The Heart Broke In cover art

The Heart Broke In

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The Heart Broke In

By: James Meek
Narrated by: John Lee
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About this listen

Would you betray your lover to give them what they wanted? Bec Shepherd is a malaria researcher struggling to lead a good life. Ritchie, her reprobate brother, is a rock star turned TV producer. When Bec refuses an offer of marriage from a powerful newspaper editor and Ritchie's indiscretions catch up with him, brother and sister are forced to choose between loyalty and betrayal.

The Heart Broke In is an old-fashioned story of modern times, a rich, ambitious family drama of love, death and money in the era of gene therapy and internet blackmail.

©2012 James Meek (P)2012 Canongate Books Ltd Contemporary Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction

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It is very hard to describe this book. Initially it is a tale of a high achieving brother and sister who get along despite an undercurrent of sibling rivalry. Richie is a cheating hedonist who is about to be found out whereas Becks is an almost saintly medical researcher looking for a cure for malaria. Both characters are intensely real and it is impossible to completely like or dislike either of them. The catalyst occurs when Becks breaks her engagement to Val, a high powered newspaper editor and he unleashes a very effective revenge strategy that has far reaching consequences for Becks, her family and even their acquaintances.
Just like life, this book has its annoying moments and some sections are a tad overlong. I also regretted the absence of the very charismatic Val in much of the book, although his actions are plainly evident. Just like life, I can only look back fondly on this remarkable and original story. There are some parts of this book where I would have given a 6 or 7 marking if I could so I think a Straight 5 is a fair assessment of its overall impact.
I wonder if James Meek could be encouraged to write another book about Val? It would be wonderful if he did.

Smart and original

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the narrator is excellent the language rich and evocative the characters well rounded and believable. loved it

excellent story and narrator

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It takes a little while until the story picks up speed but you’ll be highly rewarded. It is a very complex story inhabited by very complex characters that Mr.Meek had brought to life in such a brilliant way. They all seem so real and interact in a way which is very realistic but planted into unusual circumstances. I actually started to live with them, and really worry about them - which has never happend before and was quite a unique experience . I loved the book in it’s abundance of life as it is tragic and funny at the same time as well as mirroring the English culture in morals and politics in the 21st century.

Heartbreaking

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This may be a very good book, but I couldn't bring myself to persevere the drone of the narrators voice beyond chapter 3.

drone

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I have no idea if the story is good but the narrator is AWFUL. Couldn't get past chapter 2. I suspect one to read in the traditional manner...

Awful narrator

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