The Heart Broke In

By: James Meek

Narrated by: John Lee

Would you betray your lover to give them what they wanted? Bec Shepherd is a malaria researcher struggling to lead a good life. Ritchie, her reprobate brother, is a rock star turned TV producer. When Bec refuses an offer of marriage from a powerful newspaper editor and Ritchie's indiscretions catch up with him, brother and sister are forced to choose between loyalty and betrayal.

The Heart Broke In is an old-fashioned story of modern times, a rich, ambitious family drama of love, death and money in the era of gene therapy and internet blackmail.

©2012 James Meek (P)2012 Canongate Books Ltd

7 hours of my life I could have spent better

What disappointed you about The Heart Broke In?

The main character is just so unpleasant that I didn't want to spend any more time with him.
I skipped to the end and to not much surprise found a pointless ending.

What about John Lee’s performance did you like?

The highlight of the audiobook. What a great job of telling the story and keeping the characters separate.

What character would you cut from The Heart Broke In?

The main character - Richie

A great "Modern British Novel"

A big family saga with a number of difficult themes, mostly revolving around love, family bonds and, above all, betrayal. Set in 2012 London (with a few excursions to Tanzania, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Hampshire, Dorset, etc), this is a great Modern British Novel if such a "genre" exists. Complex and interestingly flawed characters who often make terrible decisions and act out of selfishness disguised as goodness of their hearts in combination with a decent plot made this a truly enjoyable novel for me.

John Lee, who narrates the audio book, is absolutely outstanding. This was the first book read by him that I've listened to, and I can now appreciate why he is so acclaimed. His vast array of authentic sounding accents is impressive, my only complaint is that he often changes his voice when he reads women and sounds a bit like a demented transvestite, but that is a personal observation, I am sure others don't perceive it that way.

I'm definitely keen to read something else by James Meek - he ticks many boxes for me in terms of his writing.