Troubles, J.G. Farrell
Troubles, J.G. Farrell
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Troubles
Winner of the Lost Man Booker Prize 1970

Author: J.G. Farrell

Narrator: Kevin Hely

Unabridged: 15 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/31/2018


Synopsis

Winner of the 1970 lost Man Booker prize in 2010.

Major Brendan Archer travels to Ireland - to the Majestic Hotel and to the fiancée he acquired on a rash afternoon's leave three years ago. Despite her many letters, the lady herself proves elusive, and the Major's engagement is short-lived. But he is unable to detach himself from the alluring discomforts of the crumbling hotel. Ensconced in the dim and shabby splendour of the Palm Court, surrounded by gently decaying old ladies and proliferating cats, the Major passes the summer. So hypnotic are the faded charms of the Majestic, the Major is almost unaware of the gathering storm. But this is Ireland in 1919 - and the struggle for independence is about to explode with brutal force.

(p) Orion Publishing Group 2018

About J.G. Farrell

J.G. Farrell was born in Liverpool in 1935 and spent a good deal of his life abroad, including periods in France and North America, and then settled in London where he wrote most of his novels.Among his novels, TROUBLES won the Faber Memorial Prize in 1970 and the Lost Man Booker prize in 2010 and THE SIEGE OF KRISHNAPUR won the Booker Prize in 1973.In April 1979 he went to live in County Cork where only four months later he was drowned in a fishing accident.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Vit

What is any hotel? It is a temporal harbour for a tired wayfarer and traveler along the roads of life. But creative mind can turn an hotel into a much greater allegorical thing. Not far away the two massive, weatherworn gateposts of the Majestic rose out of the impenetrable foliage that lined the sea......more

Goodreads review by Bill

I read Troubles because it is an esteemed historical novel, known for its richness of comic incident and irony, a novel which treats a place and period I find fascinating (Ireland during the “War of Independence”), but I ended up loving it for very different reasons: I found it to be--in spite of (o......more

Goodreads review by Andy

Fawlty Towers meets Jane Eyre. In slow motion.......more


Quotes

A work of genius Guardian

One of the finest novels of the past 50 years Mail on Sunday

Funny, sad and beautifully written; prescient, wise, original and unexpectedly eccentric Observer

TROUBLES has everything: great story, compelling characters, believable dialogue and big ideas. It's a book good enough to win the Booker in any year. Not just 1970. GUARDIAN

Like Fawlty Towers written by Evelyn Waugh Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival

No finer work has ever been written about this transitional period in Irish history: it remains a landmark in 20th-century Irish literature, and one that deserves to win The One And Only Great Retrospective Booker IRISH INDEPENDENT

Farrell's vision and voice are unique, inimitable