The End of the Affair

By: Graham Greene

Narrated by: Colin Firth

Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Earphones Award Winner (AudioFile Magazine)

Audie Award Winner, Audiobook of the Year, 2013

Audie Award Nominee, Best Solo Narration, 2013

Academy Award-winning actor Colin Firth (The King’s Speech) won the Audie for Audiobook of the Year in 2013—for his first audio performance, The End of the Affair. The love affair at the center of this 1951 classic novel takes place in the bomb-strewn last days of World War II, and just after. Bendrix, a writer in war-torn London, has fallen in love with Sarah, the wife of an acquaintance. Though unhappily married, Sarah won’t leave her husband; she ends their affair and abruptly vanishes, reducing Bendrix's inner life to rubble. His investigation of Sarah’s disappearance reveals the role her newly-awakened Catholic faith played in her decision to leave, and other startling truths.

The End of the Affair mirrors Greene’s own relationship with a married woman, and positions religion as a pivotal element in both the inner turmoil and outer destruction occurring in his life at the time. Firth brilliantly conveys Greene’s characteristically bleak emotional terrain in an intimate, nuanced, and unhurried performance.

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©1951 Graham Greene (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

First-rate fiction

Greene has achieved a first-person narrator who is no likable but who is so intelligent and curious that one is fascinated and gripped by his inability, possibly his refusal, to be transformed by love. Near the end the narrator, a novelist, describes a kind of character who cannot be written, but only dragged into the story, and we realize that he himself is such a character. Imbued with the civilized despair of postwar Britain, this book shows us how love works by showing it not working. Firth does an excellent job of all the voices, but especially of conveying the weariness and self-loathing of the narrator.

Just beautifully written

What made the experience of listening to The End of the Affair the most enjoyable?

How sophisticated, clever and insightful.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The writer

Which scene was your favorite?

When the writer talks freely to the supposedly religious figure in the book

If you could rename The End of the Affair, what would you call it?

It has an appropriate name

Any additional comments?

The book is short and very bittersweet.

Good performance

I've seen the movie a while ago so I was eager to know the original story. The narration has a heavy breathing at the start, but then is corrected.

Collin Firth <3

Collin Firth really made the story for me since the protagonist is often unlikeable. Definitely worth listening to.

Story left me feeling empty

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No since it was depressing.

What does Colin Firth bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I love to listen to him and that was the reason I bought the audiobook in the first place. He did not disappoint me.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No.

Fantastic!!

If you could sum up The End of the Affair in three words, what would they be?

An amazing story

What does Colin Firth bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He gives life to every person in the book and it is just RIGHT! I feel like he knows them all... And that I get to know them better than if I just read the book myself!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes!

Any additional comments?

Please get Colin Firth to narrate more books! He is a fantastic actor and his way of narrating is just - for want of a better word - PERFECT!!!!

We get it. You're sad.

The only reason I got through this book is that I could listen to Colin Firth reading just about anything. The story, though, just drive me crazy. Everyone is completely depressed, and yet, us they would have just talked to one another, it all could have been avoided. There is no one to root for in this story.

On this one, I disagree with the numbers.

What did you like best about The End of the Affair? What did you like least?

The narrator was okay, but I didn't like the story. I guess it was probably well written, but it was not a good, funny, sad, happy, thought provoking story. It was a downer. I am a Christian and a believer, but even that part of this story left me shaking my head. Maybe I just didn't get it.

What do you think your next listen will be?

I have just downloaded The Caine Mutiny. I do like "classics". I have never read this one, but I loved Winds of War and War and Remembrance.

Which character – as performed by Colin Firth – was your favorite?

Only Sarah and she not so much.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No

Portrait Of Ancient Conflict

Would you listen to The End of the Affair again? Why?

I certainly would listen to this book again. I will wait a year or two, as the effect it left with me still echos. Colin Firth has used his collection of talent, insight, and I am guessing, experience with his own conflicts, to express the depth of this story.
Graham Greene took the time to cherry pick each emotion from the avalanche that is borne with war, loss, and love. He also had the insight to strip down his characters to the point of raw personality, which made the story flow, rather than bog with too much flesh.
The story kept me interested to the end. For me, this is a challenge, as I am naturally drawn to nail biting, mysterious adventures.

A study in dysfunction

Colin Firth was, of course, spectacular. Too good in fact. He portrayed an angry, depressed lover who never understood the meaning of love. I kept hoping he would find some redemption, but his paranoia and anger permeated the whole story. Interesting because of the performer, but ultimately I satisfying.