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Amsterdam

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Amsterdam

By: Ian McEwan
Narrated by: Adrian Scarborough
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About this listen

Winner of the Booker Prize 1998.

Brought to you by Penguin.

On a chilly February day two old friends meet in the throng outside a crematorium to pay their last respects to Molly Lane. Both Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday had been Molly's lovers in the days before they reached their current eminence, Clive as Britain's most successful modern composer, Vernon as editor of the quality broadsheet The Judge. Gorgeous, feisty Molly had had other lovers too, notably Julian Garmony, Foreign Secretary, a notorious right-winger tipped to be the next prime minister.

In the days that follow Molly's funeral Clive and Vernon will make a pact that will have consequences neither has foreseen. Each will make a disastrous moral decision, their friendship will be tested to its limits and Julian Garmony will be fighting for his political life.

©1998 Ian McEwan (P)2019 Penguin Audio
Dark Humour Fiction Literary Fiction

What listeners say about Amsterdam

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Ahead of its time

A great story about two Egoists, old friends of course, clashing and leading to a 21st Century finale. Brilliantly written and beautifully read! I listened to it three times in three days

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Symmetry

Sequence of events symmetrically align like a tonic in a symphony the protagonist died trying to finish

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I didn't love the story, but who cares when the writing is so good and clever.

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Not his best.

I love McEwan, but this novel left me feeling hard done by. I can't put my finger on it. I think I just loathed the characters too much.

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Brilliant farce and morality tale

Loved it. Molly is indulgent soil in which indulgence grows best and then rots.

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Highly recommended

I loved this story from the beginning to the end. Interesting characters, thought provoking plot

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