The Line of Beauty

A Novel

By: Alan Hollinghurst

Narrated by: Joe Jameson

Bloomsbury presents The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, read by Joe Jameson.

Winner of the Man Booker Prize
Named a Best Book of the Century by The New York Times Book Review
International Bestseller

From acclaimed author Alan Hollinghurst, a sweeping novel about class, sex, and money during four extraordinary years of change and tragedy.

In the summer of 1983, twenty-year-old Nick Guest moves into an attic room in the Notting Hill home of the Feddens: conservative Member of Parliament Gerald, his wealthy wife Rachel, and their two children, Toby—whom Nick had idolized at Oxford—and Catherine, who is highly critical of her family's assumptions and ambitions.

As the boom years of the eighties unfold, Nick, an innocent in the world of politics and money, finds his life altered by the rising fortunes of this glamorous family. His two vividly contrasting love affairs, one with a young black man who works as a clerk and one with a Lebanese millionaire, dramatize the dangers and rewards of his own private pursuit of beauty, a pursuit as compelling to Nick as the desire for power and riches among his friends. Richly textured, emotionally charged, disarmingly comic, this is a major work by one of our finest writers.©2014 Alan Hollinghurst (P)2024 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Started off quite well

The narrator was excellent. The story started well but the last third was a bit disappointing.

Absolutely Stunning

Delicate poetic like story that depict gay London coming of age - high society - politics and brilliant beauty in every sentence.
Loved loved loved

A towering achievement in storytelling!

I’m left in awe and envy for the alchemist of imagination and word that the author is.

Perfect Prose

I enjoyed this for its perfect prose that engaged me. It is quite beautiful. The descriptions are cinematic. The story lagged a bit but the writing propelled the novel forward. I would read this author again.

Don’t bother

After six hrs there was still no plot
It was boring I deleted it without finishing it