Boy Swallows Universe: The beloved multi-award winning international bestseller, now a major Netflix series
Written by Trent Dalton
Narrated by Stig Wemyss
4/5
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About this audiobook
'The best Australian novel I have read in more than a decade' Sydney Morning Herald
'Astonishing, captivating ... a wild, beautiful, heart-exploding ride' Elizabeth Gilbert
The bestselling novel that has taken Australia, and the world, by storm.
Brisbane, 1985: A lost father, a mute brother, a junkie mum, a heroin dealer for a stepfather and a notorious crim for a babysitter. It's not as if Eli Bell's life isn't complicated enough already. He's just trying to follow his heart and understand what it means to be a good man, but fate keeps throwing obstacles in his way - not the least of which is Tytus Broz, legendary Brisbane drug dealer.
But now Eli's life is going to get a whole lot more serious: he's about to meet the father he doesn't remember, break into Boggo Road Gaol on Christmas Day to rescue his mum, come face to face with the criminals who tore his world apart, and fall in love with the girl of his dreams.
A story of brotherhood, true love and the most unlikely of friendships, Boy Swallows Universe will be the most heartbreaking, joyous and exhilarating novel you will read all year.
Awards:
2019 ABIA Book of the Year Award, Winner
2019 Indie Book Award, Winner
2019 UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing, NSW Premier's Literary Awards, Winner
2019 People's Choice Award, NSW Premier's Literary Awards, Winner
MUD Literary Prize 2019, Winner
2019 ABIA Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year, Winner
2019 ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year, Winner
2019 ABIA Audiobook of the Year, Winner
2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award, Longlisted
2019 Colin Roderick Award, shortlist
Reviews:
'Boy Swallows Universe is a wonderful surprise: sharp as a drawer full of knives in terms of subject matter; unrepentantly joyous in its child's-eye view of the world; the best literary debut in a month of Sundays.' The Australian
'Boy Swallows Universe hypnotizes you with wonder, and then hammers you with heartbreak.' Washington Post
'This thrilling novel' New York Times Book Review
'Marvelously plot-rich ... filled with beautifully lyric prose ...At one point Eli wonders if he is good. The answer is "yes," every bit as good as this exceptional novel.' Booklist
'Dalton's splashy, stellar debut makes the typical coming-of-age novel look bland by comparison ... This is an outstanding debut.' Publisher's Weekly (starred review)
'Extraordinary and beautiful storytelling' Guardian
Trent Dalton
Trent Dalton is a two-time Walkley Award-winning journalist and the international bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe, All Our Shimmering Skies, Love Stories and Lola in the Mirror. His books have sold over 1.2 million copies in Australia alone.
More audiobooks from Trent Dalton
All Our Shimmering Skies: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
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Reviews for Boy Swallows Universe
322 ratings23 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beautiful language. Unique style. Multidimensional characters. This book was a totally unexpected experience from my own neighbourhood!
