The Listeners

by Edward Parnell

May 1940. Ghosts haunt the woods and fields of Norfolk, as Europe descends into full-blown warfare. William Abrehart, a strange, nature-loving boy who hasn't spoken since the mysterious death of his father, struggles to keep the promise he made to look after his withdrawn mother and older sisters. Rachel, the eldest, is waiting for news from France of her soldier sweetheart, while Kate has designs on an airman stationed nearby. Over the course of a momentous weekend, a complex family web of lies and self-deception will unravel, as the past and present dramatically collide. Drawing on the Gothic traditions of Walter de la Mare's poem of the same name, Edward Parnell's 'The Listeners' is a dark, elegiac tale about grief, love and loss, and how we try to make sense of existence through stories and memories.

Genres: Fiction, Historical, Historical Fiction

200 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 6, 2014

About the author

Edward Parnell is the author of the narrative non-fiction 'Ghostland' (William Collins), shortlisted for the 2020 PEN Ackerley Prize for memoir. He lives near Norwich in the UK and has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. He has been the recipient of an Escalator Award from the National Centre for Writing and a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship. 'The Listeners' (2014) was his first novel, and was the winner of the Rethink New Novels Prize.

Reviews

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really very good, particularly for a first novel. The characters are mostly well drawn and the misery gradually unfolds. This is easy to read, with an emotionally strong voice. Almost a 5 star, my only issue was I found the airman a little two dimensional and the ending was not the strongest. But so close.

[Hannah Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most compelling aspect of this book is the atmosphere. The natural world, described in intimate detail, and old fashioned rural life imbues every scene, but not in the chocolate-box idyll people imagine the countryside. It is raw, brutal as well as beautiful, and this is reflected in the story itself.
The story is set in the shadow of two world wars, and follows the tragedies and hopes of one family who are all trapped in their own way in their past and in their present.
It is a beautifully told story, and I look forward to seeing what the author will write next.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book I read and reviewed this year was Edward Parnell’s excellent Ghostland, a story of personal grief coupled with a hauntological survey of British literature, art and landscape. At the other end of the year I found myself reading his first novel, The Listeners. Inspired by the mysterious classic poem by Walter de la Mare, and infused with the same eeriness and sense of loss, it’s like a Southern Gothic story transplanted to 1940s Norfolk. As a first novel it’s an impressive achievement; beautifully written, with a strong sense of place and of a now largely-vanished natural world (much of which was familiar from my own Norfolk childhood in the sixties and seventies), and with a very effective device of multiple narrators/viewpoints. It’s an intense and highly strung tragedy of family secrets and silence, well worth looking out.

[Richard Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting and gripping story set in Norfolk with WW2 as a backdrop. A study of grief and secrets and events viewed from different character's perspectives. Dark and moody mystery with a Thomas Hardyesque atmosphere (but without a whole page describing a tree!). A story to remain in the mind long after you've finished reading.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story recounted through mulitple narrators, nearly all first person. Three main voices, a young boy, his oldest teenage sister, and his mother build the picture of the life and death of the father. We never understand the Father's motivations and although the mother lost a child, she still had three more and her evident mental deterioration, to the point that she wills the moment of her own death, is unexplained. Would no one in the small Norfolk community have stepped in to help? The star is the Norfolk countryside of the 1940s, rich with wildlife and birdsong, whose cadences govern the farming community's calendar. One voice, the younger teenage sister's, is smaller in the book and ultimately she is the one least tainted by her Father's actions. Satisfyingly she escapes with an Airman, leaving her sister and brother to live knowingly, and unknowingly through the consequences of their Father's affairs. I was drawn to this book by the reference to 'The Listeners' but using an abandoned house, with a known history, only for sex was simply too banal to deserve any connection with the classic poem. Initial page-turning beauty turned into speed reading to reach the unsatisfying conclusion, with so many 'whys' left unanswered that it could have been a short story or novella.

[M.P. Conn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not my usual reading, but nonetheless, I enjoyed it. It is a story about loss and sadness, a drama, if you want, of a family. Nothing spooky happens, and there are no ghosts except for those of our own making. A good read if you enjoy long descriptions of birds and nature.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author builds up the atmosphere - claustrophobic and heavy. A sense of history repeating and circles of time. Not a book to read if your mood is a bit low!

[Jana Tareen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written and a worthy second read after Ghostland. Can’t wait for more by this author.

[CQM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disturbing.

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful novel set in May 1940 in which the Norfolk countryside and its wildlife plays an intergral and vivid role. It's a novel primarily about grief and loss, I think, and a family coming to terms with various strands of it. This is mirrored/foreshadowed in the vanishing wildlife depicted in the book - its nightingales, red-backed shrikes, farmland songbirds, turtle doves, elm and ash trees - that, in the early part of the 21st century, we know have now vanished from (or are in the process of vanishing from) this landscape... It's a beautifully descriptive book about the birds that the main character, William, encounters too, and reflects the author's background as a birdwatcher and conservationist.

[Richard Tearle · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Albrehart has been dead for close on a year and the effects of his death still affect his wife, two daughters and his son, who all have different views on him.
In Edward Parnell's The Listeners, we find out about John through the people who knew him – or thought they did – though mainly through the thoughts of his son William and his eldest daughter, Rachel. To William, he was a hero; to Rachel more of a villain who put an end to her growing romance with local boy, Tom, with whom she had had a stillborn baby.
William has not spoken a word since the day his father was buried, but he still visits the disused house they would go to when out fishing or bird watching. He sees him and speaks to him in his thoughts. Over the short period of time in which the book is set, many truths about John are revealed by each narrator, both in thought and speech and each member of the family has to learn to live with those truths and their consequences.
The author has written his story with understanding and sympathy and written it with expert prose which keeps you interested throughout.
I have a couple of quibbles: the author has employed the use of capital letters when anybody shouts, whether that be in speech, thought or reminiscence and whether or not this is acceptable, I personally found it annoying. It takes a little time to get used to the present tense used by all of the characters, although it is acceptable here. I was also able to guess some of the twists much earlier than when they were actually revealed.
In truth, those last two criticisms are little more than nit picking because the book is wonderfully crafted and beautifully written with the main characters picked out in a very believable fashion.
Apart from my major point, I highly recommend this book, which, for a first novel is outstanding in its storytelling.

(for the historical Novel Society)

[James Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that is such a pleasure to read, from the fine writing skill of the author to the story itself. I hesitated briefly over the multiplicity of narrators: it can be a difficult thing to pull off, but he has. They take us on a path of discovery, an exploration of the complexities following the loss of a father and husband, and the truths hidden. An atmospheric book in time and place, with descriptions of the outdoors, the land, the seasons, animal life, that are rich and evocative. But it is the handling of human interaction, loss and the consequences, these truths being slowly revealed, that make this the strong, memorable, original and enriching novel it is. A beautifully written exploration.

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written evocative novel. The vivid descriptions of the natural world of a Norfolk village during the Second World war are enchanting and fill the novel with an atmospheric and at times, haunting, sense of time and place. The multi-narrator format works exceptionally well with each distinctive voice bringing a fresh viewpoint and version of events, whilst at the same time each chapter seamlessly leads into the next making it a very difficult book to put down. A highly recommended summer read but with dark gothic undertones which would be beguiling at any time of year.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

An emotive and dark read, captivating right from the start. I thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere of this book and the clever twists throughout. The more I read, the darker and more pulling it became. Highly recommended.

[Kathy Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you appreciate an author who takes time over the little things, this book is for you.