The Abstainer
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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John Keating
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By:
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Ian McGuire
About this listen
“This is Dickens in the present tense, Dickens for the 21st century.” (Roddy Doyle, The New York Times Book Review)
An Irishman in 19th-century England is forced to take sides when his nephew joins the bloody underground movement for independence in this propulsive novel from the acclaimed author of The North Water.
Named One of the Ten Best Books of the Year by Chicago Tribune and One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times • The New York Public Library • New Statesman • Publishers Weekly
Manchester, England, 1867. The rebels will be hanged at dawn, and their brotherhood is already plotting its revenge. Stephen Doyle, an Irish American veteran of the Civil War, arrives in Manchester from New York with a thirst for blood. He has joined the Fenians, a secret society intent on ending British rule in Ireland by any means necessary.
Head Constable James O’Connor has fled grief and drink in Dublin for a sober start in Manchester. His job is to discover and thwart the Fenians’ plans, whatever they might be. When a long-lost nephew arrives on O’Connor’s doorstep looking for work, he cannot foresee the way his fragile new life will be imperiled - and how his and Doyle’s fates will become fatally intertwined.
In this propulsive tale of the underground war for Irish independence, the author of The North Water once again transports listeners to a time when blood begot blood. Moving from the dirt and uproar of industrial Manchester to the quiet hills of rural Pennsylvania, The Abstainer is a searing novel in which two men, haunted by their pasts and driven forward by the need for justice and retribution, must fight for life and legacy.
©2020 Ian McGuire (P)2020 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Compelling ... The physical world that [McGuire] imagines assails the reader’s senses: the stink of a tannery, the clangour of factory bells and the way O’Connor’s grief drives him to a ruthlessness beyond his nature.” (The Economist)
“O’Connor’s showdown with Stephen Doyle delivers a gut-wrenching finale that will leave readers hoping desperately that McGuire (The North Water, 2016) has an O’Connor prequel in the works. O’Connor’s palpable alienation and the subtly drawn comparisons between the Irish insurgency and America’s then-recent civil war create layers of depth in this exceptional period thriller.” (Booklist, starred review)
“[A] taut, atmospheric tale ... McGuire demonstrates a mastery of classic realism. [This] crackling work is one to savor.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)
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Brussels, 1943. Twelve-year-old street orphan Helene survives by living as a boy and selling copies of the country’s most popular newspaper, Le Soir, now turned into Nazi propaganda. Helene’s entire world changes when she befriends a rogue journalist, Marc Aubrion, who draws her into a secret network that publishes dissident underground newspapers. The Nazis track down Aubrion’s team and give them an impossible choice: Turn the resistance newspapers into a Nazi propaganda bomb that will sway public opinion against the Allies, or be killed.
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Too much love story for me
- By Melissa on 01-04-21
By: E. R. Ramzipoor
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The Orphan of Cemetery Hill
- By: Hester Fox
- Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Tabby has a peculiar gift: She can communicate with the recently departed. It makes her special, but it also makes her dangerous. As an orphaned child, she fled with her sister, Alice, from their charlatan aunt Bellefonte, who wanted only to exploit Tabby's gift so she could profit from the recent craze for seances. Now a young woman and tragically separated from Alice, Tabby works with her adopted father, Eli, the kind caretaker of a large Boston cemetery.
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It was a good story
- By LYSO129 on 12-13-23
By: Hester Fox
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Belle Cora
- A Novel
- By: Phillip Margulies
- Narrated by: Graham Rowat, Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 25 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In the home where Arabella Godwin was raised it is forbidden to speak her name, and her picture is turned to the wall. But in the turbulent America of the 1850s, everyone knows her as "Belle Cora", madam of San Francisco's finest bordello. Judges and senators do her bidding; a vicious newspaper editor plots her downfall; a preacher looks at her from across his pulpit and tries to forget that once she was his wife. Merchant's daughter, farm girl, prostitute, mother - the only thing that never changes is her tireless pursuit of the one man who can see her for who she really is.
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excellent
- By Patricia on 05-15-20
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The Traitor
- By: V.S. Alexander
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1942, as war rages across Europe, a series of anonymous leaflets appears around the University of Munich, speaking out against escalating Nazi atrocities. The leaflets are hidden in public places, or mailed to addresses selected at random from the phone book. Natalya Petrovich, a student, knows who is behind the leaflets - a secret group called the White Rose, led by siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friends. As a volunteer nurse on the Russian front, Natalya witnessed the horrors of war first-hand. She willingly enters the White Rose's circle....
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Not all the Germans are guilty.
