Ep. 1: The July War cover art

Ep. 1: The July War

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Ep. 1: The July War

By: Rabih Alameddine
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

View show details

About this listen

This coming of age story is set amid what the author calls the ‘traumatic and surreal’ experience of the July War in Beirut. Against the backdrop of war and its fallout, a young teenager faces smaller but no less intimidating personal conflicts, including his emerging sexuality, his relationship with his father, the aggressive attentions of a bully and a reluctant friendship with a refugee. Small and large scale devastations converge to contrast the unfairness, injustice and confusion of two very different battlefields.

©2021 Audible, Ltd (P)2021 Audible, Ltd
All stars
Most relevant
This is the third short story of this series I've listened to and it doesn't get better. I was expecting great things from a Sunday Times competition but these stories are consistently dull and unoriginal..Not sure if that's due to a shortage of decent entries or a desperation to pick stories that appeal to the widest demographic. Bizarrely for an audible sponsored competition the narration and production is also very poor. The narrator of this story is supposed to be a Lebanese teenager but sounds like a kid that has been picked off the street from North London.

So disappointing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Poor read clearly by the author or some unschooled in communicating words, but a well written story although the style is mundane - the language doesn’t trouble me nor the references to fellatio, if anything it has a humanising effect and anything that destroys Muslim/Arab stereotypes is most welcome.

Bad reading spoils good work

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I was hoping for something special from this story. I'd have even settled for mediocre but entertaining. my only relief was how short it was. The narrator needs alot more practice and sounded like a sixth-former reading from a text book which makes an already uninspiring story stilted and jarring. Sadly I would suggest skipping this one

Boring shallow story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Disappointed, dishgusted and surprised. Zdidntxaee any warnings of content but perhaps I was expecting more from this “supposed best seller”

Disgusting language

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