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Warlight

A novel

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Warlight

Written by: Michael Ondaatje
Narrated by: Steve West
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About this listen

From the internationally acclaimed, best-selling author of The English Patient: a mesmerizing new novel that tells a dramatic story set in the decade after World War II through the lives of a small group of unexpected characters and two teenagers whose lives are indelibly shaped by their unwitting involvement.

In a narrative as beguiling and mysterious as memory itself - shadowed and luminous at once - we hear the story of 14-year-old Nathaniel, and his older sister, Rachel. In 1945, just after World War II, they stay behind in London when their parents move to Singapore, leaving them in the care of a mysterious figure named The Moth. They suspect he might be a criminal, and they grow both more convinced and less concerned as they come to know his eccentric crew of friends: men and women joined by a shared history of unspecified service during the war, all of whom seem, in some way, determined now to protect and educate (in rather unusual ways) Rachel and Nathaniel. But are they really what and who they claim to be? And what does it mean when the siblings' mother returns after months of silence without their father, explaining nothing, excusing nothing?

A dozen years later, Nathaniel begins to uncover all that he didn't know and understand in that time, and it is this journey - through facts, recollection, and imagination - that he narrates in this masterwork from one of the great writers of our time.

©2018 Michael Ondaatje (P)2018 Penguin Random House Canada
Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction War Military
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What listeners say about Warlight

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A captivating read

I enjoyed the story telling narrative written from the boy’s perspective. It left you wanting more, but gave a sense of how many silences there were in the war era. Would recommend this to those who like mistry novels, with an element of psychological drama.
#Audible1

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#Audible1

Great book, it was worthy of a good night of book club discussions. It was poetic, you felt like you were there watching a movie. Powerful story of how war forces you into tough choices. Are they choices that you can live with.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Lemony Snicket knockoff

Enjoyable, but this book was already written a dozen times by Lemony Snicket, only with more wit and verve — which here means sparkle and charm with a trace of Schwer.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

First Audible book.

First experience with Audible. Good book and narrator. Found Audible a bit frustrating as I wanted to go back in the story sometimes to check on elements of the story , that at the time seemed insignificant.

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Best read in ages



Love this latest from one of my favourite authors.

Narration is very good as well.

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1 person found this helpful

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Rich and beautiful.

I was wound into this book, each word spooling me onto a dynamo. Magnetized, I felt and heard complex lives spun with vivid language which revealed more saturated characters with each turn. It is just so beautiful scenes replay in my mind's eye.

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Engaging insight to a little known facet of WW2

As with many books I have become deeply involved in Warlight starts slowly and pulls you in. this #Audible1 presentation was a joy to lidten as it unfolded.

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    3 out of 5 stars

an interesting book

Rather than a complete story that followed in a chronological order, it was a collection of of incidents in Nathaniel's life that while written in beautiful detail, seemed disjointed from each other. This was my very first audio book, purchased due to an increasing visual disorder, and I found the narration by Steve West to be absolutely superb. For me it was an interesting, well written book, but not a great bppk.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Wish I had more understanding.

I’m not sure what this book is about. If it happened in this day and age Rachel (Wren)and Nathaniel (Stitch) would have been in foster care and their mother would have had an awful time getting them back. She would have been charged with child abandonment.
Maybe the book is about the feelings of an abandoned child looking for answers. However, Nathaniel doesn’t seem too surprised when he finds out he has fathered a child. Never offers his guardian help or gratitude that he married Nathaniels pregnant girlfriend and became the child’s father. I guess things were different in the 1940s and 60s.
Warlight is an interesting story and it might have an element of truth. It has wonderful phrasing. Maybe I’m just a dim person who fails to see the point of this story.

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tedious, tedious, tedious

couldn't keep focused on it so kept going back to see if I missed anytnhing...I never gad. then I just gave up going back until I just gave up. the narrator was good...read the book in the tone the book was written.

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