The Gap of Time

William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale Retold: A Novel

By: Jeanette Winterson

Narrated by: Penelope Rawlins, Mark Bazeley, Ben Onwukwe

Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

The Winter’s Tale is one of Shakespeare’s “late plays.” It tells the story of a king whose jealousy results in the banishment of his baby daughter and the death of his beautiful wife. His daughter is found and brought up by a shepherd on the Bohemian coast, but through a series of extraordinary events, father and daughter, and eventually mother too, are reunited.

In The Gap of Time, Jeanette Winterson’s cover version of The Winter’s Tale, we move from London, a city reeling after the 2008 financial crisis, to a storm-ravaged American city called New Bohemia. Her story is one of childhood friendship, money, status, technology and the elliptical nature of time. Written with energy and wit, this is a story of the consuming power of jealousy on the one hand, and redemption and the enduring love of a lost child on the other.

©2015 Jeanette Winterson (P)2015 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

An NPR Best Book of the Year Selection

"The Gap of Time takes the play’s themes of love, jealousy and estrangement and spins them into a taut contemporary tale."--New York Times

“Hogarth leads off the series with one of the most gifted writers working today, Jeanette Winterson, taking on the formidable ‘Winter’s Tale,’ and the result is a shining delight of a novel…. Winterson wrestles wonderfully with a perplexing text and emerges with a complicated, satisfying and contemporary tale that stands wholly on its own, despite the Bard’s significant shadow. But then again, show me a novelist who isn’t under that shadow. For that reason, and because Winterson makes the cover business book easy, I imagine many novelists are salivating for chance to write the next book in this promising new series.”--New York Times Book Review

Should have used an African-American female narrator

The story was wonderful, and for the most part well-written, but definitely did not take into consideration an American audience. Perdita, who spent her entire life in Louisiana, would never have said “lift” instead of “elevator” or “torch” instead of “flashlight”.
To make matters worse, the British narrator got every single American accent wrong: Perdita was given an Appalachian accent like Dolly Parton instead of the Louisiana African-American accent of her adoptive father and brother (which the narrator also butchered); and the used car salesman, also from Louisiana, just sounded bizarre—maybe an attempt at a Brooklyn accent? Or Philadelphia? The narration significantly distracted and detracted from the story, which deserves better treatment.

Did not capture Shakespeare

This story, especially the part in New Bohemia, was forced and did not capture the emotions that permeate Shakespeare's play. This is only one in the Hogarth series that I found disappointing.

The 2 male narrators are outstanding. The female narrator is horrendous and grating. Her different voices are abysmal.

Pity about the female narrator

She's so hard to listen to. I ended up ordering the paperback and reading her parts. I always wonder how these horrible interpretations get through the final cut.

Nice take

I'm a Winter's Tale scholar, so I'm biased about Winterson's interpretive moves. The literary intrusions are a little taxing, and she gets Bohemia all wrong. She nails the melodrama of Sicilia, however. It's not Shakespeare, but it's quite wonderful.

The men are great

I enjoyed the male readers, but I found the female reader almost insufferable. Great storyline, though, and brilliantly written. Worth a read, particularly if you enjoy Shakespeare and The Winter's Tale.

A Case for Forgiveness???

As far as adaptations go, this was really well-done. My thoughts is that rape by one's mate is not forgivable. The rape of Hermione was just too graphic and a turn-off. However, Jeanette Winterston is in my heart as a writer and this work, although in the "eye" of Shakepeare, does really work well as a rounding out of her other novels. Soooo connected.

Good story, poor performance

I am a fan of Winterson and think she did well to retell Shakespeare, but the dialog often fell short of my expectations of her writing. The ending also felt rushed.

The hardest thing about this book for me, though, was the female narrator. Her Southern (US) accent and male interpretations were difficult to listen to. I almost couldn't finish the book when it switched from the male narrators to the female.

Loved the story but Narrators were distracting

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the modern version of the story.

How could the performance have been better?

The narration was very distracting. The characters voices depending on who was narrating that section of the book. I wish I would have read this one instead of listening.