The Great Godden

Author Meg Rosoff
Narrator Andrew Scott
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
Run Time 4 hours and 10 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Children’s / Teenage fiction and true stories, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Crime and mystery fiction, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Relationship stories – Romance, love or friendship, Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: Dating, relationships, romance and love, Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: First experiences and growing up, Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: Life skills and choices, Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: siblings.

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What to expect

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BOOK AWARD 2020
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKS ARE MY BAG READER AWARDS 2021

'Brilliant and impactful' - Pandora Sykes

This is the story of one family, one dreamy summer – the summer when everything changes. In a holiday house by the sea, in a big, messy family, one teenager watches as brothers and sisters, parents and older cousins fill hot days with wine and games and planning a wedding.

Enter the Goddens – irresistible, charming, languidly sexy Kit and surly, silent Hugo. Suddenly there’s a serpent in this paradise – and the consequences will be devastating.

From bestselling, award-winning author Meg Rosoff comes a lyrical and quintessential coming-of-age tale – a summer book that’s as heady, timeless and irresistible as Bonjour Tristesse and I Capture the Castle but as sharp and fresh as Normal People.

Featuring a bonus essay from Meg Rosoff on her experiences of summer, this is THE unmissable book of the summer.
From the author of How I Live Now, one of TIME magazine's 100 Best YA Books of All Time.

Critics Review

This smart and humorous novel is, from the first sentence, rapture to read
Sunday Times
A sun-drenched coming-of-age story … seductive and elegant. The heady nostalgia and sweet ache of first love and lost innocence recall classics such as Bonjour Tristesse
Observer, YA BOOK OF THE MONTH
Rosoff brilliantly captures the loss of innocence on the cusp of adulthood in a dreamy, seductive coming-of-age story that echoes classics like I Capture the Castle
The Bookseller, Editor's Choice
Brilliant … a thoughtful, impactful summer read. It sounds like it’s going to be the quintessential holiday romance but it’s so much more than that
Pandora Sykes, The High Low Podcast
A wonderful, captivating writer
Daily Telegraph
Meg Rosoff has the gift of being able to talk to the reader with a directness that goes like an arrow to the heart
The Times
A magical and utterly faultless voice
Mark Haddon
The perfect read for an afternoon by the sea
NetGalley user
An irresistible summer read
NetGalley reviewer
I genuinely couldn’t put it down
NetGalley reviewer
Sophisticated, seductive and smoothly readable, this is a summer story par excellence, and a coming-of-age tale for all times
LoveReading4Kids
A wonderful, escapist coming of age novel
Suffolk Magazine
A classic summer, coming-of-age story, wonderfully done… Its hazy nostalgia tempered by a winning self-awareness, The Great Godden is a joyful, generous read
Novel of the Week, Sunday Telegraph
A touching coming-of-age novel that is perfect for summertime
Sunday Express S Magazine
A dreamy, atmospheric tale about love, sibling rivalry and family secrets
Irish Independent
This brilliant, witty, very modern novel is the perfect summer coming of-age read… A perfectly-pitched look at adolescent loss of innocence, it balances dark manipulation with sharp humour
Daily Mail
Astute and alluring … totally absorbing. Rosoff perfectly captures the endlessness of summer, and the prickling uneasiness of desire when it’s tangled up in hope
Press Association
Marvellous – a classic, summery, coming-of-age story about the confusion of adolescent lust
Daily Telegraph
Full of lies, lust, manipulation and the agony of being young
Daily Mail
Rosoff’s dazzling, timeless novel is a delight
Independent
This mesmerising coming-of-age tale will have you hooked
Take a Break Magazine
This dreamy novel … charms and seduces effortlessly. Just like those long, hot, lazy summers of your childhood, by the end of it, you’ll want to start all over again *****
Heat Magazine

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