The Friendly Ones
Written by Philip Hensher
Narrated by Chetan Pathak
()
Unavailable in your country
Unavailable in your country
About this audiobook
‘It’s the book you should give someone who thinks they don’t like novels … Here is surely a future prizewinner that is easy to read and impossible to forget’ Melissa Katsoulis, The Times
The things history will do at the bidding of love
On a warm Sunday afternoon, Nazia and Sharif are preparing for a family barbecue. They are in the house in Sheffield that will do for the rest of their lives. In the garden next door is a retired doctor, whose four children have long since left home. When the shadow of death passes over Nazia and Sharif’s party, Doctor Spinster’s actions are going to bring the two families together, for decades to come.
The Friendly Ones is about two families. In it, people with very different histories can fit together, and redeem each other. One is a large and loosely connected family who have come to England from the subcontinent in fits and starts, brought to England by education, and economic possibilities. Or driven away from their native country by war, murder, crime and brutal oppression – things their new neighbours know nothing about. At the heart of their story is betrayal and public shame. The secret wound that overshadows the Spinsters, their neighbours next door, is of a different kind: Leo, the eldest son, running away from Oxford University aged eighteen. How do you put these things right, in England, now?
Spanning decades and with a big and beautifully drawn cast of characters all making their different ways towards lives that make sense, The Friendly Ones, Philip Hensher’s moving and timely new novel, shows what a nation is made of; how the legacies of our history can be mastered by the decision to know something about people who are not like us.
Philip Hensher
Philip Hensher has written eleven novels, including The Mulberry Empire, the Booker shortlisted The Northern Clemency, King of the Badgers, Scenes from Early Life, which won the Ondaatje Prize in 2012, The Friendly Ones and A Small Revolution in Germany. He is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Bath Spa and lives in south London and Geneva.
Related to The Friendly Ones
Related audiobooks
Gravement Endommagé Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Provincial Lady in America: The Provincial Lady, Book 3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaving Rome Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Provincial Lady Goes Further: The Provincial Lady, Book 2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gospel of Orla Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Baron of Grogswig Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Equal Stillness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmy Levy - A Short Story Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEugene Onegin (Unabridged) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Detached House Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOld Fags Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThalia Book Club: An Evening with Jane Gardam Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Squirrel in a Cage Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Towers of Trebizond Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHardacre's Luck Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Always Crashing in the Same Car: A Novel after David Bowie Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Feast: The Classic Summer Mystery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Author, Author Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The White Cat Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVanity Fair Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Diary of a Nobody Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ash Tree Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Little Princess Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Modern Lover Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlways Gardenia: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Had to Be You Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Howards End Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Time to Live Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Diary of a Provincial Lady: The Provincial Lady, Book 1 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Young Girl (Unabridged) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Literary Fiction For You
The Alchemist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The House in the Cerulean Sea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of The Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: A Hunger Games Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hunger Games Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yellowface: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tom Lake: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stardust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nothing to See Here Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hate U Give Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stardust: The Gift Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Left Hand of Darkness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Name of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Measure: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Parable of the Sower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Friendly Ones
0 ratings0 reviews