The Wych Elm

By: Tana French

Narrated by: Paul Nugent

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Wych Elm by Tara Elm, read by Paul Nugent.

For me it all goes back to that night, the dark corroded hinge between before and after, the slipped-in sheet of trick glass that tints everything on one side in its own murky colours and leaves everything on the other luminous and untouchable.

One night changes everything for Toby. A brutal attack leaves him traumatised, unsure even of the person he used to be. He seeks refuge at his uncle's rambling home, the Ivy House, filled with cherished memories of wild-strawberry summers and teenage parties with his cousins.

But not long after Toby's arrival, a discovery is made. A skull, tucked neatly inside the old wych elm in the garden.

As detectives begin to close in, Toby is forced to examine everything he thought he knew about his family, his past, and himself.

A spellbinding standalone from a literary writer who turns the crime genre inside out, The Wych Elm asks what we become, and what we're capable of, if we no longer know who we are.

©2018 Tana French (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

A truly great writer (Gillian Flynn)

The Wych Elm is her best novel yet (Erin Kelly)

My favourite novel of last year (Sophie Hannah)

Soul Searching

This is a sad, haunting tale of a young man's continual search for identity. The beautiful lyrical writing and the insightful sensitive characterisation make this one of Tana French's best novels. Excellent, sympathetic reading by Paul Nugent captures the mood and intensity of his struggle, thus giving it an authenticity that makes it a thoroughly enjoyable and compulsive listen.

Not the usual Tana French

Having listened to all her other books I was hoping for more of the same, but I was disappointed. It was only in the odd part involving the police that her comfortable usual style came through, and the rest of the book played out inside the insecure main character’s mind. Not recommending this one to TF lovers, I fear. Excellently narrated though.

Perfect holiday novel

I really enjoyed everything about this book and listened pretty much non-stop. I went to bed early for a week so I could be alone :-) A perfectly plotty whodunnit.

Deep inside the head of someone I can't care about

My audible list is quite full of Tana French - up till now - thoroughly enjoyed both for the excellent reading performances from various voice artists and for the slow paced but engrossing psychological narratives. Being inside the heads of interesting detectives, the realistic politics of Irish police stations and even the unusual intrigue of Irish life; from Dublin's wealthy private schools to working class neighborhoods.
The blurb of Wych Elm promised something similar - alluding to a potential situation similar to The Likeness where the house itself played as an additional rich character.
But as you begin a 22 hour audio book - you really need to start by caring about the protagonist. Empathizing, sympathizing or just intrigued by what might happen to him. Or what they may do to those around them. I disliked the reader and the character from the start. The reader sounded so insipidly weak that the characters confidence in the beginning was intangible and unbelievable. I then didn't care about his attack or what might happen to him afterwards. The prospect of another 19 hours was unbearable. Perhaps I will try and read this book myself, since it has been generally well received by critics - but I cannot listen to Nugent's version.