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The Blue Guitar

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What to expect

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of The Blue Guitar by John Banville, read by Gerry O'Brien.

Adultery is always put in terms of thieving. But we were happy together, simply happy.

Oliver Orme is a painter who has abandoned his art. His days are now haunted by loss: loss of desire; of artistic vision; of the people he has loved. And only now does he realize that those around him understand him more than he does himself.

Set in a re-imagined Ireland, The Blue Guitar reveals a life haunted by the desire to possess and always aware of the frailty of the human heart.

Critics Review

Everything I want from a love story: sexy, convincing, baffling, funny, sad and unforgettable
Evening Standard, Books of the Year, on 'Ancient Light'
Banville's exquisitely written novel unravels the deceptions of memory with wit and pathos
Telegraph, on 'Ancient Light'
Glittering visual evocation, expressed in a tone at once fresh and wistfully ironic. A world at once random, dreamlike and deeply experienced
Sunday Times, on 'Ancient Light'
Illuminating, funny, devastating. A meditation of breathtaking beauty and profundity on love and loss and death
Financial Times, on 'Ancient Light'
Author John Banville
Narrator Gerry O'Brien
Duration 9 hours and 27 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9780241975343
Format Audiobook
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Genre Modern and contemporary fiction
Availability AU, GB, IE

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