The Judas Tree

By: A. J. Cronin

Narrated by: Stephen Jack

Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's Summary

David Moray, a Scottish doctor living in retirement in Switzerland, is haunted by the memory of a woman he once loved but wronged. He returns home to find her, but she has died. Instead, he meets her daughter, Kathy, and their friendship evolves into something more. Not believing he can have a life with Kathy, however, David decides to marry another woman, a countess. The betrayal has terrible consequences.

First published in 1961, this novel is a morality tale of a brilliant man who destroys every beautiful woman he touches.

©1961 AJ Cronin (P)2010 RNIB

Snobbery, Weakness, Betrayal

Cronin's style is terse. His "hero" has survived a poor childhood, an immense struggle to become a doctor, arriving at an early retirement extremely wealthy, with a lifestyle replete with the finest tastes in art and culture. He is nevertheless massively insecure, constantly requiring the approval of those around him, and can be easily swayed as a result, so that not once but twice betrays those dearest to him. He is one of those with good intentions but is ultimately very destructive. Since David Moray is telling the story, we accept his rationalizations until almost the end. I found the book riveting. This is not a book I had been acquainted with before; but I have since gone on something of a Cronin binge because of it.

The narrator is excellent; really brings the story to life. Highly recommended.

Really odd narration

This was an odd read, and the man doing the audio has alot of backround noise and he weezes and coughs thru the reading. The story was so so and the main character was not any one I'd want to know..

Narrator bad

Big bro legit coughs and swallows while narrating and tbh I imagined the voices sounding different for the girls. The book is amazing my first from Aj Cronin and so beautiful I wish it was a movie I’d definitely use Leonardo DiCaprio as Murray. Narrator calls Murray Marry so ridiculous

A classic ruined by the narration

The Judas Tree is one of Cronin's best novels for me. It is not my intention here to review the novel itself, but to express my dismay at a fumbling narration. So irritating it is that one almost waits for the next stutter and inevitably it comes with unnerving regularity.

Second Take (Some days later)

I have abandoned the book. The performance is just so bad an irritating that I decided to quit it. I wonder if Audible will give me a refund.