Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Bookshop cover art

The Bookshop

By: Penelope Fitzgerald, Stephanie Racine, David Nicholls - introduction
Narrated by: Eve Karpf, David Nicholls
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £7.99

Buy Now for £7.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Blue Flower cover art
The Friendly Air cover art
The Coward cover art
All Good Things cover art
Lord Jim cover art
The Frenchman and the Lady cover art
Good Behaviour cover art
The Women of Chateau Lafayette cover art
Wuthering Heights cover art
Enemy Women cover art
The Complete Short Stories cover art
What the Wind Knows cover art
The Unsettled Dust cover art
The Venice Sketchbook cover art
Where the Lost Wander cover art

Summary

Short-listed for the Booker Prize.

In a small East Anglian town, Florence Green decides, against polite but ruthless local opposition, to open a bookshop.

Hardborough becomes a battleground. Florence has tried to change the way things have always been done, and as a result she has to take on not only the people who have made themselves important but natural and even supernatural forces, too. Her fate will strike a chord with anyone who knows that life has treated them with less than justice.

©1978 Penelope Fitzgerald; Introduction David Nicholls 2013; Preface Hermione Lee 2013 (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

What listeners say about The Bookshop

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    53
  • 4 Stars
    26
  • 3 Stars
    20
  • 2 Stars
    10
  • 1 Stars
    5
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    54
  • 4 Stars
    28
  • 3 Stars
    12
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    43
  • 4 Stars
    23
  • 3 Stars
    18
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    4

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A nice short read,/listen

An easy read/listen, quite relaxing, not too heavy if you want some light fiction. Cosy would sum this book up.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Short but sweet

What made the experience of listening to The Bookshop the most enjoyable?

This was a lovely little book. I especially enjoyed the narration this time.

What did you like best about this story?

It had a bitter sweet theme.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

Three different narrators and all very good.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Quite sad really with the odd chuckle.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Pretty much perfect

I have been planning to read the Bookshop for some time but have simply never got around to it. I am so glad it is perfect audio book slow, gentle, funny and heartbrealking in a very short spaceof time. it si a very English book both in charachter and pace and I so loved it. The narration fits perfectly. Perhaps my favourite Audible so far.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Spellbinding

I am new to Penelope Fitzgerald 's work. But now am a devoted fan. Great story,real characters. Loved it. Beautifully read. Sorry it's over.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Elegant read

I loved this book. It is short and leaves you thinking about what happens next. It is beautifully written with exquisite language and character. This audiobook performance is understated and bring the story to life.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Mixed feelings

Thoroughly enjoyable, listened all in one go. I would recommend not listening to the forward beforehand. Felt a bit like a book of a film rather than the other way around but, I'd like to watch the film now.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

unexpected pleasure

I was surprised and pleased to listen to this superb story from Penelope Fitzgerald, great.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Book Mark

Bottom lip story of a book shop seller and and it’s ephemeral mishaps with grim toady people

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful storytelling

This is a tale with hidden depths and characters that are far more complex than they at first appear.
Set in a small, rural town in the late 1950s The Bookshop tells the story of a widow's struggle to establish a business in a community riven by class divisions and clashing ideas on the need for an Arts Centre.
The writing is sublime and the simplicity of the story is one of its strengths. But it is a novel that is full of thought-provoking themes - class, the value of education, the nature of work, the machinations of local politics, the danger of gossip, manipulation of people, what it is to be an outsider.
The ending is heart-breaking and I was very moved by the bookseller's plight. A brilliant novel.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A wonderful novel

A tale of one woman's failure but ambiguously, elliptically, beautifully and assuredly written. A treasure.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful