Stunning variety

The most amazing variety of stories, voices, themes. The readers (and producer) do good by. great writers short stories.
I highly recommend this collection

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11 people found this helpful

Highly recommended book of short stories

Rose Tremain at her best and beautifully read by all especially Juliet Stevenson. Read after enjoying Rose Tremain's latest book Gustave Sonata which she discussed at Hay Festival

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Eclectic collection.

Where does The American Lover rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The first collection of short stories I've listened to and whilst you don't get the suspense and anticipation of a novel this book makes for easy listening with some great character work.

Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favourite?

Undoubtedly the station master in the last days of Leo Tolstoy.

Any additional comments?

I guess in any collection of short stories there will be some you prefer to others. It is interesting that the author has developed the characters of some of the storied really well whilst in others you hardly know them when the story has ended. Overall an enjoyable listen

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6 people found this helpful

Fun short stories

These stories are all quite different. Enjoyable for their variety, it is also good to hear different narrators in one recording - makes for an interesting change of voice if you are listening to more than one story in succession. But of course you don't have to keep going to the next chapter when you should really be doing something else!

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Too literary for me

I like the idea of listening to short stories, but I find this collection rather stuffy and dry. I can't tell if it's the writing or the performances. Some of the stories are too short to really get into. I think I'd prefer something with a little more humour, a little less "literary".

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Chest of Treasures?

I enjoy reading and listening Rose Tremain novels and this was a natural next step. (These stories confirm that she has a ‘saucy’ side to her writing, by the way.) The title story, for me, tested what I took a short story to be. Whilst I found it interesting, it felt more like the outline for a novel than a crystalline short story. There was no real moment of truth. ‘Captive’ is desperately sad, ‘The jester of Astapovo’ a gem and no surprise that this was re-worked (or the other way round) as a great BBC radio play. ‘Extra Geography’ is slight and about moving on. Moving on, or not, is a fairly trite way of describing many of the stories. ‘The House Keeper’ is a serious trigger to read Daphne du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’. ‘Lucy and Gaston’ intrigues, but I either misread the ending or it is faulty. ‘Smithy’ and ‘Blackberry Wood’ join ‘Captive’ in sadness. ‘The Closing Door’ has elements of Jack Rosenthal’s ‘Eskimo Day’. The last speech is a wonderful conclusion and thought point. ‘21st century Juliet’ I did not appreciate. The longer stories have shorter ones between them. As a read/listen they make for an excellent way of spending time and Tremain is so reliable in crafting excellent characters perspectives. The audio-book is generally very good though with great performers, though Jilly Bond – I find - is not a good fit. I appreciated the different performers for under-scoring the richness of the characters presented.

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At least it wasn't boring

It is always difficult to review a book full of short stories because by its very nature it is diverse andtherefore inconsistent because there are new characters coming and going all the time. however the stories in this colletion are quite good. Some are better than others but all of them have atmosphere and drama. All of them are true to life under certain circumstances and dictated by events. Some of the characters are weak and some are stronger. Some are manipulative and get away with it and all of them have a love theme running through them from different angles. Some are better written than others and some can be related to better than the rest. Overall though at least the book wasn't boring.

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Dreadful waste of time

If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?

Stories started off interesting but all left in the lurch. Totally pointless@

Would you ever listen to anything by Rose Tremain again?

There were several readers and the issue was never with them. The stories were lame and a waste of time. Can't blame the readers for taking the opportunity to work and make a living.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Not at all.

Any additional comments?

Rubbish. Utter waste of time and money.

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2 people found this helpful

short stories ?

This was a good listen but most of the stories just ended without a proper conclusion.
After a while I waited for them to just stop.
Out of all the short stories maybe 3 were very good.

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