The Transit of Venus cover art

The Transit of Venus

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.

The Transit of Venus

By: Shirley Hazzard
Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson, Shirley Hazzard
Try for £0.00

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

Buy Now for £13.99

Buy Now for £13.99

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

First time available as an audiobook! Narrated by Juliet Stevenson and featuring archival audio of Shirley Hazzard reading from the book on the stage of the 92NYC.

"One of the great English-language novels of the twentieth century.”–The Paris Review

"Hazzard's prose is magic on the page, somehow at once surgical and symphonic . . . Read it now, so you can read it again soon."—Tad Friend, The New Yorker

The award-winning, New York Times bestselling literary masterpiece—the story of two beautiful orphan sisters whose fates are as moving and wonderful, and yet as predestined, as the transits of the planets themselves

“An almost perfect novel” (The New York Times), The Transit of Venus follows Caroline and Grace Bell as they leave Australia to begin a new life in post-war England. From Sydney to London, New York, and Stockholm, and from the 1950s to the 1980s, the two sisters experience seduction and abandonment, marriage and widowhood, love and betrayal.

Caro, gallant and adventurous, has been courted long and hopelessly by young scientist, Ted Tice. The milder Grace seeks fulfilment in an apparently happy marriage. But as the decades pass and the characters weave in and out of each other's lives, love, death, and two secrets wait in ambush for them.

In exquisite prose, Shirley Hazzard tells the story of the displacements and absurdities of modern life. The result is at once an intricately plotted Greek tragedy, a sweeping family saga, and a tantalizing love story that will transport listeners with “its plushness, patient description, [and] etherizing beauty” (Parul Sagal, The New York Times).

©1980 Shirley Hazzard (P)1980, 2024 Spiegel & Grau by Spotify Audiobooks
Family Life Literary Fiction England Tear-jerking Solar System War
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Abide with Me cover art
The Angel Tree cover art
My Brilliant Friend cover art
East Lynne cover art
The Wings of the Dove cover art
The Great Fire cover art
The Odd Women cover art
Jigsaw cover art
The Voyage Out cover art
The Never-Ending Summer cover art
The Katherine Mansfield BBC Radio Collection cover art
Chatterton Square cover art
An Imaginative Experience cover art
My Lady Ludlow cover art

What listeners say about The Transit of Venus

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

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

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

Eloquent

This is a rediscovered novel, elegantly crafted, weaving the course of Caro and Grace Bell, Australian sisters, and their move to England. There is a broad cast of significant characters and an agenda of social commentary integral to the narrative as a backdrop to their lives and relationships. I was charmed by the sisters’ interactions and their Aussie directness.
Juliet Stevenson, as usual, performs this all brilliantly.
Absolutely recommended.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!