The Book of Dust  La Belle Sauvage ..., Philip Pullman
The Book of Dust  La Belle Sauvage ..., Philip Pullman
39 Rating(s)
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The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage (Book of Dust, Volume 1)

Author: Philip Pullman

Narrator: Michael Sheen

Unabridged: 13 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/19/2017


Synopsis

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

2018 Odyssey Honor 
2018 ALSC Notable Children’s Recording
The Washington Post Best Audiobook of 2017
Slate Best Audiobook of 2017
Booklist Editor’s Choice Audio for Youth
AudioFile Best YA Audiobooks of 2017

"Too few things in our world are worth a seventeen year wait: The Book of Dust is one of them." —The Washington Post

Philip Pullman returns to the parallel world of his groundbreaking novel The Golden Compass to expand on the story of Lyra, "one of fantasy's most indelible characters." (The New York Times Magazine)

Malcolm Polstead is the kind of boy who notices everything but is not much noticed himself. And so perhaps it was inevitable that he would become a spy....

Malcolm's parents run an inn called the Trout, on the banks of the river Thames, and all of Oxford passes through its doors. Malcolm and his daemon, Asta, routinely overhear news and gossip, and the occasional scandal, but during a winter of unceasing rain, Malcolm catches wind of something new: intrigue. 

He finds a secret message inquiring about a dangerous substance called Dust—and the spy it was intended for finds him. 

When she asks Malcolm to keep his eyes open, he sees suspicious characters everywhere: the explorer Lord Asriel, clearly on the run; enforcement agents from the Magisterium; a gyptian named Coram with warnings just for Malcolm; and a beautiful woman with an evil monkey for a daemon. All are asking about the same thing: a girl—just a baby—named Lyra.

Lyra is the kind of person who draws people in like magnets. And Malcolm will brave any danger, and make shocking sacrifices, to bring her safely through the storm.

"The book is full of wonder. . . . Truly thrilling." —The New York Times

"People will love the first volume of Philip Pullman's new trilogy with the same helpless vehemence that stole over them when The Golden Compass came out." —Slate

Note: This audiobook was recorded from the U.K. edition.


About The Author

PHILIP PULLMAN is one of the most acclaimed writers working today. He is best known for the His Dark Materials trilogy, which has been named one of the top 100 books of all time by Newsweek and one of the all-time greatest novels by Entertainment Weekly. Pullman was knighted for his services to literature in the 2019 New Year Honours. The Book of Dust, Pullman’s eagerly anticipated return to the world of His Dark Materials, will also be a book in three parts. It began with La Belle Sauvage and continues with The Secret Commonwealth. Philip Pullman is the author of many other beloved novels. For younger readers: I Was a Rat!, Count Karlstein, Two Crafty Criminals!, Spring-Heeled Jack, and The Scarecrow and His Servant. For older readers: the Sally Lockhart quartet (The Ruby in the Smoke, The Shadow in the North, The Tiger in the Well, and The Tin Princess), The White Mercedes, and The Broken Bridge. He has written a magnificent collection, Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, and his essays and lectures on writing and storytelling have been gathered in a volume called Dæmon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling. Philip Pullman lives in Oxford, England.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Emily May on October 23, 2017

Malcolm tried to remember the fairy tales he knew. Could you bargain with fairies? Did they keep their promises? It's hard to believe, but I was ten years old when I first read Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Along with Harry Potter, it is one of the standout reads of my childhood and, perh......more

Goodreads review by Sean Barrs on April 28, 2020

Phillip Pullman is clearly capable of great things. He achieves an absolute mastery of tone, style and plot in The Golden Compass. However, I found none of that mastery in this book. Admittedly, I had major reservations going into it; yet, for all that, I did approach it with an open mind. I tried t......more

Goodreads review by Lisa of Troy on August 28, 2024

Philip Pullman is my hero. He is the pinnacle of how an author can make you care about a character. He took a HUGE risk by not relying on established fan-favorite characters to sell this new book. Instead, we have a new character named Malcolm who meets Lyra as an infant. We have a front row seat as......more

Goodreads review by [ J o ] on June 30, 2023

We delve back in to alternate-world Oxford, miles from armoured bears but surrounded yet again by daemons and the mysterious alethiometers, following a young boy named Malcolm who is stuck in a world where young working-class boys are mostly discouraged from learning beyond their schooling and are f......more

Goodreads review by mark on September 16, 2018

A wonderful way to start off the new year, especially with the cold and the wet everywhere. I loved the slow pace of the first half, all of the details that brought life to sweet, curious Malcolm's world. I loved the thrill of the second half: its many surreal and threatening episodes, the rise of M......more


Quotes

“Once in a lifetime a children’s author emerges who is so extraordinary that the imagination of generations is altered. Lewis Carroll, E. Nesbit, C. S. Lewis, and Tolkien were all of this cast. So, too, is Philip Pullman.” —The New Statesman

“Pullman is quite possibly a genius . . . using the lineaments of fantasy to tell the truth about the universal experience of growing up.” —Newsweek