Brilliant reading, gripping story

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this book because it was engaging, unexpected and gripping. Well written.

What did you like best about this story?

The characters were exquisitely drawn and fascinating, and the narrative was tense and exciting.

What about Emma Fenney’s performance did you like?

The narrator was very good at performing as the different characters without excessively doing impressions or using accents - her voice is melodious and very listenable. One of the best audiobook narrators I've heard.

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What a tale!

Brilliant book. The characters are so connectable. I felt guided through their lives & experiences by such a deft hand. Thoroughly enjoyed from beginning to end. Wonderful too to discover their strengths & weaknesses as the story draws to a breath-holding close.

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wanted more

Very well performed but it didn't make up for what I felt almost lazy writing, in that I felt there could and should have been more twists and turns. It left me wanting

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11 people found this helpful

Good listening

Took a while to get my interest as it's not a book I would normally go for. However I did enjoy it and would recommend.

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shame about the narration

this was an excellent story, evoking the cold war of the fifties and doctors in Britain. the echoes of the war and the atmosphere of coming up for air after the war. in fact it's a highly atmospheric book, at times claustrophobic and at others fresh with sea air. It was spoiled some what, b y the bff aeration and mispronounced words. however in general I loved it.

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Average book from a usually impressive writer

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No. If I was to recommend a book by Helen Dunmore this is not the one I would choose. The story is totally predictable and while some of the characters are well delineated others are plain caricatures.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Avoided the clichéd homosexual spy ring and not tried to update The Railway Children.

What three words best describe Emma Fenney’s voice?

Refined, breathy, limited.

Was Exposure worth the listening time?

There are some good things in the book so I was glad to have listened to it but overall it was disappointing.

Any additional comments?

Why has Audible not released The Siege or The Betrayal by Dunmore? Really impressive books.

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17 people found this helpful

Curl up and escape with this story ...

Gently unfolding story draws you in, partly due to excellent narration, and enjoyed through to probably the last couple of chapters - personally I felt the ending could have been more original otherwise highly recommended.

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Enjoyable to the end, but marred by consistent strange pronunciation of "Anstruther"

I found the main character well-rounded, but the rest rather lacklustre. The plot was almost nonexistent, but as the main character was interesting, I persisted and on balance am glad I did.

What did rather spoil my experience was the consistently weird pronunciation of what must be "Anstruther" as "Anstroother". Every time it was mispronounced it grated and snapped me back out of the book. This was unfortunate as the narrator otherwise did an excellent job.

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Slow-burning, cold war nightmare

I enjoyed this beautifully written, character-driven book. The story unfolds slowly as civil servant Simon and his German-born wife Lily are drawn into a nightmare accused of espionage after Simon does a favour for Giles, his colleague and long-time friend. Cold-war paranoia pervades the book as Simon is arrested and a bewildered Lily is subjected to intense questioning by the police. The book successfully evokes Lily’s plight as she tries to hold her family together as the machinery of the state takes over her life.

The narration is excellent.

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2 people found this helpful

Gripping, I had to find out what happened, the story becomes real

I love the poetry in Helen Dunmore’s books , but more. She understands people the different layers in them, the way things sink deep inside them and occasionally come to the surface, secrets, memories they never quite forgot. She draws you inside, you care about them, you feel what they do.

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