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The Child in Time

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The Child in Time

By: Ian McEwan
Narrated by: Nathaniel Parker
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About this listen

The Child in Time opens with a harrowing event. Stephen Lewis,a successful author of children's books, takes his three-year-old daughter on a routine Saturday morning trip to the supermarket. While waiting in line, his attention is distracted and his daughter is kidnapped. Just like that. From there, Lewis spirals into bereavement that has effects on his relationship with his wife, his psyche, and time itself.

©1987 Ian McEwan (P)2014 (p) AudioGo Ltd. Published by Random House Audiobooks Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction
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I don’t think I would have enjoyed reading this book as the superb description of moments, feelings and memories would have lacked the insight and reality that the reader brought alive. It was beautifully written and I am so glad that you had it available on audible.

Perfect for audio

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Not the easiest narrative to follow at timed but is rich in it's language and worth staying with as the story unfolds. Interesting themes of identity, coping with loss and childhood are explored and some of the descriptive observations are magnificently worded. Ian McEwen is always a delight to read, interesting, challenging and every book different - not formulaic.

Well written and read

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Fascinating poignant and moving book. At times it's drifting narrative is dull but the final chapter makes it worth every word. It's one of the most moving final chapters i can recall.

Intense, moving and mcewan at his best.

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While searching for this book, I accidentally brought "Children of Time", which as it turned out I enjoyed much more. this was a rather timid affair. While the characters are interesting, they don't actually do very much. but such is life... Nicely read though.

Like poetry on a dull day

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It took me a while to get into this book but once I was I was hooked. Unusual story line with many insightful narrative on the issue of 'Time' which i personally find has sparked my own philosophical interest in the notion of time. Highly recommended.

Interesting story

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This is a very strange read. I did listen to the end to see if things would clear up. But the author seems to have read about modern theories of the nature of time and just had to share that knowledge with the reader. It comes across as an quasi-intellectual book, with views on politics and education that are at opposites with each other. The ‘breakdown’ of the protagonist’s mentor is absolutely ludicrous. Is this some attempt to portray Thatcherism? When does ‘the present’ take place? Out of time? As I said—confusing.

Confusing

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Only for the fact that I refuse to give up on books is why I didn’t give up on this. Holy god. It was hard work. Maybe I misunderstood the theme.

Thank god it’s over

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Nathaniel Parker's voice was very boring. It was extremely difficult to listen to this book. I didn't even get 25% through it!

Very disappointing

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This book wasn't what I expected. The story goes off at tangents and I found my mind wandering to my own thoughts instead of listening. It didn't keep my attention at all then finally gave up

a chore to listen to

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I've enjoyed many of the author's books so was all the more disappointed by this novel. I found the story disjointed going off on tangents that didn't hang together. I never felt engaged by the narrative with its half-baked forays into science and philosophical musings about time. It begins with the horror of losing a daughter a theme that is left hanging for most of the book as the author's thoughts rambled about. The book isn't helped by the dreary, monotone of the narrator who seemed to be eager to get the job over.

Disappointing

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