The Folding Star cover art

The Folding Star

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Folding Star

By: Alan Hollinghurst
Narrated by: Samuel West
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Shortlisted for the 1994 Booker Prize.

'An extraordinary book which takes the reader into a world of obsession and mystery . . . The Folding Star is lit by insight and humour' – Evening Standard

Edward Manners – thirty three and disaffected – escapes to a Flemish city in search of a new life. Almost at once he falls in love with seventeen-year-old Luc, and is introduced to the twilight world of the 1890s Belgian painter Edgard Orst.

'As is typical of the best classics, he has fashioned a universal tale of sexual obsession, love and death out of a particular life' – Marie Claire

©2018 Alan Hollinghurst (P)2018 Macmillan Digital Audio
Historical Fiction Fiction
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Swimming Pool Library cover art
Holding the Man cover art
The Dog In The Chapel cover art
Call Me by Your Name cover art
Mother's Boy cover art
Blue Sky Adam cover art
Maurice cover art
The Charioteer cover art
Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants cover art
Dreaming of the Bones cover art
The Wildflower Path cover art
Wicked Lies Boys Tell cover art
The Untouchable cover art
The Long Gaze Back cover art
Gay on a Train cover art
The Lessons cover art

The Pride List of Queer Storytelling

To mark Pride 2023 Audible teamed up with non-profit organisation, Out on the Page, supporter and champion of LGBTQIA+ writers and writing, to release an extensive Pride List of Queer Storytelling. Featuring contributions from some of the UK’s most important and exciting voices from the LGBTQIA+ community, this audiobook is one of the many featured on the list that is available to listen to on Audible.

What listeners say about The Folding Star

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    33
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    37
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    25
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Another Hollinghurst triumph

While not my favourite of Alan Hollinghurst's novels, The Folding Star contains some of his best writing. I found myself not particularly interested the sub-plot regarding the Flemish artist but a flashback of the protagonist's first love was so sublime that it left me gasping for more. I will definitely revisit The Folding Star.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Samuel West is a marvellous reader of Hollinghurst

The Folding Star is my favourite novel of Hollinghurst's to date, and quite likely my favourite novel, period. I find it dark and absorbing, and very, very funny. The writing is just sublime, and very evocative of the unnamed Flemish city in which it is depicted.

I intensely love everything about it, so I was delighted to find that Samuel West's narration is absolutely pitch perfect. He portays the story and its protagonist beautifully. I've listened to the entire audiobook twice already. I cannot recommend it enough. I'm looking forward to hearing more of his narrations. I see he reads The Swimming Pool Library. It promises to be a treat.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Sam West’s Accents

Hollinghurst writes literature not mere novels, and Sam West is a consummate actor. I’ve listened to both of his Hollinghurst readings (the other being The Swimming Pool Library). My only gripe is that whenever he’s voicing black characters - even native British ones - he adopts a bestial semi-patois accent which robustly pushes the bounds of bigotry. Why can’t he have them speaking like actual human beings the way God and Hollinghurst intended?

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful