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Inishowen

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Inishowen

By: Joseph O'Connor
Narrated by: Stephen Daly
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About this listen

From the author of Shadowplay, shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize, The Costa Novel Prize and Novel of the Year winner at the An Post Irish Book Awards.

Inishowen is a story of love found late, of hidden connections and a journey that changes three lives forever. There's Inspector Martin Aitken, whose life is a mess. Divorced, his career's in chaos. There are terrible things growing inside his house, and the last thing he needs is a collapsed woman in the street on Christmas Eve. There's Ellen Donelly, a woman on a mission, coming to Ireland to find her mother and escape her husband. Milton Amery is her husband, an unfaithful New York plastic surgeon. All three of their roads lead to Inishowen - a mysterious place that holds secrets that can unlock the heart.

©2001 Joseph O'Connor (P)2021 W. F. Howes Ltd Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Marriage Heartfelt

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Critic reviews

"A vast page-turner, full of compassion, laughter and zest for the human condition, as well as a rattling good story." (Irish Times)

"Ireland’s greatest storyteller." (The Sunday Independent)

"This is a tremendous book...affecting, intelligent, ironic, humane and utterly convincing. It is also extremely funny.” (Spectator)
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There was elements of this book I enjoyed but it was an odd story. I think this maybe one of these books that is ruined by most of the narration. Some of the accents was v poor and although the male narration was much better he could take huge breaths at times.

Not the best

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odd supporting characters with quite a lot of time spent on them, so quite a slow development. narration good, butsome accents terrible

great main characters

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I love the way Joseph O’Connor writes and some of the Dublin sayings had me laughing & chuckling throughout the book. But the narrator with the American accent was the worst I have ever heard. Almost comical at times. The male narrator was excellent. Parts of the story were so beyond belief. The aviation part for example was so strange & inaccurate that I honestly thought it was a dream sequence and the ‘Quagmire’ from the Simpsons was flying the plane. But I stuck with it to the end. I wouldn’t recommend this audio version.

I loved parts of it, but hated parts of the narration.

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I usually love O Connors work , but not this one. The American narrator does the worst Irish accent I've ever heard ! would have been better if she didn't try .

not his best

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The Irish accents spoken by the American female are so bad that it was almost unlistenable. The male Dublin accent is what saved the performance.

Accents

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The story is not too bad but the narration really really messed with it. A good narrator delivers the story but gets out of the way, and in this book the male narrator kinda achieved that but the lady who voiced the the female part was poor on an unbelievable level. I got the feeling her dad must’ve financed the project or there was some other inexplicable reason for her participation. She’s clearly not suited to this profession. Her moronic Irish accent and mispronunciation of standard place names made me want to rush into the street and do things I’d regret forever. Even when she voiced American accents, her fake hipster croak was really annoying.
I love Joseph O’Connor as an author but feel this narrator ruined the central female characters part.

Ok story but narration had one huge holes

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Inspector Martin Aitken's life is a mess. He's divorced, his career's in chaos, and the last thing he needs this Christmas Eve is a strange woman collapsed on a Dublin street. Ellen Donnelly is a woman on a mission, coming to Ireland to find her mother and escape her marriage. Dr Milton Amery, a New York plastic surgeon, is her unfaithful husband. The three are beginning new journeys, each of which lead to Inishowen.
This is a very well paced and interesting character driven story. It is about identity, the history of Ireland, the oppression of the Catholic Church and how it ruled so much of people's lives in the past. It touches on family and mortality. The themes are epic in what is a very personal story. However all of this is let down quite badly by very poor narration, the accents are all over the place, especially the female narrator and there is no difference between the tone of the characters speaking so you really do not get a sense of those characters. It is a shame and hopefully soon it will be redone.

GOOD STORY SPOILT BY POOR NARRATION.

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Ridiculously over-elaborated plot, with some direly unsuccessful and inappropriate comic interludes. But the amount of withheld information keeps it going most of the time. As some other reviewers have pointed out, there are some lazy mistakes in the pronunciation of place-names - including the title place. How could anyone with any kind of ear, or sense of language, think it was ‘In-ISH-o -wen’’ rather than INNISH -Owen’? Similarly with the musical quotations: all of them were from very well-known songs, including ‘Galway Bay’, ‘The Croppy Boy’ and ‘A policeman’s lot is not a happy one’. So why were they rendered, tunelessly and flatly, to no recognisable melody?

There has been some laziness on the part of the performers, and much greater laziness on the part of the editor.

A lot of unfulfilled promise

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I don't normally write reviews but I felt I had to for this as the female narration was so dreadful. My goodness she's obviously never heard an Irish person speak if that's what she thinks the accents are like. It was painful to listen to. The male narrator was ok but was also pretty bad at the US accents. The story itself started off well but went very downhill about halfway through. Very disappointing compared to his other works.

Painful narration.

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I really enjoyed the start of the novel but once the second narrator began the atmosphere and engagement in the story was gone for me. The female narrator could not do the Irish accent and frankly ruined the whole experience. I recommend reading this book rather than this listening experience. Disappointing

Good story ruined by narration

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