The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

By: Claire North

Narrated by: Peter Kenny

Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

Harry August is on his deathbed. Again. No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes. Until now. As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside.

'I nearly missed you, Doctor August,' she says. 'I need to send a message.' This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow.

©2014 Claire North (P)2014 Hachette Audio UK

Critic reviews

"An astonishing re-invention of the time-travel narrative. Bold, magical and masterful" (M. R. Carey, author of The Girl With All the Gifts)"A thoughtful and considered time-travel novel, shocking twists and, most important of all, a beautiful character. Harry August will break your heart fifteen times" (Jared Shurin, Pornokitsch Blog)

This wonderful novel, narrated by Harry, ranges back and forth in time as he recounts episodes from his various lives, but it's all held together by a compelling mystery involving nothing less than the end of the world itself . . . Beautifully written and structured, the book should be a big hit . . . Fans of SF and fantasy authors China Mieville, Christopher Priest, and Adam Roberts might note a stylistic similarity, especially in the novel's elegant prose. Whoever Claire North turns out to be, he or she has written a remarkable book" (Booklist)

"Gripping" ( Sun)
"A truly extraordinary novel: an impeccable portrait of a friendship tortured by time in which masterful character and fantastic narrative come together to tremendous effect" ( TOR.COM)
"A brave, genre-defying novel, which is mind-blowing in its originality and bold concept . . . Stunning!" ( NOVELICIOUS)
"Part unique and intriguing mystery, part philosophical look at life, memory and time travel this story kept me totally gripped from the opening words to the mind-blowing finale" ( BITE THE BOOK)
" The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is an extraordinary novel, as the publicity has promised" ( The Speculative Scotsman)

Fantastic book.

One of the best books I have read in a while, that is not a fourteen book saga.

If you like mind-stretching stories, this is for u

I was looking for a book about time-travel and mind-stretching ideas.
This book starts of with a man quickly recapping hundreds of years.
As if giving someone a quick overview about multiple large events without going into any detail.
After 10 minutes I started to worry that the entire book would be like this but it got much better after that.

It got me captivated troughout the entire story.
I set the reading speed to 0.85 % which I like much more.

Strangely I found myself rooting for the antagonist.
Also, along the story I had quite some questions on problems with this kind of 'time-travel'. Many questions/problem that the writer doesn't address into in detail. The good side about this is that it kept me wondering even when I was not listening to this book.

Great concept and story with a weak ending

I love the concept, the story and the book as a whole. I do feel like the author failed to tie it all together towards the end, but all in all it's a great book. Would love to see a sequel, but I have no idea how it would play out.

Historical Science Fiction and a Great Story

With an Audible credit to spare and an ever-increasing wish list, I figured it was time to dive deep into said list and see what I'd put on there and never got around to grabbing. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, written by Claire North, I'd put on ages ago and since forgotten about. I have read the book a number of times on my Kindle, so I knew I liked it, and since it'd been so long that I'd pretty much forgotten everything save for the barebones general plot, I dropped the credit and plugged in.

First off, this book was as good as I remembered. The general premise is that there are certain people in society that, when they die, return to the moment of their birth with their memories intact. From there, they can live their life over again or do things differently. Harry August, the protagonist, is born in England during the 1920s. Harry tells us the story of many of his lives, sometimes out of order - skipping ahead and then back - all while weaving the narrative of something greater at play.

The world, Harry has been told, is ending. How does he know? Others like him have passed the message back through time. One of Harry's oldest friends looks to be the cause of the world coming to a premature end.

Like all time-travel stories, there is a degree of belief you must leave suspended going in. That aside, though, what author Claire North has written is a cracker of a story spanning multiple generations of the 20th century, revisiting time and again (Groundhog Day-style but way, way better... no shade on Bill Murray).

Narration by Peter Kenny was good. Not stellar, but a decent job with keeping the voices distinct and the pacing on point. Quality was a bit of a letdown. Published less than eight years ago, I'd expect better, especially from a major publishing house like Hachette. Audio quality has been decent for a few decades now, so the quality seemed a bit cheap, all things considered.

Overall, an excellent story well told. Certainly, one I'll revisit again (déjà vu!) as I have enjoyed it a number of times already in other forms.

Great story!

Great time twister! A good story ends with you wanting more and this is one of them!

awesome 👍

such a cool take on time travel!
I really enjoyed the sorry and the narrator did an awesome job!

Amazing story, unparalleled performance

This has been one of the best audio books I have ever listened to. For such a story, it's easy to fall into this trap of over complicating everything to look smart and sophisticate, but instead the author spends the time on creating characters you'll grown to love, hate, or love and hate at the same time.
And the performance... I don't even know how did he did it! Each character has a unique tone and voice. He really puts you right in the middle of the scene. Great job! I am impressed.

Fascinating and surprisingly fresh

Where does The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The book was my first audiobook ever, and I loved the experience. Peter Kenny was fantastic, with his voice and accents, and all the heart he poured into this. Looking forward to hear more of him.

What other book might you compare The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August to and why?

I can't recall books similar to this one. It was something like Groundhog Day meets Edge of Tomorrow, but way more epic and sophisticated. It is deeply rooted in the reality, spanning across decades and intertwined with the most interesting periods and event in the history of the world as we know it, but also giving us a glimpse at the world that could have been but wasn't. Or won't be.

Have you listened to any of Peter Kenny’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No I haven't, but I definitely will.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I cringed upon hearing the detailed descriptions of substance abuse and physical harm. It was as if my body was experiencing it by itself. Very well written, believable, and combined with the narration it was really morbidly fascinating.

Any additional comments?

I loved the language of Harry August - quintessentially British, with carefully crafted sentences, grammatically perfect and beautiful while always on point. It really felt the way someone extremely intelligent, and centuries old, would sound like.

original

quite original concept and story and the narration is superb! hoping for more from this author

Oh my goodness!!

This was absolutely, positively amazing. The story was intricately plotted; the performance, hands down, one of the best I've ever experienced. Truly did not want it to wnd