Our Endless Numbered Days

By: Claire Fuller

Narrated by: Eilidh L. Beaton

Winner of the 2015 Desmond Elliott Prize

1976: Peggy Hillcoat is eight. She spends her summer camping with her father, playing her beloved record of The Railway Children, and listening to her mother's grand piano, but her pretty life is about to change.

Her survivalist father, who has been stockpiling provisions for the end, which is surely coming soon, takes her from London to a cabin in a remote European forest. There he tells Peggy the rest of the world has disappeared.

Her life is reduced to a piano that makes music but no sound and a forest where all that grows is a means of survival. And a tiny wooden hut that is everything.

©2015 Claire Fuller (P)2015 Audible, Ltd

Critic reviews

"Like all good fairy tales, this is a book filled with suspense and revelation, light and shadow and the overwhelming feeling that nothing is quite as it seems in the Hillcoats’ lives. It’s spellbinding, scary stuff." ( The Daily Express)
"Fuller handles the tension masterfully in this grown-up thriller of a fairytale, full of clues, questions and intrigue." ( The Times)

Amazing narrator for a hauntingly amazing book

I hate this book, but it's amazing. I hate it because of how sad it is, but it's so well written that if anyone asks me for a book recommendation, I will reluctantly tell them that this is one of the best I've ever read/listened too:

Slow but mesmerizing

The story seemed monotonous for a little bit here and there. But some shocking revelations came to light. Her voice was pleasing to listen to and I wanted to hear more.

Amazing plot, so touching

Once again Claire Fuller is weaving a heart touching story, the characters are so real. A beautiful story, kept me wanting to hear it. I warmly recommend.

Disturbing and compelling

A disturbing story of a child victimized by the actions of her selfish, unfit parents. It is quite compelling, but also difficult to read due to the subject. Experienced readers will figure out the final revelation(s) way before the end, but this is still a compelling story, well narrated.

Beautiful writing, but uncomfortable with the treatment of disturbing subject matter

I knew nothing about this book when I picked it up.
I feel I should start off by saying that the 3 stars for writing in this review, rather than 4 or 5, are more related to story content than anything else.

Fuller's writing is spare and beautiful, and the structure of her novel intersects deftly with the psychology of her main character, the voice of the story. I think Fuller has a gorgeous skill with language and is a great storyteller.

(spoiler)However, I didn't appreciate how the violence & rape perpetrated on the young girl at the center of the story was treated. The story is disturbing and these events definitely fall in the context of a dark mystery, but it feels like they are being employed as devices, or in other words, for the purpose of entertainment.
I'm missing empathy, insight, compassion from the author outside of the voice of the narrator/main character in the telling of this story.

The voice actor for this audible version was great.

Insanity in the forest.....

Beautiful story that becomes a lesson in survival in the end. I loved this listen, the writing was perfect for an audiobook, very descriptive and picturesque. The narration was beautiful. The narrator is very good at individualizing the characters and has a beautiful English accent. This story is one of those I wanted to listen to again after learning the conclusion. This story is not a happy one but a lesson of one little girl's survival both mentally and physically and whether she was successful can be debated.

Repetitive, disturbing, and melodramatic

When I finish a book like Our Endless Numbered Days, I wonder what I missed that caused me to only give two stars to a book that has a much higher overall rating, and that so many readers seem to love. The best explanation I could come up with is that there was some sort of terrible electronic glitch at Audible where other readers got the well-written, brilliant, incredible version of this book, and I got the repetitive, disturbing, maddening, just plain awful version, because we clearly read different books.

If you're in the mood for an overly long, repetitive book, full of irresponsible, selfish, and completely crazy adults, a questionable protagonist, written by an author that withheld information from the reader until the end of the sordid tale to make the ending more melodramatic, then you might enjoy Our Endless Numbered Days. Even a decent narration and some above average prose couldn't save this one for me.

Poor Choice

I couldn't wait to get to the dismal ending of this one. The narration is in the voice of a little/young girl and it became very tedious. Many parts drag on and on to no benefit of the storyline. In one section the characters go kiting and eventually it flies off and away, like this book should do.

What happened here?

My friend told me he was going to read this book and I assumed it would be literary gold because he has great taste. I was very wrong. I made my way through most of it (more than halfway) before realizing that it was going nowhere and then finished it because I didn't have anything else lined up.

Here's the thing. I didn't find this book isn't haunting or compelling. It's boring. You get a day by day, but not even anything exciting or particularly interesting - just a dredge. The review that said that it was repetitive hit the point well. It's repetitive until the novel skips ahead several years and then suddenly it ends.