Silent House
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Silent House
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Narrated by:
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Emrhys Cooper
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Juliet Mills
About this listen
In an old mansion in Cennethisar, a former fishing village near Istanbul, an old widow Fatma awaits the annual summer visit of her grandchildren. She has lived in the village for decades, ever since her husband, an idealistic young doctor, first arrived to serve the poor fishermen. Now mostly bedridden, she is attended by her faithful servant Recep, a dwarf and the doctor's illegitimate son. Under the creeping shadow of right-wing nationalism and political revolution, they share memories, and grievances, of the early years, before their home became a high-class resort.
Her visiting grandchildren are Faruk, a dissipated failed historian; his sensitive leftist sister, Nilgun, has yet to discover the real-life consequences of highminded politics; and Metin, a high school student drawn to the fast life of the nouveaux riches, who dreams of going to America. But it is Recep's nephew Hassan, a high-school dropout, lately fallen in with right-wing nationalism, who will draw this family into the revolution and the growing political cataclysm issuing from Turkey's tumultuous century-long struggle for modernity.
By turns deeply moving, hilarious, and terrifying, Silent House pulses with the energy of a great writer's early work even as it offers beguiling evidence of the mature genius for which Orhan Pamuk, winner of the Nobel Prize in 2006, would later be world renowned.
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What listeners say about Silent House
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- S
- 18-12-24
It is not so much a story.
However it is a study of where people from Istanbul were in their thinking and their life experiences, in the early 1980's.
You have an elderly lady, a product of Ottoman Turkey, with her accepted views of the world and her religion; her reminiscences of her dead husband's educated altruistic and atheistic views of society. Her servant and carer, an illegitimate son of her husband.
A young set, with some political interests but not always too bothered about anything, above doing their duty to 'grandmother' and following the news and enjoying themselves at a coastal resort.
Then you have the young influenced by right wing views that were violently against anything deemed even mildly left of centre. And sadly the leap to violence against any who would be deemed to gainsay them. It was the inculcation of this latter group and right wing political power that finally led the army to lead a coup.
It was sad that the correct pronunciation of Turkish names was not followed by all readers and I do wonder if the translation led to some of the loss of atmosphere that the original version was more likely to have had.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Katherine
- 16-10-13
A very boring book.
Would you try another book written by Orhan Pamuk or narrated by Various?
No I would never listen to another book by this author. I usually love books that have been translated from another language.
Has Silent House put you off other books in this genre?
Yes
What didn’t you like about Various’s performance?
The voices all just droned on.
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
I was very disappointed as not one of the performers even tried to change the tone of their voices. Poor story line, just a few youths having a conversation and the story of an old lady and a dwarf who took care of her. Very disjointed.
Any additional comments?
If anyone is having problems sleeping at night this is the perfect book as within two chapters you will be fast asleep with the various voices droning on in the back ground.
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3 people found this helpful