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Capital Audiobook
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(3.00) - 2,444 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
Hailed by the New York Times as an ''elegant and wonderfully witty writer,'' John Lanchester received the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Betty Trask Prize for his critically acclaimed debut, The Debt to Pleasure. In Capital, it's 2008, the height of the financial crisis, and someone is sending anonymous postcards to the affluent residents of Pepys Road, London. The cards read simply, ''We want what you have,'' leaving the recipients asking, Who's behind the strange mailings, and to what lengths will they go to get what they want?
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"This is a great book about a street in London and how its occupants have changed over the years. The book follows a group of people whose lives are linked to the street and follows them through a period of time and what happens to them. The lives link well and it is an interesting look at relationships, consumerism and what drives people. There is a background story to the street which adds a mystery involves a group of postcards sent out to all the street addresses and progresses from there. I didn't want to put this book down but sadly its finished and I will have to wait for another book from this author because I have enjoyed all the books he has written so far."
— Sally (5 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“Brimming with perception, humane empathy, and relish, its portrayal of this metropolitan miscellany is, in every sense, a capital achievement.”
— Times on Sunday (London) -
“The book John Lanchester was born to write.”
— Guardian (London) -
“Effortlessly brilliant—gripping for its entire duration.”
— Observer (London) -
“It is Lanchester’s gifts for observation and description that make Capital such a riveting read...a novel that is as readable as it is clever.”
— Evening Standard (London) -
“An exceptionally capacious and involving tale about disparate lives in turmoil on London’s Pepys Road...Lanchester makes us care deeply about his imperiled characters and their struggles, traumatic and ludicrous, as he astutely illuminates the paradoxes embedded in generosity and greed, age and illness, financial crime and religious fanaticism, immigration, exile, and terror. A remarkably vibrant and engrossing novel about what we truly value.”
— Booklist -
“As enrapturing as it is psychologically acute…Capital portrays an authentic slice of contemporary life on the eve of change in a way that recalls Franzen—with a welcome touch of wry humor.”
— BookPage
Awards
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Selected for the June 2012 Indie Next List
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A 2012 Washington Post Best Audiobook
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A 2012 BookPage Best Book
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A 2012 San Francisco Chronicle Best Book for Fiction
Capital Listener Reviews
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" A most entertaining and witty novel for the current financial and social climate. Cleverly constructed and a wonderful read I did not want it to end. There are parallels with Sebastian Faulks' "a week on December". "
— Geraldine, 1/28/2014 -
" I was so into this! But I knocked off a star for maybe being a tiny bit cliche/trying too hard to be the quintessential London novel. Maybe I'm being mean and I will make this five stars later because I enjoyed it A LOT. "
— Diva, 1/26/2014 -
" A good read. Loooong, perhaps too long. Could easily have been 100 pages less. Just needed tightening. "
— Melanie, 1/8/2014 -
" Long very interesting social record. "
— Zoe, 12/31/2013 -
" The archetypal 'good read', though a somewhat soft-centred state-of-the-nation analysis... "
— Neil, 11/28/2013 -
" I wanted to like this book and it was good but the individual stories were loosely linked and it was more about London as a city and the different nuances (Financial crisis, race, etc) and for that it was okay as it showed the disparity but did not connect for me in the end. "
— Brad, 6/15/2013 -
" Loved the structure, so many intertwining stories, but this book is way too long and somewhat boring. "
— Taylor, 4/13/2013 -
" Interesting social commentary but not as exciting as the promotional blurbs indicated. Lots of unlikable characters makes it hard to care how their stories turn out. "
— C, 1/31/2013
About John Lanchester
John Lanchester is a contributing
editor at the London Review of Books,
and his work has appeared in the New York
Times, New Yorker, and Observer, among others. He has won the
Whitbread and Hawthornden Awards, as well as being awarded the 2008 E. M.
Forster Award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in London.
About Colin Mace
Colin Mace is an actor recently seen in the National Theatre’s One Man, Two Guvnors. He starred in the critically acclaimed drama The Night Watch for the BBC, Shirley for BBC2, as well as several episodes of Eastenders. His theater credits include “Ted Narracott” in War Horse at the National Theatre and West End, as well as Cash at WYP, and The 39 Steps and The Odysee at the Lyric Hammersmith. Other television credits includes Peep Show, Abolition, The Bill, Down to Earth, and The Project.