Sweet Sorrow cover art

Sweet Sorrow

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Sweet Sorrow

By: David Nicholls
Narrated by: Rory Kinnear
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £17.99

Buy Now for £17.99

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

One life-changing summer, Charlie meets Fran...David Nicholls’s highly anticipated new novel, narrated by Rory Kinnear.

In 1997, Charlie Lewis is the kind of boy you don't remember in the school photograph. His exams have not gone well. At home he is looking after his father, when surely it should be the other way round, and if he thinks about the future at all, it is with a kind of dread.

Then Fran Fisher bursts into his life and despite himself, Charlie begins to hope.

But if Charlie wants to be with Fran, he must take on a challenge that could lose him the respect of his friends and require him to become a different person. He must join the Company. And if the Company sounds like a cult, the truth is even more appalling.

The price of hope, it seems, is Shakespeare. Poignant, funny, enchanting, devastating, Sweet Sorrow is a tragicomedy about the rocky path to adulthood and the confusion of family life, a celebration of the reviving power of friendship and that brief, searing explosion of first love that can only be looked at directly after it has burned out.

©2019 David Nicholls (P)2019 W. F. Howes Ltd
Family Life Fiction Romance Feel-Good Tear-jerking Heartfelt Witty
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Sunday Lunch Club cover art
The Silent Wife cover art
While My Eyes Were Closed cover art
The Butterfly Room cover art
The Missing Wife cover art
There's Something I Have to Tell You cover art
Our Endless Numbered Days cover art
Look What You Made Me Do cover art
If I Let You Go cover art

Critic reviews

"Nicholls is fabulous on first love and Kinnear’s narration strikes the perfect balance between teenage defiance and vulnerability." (Daily Mail)

"Such a beautiful book. Captures perfectly a moment in time we've all experienced." (Graham Norton)

"He's such a genius. His novels are relatable and recognizable, but also surprising, breath-taking and life-enhancing." (Nina Stibbe)

What listeners say about Sweet Sorrow

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,738
  • 4 Stars
    626
  • 3 Stars
    230
  • 2 Stars
    57
  • 1 Stars
    44
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,801
  • 4 Stars
    416
  • 3 Stars
    151
  • 2 Stars
    50
  • 1 Stars
    40
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,530
  • 4 Stars
    590
  • 3 Stars
    223
  • 2 Stars
    60
  • 1 Stars
    50

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

Absolutely loved it

This is right up there with One Day for me. It covers many similar tropes of young love, what could have beens and laugh out loud moments. If you are a fan of David Nicholls’ other books you will love this too.

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

I absolutely loved it.

I absolutely loved this book. such a sweet story. the narrator was excellent. highly recommended

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Poignant

Very enjoyable read, different from my normal choice, so glad I chose it

Super narrator

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

enjoyed this book.

Interesting book. Enjoyed revisiting youth and first love. well read. very realistic voices. one to definately listen to.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Good Fun.

Really enjoyed this book. definitely one I would recommend. I felt for his character all the way and was delighted how she constantly minded him when there was plenty of opportunity for a standard lashing.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Nostalgic and funny!

Takes you back to the 90’s. Very funny, really enjoyed listening to this book.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Very involving

An excellent story. I became very caught up in Charles’ fate and had to keep listening.
The narrator did a first class job

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Great acting and worthwhile story

Sweet Sorrow hit the ground running for me. At the time I was finishing my GCSEs and 'moving on' I had that exact looming situation. I had recently fallen out with my friends, I had been going through a tough period for a while and this felt like a turning point of some degree, but I didn't really know where. The emotions that Charlie feels were painfully relatable to me and I felt instantly on his side. It hit the ground running, but having finished the book, I still don't really know where it was running to.

I'm gonna give a minor spoiler warning here: I'm not gonna be talking about the events of the book, but rather how they're structured in the later half of the book, which may change some people's viewing experience, so I recommend skipping this (next) paragraph if you're unsure.

The book felt perfectly set up for a collapse of the world around a character. It felt like everything was going to come toppling down and the characters were going to have to chose who and what to side with - what was most important to them. But rather than a massive avalanche spawning a moral conclusion, it's a few small avalanches, happening days apart that give the characters time to adapt rather than make raw, truer decisions. As a result, the morality and conclusion of the story is a slow, anti-climactic burn that left me wanting more in the most unwanted way. The way it actually unfolds is more realistic, and may be better for certain audiences but it left me unsatisfied.

Overall, the book is a good read, but it's so close of being a great one that I can't help but feel annoyed at it.

I didn't mention the acting much but it was great. I thought I would hate the actor's voice at first, but as the book progressed, I realised that his voice is a perfect match for the story and makes the story much better than it could've been.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Multi layered love story

I very slowly warmed to this book and then I was totally immersed and impressed. It’s about first love, filial love, friendship and the angst of being 16 . Wonderful narrator . Set against a backdrop of one beautiful summer with an amateur dramatic production of Romeo and Juliet.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Reminiscing

Although I was not a teenager in the 90s, so much of this rings true for teenagers in any era. It made me smile a lot listening to it. A really enjoyable listen.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!