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Title details for The Rain Before it Falls by Jonathan Coe - Wait list

The Rain Before it Falls

by Jonathan Coe
Jenny Agutter
Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
Place a hold Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Rain Before it Falls written by Jonathan Coe, read by Jenny Agutter.
'What I want you to have, Imogen, above all, is a sense of your own history; a sense of where you come from, and of the forces that made you.'
Rosamund lies dying in her remote Shropshire home. But before she does so, she has one last task: to put on tape not just her own story but the story of the young blind girl, her cousin's granddaughter, who turned up mysteriously at her party all those years ago. This is a story of generations, of the relationships within a family - and of what goes to make a child.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 4, 2019

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780241987162
      • File size: 206751 KB
      • Duration: 07:10:43

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Jonathan Coe's RAIN is perfect for audio. Rosamond, 73 and dying, decides to leave 20 carefully selected photographs and the story behind each in a series of audiocassettes to Imogen, the blind granddaughter of her childhood friend. As Rosamond attempts to describe each photo, her mind wanders through the past. She speculates about the meanings behind a smile, a slouch, a grimace and in her digressions reveals the convoluted nature of her relationship with Beatrix, Imogen's grandmother, and Thea, Imogen's mother. Jenny Agutter's performance trembles with intimacy, as if burdened with secrets she must share. Her voice is hushed and intense. Coe's writing captures the elusive quality of memory, and Agutter's perfect diction and genteel tones convey youthful treachery, misplaced affections, animosities, and tragedy. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from January 28, 2008
      In the latest from acclaimed London novelist Coe (The Rotter's Club), the story of two cousins' friendship is keyed to a hatred that is handed down from mother to daughter across generations, as in a Greek tragedy. Evacuated from London to her aunt and uncle's Shropshire farm, Rosamond bonds with her older cousin, Beatrix, who is emotionally abused by her mother. Beatrix grows up to abuse her daughter, Thea (in one unforgettable scene, Beatrix takes a knife and flies after Thea after Thea has ruined a blouse), with repercussions that reach the next generation. All of this is narrated in retrospect by an elderly Rosamond into a tape recorder: she is recording the family's history for Imogene, Beatrix's granddaughter, who is blind, and whom Rosamond hasn't seen in 20 years. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that Rosamond's fundamental flaw and limit is her decency, a quality Coe weaves beautifully into the Shropshire and London settings—along with violence. Through relatively narrow lives on a narrow isle, Coe articulates a fierce, emotional current whose sweep catches the reader and doesn't let go until the very end.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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