Warlight
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Warlight
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Narrated by:
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George Blagden
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By:
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Michael Ondaatje
About this listen
Random House presents the audiobook edition of Warlight by Michael Ondaatje, read by George Blagden.
LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018
An elegiac, dreamlike novel set in post-WW2 London about memory, family secrets and lies, from the internationally acclaimed author of The English Patient
‘The past never remains in the past…’
London, 1945. The capital is still reeling from the war. 14-year-old Nathaniel and his older sister Rachel are abandoned by their parents who leave the country on business, and are left in the dubious care of a mysterious figure named The Moth. Nathaniel is introduced to The Moth’s band of criminal misfits and is caught up in a series of teenage misadventures, from smuggling greyhounds for illegal dog racing to lovers’ trysts in abandoned buildings at night.
But is this eccentric crew really what and who they claim to be? And most importantly, what happened to Nathaniel’s mother? Was her purported reason for leaving true? What secrets did she hide in her past? Years later Nathaniel, now an adult, begins to slowly piece together using the files of intelligence agencies – and through reality, recollection and imagination – the startling truths of puzzles formed decades earlier.
Critic Reviews
"A novel of shadowy brilliance." (The Times)
"Fiction as rich, as beautiful, as melancholy as life itself, written in the visionary language of memory." (Observer)
"Ondaatje brilliantly threads the mysteries and disguises and tangled loyalties and personal yearnings of the secret world...and has constructed something of real emotional and psychological heft, delicate melancholy and yet, frequently, page-turning plottiness. I haven’t read a better novel this year." (Telegraph)
What listeners say about Warlight
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- kate
- 13-07-2018
Unnecessarily disjointed plot
A beautifully written but tedious book with an intricate but ultimately uninteresting storyline; even the narrator sounded bored.
Set in post war London two children are left in the care of 2 unrelated adults with dubious, mildly criminal backgrounds whilst the mother continues with unconvincing espionage work which ultimately exposes her children to risk. This author is no John Le Carre. There is a final plot twist/reveal but by then I hardly cared.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- James W. Matson
- 20-12-2019
ambling, some great moments
brilliantly read. novel lacked some of the order/structureI was looking for. Worth a listen. characters v well crafted.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mary-Lou O'Brien
- 17-10-2019
Had me at the 1st line
Warlight had me at the first line "In 1945 our parents went away and left us in the care of two men who may have been criminals." Warlight was a bit like sitting through a 3hr epic movie where you get a vague idea of what's going on through the lens of a childs memory. Then the second half the child is an adult and as he discovers more about his past so does the reader. I can't say I loved it, it was a slow and steady burn that given the first line I thought might be far more thrilling than it was.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- @GlobalCrimeFict
- 22-06-2018
Deeply moving
I was completely absorbed by the lives of Nathaniel, the Moth and the Darter, and at times moved to tears. This is a book largely about honourable and kind men, who lived on the margins, or had crossed into the criminal world.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Graham Williams
- 12-08-2020
Audible?
This is another marvellous creation by Michael Ondatjje. What he creates is the story of secret wartime work in England and it's incidental but profound effect on an adolescent boy and his sister. Deprived of his mother and vaguely watched over by a shifting group of people who come to the house, get him odd jobs, involve him in minor criminality. His life never really moves on as he spends years trying to piece together his mother's life and her wartime activities.
The reader is excellently chosen, though his reading initially comes across as flat and uninvolving. Gradually, you perceive the character emerging through this performance, but you do require quiet conditions or ideally headphones to hear it.
As a listener whose early childhood was in the fifties I appreciated the writer's recreation of those uncertain times, with the evidence of destruction everywhere but nobody speaking about the profound experiences they had gone through; and when 'a tube of toothpaste cost a precise amount of money'.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 23-08-2019
Warlight - a review
Well deserving of a second or third listen. A young boys interpretations and inferences about characters that he and his sister were left with during WW2. His awareness of love as imagined through a relationship that his mother has w a man she has known from childhood. The character development is stunning as is the narration.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 17-01-2019
Repetitive, slow, wearing questioning style
I could not recommend this book at all. The storyline was fine but the repetition became exasperating.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Ed Bodkin
- 27-08-2018
A U-turn
I loved the first third but didn't enjoy the rest of the book. The narrator was great though.
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