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Contacts
- Narrated by: Mark Watson
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
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Contacts
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Summary
One man’s last journey. One hundred and fifty-eight chances to save his life.
An unforgettable book from award-winning writer and comedian Mark Watson!
James Chiltern boards the 23:50 sleeper train from London to Edinburgh with two pork pies, six beers and a packet of chocolate digestives. At 23:55 he sends a message to all 158 people in his contacts, telling them that he plans to end his life in the morning. He then switches his phone to flight mode. He’s said goodbye. To him, it’s the end of his story – and time to crack open the biscuits.
But across the world, 158 phones are lighting up with a notification. Phones belonging to his mum. His sister. His ex-best friend. The woman who broke his heart. People he’s lost touch with. People he barely knows. And for them, the message is only the beginning of the journey.
Funny and wise, tender and deeply moving, Contacts is a beautiful story about the weight of loneliness, the importance of kindness – and how it’s never too late to reach out.
Critic reviews
"This is such a great book, funny and serious and daring and humane. I prefer Mark Watson to Leo Tolstoy - both as a novelist and a stand-up comedian." (Richard Curtis)
"Mark Watson is one of my favourite writers and Contacts is by far his best book yet." (Adam Kay)
What listeners say about Contacts
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sara Simpson
- 02-11-20
A wonderful story
A brilliant premise, I read it in a day, as couldn’t put it down. Great characters and thought provoking.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Claire Zenkerova
- 31-05-23
Just soooo....Mark Watson!
I love all of Mark Watson's work so no surprise I loved this. Witty, beautifully crafted prose, especially the inner dialogues, and an insightful look at how people interact and how they affect each other without being aware of it All read in Mark's unthreatening, slightly chaotic style. Just wonderful.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Nirali Peter
- 09-01-21
interesting from the beginning
great story, gets you hooked in from the very beginning. Narrator had a bit of a lisp but you get past it pretty quickly
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Beardtacular
- 12-11-21
Intelligent, emotional and human
Mark Watson has created a wonderful narrative that's incredibly relatable and markedly human.
Brilliantly fleshed out characters and interactions made this feel very personal. Every individual outlined during the narrative felt like a real person and his writing conveyed the weight of their existence in a way that I've found rare in other books. No tropes, predictable characters of stereotypes, just very well written "real" people coping with life and it's peculiarities in their own ways.
Reading this gave me a whole new perspective on suicide and shattered the "taboo" that surrounds it.
A great read which I hope inspires more work from him as an author!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 09-02-21
Based on my recommendation you should buy this
Really loved it. My favourite of Mark Watson's books and having him read it gives an extra familiarity to the characters. It can be a difficult subject to address but was so relatable that things can very easily and very quickly look bad for you and it's hard to see that it could turn around as quickly.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 30-07-21
Modern life connects us...
... but also disconnects us. This was gripping and unexpected. Also, I arrived at this book having seen the author tweet asking people to let him know if they had ever enjoyed anything he had ever done. Someone tweeted this book. I'm sure he's not reading this, but Mark, this is yet another thing you've done which I found compelling.
Totally recommended.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Maria Ioanna Imprialou
- 22-01-21
Smart and insightful
A deep dive into real problems of real people that is strangely uplifting. I felt like I have met all the characters.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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- vicki
- 03-10-21
Intriguing story
Really enjoyed this book. Does make one think how close we are to the edge.
Enjoyed meeting the various contacts and their reactions.
Ending was a bit of a surprise,
Would recommend
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Doug
- 16-04-21
Fantastic
Incredible - this really captures the nuance of suicidal thoughts and mental health issues and how things can quickly spiral in a person’s life. I didn’t find it too difficult, it had a lot of light moments and social commentary. Discussion of suicidal thoughts/suicide throughout though - should definitely come with a trigger warning.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- C Whittaker
- 31-07-21
confused at the end.
excellent premise enthusiastically narrated. The ending all felt a little rushed and lacked the meticulous build of all other characters and situations.
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