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Mister Pip

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Mister Pip

By: Lloyd Jones
Narrated by: Finty Williams
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About this listen

 Shortlisted for the British Book Awards, Richard and Judy Best Read of the Year, 2008.
Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Award, 2007.
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, 2007.
A Richard and Judy Book Club selection.

"A book can change your life forever.

"You cannot pretend to read a book. Your eyes will give you away. So will your breathing. A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe. The house can catch alight and a reader deep in a book will not look up until the wallpaper is in flames."

Bougainville. 1991. A small village on a lush tropical island in the South Pacific. Eighty-six days have passed since Matilda's last day of school as, quietly, war is encroaching from the other end of the island.

When the villagers' safe, predictable lives come to a halt, Bougainville's children are surprised to find the island's only white man, a recluse, re-opening the school. Pop Eye, aka Mr Watts, explains he will introduce the children to Mr Dickens. Matilda and the others think a foreigner is coming to the island and prepare a list of much needed items. They are shocked to discover their acquaintance with Mr Dickens will be through Mr Watts' inspiring reading of Great Expectations.

But on an island at war, the power of fiction has dangerous consequences. Imagination and beliefs are challenged by guns. Mister Pip is an unforgettable tale of survival by story; a dazzling piece of writing that will live long in the mind.

©2006 Lloyd Jones (P)2007 John Murray Audiobooks Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

Critic reviews

"The title that lingers most in my mind this year is Lloyd Jones's startlingly immediate Mister Pip, shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize. Its first-person telling makes it a natural audiobook, and Finty Williams's musical, youthful, determined young voice is exactly right for it."( The Times)
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I joined Audible for free, in order to listen to ‘Mr Pip’ (which I didn’t manage to finish reading in paperback form, lent to me while abroad). The reader Finty Williams, while offering crystal clear diction, is very irritating. She occasionally gets the emphasis wrong, which I think changes the author’s intended meaning in places. Also, for an appropriate authenticity, the story should be read by a black reader with an exotic accent of some sort, not someone evidently from an English public school.
The story began engagingly, reminding me of a certain Detective Agency series, but suddenly turned into something horrible and vaguely exploitative, that only an insensitive author (who takes his readers for fools) could write. Ugh. I don’t understand how anyone could have recommended this book to me.

The story takes a nasty turn

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Fantastic and unusual book that all literature lovers should read or listen. What a shame that once again a prize winning book is 'arbitrary' abridged by Audible.

Mister Pip

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What an unusual story - gripping and appalling parts are offset with gentle and delighful memories of childhood. It is touching and sad, but full of hope and the magic of the world and the imagination. Finty Williams is the perfect narrator. This is 2 hours of total enthralment - do listen.

Magical

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I didn't like this audiobook and was glad it was short, until I discovered it was abridged. Maybe I would have enjoyed the longer version but I doubt it since it's safe to assume the best bits are here. Perhaps I should have read it instead. I found the perfect 'Queen's English' accentless narration annoying. It distanced me even further from the story, which as other reviewers have said, has been better done.

Disappointing

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