The Echo Chamber

By: John Boyne

Narrated by: Richard E. Grant

Brought to you by Penguin.

What a thing of wonder a mobile phone is. Six ounces of metal, glass and plastic, fashioned into a sleek, shiny, precious object. At once, a gateway to other worlds - and a treacherous weapon in the hands of the unwary, the unwitting, the inept.

The Cleverley family live a gilded life, little realising how precarious their privilege is, just one tweet away from disaster. George, the patriarch, is a stalwart of television interviewing, a 'national treasure' (his words); his wife, Beverley, a celebrated novelist (although not as celebrated as she would like); and their children, Nelson, Elizabeth, Achilles, various degrees of catastrophe waiting to happen.

Together they will go on a journey of discovery through the Hogarthian jungle of the modern living where past presumptions count for nothing and carefully curated reputations can be destroyed in an instant. Along the way, they will learn how volatile, how outraged, how unforgiving the world can be when you step from the proscribed path.

Powered by John Boyne's characteristic humour and razor-sharp observation, The Echo Chamber is a satiric helter skelter, a dizzying downward spiral of action and consequence, poised somewhere between farce, absurdity and oblivion. To err is maybe to be human but to really foul things up you only need a phone.

©2021 John Boyne (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Brilliant! On point! Wow!

I love all John Boyne’s book, but this exceeds my expectations of him. It’s the first good book I’ve heard that is post pandemic. It addresses what it really means to be woke in a hilarious fashion. Bravo John Boyne! You did it again!

Wonderful

Some books have to be narrated and this is one of them. Richard E. Grant is marvellous in this extremely clever, witty book!
There are many laugh out loud moments in this
satirical look at the society we live in today! Very well done!

Laugh out loud funny

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was very funny and entertaining. I love the author’s other books. This one wasn’t terribly serious but had a strong message about social media.

A brilliantly funny and wonderfully observed book!

What a great book! I laughed out loud so many times and what was so interesting was that what was often funny was the absolute truth of the crazy situation we are in! Really brilliant - and fantastically read by the wonderful REG. it is also pretty funny to see all the negative reviews here as they are EXACTLY the type of bigoted people being portrayed in the book! Loved it! He is a wonderful author - both profoundly touching and insightful and also incredibly humorous.

Outrageous, pithy and redemptive tale

The characters were outrageous and I disliked them ALL. But in the end, it came through vividly as a cautionary tale for our "platformed lives" and the characters were mercifully each given a second chance that each was making the best of.