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Trio

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Trio

By: William Boyd
Narrated by: Hannah Arterton
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About this listen

A producer. A novelist. An actress.

It is summer in 1968, the year of the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. While the world is reeling, our trio is involved in making a rackety Swingin' '60s British movie in sunny Brighton. All are leading secret lives.

As the film is shot, with its usual drastic ups and downs, so does our trio's private, secret world begin to take over their public one. Pressures build inexorably - someone's going to crack. Or maybe they all will.

From one of Britain's best-selling and best loved writers comes an exhilarating, tender novel that asks the vital questions: what makes life worth living? And what do you do if you find it isn't?

©2020 William Boyd (P)2020 Penguin Audio Fiction Historical Fiction Literature & Fiction

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Critic reviews

"William Boyd has probably written more classic books than any of his contemporaries." (Daily Telegraph)

"Simply the best realistic storyteller of his generation." (Sebastian Faulks)
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Disappointing, I am a great fan of William Boyd but found this novel ŕather trivial

Disappointed fan

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Reading marred by Hannah Arterton’s constant mispronunciations. Both In French and in English. Someone should have corrected her.

Mispronunciations

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found it hard to get into but persevered and glad I did. Thoroughly enjoyed.

very engaging

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different from previous Boyd novels, some comic moments, but not a page turner. book club April read.

bit disappointing

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William Boyd's writing is superb and once again he has come up with a multi-faceted plot to entertain me. I wish I had bought the book rather than the audio because I would simply have revelled in the words, rather than wincing at the mispronounciations.
Previous reviewer have been harsh about the reader, Hannah Arterton. I found her voice pleasant and she captured the characters well but as with many audiobooks, the pronunciation of almost every French word made me cringe. I find it mystifying that a language so closely linked with our own is a stranger for most voice actors.and I also wonder how these audiobooks are produced, does the actor simply sit with a tape recorder and read the book in total, with no help? Incidentally, the reviewer who sounded off about Cap Ferrat was wrong. This was indeed Cap Ferret, west of Bordeaux, best to check these things out before whingeing.
It took me a while to engage with the characters in Trio. I find it is often the case with William Boyd, he gives us flawed, complex characters and gradually unreels the layers. Certainly by the end I was anxious for each one of them and I was relieved that there was a good outcome for at least one of them. I thought the portrayal of the alcoholic woman was excellent, William is able to get right into the female psyche.

Superb writing

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A trio of characters, all associated in some way with the making of a film. The secrets each have propel the story. A very good writer, but for me not his best book. The characters not altogether convincing. I did not particularly enjoy the narrator's style.

A book about secrets

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reader was unable to pronounce frank words and names or Lytton Strachey's name. this spoilt the audiobook

reader

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I am a huge admirer of William Boyd and have read all of his novels. I love the way he draws the reader in to different worlds where we can experience the emotional lives of others - be they in turmoil, joy, longing or despair. I loved the background of the movies in the heady days of the sixties and the tension between old and new attitudes. I also liked the way the external actions of the main characters were so at odds with their internal tensions. There are numerous 'Sliding Doors' moments with opportunities being lost or squandered, almost like a film shot with multiple potential endings. I had the actual physical book with me alongside the narration as I was not overly impressed with the reader - which for me, is a make or break with Audible.

Multi - Layered

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I enjoyed this book , in fact each story ended too soon and too sharply. if it were a film I'd want to rewrite the endings. all 3 would end with the desires fulfilled instead of one hidden in a nunnery, one dead, and one still in hope of a bit of gay sex. they should have had it all

3 lives, each having the wrong ending.

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As ever, Boyd writes a story you cannot put down. I don't like the narrator. It is arrogant not to check the pronunciation of difficult words, and her attempts at French are appalling.

Great story, indifferent narrator

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