland, 1980. Anxious, disillusioned Ludwik Glowacki, soon to graduate university, has been sent along with the rest of his class to an agricultural camp. Here he meets Janusz - and together, they spend a dreamlike summer swimming in secluded lakes, reading forbidden books - and falling in love. But with summer over, the two are sent back to Warsaw, and to the harsh realities of life under the Party. Exiled from paradise, Ludwik and Janusz must decide how they will survive; and in their different choices, find themselves torn apart.
-
-
gay and joyous
- By Waggy From Derby on 31-05-20
-
The Sympathizer
- By: Viet Thanh Nguyen
- Narrated by: Francois Chau
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2016. It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware that one among their number, the captain, is secretly observing and reporting on the group to a higher-up in the Viet Cong.
-
-
Mixed views
- By Amazon Customer on 04-05-18
-
The Other Hoffmann Sister
- By: Ben Fergusson
- Narrated by: Suzannah Hampton
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For Ingrid Hoffmann, the story of her sister's disappearance began in their first weeks in Southwest Africa.... Ingrid Hoffmann has always felt responsible for her sister, Margarete, and when their family moves to German Southwest Africa in 1902, her anxieties only increase. The casual racism that pervades the German community, the strange relationship between her parents and Baron von Ketz, from whom they bought their land, and the tension with the local tribes all culminate in tragedy.
-
Lie with Me
- By: Philippe Besson, Molly Ringwald
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just outside a hotel in Bordeaux, Philippe, a famous writer, chances upon a young man who bears a striking resemblance to his first love. What follows is a look back to Philippe's teenage years, to a winter morning in 1984, a small French high school, and a carefully timed encounter between two 17-year-olds. It's the start of a secret, intensely passionate, world-altering love affair between Philippe and his classmate, Thomas.
-
-
Lovely book, poor narration
- By ahumph292 on 11-10-20
-
An Honest Man
- By: Ben Fergusson
- Narrated by: Joe Jameson
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In West Berlin in 1989, 18-year-old Ralf has just left school and is living a final golden summer with his three best friends. They spend their days swimming, smoking and daydreaming about the future, oblivious to the storm gathering on the other side of the Berlin Wall. But an unsettling discovery about his family and a meeting with the mysterious Oz shatters everything Ralf thought he knew about love and loyalty.
-
-
Loved this book
- By Kate Gould on 23-07-20
-
Hot Stew
- By: Fiona Mozley
- Narrated by: Nneka Okoye
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
London has changed a lot over the years. The Soho that Precious and Tabitha live and work in is barely recognisable anymore. And now, the building they call their home is under threat; its billionaire-owner Agatha wants to kick the women out to build expensive restaurants and luxury flats. Men like Robert, who visit the brothel, will have to go elsewhere.The collection of vagabonds and strays in the basement will have to find somewhere else to live.
-
-
Couldn't turn it off!
- By Peter Maxwell-Lyte on 26-03-21
-
Swimming in the Dark
- By: Tomasz Jedrowski
- Narrated by: Robert Nairne
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Poland, 1980. Anxious, disillusioned Ludwik Glowacki, soon to graduate university, has been sent along with the rest of his class to an agricultural camp. Here he meets Janusz - and together, they spend a dreamlike summer swimming in secluded lakes, reading forbidden books - and falling in love. But with summer over, the two are sent back to Warsaw, and to the harsh realities of life under the Party. Exiled from paradise, Ludwik and Janusz must decide how they will survive; and in their different choices, find themselves torn apart.
-
-
gay and joyous
- By Waggy From Derby on 31-05-20
-
The Sympathizer
- By: Viet Thanh Nguyen
- Narrated by: Francois Chau
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2016. It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware that one among their number, the captain, is secretly observing and reporting on the group to a higher-up in the Viet Cong.
-
-
Mixed views
- By Amazon Customer on 04-05-18
-
The Other Hoffmann Sister
- By: Ben Fergusson
- Narrated by: Suzannah Hampton
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For Ingrid Hoffmann, the story of her sister's disappearance began in their first weeks in Southwest Africa.... Ingrid Hoffmann has always felt responsible for her sister, Margarete, and when their family moves to German Southwest Africa in 1902, her anxieties only increase. The casual racism that pervades the German community, the strange relationship between her parents and Baron von Ketz, from whom they bought their land, and the tension with the local tribes all culminate in tragedy.
-
Lie with Me
- By: Philippe Besson, Molly Ringwald
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just outside a hotel in Bordeaux, Philippe, a famous writer, chances upon a young man who bears a striking resemblance to his first love. What follows is a look back to Philippe's teenage years, to a winter morning in 1984, a small French high school, and a carefully timed encounter between two 17-year-olds. It's the start of a secret, intensely passionate, world-altering love affair between Philippe and his classmate, Thomas.
-
-
Lovely book, poor narration
- By ahumph292 on 11-10-20
-
Klara and the Sun
- By: Kazuo Ishiguro
- Narrated by: Sura Siu
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully the behaviour of those who come in to browse and of those who pass in the street outside. She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change for ever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.
-
-
Quite a high ranking story
- By papapownall on 05-03-21
-
The Sphinx
- The Life of Gladys Deacon - Duchess of Marlborough
- By: Hugo Vickers
- Narrated by: Hugo Vickers
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most beautiful and brilliant women of her time, Gladys Deacon dazzled as much as she puzzled the glittering social circles in which she moved. Born in Paris to American parents in 1881, she suffered a traumatic childhood after her father shot her mother's lover dead. Educated in America, she returned to Europe, where she captivated and inspired some of the greatest literary and artistic names of the Belle Époque.
