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A Pale View of Hills Audiobook
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(3.00) - 4,853 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and author of the Booker Prize–winning novel The Remains of the Day, here is the story of Etsuko, a Japanese woman now living alone in England, dwelling on the recent suicide of her daughter. In a novel where past and present confuse, she relives scenes of Japan's devastation in the wake of World War II.
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"The first book I've read by Ishiguro. Coincidentally, he's in O Magazine this month talking about books that influenced his life. I really liked this little book about Etsuko, a woman who survived the bombing of Nagasaki. It's the story of her relationship to her two daughters, one of whom commits suicide. I have to say she takes life in stride, always calm, always accepting of whatever life throws her way. I wish I could be much more like her."
— Paula (4 out of 5 stars)
A Pale View of Hills Listener Reviews
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" Once again, I am not disappointed by this author. This is a dark, dreamy tale, at once unthinkable and uncomfortably familiar, with just the kind of twist that has made me love his other works. "
— Jessi, 2/5/2014 -
" I desperately wanted to enjoy this book because of the positive reviews it has been given, but throughtout the story I was waiting and hoping for anything of substance to happen. I was very dissapointed. I can appreciate that not every book has to be 'about' something, I just found 'A Pale View of Hills' bland and uninspiring. When I had finished reading the book I felt dissapointed, and after previously reading 'Never Let Me Go', would be reluctant to read another one of Ishiguro's novels. "
— Colleen, 2/2/2014 -
" I had high expectations of the book as i enjoyed the author's other works, however i never did get a sense of where the author was going with the book. It got a bit boring for me in the middle, and persevering till the end made the ending ever more disappointing as it did not clear up any of the plots or shed any light as to the purpose of the story. Waste of my time, sad to say. "
— Cheyenne, 1/24/2014 -
" Will be reading again soon. Surprising! "
— Ben, 1/16/2014 -
" Odd and puzzling, feel like I've missed something!! "
— Briony, 1/13/2014 -
" I know many feel nothing but frustration from the unanswered questions and loose ends in this story, but I loved every moment. Yes, I would like a more complete ending and to have more clues to figure out the mystery, but none of that changes the fact that I loved reading this. "
— Karen, 1/12/2014 -
" Swoon. There is nothing new I can say about this. Just that I love Ishiguro, and this was beautiful and heartbreaking and yet so simple, all at once. "
— Eveline, 12/13/2013 -
" A ghost story in which there is no ghost. What's most haunting about it is what's left unsaid, what lies perpetually in wait, buried in the past. This is a novel of periphery and deferment, how we use them to cope, and how they ultimately prove lacking. "
— Rob, 12/8/2013 -
" Etsuko's memories, those little glimpses to past, were a lot more interesting than her life in England. I was more worried for abandoned kittens than her lost daughter. The desperation the war brought along was so palpable in that little act concerning the kittens. "
— Starbuckjr, 11/15/2013 -
" the author has a different way of seeing things. that's for sure. and i really enjoy the characters...i'm always wondering...he's one to recommend for sure! "
— Leigh, 11/13/2013 -
" currently reading and enjoying - story of a mother whose eldest daughter commits suicide "
— Pushpa, 2/7/2013 -
" Ishiguro is an amazing writer. His works become immediate classics; he is creative, distinctive, and an amazing storyteller. "
— Lera, 2/4/2013 -
" Ishiguro is brilliant. Clean, crisp prose that is somehow also full of the unsaid. Simply brilliant. "
— Kristen, 1/22/2013 -
" I found this book and it's characters to be confusing and stiff- not in a good way. Liked the writing style and will try more Ishiguro again sometime. "
— Robin, 1/18/2013 -
" Chilling! She didn't just drown cats, did she? Will re-read as I now live in Japan and would appreciate it more. "
— Chris, 12/25/2012 -
" Haunting and powerful. This book will linger in my mind for a long time. From the beginning I had an eerie feeling that I was plunged into the Jamesian world of The Turn of the Screw. "
— pam, 12/19/2012 -
" "Memory, I realize, can be an unreliable thing; often it is heavily coloured by the circumstances in which one remembers,...". This is one line that is going to stay with me for a long time. "
— Imran, 7/30/2012
About Kazuo Ishiguro
Kazuo Ishiguro, the author of several acclaimed novels, won the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The Remains of the Day won the Booker Prize and was the basis for a major motion picture. The Buried Giant was a New York Times bestseller, A Pale View of Hills won the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize, and An Artist of the Floating World won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award. The Unconsoled won the Cheltenham Prize and Never Let Me Go won the Corine Internationaler Buchpreis, the Serono Literary Prize, the Casino de Santiago European Novel Award, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 1995 Ishiguro received an OBE for Services to Literature and in 1998 the French decoration of Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1954 and moved to Britain at the age of five.
About Roe Kendall
Roe Kendall (a.k.a. Vanessa Benjamin), a native of the British Isles, graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London. She has performed on stage, as a voice-over artist, and as an audiobook narrator.