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Shades of Grey

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Shades of Grey

By: Jasper Fforde
Narrated by: Chris Harper, Jasper Fforde
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About this listen

Jasper Fforde's cult bestseller, re-recorded to celebrate the publication of the long-awaited sequel RED SIDE STORY.

Imagine a black and white world where colour is a commodity . . . It is a world invented by comic and creative genius - and Number One bestseller - Jasper Fforde.

Hundreds of years in the future, the world is an alarmingly different place.

Life is lived according to The Rulebook and social hierarchy is determined by your perception of colour. Eddie Russett is an above average Red who dreams of moving up the ladder by marriage to Constance Oxblood. Until he is sent to the Outer Fringes where he meets Jane - a lowly Grey with an uncontrollable temper and a desire to see him killed.

For Eddie, it's love at first sight. But his infatuation will lead him to discover that all is not as it seems in a world where everything that looks black and white is really shades of grey ...

If George Orwell had tripped over a paint pot or Douglas Adams favoured colour swatches instead of towels, neither of them would have come up with anything as eccentrically brilliant as Shades of Grey.

©2010 Jasper Fforde (P)2024 Hodder & Stoughton Limited Absurdist Dystopian Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction

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Critic reviews

'No summaries can do justice to the sheer inventiveness, wit, complexity, erudition, unexpectedness and originality.' The Times
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This was a slow burn at first and it took a long while to get the hang of the unusual and complex setting, but gradually I became hooked and found it fascinating. The characters were all well projected, with the exception of the narrator himself, Russet, who was grey and bland for much of the story until his personality unfolded with the revelations. A clever technique but one that made it touch and go if I’d keep listening beyond the first few chapters. Stick with it. I’m now looking forward to the sequel.

Ingenious concept

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I love this book, it’s just excellent. And this reading of it, with all the voices, is really wonderful. I’d recommend it heartily!

Jasper Fforde at this best, and really really well read

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I unreservedly recommend this book, it's delicious. I'm going to listen again right now!

Sublime (pun intended)

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This is quite a different kind of story. It takes quite a while for little things to be explained, but it seems to work. And I expect some things will never be explained properly, and that’s ok in the stories context. There’s enough intrigue to keep you going through the relatively slow paced story. Looking forward to the sequel in February’24.

Slow but Interesting

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the story was just too weird for me. Well narrated though. I won't be reading the sequel

it's weirdness

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