Behind the Scenes at the Museum

A Novel

By: Kate Atkinson

Narrated by: Pearl Hewitt

A deeply moving family story of happiness and heartbreak, Behind the Scenes at the Museum is best-selling author Kate Atkinson's award-winning literary debut.

National Best seller

Winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year

Ruby Lennox begins narrating her life at the moment of conception, and from there takes us on a whirlwind tour of the 20th century as seen through the eyes of an English girl determined to learn about her family and its secrets.

Kate Atkinson's first novel is "a multigenerational tale of a spectacularly dysfunctional Yorkshire family and one of the funniest works of fiction to come out of Britain in years" (The New York Times Book Review).

©1995 Kate Atkinson (P)2018 Tantor

A bit choppy

This novel darts around in time which makes for considerable confusion in remembering which family members belong to whom. I loved the reflective prose and even got to appreciate the reader’s accent after a while. As with many novels the last chapter was a hurried tying up of loose ends which detracted from the overall novel’s pace.

smart and funny

Quirky, smart and funny. I really enjoyed the story and it's characters were interesting. the narration was fantastic also.

memorable wedding and world cup collision

Reading of this section of the book was hysterical....I wasn't quite vested in the story or series of story lines, but some of the reading moments...this one in particular...were very well executed.

Just fabulous

Kate Atkinson is a miracle. Her use of language is second to none. The narration is perfect too.

Surprisingly Good

Despite a lot of tragedy and. numerous unlikable characters, story is surprisingly humorous. Narrator excellent.

Enchanting

I loved this tale of a dysfunctional family from North Yorkshire…at times laugh aloud funny and at other times heartbreakingly sad. The performance by the narrator was superb. An astonishing achievement as a first novel by Kate Atkinson, who is now one of my favorite authors.

Rambling story. Hard to keep the characters straight.

The people in the book lived very depressing lives, and had very negative world outlooks. (Except for the ones who ran away. …..and even then not all of the runners were happy with their decisions). I only kept listening to the book because of a few interesting twists and turns in the story, like the escape of the parrot, the pet store fire, and the fun vacation with Auntie Doreen.

Masterpiece

This is a multigenerational masterpiece of storytelling and narration with a fantastic POV. Must read if you love your family, dead and alive.

Lack of a plot?

This novel was way off the track for me. I know there are plenty of readers who enjoy this author’s work, I am not one of them. The narrator’s voice irritated me perhaps causing at least in part my dislike. Just wasn’t for me.

Easily one of the best I’ve wcer read

Atkinson always delights, and this is no different. Just a wonderful family story about love, relationships and how we develop them.