The Sparsholt Affair
A novel
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Narrated by:
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David Dawson
About this listen
From the internationally acclaimed winner of the Man Booker Prize, a masterly new novel that spans seven transformative decades in England - from the 1940s to the present - as it plumbs the richly complex relationships of a remarkable family.
In 1940, David Sparsholt arrives at Oxford to study engineering, though his sights are set on joining the Royal Air Force. Handsome, athletic, charismatic, he is unaware of his effect on others - especially on Evert Dax, the lonely son of a celebrated novelist who is destined to become a writer himself. With the world at war, and the Blitz raging in London, Oxford nevertheless exists at a strange remove: a place of fleeting beauty - and secret liaisons. A friendship develops between these two young men that will have unexpected consequences as the novel unfolds.
Alan Hollinghurst's new novel explores the legacy of David Sparsholt across three generations, on friends and family alike; we experience through its characters changes in taste, morality, and private life in a sequence of vividly rendered episodes: a Sparsholt holiday in Cornwall; eccentric social gatherings at the Dax family home; the adventures of David's son Johnny, a painter in 1970s London; the push and pull in a group of friends brought together by art, literature, and love. And evoking the increasing openness of gay life, The Sparsholt Affair becomes a meditation on human transience, even as it poignantly expresses the longing for permanence and continuity. Witty, tender, epic in scope yet rich in observation, this is a dazzling novel of fathers and sons; of family and home by a writer hailed by The Wall Street Journal as "one of the best novelists at work today".
©2018 Alan Hollinghurst (P)2018 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Masterful - written in elegant, captivating prose. The story sweeps along in five interlinked sections, in which the characters move through different stages of their lives and their country’s history. Hollinghurst shines a clarifying light on the gay and art worlds through decades of British cultural and political change. In this magnificent novel, Hollinghurst is at the height of his powers." (Publishers Weekly)
"Thrilling; fascinating...a novel full of life and perception. A man’s inability to be honest about his sexuality has scandalous, and brutally public, consequences for several generations. Hollinghurst tracks the vast, transformative changes in gay life over many decades. Part of Hollinghurst's bold talent in this novel, as in his previous work, is to make it evident that lust, sex, and who does what with whom in the bedroom (and even how) are fitting, and insightful, subjects of literary fiction." (Kirkus)
"David Dawson is masterful with dialogue, and there can be no better qualification for the narrator of this vast and engrossing audiobook.... Dawson's ear for personality, class, regional speech, and the accents of different periods is uncanny. An impressive performance." (AudioFile)
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Douglas Petersen may be mild-mannered, but behind his reserve lies a sense of humor that seduces beautiful Connie into a second date...and eventually into marriage. Now, almost three decades later, they live more or less happily in the London suburbs with their moody seventeen year-old son, Albie. Then Connie tells him she thinks she wants a divorce. The timing couldn’t be worse. Connie has planned a month-long tour of European capitals, a chance to experience the world’s greatest works of art as a family, and she can’t bring herself to cancel. And maybe going ahead is for the best anyway? Douglas is privately convinced that this landmark trip will rekindle the romance in the marriage, and might even help him to bond with Albie. Narrated from Douglas’s endearingly honest, slyly witty, and at times achingly optimistic point of view, Us is the story of a man trying to rescue his relationship with the woman he loves, and learning how to get closer to a son who’s always felt like a stranger.
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Great novel - my favorite in years
- By Mark on 07-21-15
By: David Nicholls
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The Muse
- A Novel
- By: Jessie Burton
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin, Maria Elena Infantino
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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England, 1967. Odelle Bastien is a Caribbean émigré trying to make her way in London. When she starts working at the prestigious Skelton Institute of Art, she discovers a painting rumored to be the work of Isaac Robles, a young artist of immense talent and vision whose mysterious death has confounded the art world for decades. The excitement over the painting is matched by the intrigue around the conflicting stories of its discovery.
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Mixed narration
- By Amy Fleury on 08-05-16
By: Jessie Burton
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Written in Dead Wax
- The Vinyl Detective, Book 1
- By: Andrew Cartmel
- Narrated by: Ben Allen
- Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
He is a record collector and a connoisseur of vinyl, hunting out rare and elusive LPs. His business card describes him as the Vinyl Detective, and some people take this more literally than others. For example, the beautiful, mysterious woman who wants to pay him a large sum of money to find a priceless lost recording on behalf of an extremely wealthy yet shadowy client. And so begins a painful and dangerous odyssey in search of the rarest jazz record of them all....
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Outstanding narration!
- By John S. on 01-31-17
By: Andrew Cartmel
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Before I Met You
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Jewell
- Narrated by: Helen Duff
- Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
After her grandmother Arlette's death, Betty is finally ready to begin her life. She had forfeited university, parties, boyfriends, summer jobs in order to care for Arlette. Now she's ready for whatever life throws at her, and, since the will included a beneficiary unknown to her who lives in the city, she heads there to find the mysterious woman. In 1920s London, Arlette is starting her new life in a time of postwar change. Beautiful and charismatic, she's drawn into a hedonistic world, but then tragedy strikes, and she flees back to her childhood home....
