Preview
  • So Many Ways to Begin

  • By: Jon McGregor
  • Narrated by: Matt Bates
  • Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars (4 ratings)

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So Many Ways to Begin

By: Jon McGregor
Narrated by: Matt Bates
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Publisher's summary

LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE

David Carter cannot help but wish for more: that his wife Eleanor would be the sparkling girl he once found so irresistible; that his job as a museum curator could live up to the promise it once held; that his daughter's arrival could have brought him closer to Eleanor. But a few careless words spoken by his mother's friend have left David restless with the knowledge that his whole life has been constructed around a lie.

©2006 Jon McGregor (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers
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Critic reviews

‘Extraordinary’ Daily Mail

‘Subtle, clever and affecting’ Independent on Sunday

‘A homage to ordinary people and ordinary things, to the parts of our lives that often go unspoken … moving and honest’ The Times

‘A book about the search for greater meaning in the strange dance of chance’ Independent

‘McGregor’s meticulous syntax melts into a hot flood of words … An intimate tale with penetrating things to say about the wider history of twentieth-century Britain’ Sunday Times

‘An absorbing and unexpectedly uplifting novel … It will leave you thinking long after you have put the book away on the shelf’ Irish Independent

‘A close reading of ordinary lives … tender and often
beautifully poetic’ Stephanie Merritt, Observer

‘Both compelling and convincing. A deeply rewarding read, serious and often beautiful’ Good Book Guide

‘McGregor is a brilliant prose stylist, and here he excels at
making the provincial and the ordinary seem extraordinary’ Sunday Times

‘This is a wonderful novel; low-key but beautifully paced,
scattered with extraordinarily intense moments’ Independent on Sunday

‘This is an unforgettable novel' Daily Telegraph

What listeners say about So Many Ways to Begin

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    2 out of 5 stars

Long and tedious

Didn't like the characters or the story, and found the narrator monotonous. The different parts didn't hang together well.

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