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The Blue Afternoon (Paperback)

by William Boyd (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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The Blue Afternoon + An Ice-Cream War + A Good Man in Africa
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  • This item: The Blue Afternoon by William Boyd

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Product details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin; New Ed edition (27 Oct 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140238255
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140238259
  • Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 11 x 2.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 10,173 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #9 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > B > Boyd, William

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Product Description

Product Description

Winner of the 1993 Sunday Express Book of the Year Award Los Angeles 1936. Kay Fischer, a young, ambitious architect, is shadowed by Salvador Carriscant, an enigmatic stranger claiming to be her father. Within weeks of their first meeting, Kay will join him for an extraordinary journey into the old man's past, initially in search of a murderer, but finally in celebration of a glorious, undying love.


About the Author

William Boyd was born in Ghana in 1952. He was brought up there and in Nigeria. He was educated at the universities of Nice, Glasgow and Oxford. He is the author of a number of acclaimed and hugely popular novels and three volumes of short stories, and the recipient of many prizes, including the Whitbread First Novel Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award. He is married and lives in London
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The Blue Afternoon
58% buy the item featured on this page:
The Blue Afternoon 3.8 out of 5 stars (16)
£6.96
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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (6)
3 star:
 (5)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Vivid, 10 Jun 2003
By Tom Douglas "Tom" (Oxford, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
Deeply touching

In the Blue Afternoon, William Boyd paints a vivid picture of the Philippines in the early part of the 20th century. And within that picture is a touching love story.

So emersed was I in the Philippines, that when the story 'returned' to 1930's Los Angeles it was like emerging into daylight from a darkened room. It takes some minutes of blinking to reorientate.

There are debates about the storylines and the need for the beginning and end, but none of it bothered me. This is simply a very good story, written about a distant place and time with impossible clarity.

William Boyd is an extremely talented author, and this is as good as he has written.

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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Very good main story- don't think about the intro too much!, 20 Nov 2002
By "lexi_wades" - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
The Blue Afternoon rests on a central plot device to create an original and clever tale. I don't agree with some of the other reviwers that the subplots during the main bulk of the story- that of Pantelons flying machine and the murder investigation- are beside the point. The story focussing only on the love story would become insipid- the murders are necessary to create a dangerous atmosphere to contrast with the bliss of the lovers. The flying machine episode, although perhaps the most plodding of the subplots, acts as both an amusing vignette and minor plot device to add to the complexity of the characters relations.
The begining does suffer from disjointedness from the main story and the end doesn't tie in with the sentimentality of the love story. It seems Boyd changed his mind on what The Blue Afternoon was going to be. However I would recomend this as a good read, if one that poses a few questions on its motives.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Confusing intro, but still enjoyable, 7 April 2006
By Rachel.S (Bedford United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
I found the intro a bit plodding too, but really enjoyed the main story set in the Phillipines - very interesting and some nice subplots - doesn't matter that some small bits didn't add up or were implausible, it was basically a good story, with an unusual ending. It left you wondering what really happened, which surely is the whole point?
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable read
This is an easy read with an original plot and I enjoyed it whilst I was reading it. If you fancy an unchallenging foray into nineteenth centry Philippines (which I found very... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Alison McVey

3.0 out of 5 stars Original and quirky
Few authors could successfully create a coherent novel by combining such diverse elements as an early attempt at 'heavier-than-air' flight, a series of murders, a doomed love... Read more
Published 13 months ago by BookWorm

3.0 out of 5 stars Not his best
I like most of Boyd's books and looked forward to this one, but while readable and entertaining, it was much ado about nothing. Read more
Published 13 months ago by expatina

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book but not Boyd's best
I'm an avid reader of William Boyd's novels and short stories. I particularly love "Brazzaville Plage", "A good man in Africa" and "Ice cream war" and I consider "Any Human Heart"... Read more
Published on 19 Aug 2007 by F. X. Dessioux

4.0 out of 5 stars An absorbing read
I have just finished reading this. It is the fourth novel by William Boyd I have read and I consider it to be the best so far. Read more
Published on 20 Jun 2007 by M. Williams

5.0 out of 5 stars Really engrossing -read it
This was a great story. Well drawn characters, great sense of place, pacey plot, murder mystery and romance. Read more
Published on 27 Aug 2006 by Chris Pearson

2.0 out of 5 stars Vastly over-rated
I'm sorry to say it, but I thought this was crap. The intro is boring and Boyd does not write at all convincingly as a woman. Read more
Published on 16 Jul 2004 by M. Z. Harrison

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good main story- do not think about the intro too much!
The Blue Afternoon rests on a central plot device to create an original and clever tale. I don't agree with some of the other reviewers that the subplots during the main bulk of... Read more
Published on 29 Jan 2003 by lexi_wades

5.0 out of 5 stars An unforgettable tale of love found, lost then found again
It's quite a tall order to name a book as your favourite of all time, but this would have to be a contender for mine. Read more
Published on 13 Mar 2000

4.0 out of 5 stars brilliant central character papers over cracks
The best bits about this book are a wonderfully realised central character and a sense of time and place which is thoroughly convincing. Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2000

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