Beatlebone cover art

Beatlebone

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
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.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Beatlebone

By: Kevin Barry
Narrated by: Kevin Barry
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
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

WInner of the Goldsmiths Prize

Prize shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards 2015

He will spend three days alone on his island. That is all that he asks...John is so many miles from love now and home. This is the story of his strangest trip.

John owns a tiny island off the west coast of Ireland. Maybe it is there that he can at last outrun the shadows of his past.

The tale of a wild journey into the world and a wild journey within, Beatlebone is a mystery box of a novel. It's a portrait of an artist at a time of creative strife. It is most of all a sad and beautiful comedy from one of the most gifted stylists now at work.

©2015 Canongate Books; 2015 Canongate Books Ltd Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

Listeners also enjoyed...

 City of Bohane cover art
The Riders cover art
Small Bones in a Fist cover art
Minimum of Two cover art
The Two Houses cover art
Topographia Hibernica cover art
Murphy cover art
Two Cows and a Van Full of Smoke cover art
Midnight Cowboy cover art
Seamus Heaney II Collected Poems (published 1979-1991) cover art
Beware of Pity cover art
Cider with Rosie cover art
The Turning cover art
Shadows at the Door cover art
A Year of Marvellous Ways cover art
Cloudstreet cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
Kevin Barry reads with the same authentic tone with which he writes. He creates atmosphere with ease, allows for fun, cheek and raw truth to coexist in the same sentance. Pretentions are exposed and honesty delivered. A well told yarn.

Unique, engaging, leaves you wanting more.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I found the experience of listening to this book wildly challenging and deeply moving. The author/narrator weaves a fantastic tale.
It took me 3 or 4 restarts before I felt confident and comfortable enough to proceed. I relistened to most chapters 2 or 3 times so I could savour the precision of the language and the flow of the meandering.

Bizarre, stunning experience

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The story travels, expertly carried by Barry, through unexpected territory. Characterisation brilliant, laughing just recalling some of the characters.

Rip-roarious and exhilarating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really enjoyed this, very well written book and a great story.
The performance was great but I'm fairly sure I heard a woman laugh and cough in the background a few times. It didn't take anything away from the book. I'd highly recommend it.

Great story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Mesmerising. I'm sure this book will stay with me for a long time, perhaps forever, just like Lennon's memories of being 17 years old.

Perfect concept novel on a perfect concept album

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I love the conceit: the fictionalised account of real events in which John Lennon tries to lose the press & find himself, in Western Ireland. I liked the unconventional structure: the author wrote his little article about how he conceived, researched & wrote the book, in the middle, not at the end. I enjoyed reading the book. But there are really only two characters & I failed to engage with either of them. The whole book strains under the weight oftoo much worn out, broken down psychedelia. There's a weird musing, or a spook, or a hallucination in almost every paragraph. Eventually I was listening to it because I enjoyed the sounds, like a piece of music. When it finished (at the end of the middle, because there seems to be no ending) I was surprised buts lightly relieved.

Sort of Great

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I liked the mixture of surreal and factual with evocative characters and locations.
I didn’t like the way the book ends and then without a breath are the credits… too abrupt after the other worldly story

Melodic narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I listened to this with only one break and that was at the point where 'John' is afraid for his safety and ...... I also felt the fear, so it seemed a good place to take a break.
Kevin Barry ( he's the one I'm besotted with) covers so many emotions but in such an understated way: there is anger, sadness, despair, longing, frustration, etc. all expressed by Mr. Barry in the enchanting and comedic voice of Cornelius, the flat tones of John and the terrifying 'Joe Director'.
Any further comment would amount to a spoiler, I think.

I'm besotted...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a daring book. The language is precise, rhythmic, almost poetic, marrying scouse intonation, west of Ireland wit and the lyricism of Flann O'Brien. It's like an experiential biography, one that wrings the facts of a Lennon's life in order to divine his soul. In doing so it captures the universal hollowness of a life without love. The dis and dat of Barry's dialect grate on the ear occasionally, a minor quibble, but the authenticity of voice and development of character through dialogue are nothing short of masterful.

Stunning performance

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
He creates a desire to absorb and 'meul' over each phrase, description and image of he animate and inanimate.

Kevin Barry just keeps giving...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews