Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Can You Hear Me? Audiobook by Elena Varvello, Alex Valente - translator
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Can You Hear Me? Audiobook by Elena Varvello, Alex Valente - translator
Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.
Title: Can You Hear Me?
Author: Elena Varvello, Alex Valente - translator
Narrator: Matt Addis
Format: Unabridged
Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
Language: English
Release date: 07-13-17
Publisher: Two Roads
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
Publisher's Summary:
A riveting coming-of-age story, told with the breathless precision of a Hitchcock noir by a masterful new voice in Italian literature.
'I knew nothing, back then, of the ways in which love can show itself, of the force with which it can push us into a corner and take our breath away.'
It's 1978. Ponte, a small community in Northern Italy: peaceful woods, discarded rubbish, a closed-down factory. An unbearably hot summer like many others, wilted flowers and trips to the waterfalls. Elia Furenti is 16, living in a secluded house with his parents, a life so unremarkable that even its moderate unhappiness has been accepted as normal. That is until the day the beautiful, damaged Anna returns to Ponte and firmly propels Elia to the edge of adulthood. But then everything starts to unravel. Elia's father, Ettore, is let go from his job and loses himself in the darkest corners of his mind, spending day after day plotting his revenge.
A young boy is murdered, shaking the small community to its core.
And a girl climbs into a van and vanishes in the deep, dark woods....
Translated from Italian by Alex Valente.
Critic Reviews:
"A world of suspense à la Hitchcock." (Gaia Servadio)
"The best Italian novel of the year." (Fabio Geda, author of In the Sea There Are Crocodiles)
"A book to get lost in." (Paolo Giordano, author of The Solitude of Prime Numbers)
"One of the most beautiful, intense and original books I have encountered in my life." (Huffington Post Italy)
Members Reviews:
passive and pedestrian
Elena Varvello was billed as being the next Elena Ferrante. The story is also billed as being an unputdownable thriller, "the viciously gripping page-turner of summer 2017". I picked this up eagerly anticipating a good read. It is nothing more than a coming-of-age story, passive and pedestrian at that. I struggled to get through it because I was expecting a twist any second. It never came. I blame the publicity - if they'd promoted it for what it was, I may have enjoyed it - for what it is. Elena Varvello may have the first name Elena, but she is and will never be Elena Ferrante.
Dragged
I sometimes feel I am missing something. Other people love a book, people whose opinions I respect and often share, but I just donât get it. I feel a bit like this with Can You Hear Me? It is marketed as both suspense and coming-of-age. It is a coming-of-age story, but I am struggling to find any suspense.
The narrator, 16-year-old Elia, begins by telling you the climax of the story. His father is having some kind of mental crisis. Elia suspects he was involved in the disappearance of a boy and he will go on to take the teenage babysitter from next door into the woods.
Of course many great books employ this technique and yet still manage to pique your curiosity because you want to know how they get there, books as diverse as Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier or Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. However here, I didnât feel that there was any interest or anything to feel curious about, because there is no struggle or conflict, no sense that anyone is trying to influence events.
Elia drifts through the summer, doing coming-of-age stuff, hanging out with a kid his parents disapprove of, challenging him to dares, getting the hots for his mateâs mum, and meanwhile his father is disintegrating.
View all episodes
Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.
Title: Can You Hear Me?
Author: Elena Varvello, Alex Valente - translator
Narrator: Matt Addis
Format: Unabridged
Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
Language: English
Release date: 07-13-17
Publisher: Two Roads
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
Publisher's Summary:
A riveting coming-of-age story, told with the breathless precision of a Hitchcock noir by a masterful new voice in Italian literature.
'I knew nothing, back then, of the ways in which love can show itself, of the force with which it can push us into a corner and take our breath away.'
It's 1978. Ponte, a small community in Northern Italy: peaceful woods, discarded rubbish, a closed-down factory. An unbearably hot summer like many others, wilted flowers and trips to the waterfalls. Elia Furenti is 16, living in a secluded house with his parents, a life so unremarkable that even its moderate unhappiness has been accepted as normal. That is until the day the beautiful, damaged Anna returns to Ponte and firmly propels Elia to the edge of adulthood. But then everything starts to unravel. Elia's father, Ettore, is let go from his job and loses himself in the darkest corners of his mind, spending day after day plotting his revenge.
A young boy is murdered, shaking the small community to its core.
And a girl climbs into a van and vanishes in the deep, dark woods....
Translated from Italian by Alex Valente.
Critic Reviews:
"A world of suspense à la Hitchcock." (Gaia Servadio)
"The best Italian novel of the year." (Fabio Geda, author of In the Sea There Are Crocodiles)
"A book to get lost in." (Paolo Giordano, author of The Solitude of Prime Numbers)
"One of the most beautiful, intense and original books I have encountered in my life." (Huffington Post Italy)
Members Reviews:
passive and pedestrian
Elena Varvello was billed as being the next Elena Ferrante. The story is also billed as being an unputdownable thriller, "the viciously gripping page-turner of summer 2017". I picked this up eagerly anticipating a good read. It is nothing more than a coming-of-age story, passive and pedestrian at that. I struggled to get through it because I was expecting a twist any second. It never came. I blame the publicity - if they'd promoted it for what it was, I may have enjoyed it - for what it is. Elena Varvello may have the first name Elena, but she is and will never be Elena Ferrante.
Dragged
I sometimes feel I am missing something. Other people love a book, people whose opinions I respect and often share, but I just donât get it. I feel a bit like this with Can You Hear Me? It is marketed as both suspense and coming-of-age. It is a coming-of-age story, but I am struggling to find any suspense.
The narrator, 16-year-old Elia, begins by telling you the climax of the story. His father is having some kind of mental crisis. Elia suspects he was involved in the disappearance of a boy and he will go on to take the teenage babysitter from next door into the woods.
Of course many great books employ this technique and yet still manage to pique your curiosity because you want to know how they get there, books as diverse as Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier or Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. However here, I didnât feel that there was any interest or anything to feel curious about, because there is no struggle or conflict, no sense that anyone is trying to influence events.
Elia drifts through the summer, doing coming-of-age stuff, hanging out with a kid his parents disapprove of, challenging him to dares, getting the hots for his mateâs mum, and meanwhile his father is disintegrating.