A triumph of a book

A story of loss, grief, love and letting go. The author is a master wordsmith. Heartbreaking and uplifting. A must read.

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1 person found this helpful

Interesting story with poor production

What did you like best about A Thousand Paper Birds? What did you like least?

The raw grief felt by Jonah is expertly explored and really draws the reader in at the start.
I did find the story of Mille slightly clumsy and it detracted from the overall narative.

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Gavin Osborn?

My main issue with this audobook is the non-existant quality control on the narration. Gavin Osborn does an ok job but his accents are poorly realised and very niave.

One thing that annoyed me was that there is no pause between the end of a section - the chapters appear to be broken into sections or sub-chapters. So The narrator completes the end of a thought provoking or sensetive section and without pausing for breath launches into a whole new sub-chapter.

Also at one point the narrator mistakenly says "minute" as in small rather than "minute" as in 60 seconds, and there is a word which appears to have been changed but rather than replacing the existing word, both words are spoken at the same time. Clearly the person doing quality control on this audiobook did not actually listen to it all the way through which is inexcusable really.

Was A Thousand Paper Birds worth the listening time?

It is just about worth the listening time - I think it would work better as a reading book rather than an audio book.

Any additional comments?

This audiobook costs a decent a=moutn of money and the producers should respect that and take the time and effort to produce something of the quality expected by the purchaser

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2 people found this helpful

Loss and grief folded in love and mystery

Music teacher Jonah is stricken with a debilitating sense of loss after the death in a car crash which seems to have been suicide of his beloved wife Audrey, who was herself mired in grief following miscarriages. It sounds depressing, but Jonah’s aching ‘corrosiveness of absence’ is created with such sharp insight and in such delicate poetic language that it is almost uplifting as he struggles to re-join the everyday world, wishing that he had recorded Audrey’s breathing just so that he could hear it again.

Kew Gardens, loved by all the characters, with its carefully nurtured trees and green promise of regeneration forms the backdrop to their intricately interwoven lives. The main human focus is the poignant love relationships between Jonah and his wife, and between widowed Jonah and Chloe, the origami artist who has the power to heal him. This is so brilliantly created that for me it would have been enough and the magic realism element of the other eventually connected characters didn’t enhance it.

The origami-like folding and re-folding of the narratives is complex and clever but at times clogged and confused. Perhaps that is because audio may not be the best medium for this particular book, even though the narrator is impressively in tune throughout. If I had been reading rather than listening I’d have re-read a striking sentence or phrase to fully appreciate its words, emotion or cadence, or a section of magic realism to pick up more clues.
This is Tor Udall’s first novel (not her first non-fiction work) and a great deal of intelligent ideas, observation and tenderness had gone into the complexities of its writing.

It deserves to be listened to – and read.

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Mesmerising… a beautiful listen

A little slow to start but couldn’t put it down once the momentum took hold. A calming book of love and hope. I could smell the trees and see Kew so clearly.

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Slow starter , but well worth the effort

As each character ‘a story develops ,showing where they touched each other I found myself more engaged , a beautifully written story of loss and our impact on those we encounter.

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A very well written & thought provoking book

The author has cleverly explored the issue of loss and adjustment by 5 key characters in this book, each with their own reasons for grieving. Set against the backdrop of Kew Gardens, there are many references to the garden and the attractions within it. I’ve never been to Kew but after reading this, the descriptive passages have inspired me to make the trip. I didn’t find any poor quality sound issues and thought Gavin did a great job at narration giving the words empathy, sorrow, anger and everything in between drawing you deeper into the story. I found it an enthralling read and hard to put down. A very thought provoking end. However, anyone still coping with a bereavement, loss of a child or miscarriage may find this a difficult read as it explores many angles of loss which may be upsetting. Otherwise, I would definitely recommend this as a good read and look forward to listening to more from this author.

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