On Chesil Beach

A couple struggles to save their marriage...before it's even really begun.
Set on the forbidding shores of an English resort, On Chesil Beach follows an unhappy wedding night in the early '60’s. Guided by author Ian McEwan’s hypnotic voice, the recording paints an intimate portrait of newlyweds Edward (a sexually inexperienced scholar) and Florence (a musician deathly afraid of sex). McEwan savors the textures of his elegant prose, and his reading exposes the careful cadences that reinforce the suspenseful story. His intentionally dignified style nearly conceals the couple’s disastrous plight — their struggle to save their marriage before it's crushed by repressive attitudes about sexuality. As the newlyweds reflect on their courtship, the book explores places where that morality unraveled during the tumultuous '60s: early rock & roll shows, nuclear bomb protests and beatnik hangouts. Despite these dark, dramatic themes, the book is a meditative listening experience. The set divides the melancholy audiobook into four sections, and I recommend listening to each part in a single burst — letting McEwan’s soothing voice spirit you away to that lonesome beach.