
Clear
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Russ Bain
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By:
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Carys Davies
About this listen
“Tender, riveting, and inventive is Clear, the newest offering and masterpiece from the brilliant Carys Davies. It will take your breath away…What a thrill.” —Sarah Jessica Parker
*Named a Best Book of the Year by Vogue, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, and NPR*
Winner of the 2024 Bookmark Festival Book of Year
Shortlisted for the 2024 Books Are My Bag Award and the Historical Writers’ Association Crown Award
Longlisted for Blackwell’s Book of the Year and the 2024 Saltire Society Literary Award
A “daring and necessary…sophisticated and playful” (The New York Times) novel from an award-winning writer, Clear is the story of a minister dispatched to a remote island to “clear” its last remaining inhabitant—an unforgettable tale of resilience, change, and hope.
John, an impoverished Scottish minister, has accepted a job evicting the lone remaining occupant of an island north of Scotland—Ivar, who has been living alone for decades, with only the animals and the sea for company. Though his wife, Mary, has serious misgivings about the errand, he decides to go anyway, setting in motion a chain of events that neither he nor Mary could have predicted.
Shortly after John reaches the island, he falls down a cliff and is found, unconscious and badly injured, by Ivar who takes him home and tends to his wounds. “Clear chronicles the surprising bond that develops between these two men…pack[ing] a great deal of power into a compact tale” (The Wall Street Journal) about connection, home, and hope—in which John begins to learn Ivar’s language, and Ivar sees himself reflected through the eyes of another person for the first time in decades.
Unfolding during the final stages of the infamous Scottish Clearances—a period of the 19th century which saw whole communities of the rural poor driven off the land in a relentless program of forced evictions—this singular novel explores what binds us together in the face of insurmountable difference, the way history shapes our deepest convictions, and how the human spirit can endure despite all odds. Moving and unpredictable, “a love letter to the scorching power of language” (The Guardian), Clear is “a jewel of a novel” (The Washington Post)—a profound and unforgettable listen.
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Held
- A Novel
- By: Anne Michaels
- Narrated by: Anne Michaels
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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1917. On a battlefield near the River Escaut, John lies in the aftermath of a blast, unable to move or feel his legs. Struggling to focus his thoughts, he is lost to memory as the snow falls—a chance encounter in a pub by a railway, a hot bath with his lover on a winter night. 1920. John has returned from war to North Yorkshire, near a different river. He is alive but still not whole. Reunited with Helena, an artist, he reopens his photography business and tries to keep on living. But the past erupts insistently into the present, as ghosts begin to surface in his pictures
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Would give six stars if possible
- By love it on 08-31-24
By: Anne Michaels
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The Road from Belhaven
- A Novel
- By: Margot Livesey
- Narrated by: Ell Potter
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Growing up in the care of her grandparents on Belhaven farm, Lizzie Craig discovers as a small child that she can see into the future. But her gift is selective—she doesn’t, for instance, see that she has an older sister who will come to join the family. As her “pictures” foretell various incidents and accidents, she begins to realize a painful truth: she may glimpse the future, but she can seldom change it. Nor can Lizzie change the feelings that come when a young man named Louis, visiting Belhaven for the harvest, begins to court her.
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Historical cultural context
- By Tullamore on 05-09-24
By: Margot Livesey
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Burma Sahib
- A Novel
- By: Paul Theroux
- Narrated by: Charlie Anson
- Length: 17 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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At age nineteen, young Eton graduate Eric Blair set sail for India, dreading the assignment ahead. Along with several other young conscripts, he would be trained for three years as a servant of the British Empire, overseeing the local policemen in Burma. Navigating the social, racial, and class politics of his fellow British at the same time as he learned the local languages and struggled to control his men would prove difficult enough. But doing all of this while grappling with his own self-worth, his sense that he was not cut out for this, is soon overwhelming for the young Blair.
