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The Little Stranger

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The Little Stranger

By: Sarah Waters
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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About this listen

Exclusive to download: includes an interview with Sarah Waters giving an insight into the story behind The Little Stranger.

A ghost story from one of Britain's finest and best loved writers. After her award-winning trilogy of Victorian novels, Sarah Waters turned to the 1940s and wrote The Night Watch, a tender and tragic novel set against the backdrop of wartime Britain. Short-listed for both the Orange and the Man Booker, it went straight to number one in the best-seller chart.

In a dusty postwar summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his.

Prepare yourself. From this wonderful writer who continues to astonish us, now comes a chilling ghost story.

2010, Orange Prize, Long-listed

2009, Man Booker Prize, Short-listed

2011, IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, Long-listed

2007, James Tait Black – Fiction, Short-listed

©2009 Sarah Waters (P)2009 Penguin Audio
Fiction Ghosts Literary Fiction World War I Haunted Stranger

Critic Reviews

Waters has determined to scare the pants off her righly devoted audience. She succeeds unequivocally. You'll want to sleep with the light on (Erica Wagner)
The Little Stranger is a proper muscle-flexing story - I was in awe and just did not want it to end (Julie Myerson)
Displaying her remarkable flair for period evocation, Waters recreates backwater Britain just after the Second World War with atmospheric immediacy . . . Acute and absorbing (Peter Kemp)
Waters is often described as a brilliant storyteller, and so she is. But she is also an artist compelled to experiment . . . Waters gives herself a sort of handicap with the dull doctor's narration. This indirectness, which in cruder hands might have led to yawning insurrection in the reader, becomes essential to the novel's unsettling power (Claudia Fitzherbert)
Truly frightening . . . As I lay in bed after finishing reading it, running the various elements through my mind, a fox screamed outside my window and I nearly had a heart attack (Suzi Feay)
A spine-tingler . . . Waters skilfully ratchets up the suspense as events at Hundreds grow ever more highly charged - even downright chilling (Amber Pearson)

What listeners say about The Little Stranger

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Is it a ghost or a delusion?

I loved the premise of this novel :: Is the house haunted or is there a rational explanation for all strange goings on in Hundreds House?

A great ghost story for those of us who don't normally read ghost stories.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Beautifully written and read

I love this genre. It’s not jump-scare spooky, if that’s what you’re looking for. It’s subtle and descriptive and I found myself transported by this narrrative.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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Not my cup of tea

I found the detail tedious and it took forever to get to the guts of the story. The reader was well suited to the style and era but I found the actual story lacking. It was boring.

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