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: Life Class

Author: Pat Barker

Narrator: Finlay Robertson, Juliet Prague, Eve Webster, Kieran Bew

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-31-14

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Pat Barker's powerful and unforgettable story of art and war, Life Class.

Spring, 1914. The students at the Slade School of Art gather in Henry Tonks's studio for his life-drawing class. But for Paul Tarrant the class is troubling, underscoring his own uncertainty about making a mark on the world. When war breaks out and the army won't take Paul, he enlists in the Belgian Red Cross just as he and fellow student Elinor Brooke admit their feelings for one another.

Amidst the devastation in Ypres, Paul comes to see the world anew - but have his experiences changed him completely?

Critic Reviews:

"Triumphant, shattering, inspiring." (The Times)

"Barker writes as brilliantly as everwith great tenderness and insight she conveys a wartime world turned upside down." (Independent on Sunday)

"Extraordinarily powerful." (Sunday Telegraph)

Members Reviews:

Is war experience justifiable as art?

Pat Barker s heroine refuses on principle to find war a justifiable subject for art, even after being caught up in a raid at Ypres. Her arguments are contrasted with the more conventional story line covered by the male characters. The portrayal of society in the build up to the first World War is much more nuanced than in most novels of the period and the details of the role of an orderly or ambulance driver in Belgium are vivid. The role of the artist in these circumstances makes a useful basis for the exploration of the nature of friendship and love.

Warning - takes time to get into the rhythmn

I discarded this book when I tried to read it - but this audible version made me view the characters and the pace in a different way. (Is that good or bad - I am not sure). Having not found any common ground/compassion/interest with the characters when I read this - I seem to have done so with the audible version. I think this maybe because this is read at an incredibly slow pace (not the pace I would read) - and that's how it works. I don't know but I have enjoyed the audible version enough I will go on to the next part in the story.

Life Class

This is the first Pat Barker audio book I've listened to and it was a fine production and well read - great story too - I have the next two in print but might just listen to them instead.

Quite slow

Quite slow, different from her other novels. Not such likeable character's than in the regeneration trilogy.

Pat Barker writing as good as ever

first in second world war trilogy. characters brought vividly to life. well narrated. compelling story. highly recommended.