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A Life Discarded: 148 Diaries Found in a Skip
- Narrated by: Alexander Masters
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
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A Life Discarded: 148 Diaries Found in a Skip
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Publisher's summary
Unique, transgressive and as funny as its subject, A Life Discarded has all the suspense of a murder mystery. Written with his characteristic warmth, respect and humour, Masters asks you to join him in celebrating an unknown and important life left on the scrap heap.
A Life Discarded is a biographical detective story. In 2001, 148 tattered and mould-covered notebooks were discovered lying among broken bricks in a skip on a building site in Cambridge. Tens of thousands of pages were filled to the edges with urgent handwriting. They were a small part of an intimate, anonymous diary, starting in 1952 and ending half a century later, a few weeks before the books were thrown out. Over five years, the award-winning biographer Alexander Masters uncovers the identity and real history of their author, with an astounding final revelation.
A Life Discarded is a true, shocking, poignant, often hilarious story of an ordinary life. The author of the diaries, known only as ‘I’, is the tragicomic patron saint of everyone who feels their life should have been more successful. Part thrilling detective story, part love story, part social history, A Life Discarded is also an account of two writers’ obsessions: of ‘I’s need to record every second of life and of Masters’ pursuit of this mysterious yet universal diarist.
Editorial reviews
"I feel so strongly about this strange, funny, sad book that I hardly know where to begin. My enthusiasm feels almost limitless." (Observer)
"Funny and original, a startling book. By the end I was doubled up in tears, but throughout I was often doubled up with laughter. It is dazzling." (Vogue)
"Astonishingly good...a glorious book: funny, surprising and completely sui generis." (Sunday Times)
"Wholly original...a wonderful book which shows you don't have to be 'normal' to be happy." (Daily Mail)
"Captivating...Masters has managed to convey something of the beauty and mystery not just of mathematics but of the human spirit." (Sunday Telegraph)
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What listeners say about A Life Discarded: 148 Diaries Found in a Skip
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Flavia
- 07-07-18
like it very much
very reflexive. bitter sweet. it's very nice the way the author builds a character that is an author depicting somebody ordinary who really (in the story) exists - making a biography. the reflexiveness of it all is what makes it worth it. there is also a story within a story here. the story of tha author-character research, its novelties and surprises, and the story of his subject. The meta-story of a meta-author and the story of someone real that is a work of fiction . and the story of his subject is a story of any of his readers, any of us who have a life lived in pursuit of something that never comes to fruition (at least, never completely). playing with reality and fiction, with failure and happiness the author builds a story to think about. a marvelous story of nothing remarkable at all...
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