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The Levant Trilogy

'Fantastically tart and readable' Sarah Waters

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About this listen

 'Fantastically tart and readable' Sarah Waters

'An important 20th-century writer who paints a complex relationship between gender and power with wit and sensitivity' Lauren Elkin

'These books are clearly among the very best fiction about the Second World War' The Sunday Times

'One of the most gifted English writers of her generation' New York Times

As Rommel advances in wartorn Egypt, the lives of the civilian population come under threat. One such couple are Guy and Harriet Pringle, who have escaped the war in Europe only to find the conflict once more on their doorstep, providing a volatile backdrop to their own personal battles.

The civilian world meets the military through the figure of Simon Boulderstone, a young army officer who will witness the tragedy and tension of war on the frontier at first hand.

An outstanding author of wartime fiction, Olivia Manning brilliantly evokes here the world of Egypt and the Levant - Syria, Lebanon and Palestine - with perception and subtlety, humour and humanity©2025 Olivia Manning Genre Fiction Historical Fiction War & Military Middle East War Africa

Critic reviews

How many Americans who have read Barbara Pym, Beryl Bainbridge, or Iris Murdoch have ever heard of Olivia Manning? Yet she is one of the most gifted English writers of her generation.... Nobody has written better about World War II-the feel of fighting it and its dislocating effects on ordinary, undistinguished lives.
Olivia Manning's greatest achievements are the Balkan and Levant novels. In these she handles her daunting wealth of material with great artistic dexterity and an admirable sense of proportion that at the same time never reduces. Nor does her concern to understand public events impair her analytical comprehension of the private lives of her people.... Olivia Manning wrote as courageously about death and the fear of death-in combat, in accident, through disease, through age-as any novelist in our language this century.
One of the "Five Best of World War II Fiction"
Books not nearly as good are touted as definitive portraits of the war; very little on a best-seller list is more readable. Manning's giant six-volume effort is one of those combinations of soap opera and literature that are so rare you'd think it would meet the conditions of two kinds of audiences: those after what the trade calls 'a good read,' and those who want something more.
The only English woman novelist to have painted a broad, compassionate and witty canvas of men and women at war that invites comparison with Anthony Powell and Evelyn Waugh
All stars
Most relevant
One feels as if one was actually there. All the caracters so tipical of those days and so well discribed. This is one author I want to follow.

Well narrated. Kept me good company while at sea.

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Lucy Tregear gives an excellent performance of a marvellous book. I remember an expat wedding where the grandeur of the reception saw the men more excited by the test match on TV and in another room sad under occupied wives very drunk. The Levant Trilogy focusses on what people do in their spare time- which is very little and the ordinariness of getting on with each other doing very little. This is my first experience of Olivia Manning’s writing and I am about to embark on the Balkan Trilogy. Thank you very much

A great performance

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I honestly can't remember when I have so enjoyed a series of books. Superbly drawn character, wonderfully evocative writing, and tart and sharp observations throughout.

Excellent narration too which 'fits' the tone of the book perfectly. Highly recommended.

Magnificent

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Brilliant narration as World War 2 is seen through the eyes of a naive young couple throughout Romania, Greece and Egypt.

Brilliant narration

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Surely one of the greatest series of novels about WW2, especially from a woman’s perspective.

A brilliant series of novels.

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