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Fugitive Pieces

Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction

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Fugitive Pieces

By: Anne Michaels
Narrated by: Anne Michaels
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Bloomsbury presents Fugitive Pieces written and read by Anne Michaels.

**Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction**

'This is a novel to lose yourself in' The Times
'Essential reading' Spectator
'Extraordinarily magical' New York Times
'The most important book I have read for forty years' Observer
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Athos and I stood together on deck and looked across the water at the bright city. From this distance no one would guess the turmoil that had torn apart Greece … The sea began to darken, and Athens, glowing in the distance, seemed to float on the horizon like a bright ship.

Jakob Beer is seven years old when he is rescued from the ruins of a buried village in Nazi-occupied Poland. He is the only one of his family to have survived the invasion. Adopted by his saviour, the Greek geologist Athos, Jakob must steel himself to excavate the horrors of his own history.

A novel of astounding beauty and wisdom, Fugitive Pieces is a profound meditation on the resilience of the human spirit and love's ability to restore even the most damaged of hearts.©1996 Anne Michaels Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Heartfelt
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Critic reviews

Monumental ... Fugitive Pieces is the most important book I have read for forty years
This is a novel to lose yourself in; let the language pour over you, depositing its richness like waves lapping sand onto a beach. Michaels is a novelist of unusual and compelling power (Erica Wagner)
Essential reading, both for its exceptional literary craft and for its exemplary and inspiring humanity
All except a handful of contemporary novels are dwarfed by its reach, its compassion, its wisdom ... A book to read many times (Geoff Dyer)
Extraordinarily magical
Lovely ... Musical and magical ... Put this book alongside The English Patient
This extraordinarily beautiful novel is a world. A book miraculously created because it mends the hopeless and dances with loss. Trust and read it (John Berger)
An utterly mesmerizing novel told from the core of a poet's soul focusing upon our very prosaic world. It does what all great novels do: illuminate through the lights of language and intelligence the heart of a hitherto hidden human landscape (Chaim Potok)
Anne Michaels has created a world of stunning, heartbreaking clarity where even the unspeakable is captured in the light-web of her words. She is a superb poet, a breath-stopping storyteller
Searing the mind with stunning images while seducing with radiant prose, this brilliant first novel is a story of damaged lives and the indestructibility of the human spirit. The novel will make readers yearn to share it with others, to read sentences and entire passages out loud, to debate its message, to acknowledge its wisdom
All stars
Most relevant
Uncomparable prose subtly layering feeling upon feeling in the reader. A magnificent work of art.

Rare Poetic Prose

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I read this book 20 +years ago ?1997?Loved it , gave it to all my friends for Christmas & Birthday presents that year.

Am about to choose it for ‘MY’ next book club choice , new friends ,not read it . Thought I would listen to book on Audible.
I am so disappointed… Anne Michaels chose to read it herself …WHY.? Sorry Anne your narrative is really BORING. I gave up after First Chapter. Why do Authors think they are best at speaking their words ? That is what Actors do.

Outstanding story , loved the book. Vv boring narration.

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I absolutely loved this book, such beautiful poetic writing. Poignant and so important given what is happening in our world today. I would say that everyone should read this book but I know they it’s message would likely fall on deaf ears where it most needs to be heard. I noticed that some reviews criticised the author for choosing to read this book herself but for me I found her reading absolutely perfect given the content. I have listened to her other book “Held” which was as beautiful although quite a bit shorter. I will definitely be listening to both again and I hope that there will be more to come from Anne.

Incredibly Beautiful

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I tried to listen to the audio but gave up before my book group met up. They had all read the book and ranked it very highly.
So I bought the book and read it to myself.
I am surprised the author considered that her work would translate to an audiobook. The work needs to be read very slowly and carefully and reread as you would expect of a poem.

Perhaps this is why the author read her work so slowly but her tone of voice is soporific. At the very least she should have identified clearly where different sections started.

The audiobook was a waste of money and certainly not a respectful introduction to this work.

I would ask for a refund but I don't know how to do that.

Read the book. don't listen to the audio

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