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Glorious writing
- By Nina Jacobson on 02-21-24
By: Paul Theroux
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The Coast Road
- A Novel
- By: Alan Murrin
- Narrated by: Jessica Regan
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in 1994, The Coast Road tells the story of two women—Izzy Keaveney, a housewife, and Colette Crowley, a poet. Colette has left her husband and sons for a married man in Dublin. When she returns to her home in County Donegal to try to pick up the pieces of her old life, her husband, Shaun, a successful businessman, denies her access to her children.
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Fabulous
- By Suzanna on 06-13-24
By: Alan Murrin
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Hard by a Great Forest
- A Novel
- By: Leo Vardiashvili
- Narrated by: Luke Thompson
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Saba is just a child when he flees the fighting in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia with his older brother, Sandro, and father, Irakli, for asylum in England. Two decades later, all three men are struggling to make peace with the past, haunted by the places and people they left behind.
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Evocative and deeply moving
- By 2Rivers on 04-11-24
By: Leo Vardiashvili
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The Axeman's Carnival
- By: Catherine Chidgey
- Narrated by: Nic Sampson
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Tama is just a helpless chick when he is rescued by Marnie, and this is where his story might have ended. “If it keeps me awake,” says Marnie's husband Rob, a farmer, “I'll have to wring its neck.” But with Tama come new possibilities for the couple's future. Tama can speak, and his fame is growing. Outside, in the pines, his father warns him of the wickedness wrought by humans. Indoors, Marnie confides in him about her violent marriage. The more Tama sees, the more the animal and the human worlds—and all the precarity, darkness and hope within them—bleed into one another.
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Something delightfully different
- By cvchaney on 12-21-24
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The Alternatives
- A Novel
- By: Caoilinn Hughes
- Narrated by: Sarah Bolger, Aisling Franciosi, Caoilinn Hughes, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The Flattery sisters were plunged prematurely into adulthood when their parents died in tragic circumstances. Now in their thirties—all single, all with PhDs—they are each attempting to do meaningful work in a rapidly foundering world. The four lead disparate, distanced lives, from classrooms in Connecticut to ritzy catering gigs in London’s Notting Hill, until one day their oldest sister, a geologist haunted by a terrible awareness of the earth’s future, abruptly vanishes from her work and home.
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Great character development.
- By CJW on 04-24-24
By: Caoilinn Hughes
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A Glass of Blessings
- A Novel
- By: Barbara Pym
- Narrated by: Mary Sarah
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Wilmet Forsyth is bored. Bored with the everyday routine of her life. Bored with teatimes filled with local gossip. Bored with her husband, Rodney, a civil servant who dotes on her. But on her 33rd birthday, Wilmet's conventional life takes a turn when she runs into the handsome brother of her close friend. Attractive and enigmatic, Piers Longridge is a mystery Wilmet is determined to solve. Rather than settling down, he lived in Portugal, then returned to England for a series of odd jobs. Driven by a fantasy of romance, the sheltered, naïve Englishwoman sets out to seduce Piers.
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From elation to bitter disappointment
- By Bell on 07-22-20
By: Barbara Pym
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Star 111
- By: Lutz Seiler, Tess Lewis - translator
- Narrated by: BJ Harrison
- Length: 16 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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November 1989. The Berlin Wall has just fallen when the East German couple Inge and Walter, following a secret dream they've harbored all their lives, set out for life in the West. Carl, their son, refuses to keep watch over the family home and instead heads to Berlin, where he lives in his father's car until he is taken in by a group of squatters. Led by a shepherd and his goat, the pack of squatters sets up the first alternative bar in East Berlin and are involved in guerrilla occupations.
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About 30% incomprehensible
- By Eric on 01-27-25
By: Lutz Seiler, and others
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The Book of Love
- A Novel
- By: Kelly Link
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 23 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In the acclaimed first novel from short story virtuoso and Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link, three teenagers become pawns in a supernatural power struggle.
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Great book.
