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In a Good Light
- Narrated by: Imogen Church
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
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In a Good Light
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
From the highly-acclaimed author of Small Pleasures - longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2021.
Without even noticing, Esther Fairchild has become locked into routine.
Living with her adored brother, Christian, she divides her time between illustrating children's books, nightly shifts as a waitress, weekly visits to her father and fortnightly meetings with her married lover.
Then one day she encounters a face in the crowd which jolts her out of her mundane existence and makes her question both her life and the past that has helped to shape it. Memories she had long chosen to forget begin to resurface. Memories of an eccentric childhood in a large and shabby house, where the children were left to fend for themselves within the loose boundaries of their parents' unorthodox values. A chaotic existence peopled by a rich collection of feckless 'guests'.
And into this shambolic world came Donovan - regularly deposited by his unreliable mother - and Penny, Christian's girlfriend and Esther's idol. Until tragedy struck and shattered their joint existence. But now, it seems, their lives are about to become intertwined once more....
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What listeners say about In a Good Light
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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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 03-11-21
Great
I loved the story (a coming of age tale) but was less keen on the narrator who sounded slightly hesitant all the way through.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- SuzanneLDobson
- 09-01-22
Dreadful narration
I'm a big fan of Clare Chambers, love her writing, her way of painting characters, and the development of the stories. But honestly the narration was so out of kilter, hugely overacted, almost as if she felt she had to interpret each word or the listener wouldn't understand the story. Ghastly, it ruined the tale, made it really a very difficult listen.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Mrs Simpson
- 29-09-22
It’s gets better towards the end of you can put up with the narration.
I really enjoy Clare Chambers’ books, but I do agree with other reviewers that the narrator’s voice, tone snd unnecessary intonation are irritating. It took me a long time to get through, but it got better towards the end. For what seemed to be the largest section of the book, it was read in a style that might be appropriate for a 10-year old, which was rather off putting.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 02-01-22
The trees, not the forest
Like its narrator and central character Esther, a young woman who illustrates books for children with beautiful, minutely detailed drawings, this is a book at its best when its focus is tightly held on life’s small moments. Such moments are so often charming, winningly observed and full of life.
However, the book’s forest of a plot, which functions to shoehorn its trees of momentary felicity into line with contrived coincidences, seems both overlong and diminishing.
The warm, amused reading is just what is needed to tip the balance and, above reservations notwithstanding, makes listening to the audio version a pleasure.
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4 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
- Dorothy Cook
- 18-10-21
One to stick with - it's worth it
Wasn't convinced halfway through. Like others I questioned the length/relevance of the childhood 'flashback'. And then THUD, it hits you like a ton of bricks. As ever from Clare Chambers, masterful portraits, a deep dive into others' lives and touching subtleties woven through.
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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
- Dee
- 09-04-22
so very good
at first i wasn't getting into ... narration seemed over the top BUT , having always liked Imogen Church as a narrator, i persevered and wow! it all came together, this was funny, nostalgic, sensitive and yes basically a love story but the characters, well the narration as i said previously, fell into place with the humour and the terrific voices given to the friends we meet, was just so right. So don't give up like i nearly did, this is one of my favourites to date and I've listened to a lot and seldom review. really sad i finished 😢
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 30-04-22
Lovely story
I really enjoyed this book, a lovely story that tied up all the loose ends at the end. I did not like the narrator however, if felt she over did the dramatisation a lot of the time. Do recommend the book tho
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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
- sara burman
- 22-11-22
Brilliant
The characters.
The narrative.
The language.
The insight.
The story.
The performance.
All brilliant!
More…..
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- jo
- 12-05-22
Coming of age epic
I chose this book because I had read and thoroughly enjoyed “Small Pleasures” by the same author. I quite enjoyed this story but definitely felt it was too long winded in parts, for example the childhood section. The performance in some ways detracted from my enjoyment because the narrator had an annoying way of raising her tone at the end of a sentence, even if it wasn’t a question. She also had a habit of often narrating the dialogue in a staccato fashion which put me off. However she does have a lovely voice and when it was just narrative it was a good performance. I found some of the characters a bit watery and despite the length of the book they didn’t have the depth, I think this was partly due to the jump of 19 years as it left a huge gap in the story. It was tolerable and I was glad the ending had closure.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- LauraF
- 14-02-23
Abysmal narration that spoilt a good story
The narrator read this like you’d tell a funny bedtime story to a child. For the first two hours I couldn’t hear the story because of the grating intonation. I only endured it because I’d paid for the audiobook.
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