The Light of Day Audiobook By Graham Swift cover art

The Light of Day

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The Light of Day

By: Graham Swift
Narrated by: Alex Jennings
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Buy for $19.03

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A BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOKER PRIZE GEM

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF MOTHERING SUNDAY AND LAST ORDERS, and reissued for the first time on the Scribner list, The Light of Day is both a gripping crime story and a remarkable love story.

On a cold but dazzling November morning George Webb, a former policeman turned private detective, prepares to visit Sarah, a prisoner and the woman he loves. As he goes about the business of the day he relives the catastrophic events of two years ago that have both bound them together and kept them apart.

Making atmospheric use of its suburban setting and shot through with a plain man’s unwitting poetry and rueful humour, The Light of Day is a powerful and moving tale of murder, redemption and of the discovery, for better or worse, of the hidden forces inside us.

Praise for Mothering Sunday:
'Bathed in light; and even when tragedy strikes, it blazes irresistibly… Swift’s small fiction feels like a masterpiece’ Guardian

‘Alive with sensuousness and sensuality … wonderfully accomplished, it is an achievement’ Sunday Times

‘From start to finish Swift’s is a novel of stylish brilliance and quiet narrative verve. The archly modulated, precise prose (a hybrid of Henry Green and Kazuo Ishiguro) is a glory to read. Now 66, Swift is a writer at the very top of his game’ Evening Standard

‘Mothering Sunday is a powerful, philosophical and exquisitely observed novel about the lives we lead, and the parallel lives – the parallel stories – we can never know … It may just be Swift’s best novel yet’ Observer

‘A real in-depth study of humanity’ Alex Jones, Between the Covers

‘I loved this so much. The form is so interesting. The voice is just so clear and there’s this dryness to him too’ Omari Douglas, Between the Covers Suspense Thriller & Suspense

Critic reviews

'Bathed in light; and even when tragedy strikes, it blazes irresistibly… Swift’s small fiction feels like a masterpiece’
‘Alive with sensuousness and sensuality … wonderfully accomplished, it is an achievement’
‘From start to finish Swift’s is a novel of stylish brilliance and quiet narrative verve. The archly modulated, precise prose (a hybrid of Henry Green and Kazuo Ishiguro) is a glory to read. Now 66, Swift is a writer at the very top of his game’
‘Mothering Sunday is a powerful, philosophical and exquisitely observed novel about the lives we lead, and the parallel lives – the parallel stories – we can never know … It may just be Swift’s best novel yet’
All stars
Most relevant
More experienced critics with greater kudos have noted a number of misfirings amongst Authors of note in this current year of book releases.
I am afraid that this novel is within those ranks.
Could there be a less interesting storyline and disinterested tone in what is ultimately a story of obsession, jealousy and hate?
And I think I have never hear a more bored, cold reading of a novel, ever. A person within hearing enquired whether I was listening to the monotonous monologue from a tired old documentary..

Another Covid “casualty”?

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I really wanted to like this book, as I enjoyed Waterland and Mothering Sunday so much. But this is one excruciatingly borring novel. Nothing happens. Nobody is likeable. You just end up not caring at all about the protagonist.

No story at all

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