A Month in the Country cover art

A Month in the Country

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

A Month in the Country

By: J L Carr
Narrated by: Alex Jennings
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £8.99

Buy Now for £8.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

'One of the best books I've ever read' Richard Osman


A damaged survivor of the First World War, Tom Birkin finds refuge in the quiet village church of Oxgodby where he is to spend the summer uncovering a huge medieval wall-painting. Immersed in the peace and beauty of the countryside and the unchanging rhythms of village life he experiences a sense of renewal and belief in the future. Now an old man, Birkin looks back on the idyllic summer of 1920, remembering a vanished place of blissful calm, untouched by change, a precious moment he has carried with him through the disappointments of the years.

Adapted into a film starring Colin Firth, Natasha Richardson and Kenneth Branagh, A Month in the Country traces the slow revival of the primeval rhythms of life so cruelly disorientated by the Great War.


'Tender and elegant' Guardian

'Unlike anything else in modern English literature'
Spectator

©2024 J L Carr (P)2024 Penguin Audio
Classics Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Village
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

J.L. Carr: A Month in the Country and The Harpole Report cover art
That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz cover art
The Guide to James Joyce's Ulysses cover art
The Go-Between cover art
The Children's Bach cover art
Trelawny’s Cornwall cover art
The Apple cover art
Nature’s Ghosts cover art
Our Spoons Came from Woolworths cover art
Storm Pegs cover art
Someone at a Distance cover art
How the World Ran Out of Everything cover art
Till We Have Faces cover art
The Best of Jeeves and Wooster cover art
The Prestige cover art

What listeners say about A Month in the Country

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    40
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    37
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    36
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Art & archaeology colide

Beautifully written with beautifully drawn characters. Best read in the month of August, same month as when the story unfolds.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A wonderful atmospheric story read superbly.

This must rank as one of my all time favourite audiobooks. A superb telling of a young man recovering in the Yorkshire countryside after the horrors of WW1. Alex Jennings is the perfect narrator of this lovely gentle story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Style and substance

I listened prior to reading the book for both my Dr Zhivago literature course and a creative writing one. Alex Jennings is a great narrator and sets the right tone plus the voices are just perfect. An excellent example of how to write a novella.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Tremendously well written

Thoroughly enjoyed this. Far more than I think I expected to. Wholeheartedly recommended. Worth every minute.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful story

Quietly heart breaking in places and beautifully narrated too. Great sense of character and reflection

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Melancholy story of longing set in 1920s rural England

Some beautiful prose evoking peaceful rural life in Yorkshire (?) and the slow uncovering of some medieval art…that together heals a former soldier suffering from WWI. More could’ve been made of the love story I thought. Excellent narration. Just all so sad.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful

Really enjoyable listen. Beautifully poetic and wonderfully read. A gentle story about nostalgia and regret for moments of inaction in a long, lost summer. Great…

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful

A beautiful meditation on lost love and the after effects of war, superbly read. A classic.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Pure escapism

Catapulted into an idyllic English summer after the great war. A simple story that unreeled so much more in its quiet telling. Sensitive narration by an excellent Alex Jennings. This, for me, was the perfect book, a classic, a favourite.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful description

So beautifully described, I felt I was actually there, and I felt all the emotions.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!