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Where My Heart Used to Beat

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Where My Heart Used to Beat

By: Sebastian Faulks
Narrated by: David Sibley
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

On a small island off the south coast of France, Robert Hendricks, an English doctor who has seen the best and the worst the twentieth century had to offer, is forced to confront the events that made up his life.

His host, and antagonist, is Alexander Pereira, a man whose time is running out, but who seems to know more about his guest than Hendricks himself does.

The search for sanity takes us through the war in Italy in 1944, a passionate love that seems to hold out hope, the great days of idealistic work in the 1960s and finally – unforgettably – back into the trenches of the Western Front.

The recurring themes of Sebastian Faulks’s fiction are brought together with a new stylistic brilliance as the novel casts a long, baleful light over the century we have left behind but may never fully understand. Daring, ambitious and in the end profoundly moving, this is Faulks’s most remarkable book yet.

©2015 Sebastian Faulks (P)2015 Penguin Audio Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction War & Military War Heartfelt Inspiring Tear-jerking Thought-Provoking Military
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Critic reviews

A masterpiece…a terrific novel, humming with ideas, knowing asides, shafts of sunlight, shouts of laughter and moments of almost unbearable tragedy (Toby Clements)
Compelling...profoundly moving (Leyla Sanai)
A pleasure from start to finish…WHERE MY HEART USED TO BEAT is that rare book, a page-turning read that also has a significant intellectual and emotional charge. (Alexander Larman)
This is not a wartime tragic romance, or a simple story of trauma. It is much more affecting than that. (Rosemary Goring)
Faulks gets better and better with every book. This is surely one of the year’s best novels. (John Harding)
All stars
Most relevant
I love Faulks's books. Frugal, yet wordy. Bright with hope; ultimately grey with dispair. Life as it is truly lived.

Heartrending. Great story. Ultimately bleak.

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This is an original and profoundly moving novel that moved me emotionally in ways I had not thought possible. I urge everyone to experience this book which is everything a great novel should be. The reading is flawless.

Heartbreaking and Beautiful

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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. An engaging story and an interesting exploration of memory

What was one of the most memorable moments of Where My Heart Used to Beat?

The main character realises nearly 40 years too late that he has 'lived the wrong life'

Which scene did you most enjoy?

A description of a psychiatric experiment simulating auditory hallucinations experienced in schizophrenia conveyed that experience better than anything I have read before

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The main character learns something about his father who died in the war

Any additional comments?

A reminder of the devastating effects of war on survivors

Living the wrong life

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For me I found gentle tones from The Magus in here. Gave me as much pleasure as that adventure from many years ago.

Very enjoyable

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Rediscovered just how good a novelist SB is again. Well read and simply holds your attention right the way through.

Sebastian Faulks at his best

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