Wilberforce

A Novel

De: H. S. Cross

Narrado por: Alex Bloch

At St. Stephen's Academy, the students are on the verge of revolt. While the younger boys plot an insurrection, the older ones are preoccupied with sneaking out of bounds, thrashing each other, tearing each other's clothes off - or some combination of the three. Morgan Wilberforce, for one, can't take it any longer. Everything Wilberforce touches turns to disaster in his desperate attempts to fight off desire, boredom, and angst. He knocks himself unconscious tackling the unattainable Spaulding on the rugby pitch, his headmaster detests him for crimes committed years ago, and even his closest friends are subjecting him to physical tortures normally reserved for juniors. When an accident at the boarding school leaves him with more suffering than he could have fathomed, he finds himself alone and adrift. And the workaday charms of cricket practice, Victorian pornography, canings from classmates, and fumbling with the pub keeper's daughter can do only so much to mend a broken body and a restless heart. Stylishly inventive, H. S. Cross has crafted an imaginative, ritualistic world of men and boys narrowly confined by tradition and authority. Wilberforce is an indelible portrait of a young man caught between lust and cruelty, grief and God, frustrated love and abject longing - and a tour de force that heralds the arrival of a brilliant new novelist.

©2015 H. S. Cross (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Another world.

How is it possible for a contemporary American woman to so perfectly capture the boys of an English boarding school? This book is meticulously researched, beautifully rendered and the story has stayed with me. Cross's prose is lyrical, her dialogue efficient and realistic, and her settings are entirely plausible and convincing. I'm looking forward to the next book by this amazing talent.

Complex, engaging, and moving

The character of Morgan Wilberforce is rich and complex. One is moved and amused by turns. Cross manages to write about the place where
Childhood and adulthood boyhood and
Manhood meet without sentimentality or condescension. The reader comes to love the imperfect, confused, and wounded boy and to admire the man that he is clearly going to
Become. The character of the Bishop brings matters of faith and the Spirit into the story without it being either preachy or scornful. This
Book was so Much more than I anticipated I recommend it.

A hard listen

I found that Wilberforce was a very difficult listen. Most every time that I'd start to listen, I would lose track of the story almost immediately,and as a result I can only give the book a one star rating.