- By Judy Harley on 09-18-20
By: V.S. Alexander
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The Third Mrs. Galway
- By: Deirdre Sinnott
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s 1835 in Utica, New York, and newlywed Helen Galway discovers a secret: Two runaway slaves are hiding in the shack behind her husband’s house. Suddenly, she is at the center of not only the era’s greatest moral dilemma, but her own, as well. Should she be a “good wife” and report the fugitives to her husband? Or will she defy convention and come to their aid? Within her home, Helen is haunted by the previous Mrs. Galway, recently deceased but still an oppressive presence.
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Never thought I'd enjoy a novel so much.
- By HBvideo on 12-01-21
By: Deirdre Sinnott
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The Conductors
- By: Nicole Glover
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 14 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Hetty Rhodes and her husband, Benjy, were Conductors on the Underground Railroad, ferrying dozens of slaves to freedom with daring, cunning, and magic that draws its power from the constellations. With the war over, those skills find new purpose as they solve mysteries and murders that White authorities would otherwise ignore. In the heart of Philadelphia’s Seventh Ward, everyone knows that when there’s a strange death or magical curses causing trouble, Hetty and Benjy are the only ones who can solve the case.
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Very Good
- By Mother of Pearl 3 on 08-01-21
By: Nicole Glover
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The Fixer
- A Novel
- By: Bernard Malamud
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in Kiev in 1911 during a period of heightened anti-Semitism, the novel tells the story of Yakov Bok, a Jewish handyman blamed for the brutal murder of a young Russian boy. Bok leaves his village to try his luck in Kiev and, after denying his Jewish identity, finds himself working for a member of the anti-Semitic Black Hundreds Society. When the boy is found nearly drained of blood in a cave, the Black Hundreds accuse the Jews of ritual murder.
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Technical Problems Need To Ne Resolved
- By REX LANYI on 12-24-20
By: Bernard Malamud
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Low Town
- A Novel
- By: Daniel Polansky
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Drug dealers, hustlers, brothels, dirty politics, corrupt cops...and sorcery. Welcome to Low Town. In the forgotten back alleys and flophouses that lie in the shadows of Rigus, the finest city of the Thirteen Lands, you will find Low Town. It is an ugly place, and its champion is an ugly man. Disgraced intelligence agent. Forgotten war hero. Independent drug dealer. After a fall from grace five years ago, a man known as the Warden leads a life of crime, addicted to cheap violence and expensive drugs.
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Noir and fantasy walk into a bar...
- By Reviews by L on 12-16-15
By: Daniel Polansky
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Death at Greenway
- A Novel
- By: Lori Rader-Day
- Narrated by: Moira Quirk
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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From the award-winning author of The Day I Died and The Lucky One, a captivating suspense novel about nurses during World War II who come to Agatha Christie’s holiday estate to care for evacuated children, but when a body is discovered nearby, the idyllic setting becomes host to a deadly mystery.
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Wonderful story & characters that kept me company
- By Kim Fountain on 10-24-21
By: Lori Rader-Day
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Invisible Man
- A Novel
- By: Ralph Ellison
- Narrated by: Joe Morton
- Length: 18 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Ralph Elllison's Invisible Man is a monumental novel, one that can well be called an epic of modern American Negro life. It is a strange story, in which many extraordinary things happen, some of them shocking and brutal, some of them pitiful and touching—yet always with elements of comedy and irony and burlesque that appear in unexpected places. It is a book that has a great deal to say and which is destined to have a great deal said about it.
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How Did This Escape Me?
- By E. Pearson on 11-23-11
By: Ralph Ellison
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Felicity Carrol and the Perilous Pursuit
- A Felicity Carrol Mystery
- By: Patricia Marcantonio
- Narrated by: Lillian Rachel
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Felicity Carrol is interested in everything - except being a proper young matron of Victorian society. Brilliant and resourceful, Felicity took refuge in science and education after her mother died and her father abandoned her to servants. Now, all he wants is for her to marry into a family of status and money. Felicity has other ambitions - but her plans shudder to a halt when her mentor is murdered at the British Museum and his priceless manuscript of King Arthur lore is stolen.
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No thanks
- By John S. on 07-04-20
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Cocaine Blues
- By: Kerry Greenwood
- Narrated by: Stephanie Daniel
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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It's the end of the roaring twenties, and the exuberant and Honourable Phryne Fisher is dancing and gaming with gay abandon. But she becomes bored with London and the endless round of parties. In search of excitement, she sets her sights on a spot of detective work in Melbourne, Australia. And so mystery and the beautiful Russian dancer, Sasha de Lisse, appear in her life. From then on it's all cocaine and communism until her adventure reaches its steamy end in the Turkish baths of Little Lonsdale Street.