- By T on 04-06-25
By: Kelly Link
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Service
- By: Sarah Gilmartin
- Narrated by: Aoife McMahon, John Keating
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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When Hannah learns that famed chef Daniel Costello is facing accusations of sexual assault, she's thrown back to the summer she spent waitressing at his high-end Dublin restaurant when she was a young college student—the plush splendor of the dining rooms, the wild parties after service, the sizzling tension of the kitchens. But Hannah also remembers how the attention from Daniel soon morphed from kindness into something darker. Now the restaurant is shuttered and Daniel tries to understand how his life is now completely out of his control
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Authentic
- By Amazon Customer toodlies on 04-01-25
By: Sarah Gilmartin
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The Safekeep
- By: Yael van der Wouden
- Narrated by: Stina Nielsen, Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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An exhilarating, twisted tale of desire, suspicion, and obsession between two women staying in the same house in the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961—a powerful exploration of the legacy of WWII and the darker parts of our collective past.
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This One Should Win
- By K. Bella Bestia on 10-13-24
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Entitlement
- A Novel
- By: Rumaan Alam
- Narrated by: Nicole Lewis
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Brooke wants. She isn’t in need, but there are things she wants. A sense of purpose, for instance. She wants to make a difference in the world, to impress her mother along the way, to spend time with friends and secure her independence. Her job assisting an octogenarian billionaire in his quest to give away a vast fortune could help her achieve many of these goals. It may inspire new desires as well: proximity to wealth turns out to be nothing less than transformative. What is money, really, but a kind of belief?
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so disappointing
- By K. Wagner on 09-22-24
By: Rumaan Alam
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The Cape Doctor
- By: E. J. Levy
- Narrated by: Mary Jane Wells
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Beginning in Cork, Ireland, the novel recounts Perry’s journey from daughter to son in order to enter medical school and provide for family, but Perry soon embraced the newfound freedom of living life as a man. From brilliant medical student in Edinburgh and London to eligible bachelor and quick-tempered physician in Cape Town, Dr. Perry thrived.
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Absolutely adored this story - beautifully written
- By TJReads on 09-09-21
By: E. J. Levy
What listeners say about Clear
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Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Billy
- 04-06-24
Beautiful but Slow
This book is beautifully written and brilliantly narrated. My only issue is how slow the story was. It felt like the conflict in the description was secondary to descriptions and inner thoughts. At points it dragged. I recommend this book if you are very invested in character studies but not if you are one who anticipates plot.
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- RueRue
- 07-13-24
Unusual and touching
Definitely an unusual story. Unique setting and time period, a bit of history, but mostly very touching characters.
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- Tommy
- 07-29-24
Clear is foreshadowing and irony
Unique book with great characters that leaves you wanting more. We want to know how this looks in a year! Can I be more clear?!?
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- Judith McKnight
- 12-29-24
Enchanting
Listened in one sitting. It’s worth listening to the story twice. Certainly best presented as an audiobook.
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- Art Librarian
- 07-01-24
Stunning narrative and performance
What a surprising, strange, glorious story. Small and large, large and small. Captivating. If you love northern coastal places, language, and landscape, this is for you.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Sandra L Talarico
- 01-14-25
Poetic
A lovely piece of writing. A poem inside a novel. A good story. I wish it had not ended.
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- Laura M
- 12-10-24
Perhaps too wishful
Lovely writing and historical details, but I didn’t find the ending credible. The characters act and speak according to current mores, which makes the book feel political rather than literary.
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- Ignatius
- 12-26-24
Meh
If you like well-written sloooow internal stories in an unusual setting, then this one may be for you. But it wasn't for me -- I found it dull and ponderous, though mercifully short.
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- Julia Murphy
- 03-31-25
Great descriptions
Great descriptions of the Scottish landscape. Reminds me of "The Old Man & the Sea" -- lots of description & inner dialog but nothing much happens! At the end I thought, is that all? What happens next? The reader was great, with a Scottish accent but not so thick I couldn't understand.
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- Darrell HANSCHEN
- 12-13-24
Poetic language
Beautiful figurative language makes you feel the sea and hear the birds. Very tight plot. Memorable characters.
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