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Title: The Sleepwalkers

Author: Christopher Clark

Narrator: Christopher Clark

Format: Unabridged

Length: 23 hrs and 9 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-18-18

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: History, World

Publisher's Summary:

The pacy, sensitive and formidably argued history of the causes of the First World War, from acclaimed historian and author Christopher Clark.

Sunday Times and Independent Books of the Year 2012.

The moments that it took Gavrilo Princip to step forward to the stalled car and shoot dead Franz Ferdinand and his wife were perhaps the most fateful of the modern era. An act of terrorism of staggering efficiency, it fulfilled its every aim: it would liberate Bosnia from Habsburg rule, and it created a powerful new Serbia, but it also brought down four great empires, killed millions of men and destroyed a civilization. What made a seemingly prosperous and complacent Europe so vulnerable to the impact of this assassination?

In The Sleepwalkers Christopher Clark retells the story of the outbreak of the First World War and its causes. Above all, it shows how the failure to understand the seriousness of the chaotic, near genocidal fighting in the Balkans would drag Europe into catastrophe.

Members Reviews:

Ruined by Narration

Albeit that Christopher Clark is identified as the narrator, no blame should be laid at the author's feet. Instead this appears to be read by a man who has never confronted anything more than a basic reading level. His failure to pronounce even simple words is astonishing. Coup d' etat is pronounced "coop". However the narrator is not alone in ruining this masterful volume. The production and editing are to blame too. Sound quantity changes, sometimes the narrators voice sounds fuzzy, other times a little disembodied. Most frequent is the ever so subtle edits dropped in to the prose. it is so badly done it almost sounds like listening to a telephone call or a radio programme where different speakers voice each new line.

I find all of this a tragedy because the content of the book is so well written, has such a level of detail and research, and is brought together with powerful analysis by Prof Clark. I am afraid Audible (or whoever produced this edition) you have rather short changed Sir Christopher however, with low production values, an incompetent narrator and a sound editor who should hang his head in shame.

appalling pronunciation

Would you try another book written by Christopher Clark or narrated by Christopher Clark?

Completely ruined by inability of the reader to pronounce basic words properly - détente, coup d'état, adjutant in the first 20 minutes, so I find myself listening for the next mistake, not the book

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Another reader; even I could do a better job

How did the narrator detract from the book?

completely

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

wonder at what the editors and publishers were doing when listening to it