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The Listeners

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The Listeners

By: Jordan Tannahill
Narrated by: Deborah Pearson
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About this listen

Now a major BBC drama starring Rebecca Hall

‘Starts as a little hum in your ears, ends up blowing the top off your head’ EMMA DONOGHUE

‘A page-turning unravelling of a family’ ZOE WHITTALL

'Fans of The Power will love this addictive novel’ Stylist

A stunning, propulsive novel following one woman as she treads the fine lines between faith, conspiracy and mania.

While lying in bed next to her husband one night, Claire Devon hears a low hum that he cannot detect. And, it seems, no one else can either. This innocuous noise begins causing Claire headaches, nosebleeds, insomnia, gradually upsetting the balance of her life, though no obvious source or medical cause can be found.

When Claire discovers that a student of hers can also hear the hum, she and the boy strike up an unlikely and intimate friendship. Finding themselves increasingly isolated from their families and colleagues, they fall in with a disparate group of neighbours who can also pick up the sound. What starts as a neighbourhood self-help group gradually transforms into something far more extreme and with far-reaching, devastating consequences for all of them.

The Listeners is a gripping, exhilarating novel exploring the seductive pull of the unknown, the rise of online conspiracy culture and the desire for community and connection in our increasingly polarised times.

‘One of those rare novels that entered my soul … Tannahill writes with the heat and wisdom of a god’ CLAUDIA DEY, author of Heartbreaker

‘Fantastic on conspiracy theories, cults, faith and mania’ Daily Mail

‘Breathtakingly, breath-holdingly good’ IAN WILLIAMS, author of Reproduction

©2021 Jordan Tannahill (P)2021 Fourth Estate
Disaster Fiction Dystopian Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Science Fiction
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Complex,compound, makes you question yourself & the perception of others

This on the face of it, is a novel that might appear to be quite simple with immediate themes and contemporary concerns in a modern digital age. Where the complexities of interactions with older teenagers soon to be adults, things that still make us and the wise society uncomfortable is all this novel is about. Encased in a somewhat sensationalised wrapping. But it falls far deeper than that like the unseen protagonist (no spoiler alerts) in this work. It made the think and question many things that I think most people take for granted. I personally love works that challenge me to question to interrogate my own understanding of things. And this novel certainly does that. Place Claire as the writer, looking back on a series of life defining events makes the novel sit up you pay attention - there is after all nothing more intriguing than a first hand account of controversial events. Which brings to the novel a very present,very now vibe, of how “news” and “the media” can escalate and deescalate situations. How quickly heroes and saviours can be made into devils and demons . How the pull for normalcy - perceived normalcy and the lack of it if you’re outside those remits can isolate a person. I’d thoroughly recommend The Listeners.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Not dystopian

This book is strange. I love the way it’s written like a retrospective, the narrator does a great job you can hear the heartbreak in her voice at the end. The story kind of goes in a full circle it’s cultish and the hostage situation at the end is a great end. But yes this is a strange little book

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I loved this book

Such a beautiful and layered story, insights into the complexities of human nature, quite dark in places (in a psychological sense).. the voice actor was great

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Tries Too Hard

Okay, so I'm a pretty open minded individual, so finding a book by chance that has a female main character and a female narrator was a rather refreshing experience. However, this experience was soon deflated due to the fact that the book tries way too hard to insert political correctness into almost every single aspect of the first seven chapters.

I won't go into detail about specific contradictions that I picked up on because it is possible to misinterpret at times, and i also don't want to be subjected to ridicule for my own personal opinions. However, this did in fact ruin any potential satisfaction I may have taken from the novel, to the point where I reluctantly just couldn't finish it.

If political correctness is what you seek then look no further than this book because it has an abundance, but if you're like me you're looking for nothing more than just easy listening. The excessive use of this theme seems to only demonstrate a lack of faith in what seemed like a genuinely authentic and exciting idea.

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