Nutshell

By: Ian McEwan

Narrated by: Rory Kinnear

Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

From the best-selling author of Atonement, Nutshell is a classic story of murder and deceit, told by a narrator with a perspective and voice unlike any in recent literature. A bravura performance, it is the finest recent work from a true master.

To be bound in a nutshell, see the world in two inches of ivory, in a grain of sand. Why not, when all of literature, all of art, of human endeavour is just a speck in the universe of possible things?

©2016 Ian McEwan (P)2016 Random House Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Short, fast-paced, expertly rendered by a voice it seems written for, this is flawless production, and pure entertainment." ( AudioFile)

Superb, as expected...

If you've loved McEwan's work before, you will love this one as well. A masterful and sublime and poignant wordsmith. Enough said.

I just had to find out what happened to the baby!

I work in the postpartum department of the hospital and this book was right up my alley. Interesting for sure!

excellent narration.

It's quick, even unabridged. the book is about a four plus, but I bumped it up to a five for the narration: It's definitely voice acting, not reading aloud - not too much, not too little, & he even sounds a little like Hugh Grant at times.

First sentence will pull you in.

Was pulled into this book with the first sentence, couldn't put it down. Very different style of writing for me, some parts felt like I was listening one of the Shakespeare novels. Mother Trudy and her brother-in-law, also her lover planning how to kill her husband.

So glad I gave this a second chance

At first I was not impressed with
this book and abandoned it for another. So glad I gave it a second chance. Good story told by a novel narrator, it is certainly worth your time.

Great story, fabulous narration

I loved this one. The "first person from the point of view of a fetus" framing is weird, but effective. The writing is delightful. It's advertised as a take on "Hamlet," and it is, kind of, but it doesn't stick all that closely to the story and it has a very nice independent story of its own. And Rory Kinnear is one of the best narrators on Audible; I could listen to him read the phone book and I'd probably like it. This selection is probably not for everyone, but it's five-star all the way around for me.

A very different murder story.

The narrator was fabulous. Not sure I would have gotten through book without listening! A dark story that was told from a most unusual point if view....the unborn child of the protagonist.

McEwan Does It Again

McEwan's latest novel (more a novella, really) is a wickedly funny riff on Hamlet. "So here I am, upside down in a woman," the narrator--a fetus--begins. (He's "bound in a nutshell," so to speak.) If you're going to enjoy this book, you have to be willing to go with this premise; if you keep asking how a fetus could have such an extensive vocabulary and sophisticated thoughts, or how he could know so much about what is going on in the world outside the womb, you'll miss the fun.

Trudy is roughly nine months pregnant. Although she separated from her husband John, a not very successful poet and publisher, she still lives in the dilapidated family home in London that he inherited., while John has moved to a flat in Shoreditch. Trudy initially told him that they needed time apart to make the marriage work--but she is deep into an affair with his younger brother Claude, a real estate developer (who has about the same level of class as the current Republican presidential candidate). Despite her advanced pregnancy, Trudy and Claude engage in regular and vigorous sex, leaving our narrator to worry that he will have his fontanel poked in or will absorb some essence of the deplorable Claude into his being. He does, however, enjoy the finer wines that his mother imbibes and has developed quite the connoisseur's palate.

The trouble begins when John announces that he knows about and accepts Trudy and Claude's relationship, confesses that he has a new lover of his own, and states that he wants to move back into the family home. The plot thickens as Trudy and Claude decide that John must go--permanently. And our narrator is positioned to eavesdrop on their plans to murder his father and give him up for adoption. If Shakespeare's Hamlet was hampered by indecision, well, this protagonist is even more incapacitated by his unborn state. Literally and emotionally attached to his mother (he experiences every hormonal and adrenal shift), he is nonetheless horrified by the plot against his father's life and by the thought of Trudy giving him up to live with the detested Claude.

In addition to the obvious parallels to Hamlet, McEwan weaves well-known lines from the play into Nutshell, although the words are sometimes put into the mouths of unexpected characters and sometimes subtly changed, a word here or there. If you're familiar with the play, the effect is delightful--reminiscent of the way in which famous lines by the Bard keep popping up in Tom Stoppard's screenplay for "Shakespeare in Love." And McEwan brings it all to a climax that, in its own context, rivals the final scene of Hamlet. "The rest is chaos."

If you want to read a thriller that brings to mind an exquisite Bordeaux....

Then Ian McEwan's "Nutshell" is for you. Straying from the typical 3rd person voice - to "first" person with a twist (no spoilers here) Mr. McEwan uses words and prose like a gourmet chef uses premium ingredients and fine presentation in their cooking.
Masaharu Morimoto meet Ian McEwan- both masters of their domain! I devoured this novel as I would lobster with wasabi pepper sauce at Nobu in NYC. Enjoy every word - ps (spoiler alert!!!). Everyone gets their just desserts in the end. A satisfying ending.

Strange and beautiful

I don't want to color anyone's expectations for this book. I will say it is wonderful, lyrical, and yes, strange and that reading it has made me re-evaluate my taste in reading. It is far past the time that I surrender my juvenile likes and dislikes.
The narrator vanished into the story, which is how I feel it should be. For a different story I might prefer a more theatrically oriented reading but the narrator let the words speak.