Noonday, Pat Barker
Noonday, Pat Barker
List: $19.95 | Sale: $13.97
Club: $9.97

Noonday

Author: Pat Barker

Narrator: Juliet Stevenson, Stephen Boxer, John Sackville, Anne Reid, Finlay Robertson, various narrators

Unabridged: 9 hr 48 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/08/2016

Synopsis

A new novel from the Booker Prize–winning Pat Barker, author of the Regeneration trilogy, that unforgettably portrays London during the Blitz and reaffirms her place as a top-ranked British novelistLondon, the Blitz, Autumn 1940. As the bombs fall on the blacked-out city, ambulance driver Elinor Brooke races from bomb sites to hospitals in order to save the lives of injured survivors. She works alongside former friend Kit Neville while her husband, Paul Tarrant, works as an air-raid warden. Once fellow students at the Slade School of Fine Art before the First World War destroyed the hopes of their generation, they now find themselves caught in another war, this time at home. As the bombing intensifies, the constant risk of death makes all three reach out for quick consolation. And into their midst comes the spirit medium Bertha Mason, grotesque and unforgettable, whose ability to make contact with the deceased finds vastly increased demand as death rains down from the skies. Old loves and obsessions resurface until Elinor is brought face-to-face with an almost impossible choice. Completing the story that began with Life Class and continued with Toby’s Room, Noonday is both a stand-alone novel and the climax of a trilogy. Writing about the Second World War for the first time, Pat Barker brings the besieged and haunted city of London into electrifying life in her most powerful novel since the Regeneration trilogy.

About Pat Barker

Pat Barker is an English novelist who has won the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Booker Prize. In 2000 she was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

About Juliet Stevenson

Juliet Stevenson is a narrator who is recipient of the AudioFile Golden Voice Award. She has won the prestigious Audie Award and numerous Earphones Awards for her narrations. She is a British actress on stage and screen and notably a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. She has also appeared in popular films such as Bend It Like Beckham and Mona Lisa Smile. She was honored as a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. She received further recognition when she was nominated for several BAFTA Awards, and she earned an Olivier Award for her role in Death and the Maiden.

About Stephen Boxer

Stephen Boxer is an English actor who is best known for his role as Joe on the BBC One soap opera Doctors. Aside from television, Boxer has had starring roles in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s productions of Titus Andronicus and King Lear, and has narrated the audiobook versions of Shakespeare’s Henry VI and Pat Barker’s Noonday.

About John Sackville

John Sackville is an English actor and voice artist. He studied at St. Andrews University and the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. He has since acted on stage and on camera and has narrated a number of audiobooks, computer games, documentaries, and commercials.

About Anne Reid

Anne Reid, MBE, is an English stage, film, and television actress. A BAFTA Award–nominee, she is best known for her roles as Valerie Barlow in Coronation Street and Jean in Dinnerladies.

About Finlay Robertson

Finlay Robertson is an actor, writer, and voice-over artist. He has appeared in Doctor Who, How Not to Live Your Life, and Alfie, among many other films and television series.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Althea on December 17, 2016

I picked this one up on the basis that Barker is a Booker Prize-winning author. I probably also had a subconscious disposition toward the book based on its description, as I've read a couple of other books with a similar setting not so long in the past - and enjoyed them very much. It's a slice-of-li......more

Goodreads review by Roger on June 10, 2016

These Pesky Sequels! I have an ambivalent relationship with the books of Pat Barker. I found Regeneration, the opening novel of her first WW1 trilogy, to be absolutely brilliant. I was disappointed by the second volume in the series, though found the standard at least partially regained in the th......more

Goodreads review by Len on April 02, 2024

I settled down to enjoy a novel by a wonderful writer, winner of the Booker Prize and the Guardian Fiction Prize, and for nine chapters it was a delight to read. A moving and fascinating study of a family struggling to cope with each other and with Kenny, an unhappy evacuee from the East End, all to......more

Quotes

“Noonday is the final volume in a trilogy that includes Life Class and Toby’s Room. You don’t need to have read either of the earlier books to appreciate this one, which is a fine and satisfying novel in its own right.” Financial Times (London)

“Noonday is nothing if not historical, bristling with period detail and gritty, well-researched atmosphere. Here, as you’d expect, Pat Barker excels.” Guardian (London)

“Ms. Barker deftly handles a large cast…Historical fiction of a high order.” New York Times

“[A] powerful, ambitious historical novel…War images are searing, as well as up close and personal…Its sweep makes us truly appreciate life and death in a decimated landscape.” NPR.org

“Barker is as subtle and tough-minded here about human nature as in all her work. Yet the closing pages suggest the possibility of new beginnings even as they acknowledge the permanence of old wounds…A strong example of this gifted British writer’s intelligent, uncompromising way with fiction.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“While this novel stands on its own merit, to fully appreciate Noonday, listeners will first want to hear Booker Prize winner Pat Barker’s previous books in the trilogy, Life Class and Toby’s Room. The stellar cast transforms returning characters Elinor, Paul, and Kit into credible people…Each performance is a small gem, illuminating the determination of a people that hundreds of Nazi night raids couldn’t extinguish.” AudioFile

Awards

  • New York Times   Bestseller
  • NPR Best Book
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