Exactly What You Mean
- Author Ben Hinshaw
- Narrator Bert Seymour, Lily Howkins, Deborah McBride
- Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
- Run Time 5 hours and 39 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Modern and contemporary fiction, Narrative theme: Coming of age, Narrative theme: Love and relationships, Separation and divorce: advice and issues.
Titles Purchased
- 1-5
- 6-10
- 11-15
- 16-20
- Over 20
Price p/Title
- £7.99
- £6.99
- £5.99
- £4.99
- £3.99
Listen to a sample
What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
From an exciting new voice in literary fiction comes a brilliantly innovative, tender and unsettling novel exploring what it means to lose our innocence
Surrounded by the dramatic beauty of Guernsey, a teenager discovers a secret and finds his betrayal has the power to ruin adult lives. In London, a marriage shot through with infidelity leads to a quest for revenge, resulting in a series of simultaneously comical and catastrophic events. And in California, as wildfires threaten landscapes and lives, a young veteran struggles with the trauma of war, seeking solace at a local ranch.
In this extraordinary debut, a cast of characters grapple with unexpected betrayal, the loss of innocence and the lies we tell. With sharp insight, Ben Hinshaw illuminates the unnerving nature of what it means to grow up, to be a teenager playing at adulthood and an adult playing games.
© Ben Hinshaw 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022
Critics Review
-
A surprising and enjoyable read . . . this novel without guardrails stands as a brave debut
The Times -
Virtuosity of technique accompanies keenness of insight and depth of characterisation . . . Hinshaw’s impressively accomplished debut puts him in [Tim Winton and Jennifer Egan’s] company
Sunday Times -
Ben Hinshaw offers wit, sensitivity and sharp observation . . . the intricate, braided storylines, sustained with energy and relish. It is entertaining, and something more – truly involving
Hilary Mantel, author of The Mirror and the Light -
A poignant demonstration of the way the past is still folded into the present
FT -
Ben Hinshaw renders ordinary human agonies with extraordinary precision and emotional insight . . . This book is a riveting and beautifully patterned map of the emotional archipelago of longing and learning, loving and leaving
Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers -
Such an incredibly clever idea this, a set of interlinked stories in which people who appear in one turn up in another . . there’s a regretful, wistful atmosphere that’s compelling.
Daily Mail
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