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Ducks, Newburyport

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Ducks, Newburyport

By: Lucy Ellmann
Narrated by: Stephanie Ellyne
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About this listen

Winner of the Goldsmiths Prize 2019.

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2019.

Latticing one cherry pie after another, an Ohio housewife tries to bridge the gaps between reality and the torrent of meaningless info that is the United States of America. She worries about her children, her dead parents, African elephants, the bedroom rituals of happy couples, Weapons of Mass Destruction and how to hatch an abandoned wood pigeon egg. Is there some trick to surviving survivalists? School shootings? Medical debts? Franks 'n' beans? 

A scorching indictment of America's barbarity, past and present, and a lament for the way we are sleepwalking into environmental disaster, Ducks, Newburyport is a heresy, a wonder - and a revolution in the novel.

©2019 Lucy Ellmann (P)2020 Recorded Books Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Fiction Survival

Critic reviews

"A masterpiece like no other." (Vogue)

"Full of wit and intelligence...and one of the most intriguing, charming and genuinely funny characters I have come across in recent years." (The Herald)

"In her latest novel, Lucy Ellmann doesn't just carry on as before: she doubles up, doubles down, and absolutely goes for broke. (...) Success? Failure? A triumph." (Guardian)

All stars
Most relevant
Ellmann’s highly original concept makes a powerful document of our time. A near perfect listen. Stephanie Ellyne is just brilliant. Because it is so well read, the few slips become the more noticeable and annoying. Mainly some Italian words; Trastevere, Piazzale, ....I often wonder why narrator or publisher doesn’t check intonations with native language speakers.

Powerful

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Truly unique Lucy Ellmann book is a brilliant work of fiction and pushes narrative to the limits. The narration by Stephanie Ellyne is suburb.

Ducks,Nuwburyport

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I can't write highly enoght about this book and what a brilliant reading! It takes a while (short) to get involved. I could feel empathy with the narrator though I am a man - and all those pies! Yes it is long but so worth while! It is so worth the chance of a purchase to get into a person's head and that is my belief of what fiction is about.

Tremendous _ the fact that it is so excellentl

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What a tour de force- a stream of consciousness, some great recipes, a fascinating interweaving of stories and a comment on the state of humanity, all in one book. Amazing, Lucy Ellmann you are to be congratulated and brilliantly read by Stephanie Ellyne.

WOW!

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Despite the initial shock at the repetitive structure the story unfolds well and is worth persevering with.
Annoying parts in the performance where the narrator mispronounces some words. These do distract.

Worth persevering!

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