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The Great Fortune

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About this listen

 It was a strange, uncertain world that Harriet entered when she married Guy Pringle. Guy taught English at the university at Bucharest, a city of vivid contrasts, where professional beggars exist alongside the excesses of mid-European royalty and expatriate journalists with a taste for truffles and quails in aspic. Underlying this is a fitful awareness of the proximity of the Nazi threat to a Romania, which is enjoying an uneasy peace.

In this exotic landscape Harriet gets to know her new husband and to wonder at the complexity of the apparently simple man she had married.

©1960 The Estate of Olivia Manning (P)2014 Audible, Inc. Fiction Historical Fiction Imperialism
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A fantastic narration - completely brought to life by Harriet Walter. I would thoroughly recommend.

brilliant!

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An original perspective of the developing World War 2 from British Council employed ex pats based in Bucharest.
In a time where the Right is gaining sway across the world this book offers a reminder of how easily human nature happily continues normal life, almost careless that greater forces are about to overshadow normality, culture, pleasure and privilege.
The portrayal of Harriet and Guy’s marriage is full of feeling without melodrama, and subtlety without restraint.
Harriet Walter’s performance is impeccable. Her attention to pronunciation peerless.
I can’t wait for my credit to drop for the next volume!

Stunning exploration of the personal and political

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I have now listened to all three of the Balkan trilogy books and found them gripping and beautifully read. Harriet Walter holds my attention throughout. The books are so well written and give beautiful insight into a host of characters and most of all the main characters, Harriet and Guy Pringle. It is written entirely from Harriet's perspective but she is an acute observer, even of her own life. The world is crumbling around them and it highlights that for most people in a crisis, you just deal with the situation you find yourself in and don't think much more widely than you need to at the time.

Fascinating

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Enjoyed story. interesting period of history. narration was excellent. found the character of Yachimov really irritating though.

great evocation of the period

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I’d heard of the Balkan Trilogy but had never read the stories or watched them. And I loved it. Vivid depiction of certain elements if Central European life as WW2 started. And Harriet Walter is one of my new favourite audiobook narrators!

What a wonderful discovery

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