Still Life Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Sarah Winman (Author, Narrator), Fourth Estate (Publisher)

6,066 ratings

in World War II Historical Fiction

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The instant Sunday Times best seller

Winner of Dymocks Book of the Year

A Guardian Best Book of 2021

A BBC Between Two Covers Book Club pick

Winner of the InWords Literary Award

From the author of When God was a Rabbit and Tin Man, Still Life is a big-hearted story of the families we forge and the friendships that make us.

1944, Italy. As bombs fall around them, two strangers meet in the ruined wine cellar of a Tuscan villa and share an extraordinary evening.

Ulysses Temper is a young British soldier, Evelyn Skinner a 64-year-old art historian living life on her own terms. She has come to salvage paintings from the wreckage of war and relive memories of her youth when her heart was stolen by an Italian maid in a particular room with a view. Ulysses’s chance encounter with Evelyn will transform his life – and all those who love him back home in London – forever.

Listening Length

14 hours and 55 minutes
Author

Sarah Winman
Narrator

Sarah Winman
Audible release date

1 June 2021
Language

English
Publisher

Fourth Estate
ASIN

B092DN3MBS
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	14 hours and 55 minutes
Author	Sarah Winman
Narrator	Sarah Winman
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	01 June 2021
Publisher	Fourth Estate
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B092DN3MBS
Best Sellers Rank	37 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 1 in World War II Historical Fiction 2 in Literary Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) 5 in Literary Fiction (Books)

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2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from Australia

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Judy Lloyd

A Saga of Post W War II

Reviewed in Australia on 10 August 2021

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This novel is a great 'page turner' for these Covid times. Packed with detail and historical references to literature and Italian painting. It explores the memorable life of a returned English soldier, who faces disappointment and regret in village life after the war. He moves to Florence, Italy and constructs a wonderfully diverse and unusual 'family life' with the help of a cast of characters whose lives become intricately interwoven.

2 people found this helpful

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Rebecca Lyons

family, love, beautiful art, freedom

Reviewed in Australia on 13 March 2022

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Instagram @Becsbookshelf_

“Beautiful art opens our eyes to the beauty of the world, Ulysses. It repositions our sight and judgement. Captures forever that which is fleeting.”

The story begins in 1944 when two strangers meet in a wrecked wine cellar in a Tuscan villa. Bombs going off around them the two share an extraordinary evening together.

Ulysses was a British soldier and Evelyn was an art historian who came to Italy to salvage paintings from the wreckage. While there she relives the time her heart was stolen by an Italian maid. In those years this was something not accepted by the world.

Evelyn is a straight shooter and while she sees the world in black and white, yet she also see it in every shade possible. Her talk of truth and the beauty the world shaped Ulysses’s life. We follow them through the next four decades from Britain to Tuscany to Florence encompassing family, love, beautiful art, freedom and the end.

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Julie G

A beautiful novel about the aftermath of war, and love and art.

Reviewed in Australia on 19 July 2021

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This is the 3rd book by Sarah Winman I have read and loved. She has a gentle touch in her portrayal of such diverse believable characters, all flawed and all capable of love and beauty. Spending so much of the novel in Florence was a sheer delight and it brought back many happy memories for me of a brief sojourn there. The way knowledge of art, life, love and sexuality is acquired and handed down from one to another is one of the many highlights of this book.

One person found this helpful

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Vivien J Sonego

Exquisite, funny, poignant and erudite: my top book for 2021

Reviewed in Australia on 13 September 2021

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A young English soldier meets a much older English art historian in a chance encounter in the closing days of WW2 in Italy. The author moves between London and Florence through a group of unlikely friends who at one time or another will call Florence home. The art, food, people and struggles of this renaissance city and the group are exquisitely rendered with humour and affection.

One person found this helpful

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Laurie JJ

Wonderful Artistry

Reviewed in Australia on 14 February 2022

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I admire artists, those who with the sweep of brush on canvass or pencil on paper, can reveal a little of a wonderful picture, a small piece at a time. Slowly revealed, light and shade coming together until you see it all with context. It was only at the end that I realised how appropriate the title "Still Life" was for this book. Slowly as each person is revealed, their lifes intersecting, entwining, a lght touch, a journey of love and loss, of sorrow and joy. Stick with this one until the end and then savour like I have.

