• The End of the Affair

  • By: Graham Greene
  • Narrated by: Colin Firth
  • Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (11,396 ratings)

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The End of the Affair  By  cover art

The End of the Affair

By: Graham Greene
Narrated by: Colin Firth
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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.

Explore more titles performed by some of the most celebrated actors in the business in Audible’s Star-Powered Listens collection.
©1951 Graham Greene (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Go Behind the Scenes with Colin Firth

An accomplished stage and screen actor embraces a new medium: audio performance.
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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.

Explore more titles performed by some of the most celebrated actors in the business in Audible’s Star-Powered Listens collection.
©1951 Graham Greene (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
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Our favorite moments from The End of the Affair

Jilted lover and oblivious husband at the pub.
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The first glimpse of Sarah.
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Is he loved? The dour Bendrix has doubts.
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The thrill is gone, or so Bendrix jealously fears.
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  • The End of the Affair
  • Jilted lover and oblivious husband at the pub.
  • The End of the Affair
  • The first glimpse of Sarah.
  • The End of the Affair
  • Is he loved? The dour Bendrix has doubts.
  • The End of the Affair
  • The thrill is gone, or so Bendrix jealously fears.

About the Performer

Colin Firth was heart-stoppingly perfect as Darcy in BBC’s Pride and Prejudice, won an Oscar for playing the tongue-tied king in The King’s Speech, and continued to gain fans with his roles in Bridget Jones’s Diary, A Single Man, Love Actually, and many more films. In addition to having a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Firth won Audiobook of the Year in 2013 for his narration of The End of the Affair.

About the Author

Graham Greene, widely recognized as one of the most important writers of the 20th century, was born in Hertfordshire, England, and studied history at Oxford. A restless spirit, he traveled the world before settling in London and starting to write novels, including The Heart of the Matter, The Quiet American, Our Man in Havana, and many more. Later recruited as a spy for his government, he based several of his novels in the shadowy world of double agents. But love and passion also caught his imagination, and he explored them from the perspective of an "agnostic Catholic" whose interest in Catholicism also played a big role in his work.

What listeners say about The End of the Affair

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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    5,473
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    3,223
  • 3 Stars
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Story
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  • 4 Stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Intense!

Mr Colin Firth delivers the passionate despair that Graham Greene writes of. Justice all around for writer and narrator. This was short and sweet.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Depressing story.

Struggled to finish, because it was so sad and I did not like the characters.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

What's not to love?

Beautiful writing, beautiful narrating. This will stay with me for a long, long time. Just listen!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A dark sad story

The story was told in a dull sad tone, good drama, good narration, Collin Firth showed his different skill well.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Exceptional

Exceptionally good book and fantastic narration. Sometimes, we forget how good the classics from a half century or so actually are. This book is a good reminder on why we need to read them......

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Well, first of all, it's Colin Firth

Any additional comments?

Well, first of all, it's Colin Firth. Second, it's Graham Greene. Strict narratives are so difficult to read effectively, as the listener's attention strays more easily without a lot of inflection from other characters' voices. Needless to say, this narrator expressed wonderfully all the different emotions of the protagonist as he told the story involving himself, the woman he loved, and her husband, and Firth made the characters and environment jump off the pages to stand in real life in front of me. It's no wonder this was a 2013 Audiobook of the Year.

It is thought that Graham Greene based this story on his own long-term affair with a married woman. The time and place is WWII in London. The novel is also considered one of his four big "Catholic novels"; that is, those stories whose characters dealt with Christian faith from a Catholic perspective.

I've listened to a few books like this (those that have little to no conversation), and I think I've been fortunate in my choices of narrators. Colin Firth is among the best.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Colin Firth makes Morris live!

What did you love best about The End of the Affair?

The story is wonderful, but even more importantly---Colin Firth narrates it! I absolutely love his voice! I was heartbroken when the book ended.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The End of the Affair?

The first sentence---Colin Firth's voice!

Have you listened to any of Colin Firth’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I haven't heard any of his other books read. This is the first. Where are others???

Any additional comments?

Please sign Colin Firth to read other books for Audible!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

I could listen to Colin Firth all day long

Any additional comments?

I found this audio book to be mesmerizing. Once I started listening, I could not stop. While I didn't care for some of the Catholic-related content, overall I found the story to be achingly beautiful. Combine the story with the narration of Colin Firth and the result is a wonderful, wonderful audio book. I highly recommend.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Quit after Hours of Listening

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Great writing, but the obsession was too much.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Great writing, but the obsession was too much.

Have you listened to any of Colin Firth’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Great writing, but the obsession was too much.

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

Great writing, but the obsession was too much.

Any additional comments?

Great writing, but the obsession was too much.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Top rate performance by Colin

Any additional comments?

Far and away one of the main topics of this book is Christianity and this is not suffieciently covered in the description.

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