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Snow Country

The epic historical novel from the author of Birdsong

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

'A fine and profoundly intelligent novel, written by an author who balances big ideas with human emotion. Wistful, yearning and wise' ELIZABETH DAY

'Faulks's most poignant love story yet' ANTONY BEEVOR, author of Stalingrad
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1914: Young Anton Heideck has arrived in Vienna, eager to make his name as a journalist. While working part-time as a private tutor, he encounters Delphine, a woman who mixes startling candour with deep reserve. Entranced by the light of first love, Anton feels himself blessed. Until his country declares war on hers.

1927: For Lena, life with a drunken mother in a small town has been impoverished and cold. She is convinced she can amount to nothing until a young lawyer, Rudolf Plischke, spirits her away to Vienna. But the capital proves unforgiving. Lena leaves her metropolitan dream behind to take a menial job at the snow-bound sanatorium, the Schloss Seeblick.

1933: Still struggling to come terms with the loss of so many friends on the Eastern Front, Anton, now an established writer, is commissioned by a magazine to visit the mysterious Schloss Seeblick. In this place of healing, on the banks of a silvery lake, where the depths of human suffering and the chances of redemption are explored, two people will see each other as if for the first time.
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Sweeping across Europe as it recovers from one war and hides its face from the coming of another, SNOW COUNTRY is a landmark novel of exquisite yearnings, dreams of youth and the sanctity of hope. In elegant, shimmering prose, Sebastian Faulks has produced a work of timeless resonance.
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'Overpowering and beautiful ... Ambitious, outrageous, poignant, sleep-disturbing' SIMON SCHAMA on Birdsong

© Sebastian Faulks 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

20th Century Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological War Dream

Critic reviews

A fine and profoundly intelligent novel, written by an author who balances big ideas with human emotion. Wistful, yearning and wise. (Elizabeth Day)
Faulks's most poignant love story yet (Antony Beevor)
What we're reading on holiday.
Sebastian Faulks' latest novel is beautifully written, shot through with a sense of the frailty of love that is at times reminiscent of William Faulkner's The Wild Palms... This is a superb novel
A 5* masterpiece that I devoured in a day
Beautifully written and compelling
All stars
Most relevant
Narrator was awful as she made anton sound like an old man. Hard to distinguish the females fro each other. Very little description of characters... flat all around

Terrible... uninteresting characters; story line tried to bring in the war without affect giving little effect.

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Really enjoyed this role of intertwined Austrian lives from the end of the 19th century to the second world War. Not just a live story but full of philosophy and psychology and struggle, chance and life.

rambling interwar love story

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Precision of details gave enormous pleasure and prompted recall of encountering that area.Plot was ok but female characters unconvincing.Philosophy and psychological stuff sadly tedious.

Location

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There is a desperation from the author to write a moral tale. A tale where love conquers all.
But it is too simple, too obvious.
The strength of the novel is in its minor characters, the vignettes of life offered. The book centre is hollow and too thin to carry the rest.

Not Quite

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Really enjoyed this moving story. A follow on from human traces, loved reading what the characters had become.

Brilliant

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