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The History of Sound

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The History of Sound

By: Ben Shattuck
Narrated by: Ben Shattuck, Chris Cooper, Dawn Harvey, Dion Graham, Ed Helms, Ellen Adair, Jenny Slate, Jim Seybert, Nick Offerman, Paul Mescal, Rebecca Lowman, Steven Jay Cohen, Zachary Chastain
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Buy Now for £17.94

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About this listen

 Soon to be a major movie starring Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor

'Exquisitely crafted, deeply imagined, exhilaratingly diverse, The History of Sound places Ben Shattuck firmly among the very finest of our storytellers' - Geraldine Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of Horse
In twelve luminous stories set across three centuries, The History of Sound examines the unexpected ways the past returns to us and how love and loss are entwined and transformed over generations. In Ben Shattuck's ingenious collection, each story has a companion story, which contains a revelation about the previous, paired story. Mysteries and murders are revealed, history is refracted, and deep emotional connections are woven through characters and families.

The haunting title story recalls the journey of two men who meet around a piano in a smoky, dim bar, only to spend a summer walking the Maine woods collecting folk songs in the shadow of the First World War, forever marked by the odyssey. Decades later, in another story, a woman discovers the wax cylinders recorded that fateful summer while cleaning out her new house in Maine. Shattuck's inventive, exquisite stories transport readers from 1700s Nantucket to the contemporary woods of New Hampshire and beyond-into landscapes both enduring and unmistakably modern. Memories, artefacts, paintings, and journals resurface in surprising and poignant ways among evocative beaches, forests, and orchards, revealing the secrets, misunderstandings, and love that linger across centuries.

Written with breathtaking humanity and humour, The History of Sound is a love letter to New England, a radiant conversation between past and present, and a moving meditation on the abiding search for home. Anthologies & Short Stories Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Short Stories Tear-jerking
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Brilliant. Beautiful writing linking themes across the American story. It opens up the individuality of American backgrounds and how mysteries can be solved once the unknown human side of the story is added. The loggers diary did this so well. Loved the different voices across the chapters, all brilliantly done. Can’t wait to see the film now. One warning, stick with the first two sections, I did wonder where it was going, it will be worth it.

Wonderful storytelling.

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As someone who doesn’t like short stories I really loved this book. The history of sound and August in the forest are my favourites but really they are all great

Listen to this

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Gentle meditative and poetic prose, I could’ve listened to this for hours and hours. Exquisite. Narrators wonderful. I wonder how this book could be adapted for the screen? I’ll look forward to it

Hauntingly Beautiful

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A really lovely collection. I really like the idea of the companion pieces. Vibrant descriptions and a lot of love obvious in the writing.

Beautiful storytelling

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The stories are only surpassed in their turgid dreariness by the narrators. Definitely not one of my recommendations

Dull and dreary!

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