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The Echo Chamber cover art

The Echo Chamber

By: John Boyne
Narrated by: Richard E. Grant
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin. 

What a thing of wonder a mobile phone is. Six ounces of metal, glass and plastic, fashioned into a sleek, shiny, precious object. At once, a gateway to other worlds - and a treacherous weapon in the hands of the unwary, the unwitting, the inept.

The Cleverley family live a gilded life, little realising how precarious their privilege is, just one tweet away from disaster. George, the patriarch, is a stalwart of television interviewing, a 'national treasure' (his words); his wife, Beverley, a celebrated novelist (although not as celebrated as she would like); and their children, Nelson, Elizabeth, Achilles, various degrees of catastrophe waiting to happen.

Together they will go on a journey of discovery through the Hogarthian jungle of the modern living where past presumptions count for nothing and carefully curated reputations can be destroyed in an instant. Along the way, they will learn how volatile, how outraged, how unforgiving the world can be when you step from the proscribed path.

Powered by John Boyne's characteristic humour and razor-sharp observation, The Echo Chamber is a satiric helter skelter, a dizzying downward spiral of action and consequence, poised somewhere between farce, absurdity and oblivion. To err is maybe to be human but to really foul things up you only need a phone.

©2021 John Boyne (P)2021 Penguin Audio

What listeners say about The Echo Chamber

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A Morality Tale with Panache

John Boyne often deals with very gritty issues with very moving stories full of humanity and understanding. In The Echo Chamber he tackles celebrity, social media and the cancel culture with great comedic effect.
This is the first time I have encountered Boyne’s humour and it is very, very funny. The story revolves around tv presenter George Cleverly, his wife and three children; all of whom struggle with problems that have their roots in modern culture.
I particularly enjoyed the episode with pronouns which I also struggle to keep up with in fact, I only recently discovered I was a cis woman because my daughter in law told me.
This is an excellent comedy of manners that all of us will recognise and the scrapes the family get themselves into are so hilarious, I had to keep reminding myself that there is an edge to all this that we can all learn from. Underneath there is quite a thought provoking message.
After Covid,isolation and so much bad news, this was a real tonic especially as it was read by Richard E. Grant who really brought the characters to life and emphasised the humour with a light touch. Even my husband who “does not do fiction” was drawn in. It feels like a very long time since I have laughed so much. I sincerely hope it will bring a smile to your face too.


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14 people found this helpful

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Massively out of date, despite being set in 2021!

Genuinely struggling to believe that the same writer who penned the magnificent ‘The Absolutist’ came up with this soggy, indulgent twaddle. Its take (if indeed, one can call it a take) on woke culture is dull in the extreme, the characters read like something out of an early Stephen Fry novel (read puddle deep) and - worst of all - it’s so boring! Nice narration by Grant though, obviously.

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6 people found this helpful

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Lighthearted and funny

I really enjoyed this book! it was sarcastic, humorous and poked fun at all of us, especially at our obsession with Social media. Very enjoyable book and very well read by Richard E Grant.

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Disappointed

I find it hard to believe that the same person wrote The Hearts Invisible Furies.This was a completely different,and extremely disappointing read.

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Hilarious

Really not sure why this has got some scathing reviews.

This book is so different from John Boyne's other work, but is equally as good.

The observations of modern daily life, which arise from our phone usage is just hilarious.

I hovered for a while about getting this book, especially from some of the reviewers, but I really liked it,
Narration by Richard E Grant was the icing on the cake.

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Disappointing

I was so excited to read this - john boyne read by richard e grant? how could that not be fabulous?

I've read three or four of his books before and been thrilled by the quality of the writing, the depth of characters, the story arc... this book however is slight (yet very long) and filled with anger and unlikeable characters doing deeply unlikely things.

it's billed as farce, but wasn't entertaining and feels like both a different writer from his previous books, and also from the reviews in the broadsheets. Even excellent narration can't save it from being tedious. I struggled through to half way and then skimmed to the end.

Will be returning, very disappinted.

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Brilliant Reading

A very subtle, clever story. Entertaining. Richard E Grant especially, playing Phillipe's mother. My "earworm"!

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Astounding

This author can do no wrong for me, and every book he writes is so different! This one took me by surprise, but it's so so clever. Found myself laughing out loud at times, and seeing things from so many perspectives.
Brilliant narration too, as you'd expect.

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What a disappointment

I am huge fan but what happened here. Utter rubbish. Got to the end simply because couldn’t return the book!

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disappointed

not for me, really disappointed gave up at end of chapter 1. asking for refund

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