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Awful
- By cristina on 08-13-18
By: Lisa Jewell
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High Dive
- By: Jonathan Lee
- Narrated by: Doyle Gerard
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Taking us inside one of the 20th century's most ambitious assassination attempts - "making history personal", as one character puts it - High Dive moves between the luxurious hospitality of a British tourist town and the troubled city of Belfast, Northern Ireland, at the height of the armed struggle between the Irish Republican Army and those loyal to the UK government.
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Humor? Not Funny.
- By W Perry Hall on 04-10-16
By: Jonathan Lee
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The Christmas Secret
- By: Karen Swan
- Narrated by: Laura Main
- Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Alex Hyde is the leaders' leader. An executive coach par excellence, she's the person the great and the good turn to when the pressure gets too much; she can change the way they think, how they operate, she can turn around the very fortunes of their companies.
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Was the narrator Nurse Turner?
- By Sally on 12-24-17
By: Karen Swan
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Life Class
- By: Pat Barker
- Narrated by: Russell Boulter
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the spring of 1914, a group of young students gather in an art studio for a life-drawing class. Paul Tarrant and Elinor Brooke are two components of a love triangle, and at the outset of the war, they turn to each other. After volunteering for the Red Cross, Paul must confront the fact that life, love, and art will never be the same for him.
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In Love and War
- By Cariola on 07-28-09
By: Pat Barker
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Duet
- By: Kimberley Freeman
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From the London pop scene, to the opera stages of Europe; from a tiny Greek island, to a stifling manor house full of secrets and deceptions; from the sun-drenched Queensland coast, to the silent outback; Angela and Ellie are two women both looking for something. One in search of her identity and her memory; the other in search of the love that she had and lost; theirs is a duet whose last note will not be sung until the heart-stopping climax, when a shadow from the past returns to claim them both.
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Gosh that was a great story!
- By Anonymous User on 06-10-09
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In Malice, Quite Close
- By: Brandi Lynn Ryder
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 16 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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French ex-pat Tristan Mourault is the wealthy, urbane heir to a world-renowned collection of art - and an insatiable voyeur enamored with Karen Miller, a 15-year-old from a working-class family in San Francisco. Deciding he must 'rescue' Karen from her unhappy circumstances, Tristan kidnaps her and stages her death to mask his true crime.
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In malice,Quite close
- By Wendy on 09-06-11
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What listeners say about The Sparsholt Affair
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- k
- 07-25-20
Delightful meandering
David Dawson gives life to the words that Alan Hollinghurst strung together so beautifully. I would probably never read this book but I’m already listening to it again.
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- Ian Murphy
- 06-06-18
Nothing happens. I'm ashamed to be gay.
The characters are so vapid and selfish that I was embarassed by them. Plot wise, nothing interesting happened. At all. There was the potential to take the story in different, compelling, directions, but the author never did. Dawsons narration was sexy and the only redeeming part of the listening experience. Kudos to him for trying to spin gold out of straw.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Claude Schneider
- 03-23-18
henry james improved for our age
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
the prose is so stunningly fine it takes your breath away....i have read all of his work and i find this is his finest
What other book might you compare The Sparsholt Affair to and why?
a stranger's child
Which character – as performed by David Dawson – was your favorite?
ivan
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
awe at what a well educated intellect is capable of in these sad times for the world
Any additional comments?
world goes to hell and i cling to a hollinghurst novel as a life-raft
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4 people found this helpful
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- J
- 04-30-18
Perfect narration of a very fine novel
Rarely does the reader so perfectly present a complex story filled with wonderfully written characters.
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1 person found this helpful
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- erik gonzales
- 06-06-21
great book
love the characters and the story, beautifully done. the transitions were fantastic, could close my eyes and picture it all in my mind.. thank you.
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- J. Roose
- 04-16-18
Beautifully written book
I am a huge fan of Alan Hollinghurst and think this is his best book, so far, although I loved The Line of Beauty too. The rich detail of the telling of this story comes through beautifully.
The narrator was excellent. His ability with different voices was superb and enriched the experience of reading this book. Bravo!
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7 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 10-02-20
Didn’t want it to end.
I really enjoyed this book. The narration was excellent- all the voices and dialects very believable. Like some other reviewers, I didn’t want this book to end. I kept the speed at 1.0 the entire book to savor it.
Beautifully written. Interesting and well developed characters.
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- Emily
- 05-01-18
Loved this
This is an enchanting novel with a superb narrator. I didn't want it to end!
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3 people found this helpful
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- Younger Artur
- 07-22-19
Perfect listen!
Another great Hollinghurst story.
Narrator spot on!
Perfect blend of story, family, history and art.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-24-18
Epic
Absolutely phenomenal! This book is epic and sprawling in scope, but intimate and beautiful in detail. One of the best I’ve read/listened to in a long time.
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