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The Two Hotel Francforts
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
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Publisher's summary
It is the summer of 1940, and Lisbon, Portugal, is the only neutral port left in Europe - a city filled with spies, crowned heads, and refugees of every nationality, tipping back absinthe to while away the time until their escape. Awaiting safe passage to New York on the SS Manhattan, two couples meet: Pete and Julia Winters, expatriate Americans fleeing their sedate life in Paris; and Edward and Iris Freleng, sophisticated, independently wealthy, bohemian, and beset by the social and sexual anxieties of their class. As Portugal’s neutrality, and the world’s future, hang in the balance, the hidden threads in the lives of these four characters - Julia’s status as a Jew, Pete and Edward’s improbable affair, Iris’s increasingly desperate efforts to save her tenuous marriage - begin to come loose. This journey will change their lives irrevocably, as Europe sinks into war.
Gorgeously written, sexually and politically charged, David Leavitt’s long-awaited new novel is an extraordinary work.
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When Ravi Kapoor, an overworked London doctor, reaches the breaking point with his difficult father-in-law, he asks his wife: “Can’t we just send him away somewhere? Somewhere far, far away.” His prayer is seemingly answered when Ravi’s entrepreneurial cousin sets up a retirement home in India, hoping to re-create in Bangalore an elegant lost corner of England. Several retirees are enticed by the promise of indulgent living at a bargain price, but upon arriving, they are dismayed to find that restoration of the once sophisiticated hotel has stalled....
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Screenwriters Changed it for the Better
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Single & Single
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A lawyer from the London finance house of Single & Single is shot dead on a Turkish hillside by people with whom he thought he was in business. A children's magician is asked by his bank to explain the unsolicited arrival of more than five million pounds sterling in his young daughter's modest trust. A freighter bound for Liverpool is boarded by Russian coast guards in the Black Sea. The celebrated London merchant venturer "Tiger" Single disappears into thin air.
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Kemal, scion of one of the city's wealthiest families, is about to become engaged to Sibel, daughter of another prominent family, when he encounters Füsun, a beautiful shopgirl and a distant relation. Once the long-lost cousins violate the code of virginity, a rift begins to open between Kemal and the world of the Westernized Istanbul bourgeosie - a world, as he lovingly describes it, with opulent parties and clubs, society gossip, picnics, and mansions on the Bosphorus, infused with the melancholy of decay.
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one of the very best I've ever heard
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A 40-year-old schoolteacher from Ohio still reeling from the tragedies of the Great War and the influenza epidemic, Agnes has come into a modest inheritance that allows her to take the trip of a lifetime to Egypt and the Holy Land. Arriving at the Semiramis Hotel just as an historic Peace Conference convenes, Agnes, with her plainspoken American opinions - and a small, noisy dachshund named Rosie - enters into the company of the historic luminaries.
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The murderee is Nicola Six, a "black hole" of sex and self-loathing who is intent on orchestrating her own extinction. The murderer may be Keith Talent, a violent lowlife whose only passions are pornography and darts; or the rich, honorable, and dimly romantic Guy Clinch. As Nicola leads her suitors towards the precipice, London--and, indeed, the whole world--seems to shamble after them in a corrosively funny novel of complexity and morality.
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Big chewy novel, excellent narration
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In this first novel, we are introduced to suave, handsome Tom Ripley: a young striver, newly arrived in the heady world of Manhattan in the 1950s. A product of a broken home, branded a "sissy" by his dismissive Aunt Dottie, Ripley becomes enamored of the moneyed world of his new friend, Dickie Greenleaf. This fondness turns obsessive when Ripley is sent to Italy to bring back his libertine pal, but he grows enraged by Dickie's ambivalent feelings for Marge, a charming American dilettante.
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Patricia, Phil, and Pathology
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Us: A Novel
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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
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Book 0 in the series
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Moonlight over Paris
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It's the spring of 1924, and Lady Helena Montagu-Douglas-Parr has just arrived in France. On the mend after a near-fatal illness, she is ready to embrace the restless, heady allure of the City of Lights. Her parents have given her one year to live with her eccentric aunt in Paris, and Helena means to make the most of her time. She's quickly drawn into the world of the Lost Generation and its circle of American expatriates, and, with their encouragement, she finds the courage to pursue her dream of becoming an artist.
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A pleasant trip to 1924 Paris
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East of the Sun
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- Unabridged
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Autumn 1928. Three young women are on their way to India, each with a new life in mind. Rose, a beautiful but naive bride-to-be, is anxious about leaving her family and marrying a man she hardly knows. Victoria, her bridesmaid couldn't be happier to get away from her overbearing mother, and is determined to find herself a husband. And Viva, their inexperienced chaperone, is in search of the India of her childhood, ghosts from the past and freedom.