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Sheila Ward

A love story with a difference

Reviewed in Australia on 30 October 2021

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This is a story about love ... the love of someone special, the love of old friends, and the love of Italian artistic reminders of a bygone age. Paintings and Sculptures abound painted and made with love for the people of Rome and the world.

One person found this helpful

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French Views

A tale of relationships and the complexities of life

Reviewed in Australia on 1 February 2022

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At first I really wasn’t sure about this book. The style of writing was foreign but I stumbled on. The characters began to lure me in and then there was Florence providing a beautiful backdrop for the story to unfold in. It’s a tale of relationships and the complexities of life which I ended up loving.

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balisand

Moving and magnificent

Reviewed in Australia on 7 July 2021

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A great first sequence, and then some time in a London pub rather off-putting. But stay with it and a wonderful story unfolds in glorious Florence. Highly recommended.

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

gerardpeter

Spaghetti alla Melodrama

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 August 2021

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Sarah Winman assembles a diverse cast of characters to deliver a “feel good” saga set in Italy and London. Happy endings I am fine with, but this was too much.

The young army corporal and the ageing art historian we first meet in 1944, in Florence, brought together by chance. This “odd couple” was promising, and the early pages are the best part of the book. Through these two ripple wider circles of family and friends. All salt-of-the-earth types and neither rounded nor credible characters. They felt rather like a “gang” – fans of Friends would probably love it. Chance and rather unlikely good fortune propels the story.

The interesting question is will Ulysses and Evelyn meet up again – hints of Friends again. This propels the reader through until 1980.The setting is divided between an East End pub and an Italian pensione. Like other similar novels the author checklists the big events with broad accuracy. However, the characters seemed remarkably tolerant, open-minded and liberal. Just too good to be true. Too nice really. This makes it difficult to plot social changes as I assume the author would like to do and as the reader would expect.

Dialogue is also anachronistic. Modern expressions are freely given to speakers in the 1940s and 1950s when they were absolutely not current. I am not sure how bothered the author was to get this right, as she also gives us a talking tree and a free-thinking parrot.

In my humble opinion, a novel must convince and challenge – and this does neither.

95 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Oh my goodness...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 July 2021

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What a ridiculous,pretentious load of rubbish. I was determined to finish this book out of a sense of duty to...I'm not sure who or what. The journey/travelogue from WWII was in order to demonstrate..what exactly? The author's familiarity with Florence, Italian food, the weather...? No idea. The series of coincidences is preposterous nd the characters were absurd pastiches with absolutely nothing credible about any of them. The preponderance of gay themes was gratuitous and presumably reflects the authorz

78 people found this helpful

Nicholls Anne

Simply wonderful!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 July 2021

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I dithered about buying this book for a while, and I am so glad I did. At first the lack of speech marks put me off reading the book, as I am a grammar nut, but I soon got used to the conversations that flowed without the need for inverted commas. It was a little hard to get into at first, the London part a bit bizarre, to be honest, but once the story line took me to Florence, the book came alive for me. It is a wonderful evocation of different types of people, all linked in bizarre ways by the end, with Florence, a city I know well, accurately described. The horrendous flooding that occurred is so well depicted and having been there after the waters receded at the time, I know how devastating an event it was for the inhabitants of the city. The story is at times uplifting, bizarre, humorous, one that will live long in the memory when the final page is turned.

25 people found this helpful

Malcolm Breeze

A book to please everyone

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 June 2021

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I came across this book whilst reading the Daily Mail book review section. It certainly received a good review so, I thought I'd give it a try, I'm so pleased that I did. From start to finish I was captivated. I chuckled, I laughed out loud and I had moist eyes on more than one occasion.
The characters are wonderfully loveable, the storyline tugs the heart strings, and the art, history and Italian geography knowledge is a joy to behold.

I can honestly say this is one of the most enjoyable books I've read in years. So much so I've since purchased more from Sarah Winman and I am currently enjoying When God was a rabbit. I highly recommend Still life, well worth a read.

27 people found this helpful

Julie Warren

Poor!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 July 2021

Verified Purchase

Pretentious rubbish!!
Who is giving these books 5 stars. Have they ever read a really good book??

20 people found this helpful

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Still Life Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

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