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Shrines of Gaiety

The Sunday Times Bestseller

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Shrines of Gaiety

By: Kate Atkinson
Narrated by: Jason Watkins
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time.

The notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven whose character has been forged in the crucible of the Somme. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie's empire faces threats from without and within. For beneath the dazzle of Soho's gaiety, there is a dark underbelly, a world in which it is all too easy to become lost.

With her unique Dickensian flair, Kate Atkinson brings together a glittering cast of characters in a truly mesmeric novel that captures the uncertainty and mutability of life; of a world in which nothing is quite as it seems.

'This is the perfect novel for uncertain times.' THE TIMES

'I can think of few writers other than Dickens who can match it' SUNDAY TIMES

'Brilliant' RICHARD OSMAN

© Kate Atkinson 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

 20th Century Biographical Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Thriller & Suspense World War I Biography Mystery England War

Critic reviews

Brilliant.
A heady brew of crime, romance and satire set amid the sordid glitz of London nightlife in the 1920s . . . Shrines of Gaiety sees Atkinson on her finest form . . . A marvel of plate-spinning narrative knowhow . . . a peak performance of consummate control. (Anthony Cummins)
Sharp, witty and fiendishly plotted ... you don't so much as read it as surrender to it
Seduction, betrayal and larger-than-life characters that will have you hooked until the last page.
Kate Atkinson is on deliciously acerbic form in Shrines of Gaiety ... exposing the underbelly of London nightlife in the roaring 20s
Atkinson has a plotter's mind: intricate, clever, satisfying. Shrines of Gaiety is all about life's tangled lines, intersections and synchronicities...The kind of fine-tuned observation that can produce an enormous, vibrant cast is quite something and I can think of few writers other than Dickens who can match it. Shrines of Gaiety is engrossing and fun, powered by subtle skills.
This book is one to savour, for the energy, for the wit, for the tenderness of characterisation that make Atkinson enduringly popular.
As vividly filthy, populous, dangerous as anything described by Dickens, but writing is closer to Thackeray's... Atkinson is a novelist of unrivalled immediacy, authority, and skill.
Kate Atkinson is simply one of the best writers working today, anywhere in the world...she's a global treasure... [Shrines] is set during Jazz Age London, in all its fizzy madness and desperation for the new, the better, the hustle. Atkinson has a magician's ability to switch a reader's mood within a few paragraphs, and as dark as her stories can get, within them always shines a beacon of humanity.
Atkinson is a thoughtful writer with an astute understanding of 20th-century social history. This is the perfect novel for uncertain times, when comfort of a particularly English and nostalgic stripe is required.
All stars
Most relevant
This is such a good story with so many interesting characters brought to life by Jason Watkins, his different voices and accents are superb! I did not want it to end!

Brilliant!

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This was the book for a club book night I couldn’t attend but listened to anyway. A good ‘page turner’ that skips around time periods with unexplained cliffhanger moments which keeps you listening so you can find out what led to the various events. Really enjoyed the story while driving and made being stuck in traffic jams significantly more tolerable!

Good cliffhangers!

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Struggled to start, it bounces around so much with lots of characters. Once it got going it was good, not great, but I liked the characters and it was cleverly woven.

Took awhile to get into

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As always a joy to read/hear Kate Atkinson's words. A rollercoaster of a book, enjoy.

Great book enjoy.

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I was a little worried that this wasn’t read by the incomparable Fenella Woolgar but I needn’t have worried, Jason Watkins was the perfect voice for this novel. As always, the story writhes about, surprising us at every turn, yet striking so many familiar notes. This ‘twixt the wars era has ever been fascinating and Kate Atkinson has managed to evoke the glamour, splendour, callousness, ludicrousness, squalor and sordidness of that world perfectly. Of course, my favourite character is Pierrot. I could read Kate Atkinson’s work ad infinitum, long may she continue to delight us.

WONDERFUL

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