Blood Kin

By: Ceridwen Dovey

Narrated by: Humphrey Bower, Edwina Wren

Length: 5 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

A president has been overthrown by a military coup in a nameless country in an unspecified era. The president's barber, chef, and portraitist are imprisoned, with many others, in a remote palace in the hills high above the city center. Before the coup, these three men worked with unquestioning loyalty, serving the president in seemingly benign jobs. Now, forced to serve the country's new leader, they begin to reconsider their role in the old regime.In simple, elegant prose Blood Kin alternates between the voices of the barber, the chef, and the portraitist. Later in the book their wives, lovers, and daughters tell their own tales. As the old order falls, so does the veil that hides the truth about these men and women's secret passions. No one, it seems, is entirely immune to the many temptations of power.Ceridwen Dovey's debut is a welcome addition to the important tradition of allegorical writing about political upheaval and personal guilt. Her clever, magnetic story will resonate with fans of J. M. Coetzee, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Gabriel García Márquez.

©2008 Ceridwen Dovey (P)2008 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

dark and not for entertainment

Intelligent story about the inevitable fact that any human being is both, victim and perpetrator, determined by circumstances only.
The male voices are done excellently, the female reader seemed a bit tired in her narration.
Still highly recommendable but definitely not an easy read / listen.