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A series that just gets better
- By Barbara Kindle Customer on 02-01-11
By: Kerry Greenwood
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A Beautiful Blue Death
- Charles Lenox Mysteries Series #1
- By: Charles Finch
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Charles Lenox, Victorian gentleman and armchair explorer, likes nothing more than to relax in his private study with a cup of tea, a roaring fire and a good book. But when his lifelong friend Lady Jane asks for his help, Lenox cannot resist the chance to unravel a mystery. Prudence Smith, one of Jane's former servants, is dead of an apparent suicide. But Lenox suspects something far more sinister: murder, by a rare and deadly poison.
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I like cozy
- By Sheryl on 05-21-12
By: Charles Finch
What listeners say about The Abstainer
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- C.Espinosa
- 12-12-20
Excellently written, wonderful descriptions, depressing
The book is incredibly well written but is Depressingly realistic . The title is significant. I listened to it and the narrator was excellent. The writing is Dickensian as per the New York Times reviews. And the story is like the history of Ireland, frustratingAnd feels hopeless.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-30-21
Ruthless
Well written depressing story read by narrator employing whispering and modulation, then full voice for affect. If you turn up the volume for very quiet bits, it’s followed by loud, punishing noise. It’s ceaseless.
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- Spam
- 12-31-20
Not very good.
I loved North Water so I was really looking forward to this one.
It is OK. But not even close to as well written and cleverly plotted as North Water. The narration in Irish is good. But when the narrator switches to some weird Long Island/Brooklyn accent for one of the main characters it is kind of cringy.
The bar was set high by North Water. This one is not ven close. Some authors only have one great book in them.
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1 person found this helpful
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- J. Sims
- 12-28-21
Great story, Disappointing end
Without giving it away, the ending is less than satisfactory, appearing to be whipped together to meet some unbeknownst writer / publishing deadline or requirement where an inconsequential character is given the final word. It makes me wonder if the author ended up despising the protagonist he created. After feeling excited throughout, I ended up exhausted and disappointed. It’s a great story, but be prepared to be left wanting in the end.
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- Holger Buerger
- 02-17-21
Great start - strange finish
It’s pretty good but to focused and narrow to be really helpful. The end is just hopeless. Kinda like: ‘I need to finish this somehow’. A bit disappointing. The narration is excellent though.
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- Josef Sikelianos
- 01-31-21
Challenging.
I read the north water and loved it. I think this is a great piece of writing as well, but it’s not easy. I decided to ignore the negative reviews I read and I’m glad I did. The historical context, the story, the language all make it worthwhile. That said, I felt a little disappointed with the last chapter. It’s just one way the story could end. The rest of the ride was exceptional enough that I took it in stride, These books remind me of Cormac McCarthy’s writing and I think they’re classic. Looking forward to the next one. But yeah if you’re looking for easy reading or uplifting conventional fiction - the kind of stuff that there’s way too much of on offer in my opinion- you’ll probably be disappointed. The material is believable - and based on historical events - and I think it’s worth considering what life would be like for characters such as these. Imagining such a world requires empathy and offers a bit of perspective on my life of relative comfort, which is valuable in itself.
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- W. Murphy
- 12-18-20
“Pinky Blinders” meets “The Abstainer”
Story could have been a third shorter and more focused on main character’s search for love. Story does link closely to “Pinky Blinders” (Netflix Series)except for the time difference.
Narration is very good.
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1 person found this helpful
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- paul
- 09-25-20
STOP NOW! TOO MANY SPOILERS!!
This is a terrific story. I was absorbed. It paints a very bleak and sensory picture, and if you enjoyed North Water, you will love this. Some of the other reviews are too revealing with regards to the ending. Don't blow it by reading more reviews ... just go by the stars if you want to gauge other readers' opinions. I will leave it at that. enjoy!
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8 people found this helpful
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- DFK
- 12-20-22
Engrossing heartbreaking story
I enjoyed the book a lot and was totally engrossed. I would give 4.5 stars, though, because I found the end chapter strange and unsatisfying (as some other reviewers wrote). I don’t think it is a spoiler to say so. Listen to the book. You will be moved and the drama is excellent. I also would take a bit of a star away from the reader, who tended to lower his voice sometimes for effect, but then I couldn’t hear everything he said, had to back up, listen again at higher volume, then lower the volume again. This was disrupting. Considering how much I enjoyed the book (if “enjoy” is the right word for a book depicting so much misery and strife), those are minor matters.
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- Amazon Customer
- 03-09-21
On par with Northwater
If you liked the North Water you’ll like this. If you don’t enjoy this book you’re likely a boring and/uninteresting person.
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3 people found this helpful