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This Must Be the Place

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About this listen

An addictive and unforgettable novel of a marriage in freefall, shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2016.

A Richard and Judy Pick 2017.

A top 10 best seller, This Must Be the Place by Maggie O'Farrell crosses time zones and continents to reveal an extraordinary portrait of a marriage.

A reclusive ex-film star living in the wilds of Ireland, Claudette Wells is a woman whose first instinct, when a stranger approaches her home, is to reach for her shotgun. Why is she so fiercely protective of her family and what made her walk out of her cinematic career when she had the whole world at her feet?

Her husband Daniel, reeling from a discovery about a woman he last saw 20 years ago, is about to make an exit of his own. It is a journey that will send him off-course, far away from the life he and Claudette have made together. Will their love for one another be enough to bring Daniel back home?

©2016 Maggie O'Farrell (P)2016 Headline Digital Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Marriage Heartfelt

Critic reviews

"A complex, riveting novel of love and hope that grips at the heart." (The Sunday Times)
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Maggie O'Farrell has outdone herself. All of her novels are absorbing, believable,heartfelt, complicated, engaging and addictive. But in this story she has put together a cast of characters that pull at the heart strings and lead the reader into a world where fallible people lead themselves and others into crises and traumas. The narrative explores how these characters redeem themselves, learn to live with their mistakes and come to terms with human tragedy, including death, divorce, alcoholism, infidelity, abandonment, parent/child estrangement and abortion.
Each character finds his/her way to a resolution of his personal difficulties and most of them find a redeeming kind of love.
I feel bereft, but hugely gratified, at the end of this story and I believe I have just listened to an important book. I will certainly read this one again. It deserves to be widely read.

A Complete Winner. Brilliant Storytelling.

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This a wonderful download cleverly narrated by two voices which capture the network of characters and their myriad emotions, and give a definite extra dimension to the novel. The whole structure is rather like one of those delicate lace spiders' webs which appear on an early sunny morning spangled with dew. At the centre is the marriage of Claudette, a film actress who has run away with her baby from a partner and the pressures of fame to rural Ireland, and Daniel, an Irish-American linguistics lecturer separated from his long-time-never-seen children. The many strands of the story, as intricate as the lace of the spider's web, trace the decades before and after Claudette and Daniel meet, the complex network of human beings of all ages who have connected with them at some stage, all created by Maggie O'Farrell with tenderness and searing insight which held me spellbound. And as for the final ten minutes into the fifteenth hour of listening... Perfect!

The breadth of these seemingly effortlessly, lyrically created scenarios is astounding - from the palpable pain of a child, who grows to an adult, with dreadful eczema to the helpless loneliness and self loathing of the alcoholic - and the children with their intensiely real dialogue dance in and out of the narratives as complete beings. One of the most poignant and unforgettable scenes is when Daniel, already aching with an unbearable sense of loss, faces a stack of stored boxes and children's trucks and bikes, the remnants of his children's fleeting childhoods.

The writing is interesting, deftly experimental with adventures into language itself which ties Daniel whose life is linguistics into the very fabric of the novel. (One chapter is a list of all Claudette's possessions from when she was famous taken from the sales catalogue). This element of linguistic exploration, never pushed too far, is yet another satisfying strand.

The whole novel is about loss and seeking, trying to find a 'place' that is home. Relationships founder; continents as well as emotions and death separate those who should be together; dislocation and dysfunction cause deep seemingly irreparable pain... And yet it is wonderfully uplifting and full of insight - 'marriages end because of something you didn't do, not something you did' - and all is knitted together to show that with loss there is also recovery, and with seeking there is also finding.

The 'secret alleyways of the heart' BRILLIANT!

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I really enjoyed this book. Different voices were used for different characters. I thought the audiobook bought the story to life. Great author as well. Must listen

So so good

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Personally found it complicated going from one time to another. Looking at hard copy helped. Ideal film for Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie !!

Worth the struggle!

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Loved this book.
Normally I dislike books with many characters, but in this story the way that each persons narrative is woven together made a rounded picture of the two main protagonists . Superb.

Stupendous storytelling

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