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- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Absolutely loved it. The narrator is great as well. Totally recommend.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Best book I’ve listened to ever. Period. So compelling. Beautifully written. Just wonderful.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gripping! Fantastic story- and well read., I enjoyed listening to each chapter. Thank-you!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Engaging and unpredictable…what more could you need in an audiobook
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love this book and the audio version really does it justice.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I didn’t expect to like this book, but I loved it. The writer magically crafts his words until you can see the story unfold in heartbreaking detail. I couldn’t stop listening.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stig does a fantastic job of bringing this book to life. Every part of the storytelling leaves you wanting more. Dalton truly encapsulates Brisbane in the 80's. Best read on a while
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sad, funny, moving, shocking, brilliant. I loved this, and it was read brilliantly too.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Loved this book. Right from the start the writing is magical and compelling. Adventure, love, and crime through the eyes of a young boy growing up in the outer suburbs of Brisbane. One of my fav saying in the book is 'crushed like a Pasito' can. A masterpiece in Australian literature.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a beautifully written book, which was essential for this to be an enjoyable read. Why? It's big. It feels like it's bigger than it needs to be. Even though there's always plenty happening, the core plot progresses slowly. It does snowball gradually, but there are a lot of digressions. It all adds up to the overall story but if the writing hadn't been so good, it would have been excessive. I did enjoy this. I do think, however, that you need to be Australian to really get a lot of the content. It's always good to get an authentic Australian story, but overseas readers won't understand a lot of references.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is told in that kind of narrative style where the earnest optimism of the protagonist is easy to be swept up in, much like how I felt about The Heart's Invisible Furies.It's difficult to describe how this never distilled someone's humanity down to their worst mistakes or actions-big or little-and it never got bogged down in cynical meditations despite Eli Bell's often heartbreaking realizations about the world around him and its fragility and how wrong he can be about how he perceives it.The writing is full of imagery and gorgeous. It walks a line carefully between magic and reality. It never gets indulgent, and it never bores.Quite simply: brilliant. I loved it. Thanks to Jultri for the recommendation.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A different type of story. I enjoyed the stories and the characters. The story is told by Eli from the ages of 13 to 19. Like many teenagers, this book heads off into many tangents but always returning to the main story. The tangents, many and oh so varied, make the overall book a pleasure to read, while at the same time they take the reader to places you weren't expecting.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Honestly, I struggled with this book, at times it almost defeated me and I just wanted to put it down and never pick it back up again but I persevered as many people have said it's a slow burner. Sadly finally reaching the conclusion of the book last night (due to not being able to sleep because of the horrible heatwave) this book just wasn't for me, and that's okay.
The biggest letdown for me was the repetitiveness, I really need a break from 'bitumen, tomato sauce, tiptop bread, Devon, Dunlop KT-26, Margarine' and the repetitive phrases of 'Boy Swallows Universe, Your end is a dead blue wren, Caitlin Spies...'
I felt that the Australian imagery was very forced and sometimes unnecessary, you don't need to name every single 90's Australian food-brand to give the reader a nostalgia hit. I think the book could have been edited a little better too.
I've never read a book that's 60% autobiographical with elements of magical realism and I do take my hat off to the author for that but sadly this just wasn't for me. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An enjoyable romp that will make for a great TV series. Not sure it will stick with me for long but was good while it lasted. A decent summer read.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Started twice. Gave up at 145 pages (one fifth of the book) the second time. Something about the writing style really irritated me and reading this felt like such a chore. I just don’t get all the hype. At least I have enjoyed reading the other 1 star reviews. I feel better now.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very well written, really evokes the Australia of the era (early '80s). But I found its really hard to get into, worth it once I did, just a bit of a slog.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This one rushed to the top of the charts here in Australia, and I bought it. Wasn't money well spent, at least for me. Doubtless, lots of people enjoyed it but I was rather disappointed. Dalton is certainly a competent writer but sometimes his descriptive passages have an enervating whiff of thesaurus about them. The plot is creative enough, and there's enough weirdness about the characters to engage the reader. I loved the evocation of Brisbane where I spent a decade and a half of my teens and young adult life. Always fun to read something set in familiar places.However, the book is longer than it needs to be (almost 500 pages) and the climax tamer than I hoped. Not to mention, it begins to read like a chase from a screenplay. In a cinema near you soon.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A little bit hard to follow at first, but perseverance paid and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Delightful characters of the two boys and their parents and even the "criminals " they met along the way.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Slick and interesting - if a bit creepy
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wonderful book - partly a page-turning thriller, partly a slightly mystical family memoir, and partly a boy-does-good-from-bad-background tale.I was spellbound from the first chapter, and read the book in two days, wishing there was more to come.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is a very engrossing story, once you get halfway in. Suddenly millions of things start happening, all at once, tying every loose thread together. A bit over the top. I didn't really like it, though. The writing style was very grating. It isn't bad writing, it feels right for the character, but too harsh for me.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Smiling through tears. Favourite book in years.