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Eight Months on Ghazzah Street

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Eight Months on Ghazzah Street

By: Hilary Mantel
Narrated by: Sandra Duncan
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About this listen

Frances Shore is a cartographer by trade, a maker of maps, but when her husband's work takes her to Saudi Arabia she finds herself unable to map the Kingdom's areas of internal darkness. The regime is corrupt and harsh, and the streets are not a woman's territory; so she becomes confined in her flat. As her days empty of certainty and purpose, her life becomes a blank – waiting to be filled by violence and disaster.

©1988 Hilary Mantel (P)2014 W F Howes Ltd Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Saudi Arabia Exciting Scary Middle East Iran Africa

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Critic reviews

"Horrifyingly gripping. It urges the reader to suspend normal life entirely until the book is read." ( Sunday Times)
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'not for you if 'action' is your thing; this is a tableau; beautifully crafted with subtle, smart & apparently effortless narration.
I loved EightMonths & ironically, couldn't put it down.

'loved this, wonderful writer-narrator combination

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An unusual way to communicate the challenge of living in a different culture. While having the right dreams and yet the frustrations of divides which perhaps in some places cannot be crossed.. so never really knowing....

Brilliant ..Cultural differences & bondings

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I liked it. The storyline was different but I felt could have been more colourful, more cultural references. The narrator was good, clear but I personally would have preferred someone with a different tone, more interesting voice.

Dipped in and out!

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After failing a few times to get into the much acclaimed Wolf Hall trilogy I’d thought Mantel wasn’t for me so I was agreeably surprised by how accessible and thought provoking this novel is and I will explore her other work too.
I usually like this narrator, but I don’t think her style works on this genre, and I now wish I’d read the book rather than listened to it. Somehow, Mantel’s wit and sharp prose is somewhat lost in this crime drama styled narration.
Also, I agree with other reviewers on the weak ending. I do like a book that raises more questions than it answers and I don’t need to have all loose ends tied up, but on this occasion the end feels like a first draft that needed more work on.

Mantel is reader friendly after all!

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Probably the best fiction ook I have ever read. Well written, tense, gripping, believable. Very interesting backdrop, sympathetic characters and very plausible plot. Just read it.

Must read

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This novel cleverly conveys the effect of how it might feel to live as a female in an Arab country, through the eyes of an expat Western woman. The claustrophobia of a largely indoor life, fearfulness, and growing self doubt are very convincing. I listened to the audiobook (which is very well performed by Sandra Duncan,) while concurrently reading a book of essays by Arab female journalists, and this intensified and increased my understanding.
The only downside to the novel were the irritating rather weak characters, none are remotely likeable, and the plot rather fell away. After building alot of tension, the ending felt rather flat. So three stars but still recommended.

Assimilation

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This is about an English ex pat couple's experience of living in Saudi, written from the perspective of the wife, Fran, The story is about the first 8 months of their lives there, how very different it is to their previous life in Africa and how totally different it is to any way of living Fran has ever encountered. I loved the style of writing, how the reader is totally within Fran's thoughts and fears.

Parts are also cleverly written in 3rd person, a great contrast. The narration was first class. I'm aware that the sadly, recently deceased Hilary Mantel lived in Saudi for a while, so it's fascinating to know this formed a basis for the story,

Compelling

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As you would expect this is outstanding in description, of environment, atmosphere culture from a western point of view and character. The latter are mainly awful , including the narrator, in varying degrees. Ms Mantel is skilled at plotting, keeping the reader guessing till the end. Overall it’s a depressing listen though, accentuating culture differences.

Subtle portrayal of a culture alien to the west

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A real sense of the atmosphere of Saudi Arabia, and the way expats navigate (or fail to) this society through the eyes of a woman whose husband is working on a building project. Dark and engaging

Highly evocative

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Fascinating book on expat life in Saudi Arabia and the hypocrisy of the tyrannical middles Easter regimes

Enlightening

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