Narrated by Dan Calley
I’ve enjoyed the handful of books I’ve read and listened to by Garrett Leigh, who one of those authors I keep promising myself I’m going to read/listen to more of. Her latest novel, The Edge of the World, is a beautifully written slow-burn romance between two flawed but likeable characters who are drawn together when one of them embarks upon a journey into his past while the other is trying desperately to forget something of his.
Shay Maloney and his pirate/folk-rock band Smuggler’s Beat have begun to make a name for themselves and when the book opens, are playing to packed houses and large crowds on their UK tour. Shay has always known he was adopted as a toddler, and before the tour began was asked by the band’s manager to take part in a kind of Who Do You Think You Are? genealogy-tracing documentary being made for the Sky Arts channel. At a low ebb following the death of his mother, Shay agreed and then promptly forgot about it, so when he’s told that filmmaker and researcher Ollie Pietruska will be joining the band on the last leg of the tour, he’s not sure what to think – especially when he discovers he had mistakenly expected the documentary to be about his adoptive family and not the actual family he knows nothing about.
Ollie was a rising star in the world of documentary film-making until he disappeared off the map a few years earlier. He’s quiet and guarded, not wanting to let anyone past his emotional walls, and it’s clear right away that there’s some sort of trauma in his past that has caused him to react that way.
There’s a spark between Shay and Ollie from the moment they meet, and I liked them from the get-go. Shay is a very talented musician and songwriter with a stage presence that shines like a beacon, but despite his growing fame, he’s pretty laid-back and down-to-earth; it’s all about the music for him – always has been, always will be – and his growing interest and enthusiasm as Ollie patiently introduces him to a past he never knew he had is incredibly touching. Ollie is harder to know and a little prickly at times; he’s as smitten with Shay as Shay with him, but his insecurities keep holding him back and telling him he needs to keep Shay at arm’s length. He’s a bit blow-hot-blow-cold, which isn’t something that works for me, but it’s easy to see he does genuinely care for Shay (especially in how he learns how to help Shay monitor his diabetes), and the angstier moments when Ollie tries to back off are nicely balanced with moments of tenderness and obvious affection.
Being something of a history nerd, I really liked the genealogy aspect of the story, and as a musician, I loved that one of the first things Ollie shows Shay about this past is that his musical talent may have been passed down through the generations of his biological family. I liked that the author chose to have Ollie go back into Shay’s distant past first of all, and then gradually bring things up to date; I found it as fascinating as I would if I’d been watching an actual programme of this sort about a real person! She also captures the atmosphere of a music tour; the cramped conditions on the bus, the often gruelling schedule, the energy of live performance and something of the tremendous spark of creativity that Shay possesses; there’s a wonderful scene where he starts improvising on a melody he doesn’t at first realise is one of the folk songs Ollie introduced him to and the rest of the band joins in for a magical jam session.
[As an aside, I was tickled when Ollie takes Shay to meet his grandparents in Walthamstow (North East London), which is where I grew up – and having the debate about Walthamstow vs. Waltham Forest, which anyone who has lived there will totally understand!]I felt the connection between Shay and Ollie developed a bit quickly to start with, but apart from that, it’s well done, growing with every conversation as Shay discovers his past while Ollie has to choose to learn to live with his. The parallels are strongly drawn; Shay has a chronic illness with obvious symptoms when things go wrong while Ollie’s damage is (mostly) on the inside – and both men need to learn to accept help when they need it. But the last few chapters felt rushed, and there’s an odd moment where Ollie shows his mother a photo of Shay; to say more would be a spoiler, but I wondered how she could see what we’re later supposed to believe she’s seen!
Dan Calley is a new-to-me narrator, and I was pleased to be able to grab the opportunity to listen to him. I found his delivery a bit flat in places, although it’s generally fairly naturalistic in both narrative and dialogue. His performance is well-paced, his female voices are good and all the characters are clearly differentiated and easy to tell apart. He portrays the two leads well, adopting a slightly deeper pitch for Shay, and making Ollie softly spoken and sometimes a bit hesitant; the rapport and emotional connection between them is clearly conveyed.
But I was confused over the fact that he gives Shay an Irish accent, when the text clearly states that although that’s what Ollie had been expecting, he doesn’t have one, describing the “melodic lilt of Maloney’s Derbyshire accent” (Shay’s adoptive parents are Irish, but live in Derby). And Ollie is supposed to have “…a London accent fused with something Shay couldn’t quite put his finger on.” (Ollie is Polish but has lived in England since he was ten), but all I heard was the London/Estuary accent with no traces of anything else. Mr. Calley is at least consistent in both, so it wasn’t as though I heard an accent one minute which later disappeared, and his choices didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the audiobook overall – but giving Shay the wrong accent is a mistake I can’t ignore and is surely something that should have been discussed in pre-production.
The Edge of the World is a fairly short listen (under six hours) but I enjoyed it and would recommend it – with a few reservations – to anyone looking for a gently moving, slow burn romance that doesn’t overdo the angst or drama.
Caz
Buy The Edge of the World by Garrett Leigh on Amazon
