Milkman

By: Anna Burns

Narrated by: Bríd Brennan

Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2018

Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2019

In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman.

But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes 'interesting'. The last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed and to be noticed is dangerous.

Milkman is a tale of gossip and hearsay, silence and deliberate deafness. It is the story of inaction with enormous consequences.

©2018 Anna Burns (P)2018 Faber Audio

Bloody amazing!!

Such a great book- listen to it now!! Best book I’ve read in such a long time

Beyond the Pale

What a great start to Booker season!  I loved this book.  I thought the writing clever and the story engrossing.  It's an unnamed time and an unnamed place (actually Northern Ireland during the "troubles") with unnamed characters.  

Through the voice of our narrator ("middle sister" and "maybe girlfriend" and "friend") we explore issues of the time including: politics; feminism; family; individuality, conformity and love.   What it's like to group up in a place where everybody knows you and if you stick out even a little bit, to assume the worst about you.

There's a psychological  element as well, which added a layer of suspense to the whole story which I thought was done extremely well. 

I listened to the audio which only added to my enjoyment.  The narrator was perfect and the parts of the writing which would have been outstanding in the reading of them were really enhanced. 

A top 2018 read for me.   

Marvelous

Book itself astounding and clever. I am very familiar with Irish history so viewed the story through the intended lens, however, it is easily perceived as a universal story even if you don’t know the name of the “country across the water” or “over the border.” The non use of proper names is not at all confusing and I rather don’t understand why this book has a difficult reputation. Narration was perfect. Accent authentic with the correct blend of Irish and near Scottish indicative of Northern Irish. (As opposed to English narrator to Sebastian Barry book - just so WRONG!) embark upon this journey today! Book underestimated even. And Booker prize wildly biased typically against Irish authors so know this novel met an even higher standard than other winners. Enjoy. I envy you experiencing it for the first time.

Exquisitely narrated!

The narration is so good on this wild story that it makes it worth reading.
I struggled thru the first half of this book, confused by the circumstances and what seemed like to much character development without enough context development. By the last hour, it all came together beautifully and I loved the story. But I admit that I might not have gotten that far without the brilliant work of the narrator.

4.40 stars......different

Finally, something a bit different. Anna Burns' manages to do something different in an age when everything has already been done. It's nothing drastic, but Milkman really is a good book. I had my doubts at first, but I hung in there due to one of the best performances I've ever heard. Brid Brennan is a goddess when it comes to narration.

As I make my way through the Booker longlist, Milkman is my pick as of now. Sadly, I predict many people will give up on it too soon, as not a lot happens immediately. I also enjoyed The Mars Room and Snap. Warlight is my least favorite of the four contenders I've listened to. While I'm not sure if Milkman is the best written story of this bunch, it's the best audiobook. If there's a better one on the list, I'll be glad to hear it.

Overall rating: 4.40 stars

Incredible Literary Experience!

This is my first Audible review even though I am one of the very early users of Audible and have listened to about 100 titles so far. I am making this exception because the combination of an incredible book with an incredible narrator makes the experience of listening to Milkman truly unique and wonderful. For a person not familiar with the Northern Irish accent, listening to Brid Brennan was like listening to a foreign language, only I was delighted to find that I could understand everything (with some imagination). And what a wonderful sense of humor has Anna Burns!! I keep telling people that Ms. Burns is a shining example of the fact that no matter how depressing the story you are telling, humor goes such a very very long way!! Thank you Ms. Burns, thank you Ms. Brennan, and thank you Audible!! Shalom, Teddy Weinberger

Incredible! Must listen!

This is an amazing novel with a perfect narrator and a compelling story in a unique voice. Listen now.

Magnificent

Unforgettable and unique. A tour de force. This is such a deserving winner of the Man Booker.

Extraordinary

If this were the Oscars, Anna Burns would win for Best Story and Bríd Brennan for Best Performance: Really just extraordinary.

Best #Metoo themed yet

This is a convincing and compelling exploration of the many ways in which women (and men) can be subtly trapped in invisible tyrannies. Unlike other more pretentious works (esp recent dystopian #metoo works) Milkman does this in a grounded way without resorting to gimmicks. Anna Burns’ voice is unique and the reading in the vernacular is fantastic.