Birdsong

By: Sebastian Faulks

Narrated by: Samuel West

A Radio 4 Book Club Selection.

Set before and during the Great War, Birdsong captures the drama of that era on both a national and a personal scale. It is the story of Stephen, a young Englishman, who arrives in Amiens in 1910. His life goes through a series of traumatic experiences, from the clandestine love affair that tears apart the family with whom he lives to the unprecedented experience of the war itself.

©1993 Sebastian Faulks (P)2005 Penguin Audio

Meh.

I have read the book and the abridged audio version was a let down. Felt disjointed and it left out parts that stuck with me previously. If you have no idea of the story it could be fine for you but an unabridged version is what is really needed. Not this...

Solid Period Piece

Any additional comments?

This would make a great movie. It has a little bit of a Lifetime-feel to it but solid and interesting.

Fantastic narration of a modern classic

Samuel West's immaculate narration is the perfect gloss to one of the top books of the 90s and one of my personal favourites of all time. Obviously, if you have read the book before, then an abridged audio version is never going to be quite the same but, if you haven't, then you should find this presentation highly compelling and the abridgements are not apparant. It's a great story, impeccably researched and delivered with care. 4 stars is much as I can give an abridged book, and this earns each of them.

Very Moving

Birdsong depicts the close-up horrors of war better than any book I've ever read. The love story at the beginning was totally overshadowed by the scenes of battle (and in fact, it seemed rather unnecessary and digressive). A beautifully written novel, andt the narrator did it justice.

War book

The narrator did a fine job, and if you love Faulks you'll love this book - however I am not a huge fan of "war stories", so there were parts of this book that didn't work for me. However the narration style is calm, quiet, almost sad - which plays well with the tone of the story.

ABRIDGED!

The narrator was phenomenal. I appreciated British pronunciations of words since the characters are British. However, I found out only after I was finished listening to this great story, that this version is abridged! I would have liked to have heard the entire novel with all the written details, not just the meat and potatoes. Next time I’ll make sure any book I purchase is available in its entirety!

Magnificent Narration of a Great Book

I've listened to Peter Firth's wonderful narration of the Unabridged Version before and absolutely love this grand and passionate war story.

This version, however, delighted (or moved, to be exact) me even more. Samuel West's extraordinarily smoothing voice brought me into deep thought or let me burst into tears so spontaneously that I can't help feeling being part of the story.

Yet the loss of certain details in this abridged version is quite upsetting, especially the part where Stephen and Weir decided whether or not to kill a bird in the tunnel, or the soldiers singing the chessy ballad together to celebrate their being alive. After all, it's the details that impressed me the most when I first read it.

such good writing

the story is compelling and so well written that you can feel you are there. a great companion to Atonement to understand WWI.

Good read for Book Group

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

We read this for book group. I liked it more as the story went on, but found it less than plausible in the beginning. I thought the war scenes were much stronger than the love scenes!

The BEST

I read the novel years ago and loved it. The audible version was at least as wonderful. The story was clearly the same; the narration was outstanding. So glad I returned to the story a second time.