The Secret Commonwealth: The Book of Dust Volume Two

By: Philip Pullman, Christopher Wormell

Narrated by: Michael Sheen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Shortlisted for Audiobook of the Year at the British Book Awards 2020.

Winner of Best Solo Narration at the New York Festival Radio Awards 2020

It is twenty years since the events of La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust Volume One unfolded and saw the baby Lyra Belacqua begin her life-changing journey.

It is almost ten years since readers left Lyra and the love of her young life, Will Parry, on a park bench in Oxford's Botanic Gardens at the end of the ground-breaking, bestselling His Dark Materials sequence.

Now, in The Secret Commonwealth, we meet Lyra Silvertongue. And she is no longer a child . . .


The second volume of Philip Pullman's The Book of Dust sees Lyra, now twenty years old, and her daemon Pantalaimon, forced to navigate their relationship in a way they could never have imagined, and drawn into the complex and dangerous factions of a world that they had no idea existed. Pulled along on his own journey too is Malcolm; once a boy with a boat and a mission to save a baby from the flood, now a man with a strong sense of duty and a desire to do what is right.

Theirs is a world at once familiar and extraordinary, and they must travel far beyond the edges of Oxford, across Europe and into Asia, in search for what is lost - a city haunted by daemons, a secret at the heart of a desert, and the mystery of the elusive Dust.


The Secret Commonwealth is truly a book for our times; a powerful adventure and a thought-provoking look at what it is to understand yourself, to grow up and make sense of the world around you. This is storytelling at its very best from one of our greatest writers.

"Michael Sheen throws himself wholeheartedly into narrating this sequel to La Belle Sauvage and listeners will be rapt. For the ever-expanding international cast of characters, Sheen conjures a multitude of accents and delivers rapid-fire conversations between them. He's in step with the text at every turn; when situations become fraught or dangerous, Sheen ramps up the tension exquisitely. Thanks to Pullman's intricate storytelling and Sheen's propulsive narration, listeners will be on the edge of their seats right up to the cliff-hanger ending" AudioFile

Critic reviews

[Pullman] has created a fantasy world, made yet more satisfying in rigour and stylistic elegance. This is a book for getting older with

The Secret Commonwealth is ablaze with light and life. The writing is exquisite; every sentence sings ... To read Pullman is to experience the world refreshed, aglow, in Technicolour

Lyra is all grown up in a rich, vivid sequel

Engrossing

Pullman's story is still thought-provoking ... This book elegantly weaves in live issues, from Europe's refugee crisis to facts in the post-truth era. And Pullman's prose is rewarding as ever

The novel gallops forward, full of danger, delight and surprise. Nearly miraculous, it seems, is Pullman's ability to sketch character, place and motive in just a few lines

A long, taxing, complex journey, laced with beauty, terror and philosophy

As ever, Pullman's story is complex and vast but home to some of the finest storytelling in the 21st century. Revel in whole new worlds and enjoy one of literature's most wonderful heroines before she comes to HBO and the BBC

Pullman is confronting readers with the horrors of our own world reflected back at us. In The Secret Commonwealth he creates a fearful symmetry

Pullman has created a fantasy world, made yet more satisfying in this new volume. This is a book for getting older with

Relevant and thought provoking

I like that this book is relevant in this and all times. Now I'm upset that I have to wait for the rest, but this book is so deep it's listenable several times.

Michael Sheen is marvel and a national treasure

Gripping story, brought to life my the narrator, Michael Sheen. I can’t imagine anyone else doing the story and characters such justice!

epic

another epic story! I cannot wait for the next book in this trilogy nu Pullman

Superb!!!

Simply superb- the story and the narration by Michael Sheen. Can’t wait for volume 3!!!

Whoever complains about Lyra’s accent

Don’t be fooled by watching too many episodes of Inspector Morse, the accent Michael Sheen uses for Lyra is actually far closer to a local Oxford accent than the usually RP dross. I say this as someone who has lived in Oxford my entire life…so stop complaining about it!

Other than that an entirely absorbing book, one less star but it’s not so much for the story, it’s just hard to give 5/5 for the second book in a trilogy where the ending is still open