An Honest Man
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An Honest Man
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Narrated by:
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Joe Jameson
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By:
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Ben Fergusson
About this listen
The new novel from the award-winning writer Ben Fergusson, author of The Spring of Kasper Meier and The Other Hoffmann Sister.
In West Berlin in 1989, 18-year-old Ralf has just left school and is living a final golden summer with his three best friends. They spend their days swimming, smoking and daydreaming about the future, oblivious to the storm gathering on the other side of the Berlin Wall. But an unsettling discovery about his family and a meeting with the mysterious Oz shatters everything Ralf thought he knew about love and loyalty. And as old Cold War tensions begin to tear his life apart, he finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, forced to make impossible choices about his country, his family and his heart.
©2019 Ben Fergusson (P)2019 W. F. Howes LtdListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"The divided Berlin of the Cold War era is brilliantly resurrected on the cusp of momentous change in Ben Fergusson's An Honest Man...the novel movingly recounts Ralf's painful discoveries about love and loyalty." (Sunday Times)
"During the hot summer of 1989, a group of friends mooch about, fall in love, swim and party. All perfectly normal - except this is West Berlin which is still divided by the Wall and awash with spies and paranoia.... The author won awards for his debut, The Spring of Kasper Meier. This is equally atmospheric and thought-provoking." (Daily Mail)
"The stunning, powerful and addictive new novel by the prize-winning author of The Spring of Kasper Meier...." (Attitude Magazine)
What listeners say about An Honest Man
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- hfffoman
- 08-03-25
Trying to be better than it is
While better than the awfully written Other Hoffman sister, this story can't do more than maintain a slender thread of interest to the end, without properly satisfying that interest. Like the book, the narration isn't bad nor is it good. Try the sample. Maybe some people like that voice.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Torric
- 10-10-21
Excellent
Thoroughly enjoyed this. The research done for this book was amazing. So good that I thought this was perhaps the authors diary, but no. It has a biographical feel thanks to this research, but it is fiction. Written in such a way that it makes you guess what is to come and if you are like me you will get it wrong throughout. Don't expect thrills and spills, it is a lot more gentle than that but I recommend you give it a go!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- GTR
- 27-01-20
Fantastic book great twists
Another really enjoyable book from Ben Fergusson. The twists in the plot were great and kept coming right up u to the end.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- David
- 30-06-21
Berlin Years!
What a wonderful evocation of a city at a time of change.But even more the lives of a band of young friends growing up in this place.Ever true to each other, sympathetically ,with amazing understanding,the author Ben Fergusson and his brilliant reader Joe Jamieson drew me ever deeper into their lives.In particular the coming of age and the facing of life's complexities of the main character Ralf and his undying love for Oz, a Berlin born Turk. I shall miss them so much.You will be unable to put this recording in Audible or the book itself down ,if you are anything like me!!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Schwep Fizz
- 06-10-20
A coming of age story, a spy novel and a love letter to Berlin
Listening to this book has been a delight in so many ways.... The writing is beautiful without being self consciously literary and is read by Joe Jameson, whose voice and interpretation I loved since hearing his reading of The Charioteer by Mary Renault. The main character, Ralph, follows his journey of self discovery with typical teenage angst, a word so appropriate to the setting of this book, the city of West Berlin, just before the fall of the wall. The city is lovingly described, the smells, sounds and details bringing to life the unfamiliar places and somehow combining with the quirks of the characters to give the book a wonderful sense of place. The spy story within the book is well plotted and the twists and turns are a delight. There are very few things to criticise, some characters are a bit sketchy, the need for the unexpected, as required by the spy novel genre, detracts a bit from the verisimilitude, breaking the spell occasionally, but despite this, I cannot remember the last time I derived so much pleasure from listening to an audiobook. I will rush to buy the author’s other novels and, for the first time in my life, I am drawn to Berlin, feeling compelled to visit. Oh, and this book has the best ending I’ve read, or listened to, for a long time.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Edmond Lasry
- 06-07-22
Astonishing—loved it.
This book is breathtakingly plotted AND subtly and convincingly written, which are qualities that don’t usually go together in contemporary fiction in my view. Really totally surprised to find a contemporary novel this good. The lazy comparison is le carre but I also saw shades of Andre aciman and Anthony Powell.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kate Gould
- 23-07-20
Loved this book
Really liked the clever story, characters and historic details. Excellent narration. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book. Hope you do too.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- P. Smith
- 21-11-22
I liked it!
A great story, keeps you gripped. Joe Jameson really is the most brilliant reader.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mr K P Stratfull
- 07-05-22
Interesting story and times spoilt by narration
For once I wish I had read the novel than listening to it as I felt the narration marred an interesting plot set in a facination period of modern history with plenty of twists.Extremely annoying "voice" especially as the 18 year old hero - he didn't sound like one - and his depection of the female characters made my skin crawl!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Caroline
- 27-10-21
Not bad story
This book was ok. Not great but an easy listen. The ending was too neat and fairly obvious. Some of the dialogue stretched credibility (e.g. maturity and self-awareness of teenagers wasn't realistic) but fairly enjoyable overall.
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