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Indian history takes a back seat to 3 young women
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By: Julia Gregson
What listeners say about The Two Hotel Francforts
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Rochelle
- 11-07-15
Far from Leavitt's greatest work
I'm wondering whether this is a different "David Leavitt". It's a bit painful to be honest. The way in which the main characters meet is a slapstick comedy of sorts, but not a good one. Peter's glasses are stepped on accidentally by Edward. As Peter is short sighted this leaves Peter effectively blind. From that point it's embarrassing how often Leavitt has Peter stumble and fall into Edward's manly arms (I think it's three times within this initial meeting). Once was too cliché. Three times...is pressing the point a little too hard. As this is the opening of the book it is difficult to forgive and move on.
The rest of the book has comedic elements with plenty of light comedy characters (in particular Iris's dog), but thankfully nothing as bad as that first piece.
The sexual attraction is never quite convincing. It's more awkward than anything else and it's difficult to find what Pete and Edward see in each other. Ditto the friendship between the two couples - they have very little in common & it's hard to imagine them wanting to spend time in each other's company.
The Lost Language of Cranes and Equal Affections are both significantly superior works by Leavitt - each is absolutely engaging and enjoyable. By comparison The Two Hotel Frankfort's is so flat. It picks up right at the very end, but it's too little, too late.
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- Margaret
- 11-20-13
poor narration of a somewhat interesting book
Would you try another book from David Leavitt and/or Stephen Bel Davies?
Yes. I've read around and it does sound like some of his earlier novels were good ones.
What didn’t you like about Stephen Bel Davies’s performance?
The narrator gave his performance a rather flippant tone which detracted from the story all together. He tended not to differentiate between characters' voices well enough so that it was hard to tell who was speaking during a dialogue. And worst of all, he couldn't pronounce any words in French or other languages at all. Which was unfortunate since there were times when French was used. He also mispronounced English words often enough that I was distracted and annoyed by it. I don't usually have problems with narrators, but this one I will avoid in future.
Was The Two Hotel Francforts worth the listening time?
I have to say I'm not positive it was worth the listening time. It was an interesting story, but the plot at times just left me wondering about the characters and their emotions. It was hard to understand why they did what they did or why they didn't care more about various things. Really, the story is between 2 and 3 stars, but I suppose that might have been a higher score with a different narrator. The flippant tone just didn't help the story one bit.
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- Stephen H. Soucy
- 04-16-18
One of Leavitt’s Best
This novel was excellent and I was riveted until the end. Leavitt took me to Lisbon, a city I’m about to visit, and the setting details were perfect. I was immersed in the transitory nature of this world, at the outbreak of war, chaos, uncertainty. Loved the language, the dialogue rings completely true, and the ending was a perfect wrap up and very satisfying. One of Leavitt’s best.
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- Pegstur
- 01-01-14
good author - bad narrator
What did you love best about The Two Hotel Francforts?
This is a well-written and well-told story. The overall novel was poorly narrated such that reading it would have been preferable.
Who was your favorite character and why?
The dog, who was the cohesive character, without having a voice to render.
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Stephen Bel Davies?
Anyone else who knew how to pronounce properly the languages (French, Portuguese) used occasionally, other than English; any other voice actor would likely have done a better job in differentiating the characters from each other with use of a different voice.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
I never listen to any book in one sitting.
Any additional comments?
I rarely write a review, but am moved to do so because of the poor performance of the narrator, whose agent ought to restrict him to books without foreign languages in them. Knowing a few of these languages caused the occasional cringe at his mispronunciation.
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- Jeff Gillman
- 02-02-15
boring characters, uninspired performance
What would have made The Two Hotel Francforts better?
Mr. Bel Davies to my mind over-interpreted the dialogue; he forced a characterization that was at odds with my own. Didn't like it
How could the performance have been better?
Less irony, a straighter less inflected interpretation.
You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
I admire David Leavitt and have enjoyed his earlier novels and share his interest in the period.
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- David
- 01-26-14
A Disappointment
The novel is set in a milieu that is ripe for deep consideration of issues of war, home, bigotry, fascism and faith, namely, Lisbon in the late 1930s, a city filled with refugees fleeing Europe and trying to find new countries to accept them. But the novel focuses instead on four shallow, silly people who act like spoiled teenagers out of Gossip Girls. The narrator is a car salesman; the other couple write mystery novels under a pseudonym. The characters are disengaged from the war and nearly oblivious to the tragedies around them, both in Lisbon and in Europe. No doubt there were plenty of dull, disengaged people trying to leave Europe at that time, but it's not something worth reading about. The audiobook narrator had a good sense of voice for the characters.
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3 people found this helpful