The Riders
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Shortlisted for the 1995 Booker Prize, this is a fearless and remarkable exploration of how well we can ever really know one another.
Book Description
Fred Scully has decided to leave Australia to carve a new life for himself and his young family in Ireland. He labours alone to make their dilapidated cottage habitable, but when he arrives at the airport to pick up his wife and child, only his small daughter steps off the plane. So begins Scully’s desperate odyssey across Europe, trying to track down the wife he comes to realize he didn’t know. ‘A brilliant reflection on the instability of personality and memory, written in page-turning style’ Daily Telegraph ‘An intricate, magnificently readable novel’ Sunday Telegraph ‘Makes the senses jump. Concentrated, passionate, invigorating’ Independent
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the story of a good but simple man whose wife is supposed to join him with their 7 year old daughter in the new home which he has rebuilt in Ireland. When the dazed daughter shows up without his wife, he starts a frantic, disorganized and eventually drunken search for her all over Europe. We watch the rapid descent of the hero into a state in which his 7 year old provides the only direction and stability of his life. He is only barely believable as a character and his daughter is even less credible. The writing is rich and often elegant but contains too much material that I would have considered daring as a teenage in the 60's but now seems trite. The story does not really develop, it just ends. Perhaps some would consider this book avant-garde but I just thought it bad.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There is so much that is strange and unresolved in this book. So many questions are posed and left unanswered, that I feel I ought to hate it. In theory it is in many ways deeply unsatisfying and I don't even particularly like Scully as a character. But somehow The Riders continues to haunt me and stay with me in a way that many novels don't - i can't put my finger on what makes it work, but despite everything it does. Perhaps it is that you question why on earth Scully does what he does, and nag away at the problem, rather than just reject it as implausible. Don't read this with any expectations and you'll probably get on with it better: be prepared to be provoked and troubled. What is clear though is that Tim Winton remains a serious and challenging writer - I'm just about to read Dirt Music so very curious to see what that is like.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
And I've read it three times.
The characters are real people - imperfect, irrational, insecure.
There are no trite endings.
I loaned it to my mother while she was visiting me, and at 1pm in the morning I found her in the kitchen with the light on, tears streaming down her face - "I can't put it down, what's going to happen next.." This book tapped into my mother's worst fear, that her partner might desert her.
My favourite character is Billy, the young daughter. There are few adult books out there that describe children in such non-patronising terms. And her relationship with her father is something to aspire to.
This book is different, thought-provoking, and life-affirming. Give it a chance.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
weird but good.
I strange plot with a kind of nothing ending, but quite well written. The plot relies far to heavily on suspense - not the sign of a literary classic - reading a second time is an... Read more
Published 16 days ago by OKintheUK
the angst is the whole point of this novel
whilst it's been years since i've read the riders, i remember the confusion and the frustration. in the end, nothing was explained overtly and a resolution would have killed the... Read more
Published 14 months ago by paperbacks forever
The Riders - What now?
The Riders is possibly the most frustrating book I have ever read. Having finished it I am just left wondering what, who and why. Read more
Published 21 months ago by john1976
Spare yourself the trouble of reading this utter drivel!
Not worthy of even one star!
Despite being an avid reader, this is the first time that I have contributed a review to this site. Read more
Despite being an avid reader, this is the first time that I have contributed a review to this site. Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2010 by Helen Dalby
Disappointing
This book was a disappointment, especially having enjoyed Tim Winton's Cloudstreet hugely. The worst thing was knowing from the outset exactly what was going to happen - if you've... Read more
Published on 15 Mar 2009 by B. Seed
Reading time I'll never get back
This is one of the most pretentious, pointless novels written. It lacks any coherence of plot, and is ultimately a tedious and self indulgent piece of work. Read more
Published on 22 Aug 2008 by dawnreader
Lots of other agreement with other reviewers
I finished this book last night and felt rather cheated! Please don't read this if you don't want to know what happens, but as others have already outlined it perhaps it is already... Read more
Published on 13 Dec 2007 by LS Hamilton
Deeply irritating, ephemeral twaddle
We have a begining, a middle & an end, thank God an ending. However, the end is every bit as frustrating & unsatisfying as the rest of the story. Read more
Published on 17 July 2006 by Solo Walker
The never ending search
I felt that this book was very well written and very intriging story line. I felt that Scully's search to find his wife was so one-sided in the fact that she didn't want to be... Read more
Published on 17 July 2004
Some parallels with more recent Winton's "Dirt Music"
What "The Riders" and "Dirt music" have in common is not only the fact of having been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, but also the same narrative structure: from a settled,... Read more
Published on 6 Feb 2004
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
