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The Sea Audiobook
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(3.00) - 8,940 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
The author of The Untouchable (“contemporary fiction gets no better than this”—Patrick McGrath, The New York Times Book Review) now gives us a luminous novel about love, loss, and the unpredictable power of memory.The narrator is Max Morden, a middle-aged Irishman who, soon after his wife’s death, has gone back to the seaside town where he spent his summer holidays as a child—a retreat from the grief, anger, and numbness of his life without her. But it is also a return to the place where he met the Graces, the well-heeled vacationing family with whom he experienced the strange suddenness of both love and death for the first time. The seductive mother; the imperious father; the twins—Chloe, fiery and forthright, and Myles, silent and expressionless—in whose mysterious connection Max became profoundly entangled, each of them a part of the “barely bearable raw immediacy” of his childhood memories. Interwoven with this story are Morden’s memories of his wife, Anna—of their life together, of her death—and the moments, both significant and mundane, that make up his life now: his relationship with his grown daughter, Claire, desperate to pull him from his grief; and with the other boarders at the house where he is staying, where the past beats inside him “like a second heart.”What Max comes to understand about the past, and about its indelible effects on him, is at the center of this elegiac, vividly dramatic, beautifully written novel—among the finest we have had from this extraordinary writer.
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"Hovering between three and four stars....rather too slight a work to be a Booker Prize winner, I'd have thought, but what he set out to do, he did well. He is rather inclined to use a phrase where a word would do, and some of the words maybe are obscure for the sake of it - but it's a sound story, well told, and it hangs together."
— Lucy (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“With his fastidious wit and exquisite style, John Banville is the heir to Nabokov…The Sea [is] his best novel so far.”
— Sunday Telegraph -
“The Sea offers an extraordinary meditation on mortality, grief, death, childhood and memory…Undeniably brilliant.”
— USA Today -
“A gem…[The sea]is a presence on every page, its ceaseless undulations echoing constantly in the cadences of the prose. This novel shouldn’t simply be read. It needs to be heard, for its sound is intoxicating….A winning work of art.”
— Philadelphia Inquirer
Awards
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Winner of the 2005 Man Booker Prize
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A 2005 New York Times Book Review Notable Book
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Winner of Booker Prize, 2005
The Sea Listener Reviews
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" It was really good. The language was absolutely beautiful with some incredible imagery and metaphors. There were some words that I hadn't even heard before and this left me wondering if John Banville always writes like this or if this was part of the character in the novel. I will be trying his other books. "
— Natasha, 2/13/2014 -
" Although the story itself was somewhat interesting (though even that, only moderately), I found the language unbearably pompous. As if Banville was embellishing every single sentence only for the sake of showing off the impressive active vocab he has at his command. Less would often be much more... "
— Aniko, 2/10/2014 -
" Not my typical genre - liked it though... "
— Mirko, 2/8/2014 -
" Well written, but gloomy and too ponderous to listen to on tape, as I did, while exercising. "
— Martha, 2/1/2014 -
" I love how he describes the many different lights & shades of the day; the seasons and ramblings. Deeply enjoyed this book. "
— Natalie, 1/28/2014 -
" This seems like one of those books I'll come to enjoy more after thinking about it for a while. "
— Brandi, 1/15/2014 -
" A nice slow book. The end was amazing! "
— Lacy, 1/3/2014 -
" Very interesting book focusing on the passage of time. The main character is a elderly man who lost his wife and is visiting the places he remembers as a kid. Very well-written. The story was simple but interesting. "
— Monja, 12/7/2013 -
" Very good, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. "
— Rebekka, 12/2/2013 -
" Man Booker Prize. It's not a page-turner, but the writing is brilliantly descriptive of characters, place, childhood memories and aging. It's one of those quiet books that had more of an impact than I expected, and stays with me still. "
— Sue, 11/22/2013 -
" A poetic little masterpiece. This is high art, lovely prose. "
— Delburt, 9/29/2012 -
" Beautiful writing. Loved this book. "
— Shelley, 5/2/2012 -
" This book has some beautiful moments. But, for a book that is just shy of 200 pages, it felt very long. The narrative could have been a bit more plot driven to hold my attention. "
— Hannah, 3/19/2012 -
" beautiful, poetic writing that wraps you up in the sea "
— Petra, 11/11/2011 -
" Simply poetic. "
— Kimberlee, 11/2/2011 -
" This book will never grow old. "
— D, 7/14/2011 -
" From the first you know you are reading literature and not just a story. Banville's sentence structure and language is exciting and the story is engrossing. A very good read. "
— Donna, 5/24/2011 -
" I guess it was beautifully written, but I needed much more action. "
— Lisa, 5/23/2011 -
" Hmmm, I only picked this up last night in bed. Read 2 pages, and wondered and hoped that it might be less annoying as I proceed. <br/> <br/>Have now just read some reviews and decided not to torture myself, so will put this into my Bookmooch list and let someone else "enjoy" it. <br/> "
— Kathy, 5/21/2011 -
" Mostly boring and wandering commentary on death. Decent writing but didn't hold my interest. "
— Harry, 5/9/2011 -
" Language I like, but story, characters, purpose hazy "
— Ctb, 5/8/2011 -
" This is a quiet meditation on love, loss, memory, life and mourning. It took me a while to settle into the softer rhythm of this novel, but in the end I'm glad I did. "
— Jen, 4/29/2011 -
" Just starting this book. And I find the writing quite nice, but the mood is on the darker side. So I must move on the the next book on my list. "
— Cathie, 4/22/2011 -
" Difficult to get into, definitely one to re-read when I'm older. "
— Marie, 4/7/2011
About John Banville
John Banville is the author of more than twenty novels, as well as nonfiction and plays. Time Pieces was a New York Times bestseller, and The Sea won the 2005 Booker Prize. He has also won the Franz Kafka Prize, the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Achievement in Irish Literature, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Best Novel, and the Prince of Asturias Award, Spain’s most important literary prize. He was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945, and lives in Dublin.
About John Lee
John Lee is the winner of numerous Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration. He has twice won acclaim as AudioFile’s Best Voice in Fiction & Classics. He also narrates video games, does voice-over work, and writes plays. He is an accomplished stage actor and has written and coproduced the feature films Breathing Hard and Forfeit. He played Alydon in the 1963–64 Doctor Who serial The Daleks.