-
-
disappointing with a lifeless narration
- By Lesley-Anne Thompson on 07-06-20
-
Logical Family
- A Memoir
- By: Armistead Maupin
- Narrated by: Armistead Maupin
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this funny, poignant and unflinchingly honest memoir, one of the world's best-loved storytellers explains how he evolved from a conservative son of the Old South into a gay rights pioneer whose novels inspired millions to claim their own lives. It is a journey that leads him from the racism and misogyny of midcentury North Carolina to a homoerotic navy initiation ceremony in the jungles of Vietnam to an awkward conversation about girls with President Richard Nixon in the Oval Office of the White House.
-
-
Thank you Mr. Maupin
- By the typist on 18-10-17
-
The Great Believers
- By: Rebecca Makkai
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup: bringing an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDs epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying, and after his friend Nico's funeral, he finds his partner is infected and that he might even have the virus himself. The only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister.
-
-
Highly recommended
- By Miss Julie Sharp on 13-12-19
-
The Europeans
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Adam Sims
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the collapse of her marriage to an illustrious German prince, Baroness Eugenia Münster arrives in America with her brother, in search of wealthy New England relatives. The duo have an immediate impact on their American cousins, the Wentworths. The Baroness captures the eye of young Clifford Wentworth, and his girlfriend's older brother Robert; meanwhile, Felix falls for his American cousin Gertrude. The Wentworths are overawed by their European cousins and their frivolous lifestyle. What unfolds is a delightful comedy of manners.
-
Cleanness
- By: Garth Greenwell
- Narrated by: Garth Greenwell
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sofia, Bulgaria, a landlocked city in southern Europe, stirs with hope and impending upheaval. Soviet buildings crumble, wind scatters sand from the far south and political protesters flood the streets with song. In this atmosphere of disquiet, an American teacher navigates a life transformed by the discovery and loss of love. As he prepares to leave the place he’s come to call home, he grapples with the intimate encounters that have marked his years abroad, each bearing uncanny reminders of his past.
-
-
written from experience
- By Waggy From Derby on 18-06-20
Summary
Winner of the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown Award 2015
The war is over, but Berlin is a desolate sea of rubble. There is a shortage of everything: Food, clothing, tobacco. The local population is scrabbling to get by. Kasper Meier is one of these Germans, and his solution is to trade on the black market to feed himself and his elderly father. He can find anything that people need, for the right price. Even other people.
When a young woman, Eva, arrives at Kasper's door seeking the whereabouts of a British pilot, he feels a reluctant sympathy for her but won't interfere in military affairs. But Eva is prepared for this. Kasper has secrets, she knows them, and she'll use them to get what she wants. As the threats against him mount, Kasper is drawn into a world of intrigue he could never have anticipated. Why is Eva so insistent that he find the pilot? Who is the shadowy Frau Beckmann and what is her hold over Eva?
Under constant surveillance, Kasper navigates the dangerous streets and secrets of a city still reeling from the horrors of war and defeat. As a net of deceit, lies, and betrayal falls around him, Kasper begins to understand that the seemingly random killings of members of the occupying forces are connected to his own situation. He must work out who is behind Eva's demands, and why - while at the same time trying to save himself, his father, and Eva.
More from the same
What listeners say about The Spring of Kasper Meier
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Paul
- 02-06-15
Great descriptive writing but frustratingly long winded.
A story providing a historical insight into conditions in Berlin after WW2, however after such a contorted plot the end seemed rather tame.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jacky
- 05-05-19
Highly Descriptive of a devastated Berlin
I doubt I would have ever read or listened to this book if it were not for it being our bookclub choice. It describes very vividly life at the end of the second world war, in Berlin. The main character, Casper is a gay man, working the blackmarket, struggling trying to look after a father he loves, then becoming entangled in a web of decit and lies. Eva a rubble girl with a mission to kill, and her gang of fellow assassins, creeps into his life by trying to blackmail him. The story weaves its way around and around, I found it all a bit fanciful and over worked. I agree with a previous reviewer when he said he though it was written as a film script - I found it wordy and tedious to listen to at times. However, there was a good twist to the tale and it was read superbly. The characters all came alive in the voice of the narrator, I wish he read more novels. Would I recommend it - not sure, as a bit of history perhaps but as an enjoyable read no.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Aquilina Christophorus
- 12-01-18
It isn't Fallada...but what comes afterwards.
It took me a while to get into Fergusson's work, because I kept on being pulled out by Fallada's Alone In Berlin, which is probably a superior read, but I can't quite say why. The themes in common are obvious, but even some motifs (the notes posted anonymously) were striking.
Maybe, Fergusson, although he writes very fluently and even poetically in parts, is too cinematographic in his style - if that can be a fault these days.... I kept on seeing him direct the movie of the novel.
It is not easy to be original about post-war Berlin, especially not for they, like myself, who also have just read Beevor on the subject. So there was nothing in this novel to surprise or engage me afresh.
I never quite knew whether to like or dislike Kaspar (so I picture a Max von Sydow playing his part), and to be honest had trouble in the first half grasping that he really was going to be the main character in the novel, and it was all and only really going to be a portrait of a gay guy in the late forties where fascist ideas still rule. The plot with the girl almost felt incidental, possibly because it was too cleverly buried in the realistic setting of the place and time. The flirtation with sexual ambiguity was uncalled for and felt, again, like another typical Hollywood teaser.
In short, it is a bit of a thriller but it means to read like a biographical account. I suppose this is to imitate life all the better but I can't say it got me involved any better.
It is perfectly narrated, once you get into the (again typical early-days Hollywood) choice to narrate the German characters with German accents. Why that was done, is a little odd, since it's all set in Germany, with Germans as main protagonists, with a few Brits dotted about and a Russian popping up, every now and then, but I get how alternatives could also have been less than successful.
1 person found this helpful