Theft cover art

Theft

A Love Story

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
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.

Theft

By: Peter Carey
Narrated by: Stan Pretty
Try for £0.00

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

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
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.
Cancel

About this listen

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, 2006.
Nominated for the Man Booker International Prize, 2007.

Michael "Butcher" Boone is an ex-"really famous" painter, now reduced to living in the remote country house of his biggest collector and acting as caretaker for his younger brother, Hugh, a damaged man of imposing physicality and childlike emotions. Together, they've forged a delicate equilibrium, a balance instantly destroyed when a mysterious young woman named Marlene walks out of a rainstorm and into their lives. Beautiful, smart, and ambitious, she's also the daughter-in-law of the late, great painter Jacques Liebovitz, one of Butcher's earliest influences. She's sweet to Hugh and falls in love with Butcher, and they reciprocate in kind. And she sets in motion a chain of events that could be the making, or the ruin, of them all.

©2007 Peter Carey (P)2007 W F Howes Ltd
Literary Fiction Suspense Fiction
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

It Happened in Boston? cover art
Extinctions cover art
The Smoke cover art
Sacre Bleu cover art
The Long Gaze Back cover art
The Crown Tower cover art
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay cover art

Critic reviews

"A magnificent creation." ( New Yorker)
"A funny, gorgeous steal of a book." ( Sunday Telegraph)
"A new Peter Carey novel is a cause for joy." ( Guardian)

What listeners say about Theft

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    0

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

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

artland

Very well told story in two voices, entertaining and quick moving.
The intricacies of the art world got a little confusing at times (probably more to do with my inattention rather than the story itself) but it certainly is a story centred around a story of real developing love and deep rooted love between the brothers which is an endlessly fascinating relationship and perfectly plausible.
very good though long. Very much worth the effort.

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
    1 out of 5 stars

As dry as a pommie's bath mat

This cobber is the executive director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Hunter College, part of the City University of New York - which means he makes his moolah by teaching creative writing.
Carey - fairy....scarey....hairy?
Wary is the word - the only audio book I've not managed to finish.

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
    1 out of 5 stars

narrators are important

Unfortunatley I can't get to grips with this narrators style of speech, so however good the story is, I can't get into it, I have tried many times to listen to this, but still I get annoyed with it within a few minutes and turn it off.
Best advice, -listen to the sample before you buy this.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

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

Poignant and funny

An intricate, tapestry of love (in many forms) art, psychopathy, but not a heavy listen. Narrator brilliant too.

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

Peter Carey just gets better and better

I finished this a month ago and I still miss the characters. I can feel their loss like that of a close family member! The narration is fantastic, drawing you into the distinctly loveable, flawed characters.

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
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Narration style and bad language not for me

Would you ever listen to anything by Peter Carey again?

I have listened to a number of Carey's book and generally enjoy them. The continuous use of swear words I found unacceptable

How did the narrator detract from the book?

His slow measured tone had me switching off after 5 - 10 minutes. I tried increasing the speed but that did not help at all

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Theft?

Not having read more that 1 hour I cannot comment

Any additional comments?

Just not for me sorry

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful