Our Evenings, Alan Hollinghurst
Our Evenings, Alan Hollinghurst
List: $25.00 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.50

Our Evenings

Author: Alan Hollinghurst

Narrator: Prasanna Puwanarajah

Unabridged: 16 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/08/2024


Synopsis

From the internationally acclaimed winner of the Booker Prize, “an engrossing tale of one man’s personal odyssey as he grows up, framed in exquisite language” (The New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice)

“The finest novel yet from one of the great writers of our time.”—The Guardian

SHORTLISTED FOR A LAMMY AWARD • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Town & Country, Slate, Good Housekeeping, Financial Times, The Economist, Chicago Public Library, Parade, Publishers Weekly, BookPage, Kirkus Reviews

Did I have a grievance? Most of us, without looking far, could find something that had harmed us, and oppressed us, and unfairly held us back. I tried not to dwell on it, thought it healthier not to, though I’d lived my short life so far in a chaos of privilege and prejudice.

Dave Win, the son of a Burmese man he’s never met and a British dressmaker, is thirteen years old when he gets a scholarship to a top boarding school. With the doors of elite English society cracked open for him, heady new possibilities emerge, even as Dave is exposed to the envy and viciousness of his wealthy classmates.

Alan Hollinghurst’s new novel follows Dave from the 1960s on—through the possibilities that remained open for him, and others that proved to be illusory: as a working-class brown child in a decidedly white institution; a young man discovering queer culture and experiencing his first, formative love affairs; a talented but often overlooked actor, on the road with an experimental theater company; and an older Londoner whose late-in-life marriage fills his days with an unexpected sense of happiness and security.

From “one of our most gifted writers” (The Boston Globe), Our Evenings sweeps readers from our past to our present through the beauty, pain, and joy of one deeply observed life.

About The Author

Alan Hollinghurst is the author of six previous novels, The Swimming-Pool Library, The Folding Star, The Spell, The Line of Beauty (winner of the Booker Prize), The Stranger's Child, and The Sparsholt Affair. He lives in London.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jack on January 08, 2025

An instant classic!!! The kind of book you want to write an essay about. Our Evenings is so expertly crafted -- the writing was just silky smooth, like velvet on the page. Once I started, I couldn't stop reading, and now blame my complete uselessness over the past few days on how distractingly brilli......more

Goodreads review by emma on March 06, 2025

character-driven > plot-driven any day. at one point when i was reading this book, my fiancé asked me what it was about, and i just kind of sat there for a second before venturing "nothing?" after another second of thought, i added that thus far it was kind of a coming of age story of a boy in britain......more

Goodreads review by Meike on August 04, 2024

Listen, I'm usually all into experimental literature and unusual aesthetic decisions, but this, this is traditional storytelling at its very best, an absorbing, sweeping epic about race, class, and sex spanning the last ca. 75 years in the UK, and I just could not put it down. Hollinghurst tells the......more

Goodreads review by Ron on December 10, 2024

Are the sex scenes the problem? Is that why Americans have been reluctant to embrace the novels of Alan Hollinghurst, Britain’s finest prose stylist? Given the extraordinary quality of his writing, he should be snapped up on this side of the Atlantic by refined book clubs that adore Zadie Smith, Ian......more

Goodreads review by Doug on August 15, 2024

It's been seven long years since Hollinghurst's last novel, The Sparsholt Affair - but it's been worth the wait. In only his seventh novel in 36 years, the author once again redefines the English novel, incorporating all he has seen, felt and learnt in his 70 years (we are roughly the same age; I'm......more


Quotes

Our Evenings is that rare bird: a muscular work of ideas and an engrossing tale of one man’s personal odyssey as he grows up, framed in exquisite language.”—The New York Times Book Review

“A novel about acceptance: of time’s passage, of life’s limitations, of the small victories that make existence meaningful.”The Guardian

“It’s time for American readers to know the genius of Alan Hollinghurst . . . Britain’s finest prose stylist. . . . Extraordinary . . . gorgeous.”The Washington Post

“Every new Alan Hollinghurst novel is cause for celebration. . . . [Written by] the author of the loveliest sentences in contemporary English. . . Our Evenings is melancholy and ravishing.”—Slate, “The 10 Best Books of 2024”

“Hollinghurst’s cultural range—as his new novel, Our Evenings, again confirms—is enormous.”—The Atlantic

Our Evenings is [Hollinghurst’s] longest and most stately production yet, the measured, deliberate work of an experienced artist who refuses to be rushed. Vaulty and voluminous . . .”—Los Angeles Review of Books

“Perhaps his best yet. . . If you’ve never read [Hollinghurst] and enjoy literary fiction, compelling characters and a panorama of British history, Our Evenings is for you.”—Parade

“[Our Evenings is] the best novel that’s been written about contemporary Britain in the past ten years. It’s funny but desperately moving too.”—The Sunday Times

“[Our Evenings is] a meditation on growing old, the mutability of relationships, and the fragility of social progress, framed by the world-on-fire mood of the present.”—Vulture

“The book contains moments of extraordinary beauty and set pieces as powerful as anything Hollinghurst has written.”—The New Yorker

“[Hollinghurst is] infinitely sensitive to landscapes, colours, textures, able to convey the most delicate of sensations and emotions.”The Telegraph

“Exquisitely fashioned . . . a masterful accomplishment.”BookPage, starred review

Our Evenings is a truly astonishing novel, by turns delicate and ferocious, radical in the way it explores questions of race, class, sexuality, and origins in a genteel English Home Counties setting.”—Tash Aw

Our Evenings is marked by a sharp eye, a tender sensibility, and an unflagging wit. I never wanted it to end.”—Emma Donoghue, author of The Pull of the Stars and Room

“This sublime novel—classic Hollinghurst in everything but point of view—could not be timelier.”—Mendez, author of Rainbow Milk

“Extraordinary. . . Every aspect is flawless: complex, multidimensional characters, subtle treatment of emotions, beautiful writing, a vividly realized theatrical setting, and more.”Booklist, starred review

“Hollinghurst shows off his singular ability to bring readers inside the world of a character.”Town & Country

“Hollinghurst proves once more to be a master of emotive prose. [Our Evenings is] a tour de force.”Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Hollinghurst continues to amaze and delight.”Kirkus Reviews, starred review