Troubles

J.G. Farrell

Troubles by J.G. Farrell (Downloadable audio ISBN 9781907416354) book cover

Available as Downloadable audio

Classic Irish historical novel, equal parts comic and tragic.

Set against the backdrop of growing tensions in Ireland in 1919, Troubles, written in 1970, is the first novel in J.G. Farrell’s Empire Trilogy. Troubles is set on the east coast of Ireland, largely in the Hotel Majestic, a formerly grand building that has seen better days and now generally houses more cats than guests.

The listener is taken back to July 1919, when the ‘Major’ is visiting the Majestic to reunite with his fiancee Angela, the Protestant proprietor Edward Spencer’s daughter. The lovers met in Brighton during the War and have since only corresponded long-distance. The welcome he receives is not quite what he expected. He quickly becomes sucked into the political and sociological ethos of the hotel and its inhabitants, and the story builds tantalisingly until its inevitable dramatic conclusion.

A touching, often very funny and yet ultimately rather sad story, which will capture the listener’s heart and excite their interest with its themes of Irish politics and love, played out in an unlikely and fragile sanctuary.

The reader Sean Barrett is an Irish-born actor who has enjoyed success in the theatre, on television and in film.


“It’s humorously and, above all, intelligently read by the peerless Sean Barrett. I’m so grateful to have it…if you’ve never read Farrell, you’re in for a rare treat.”
the Times

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“Melancholy, vivid and moving, this stunning work captures a vanishing age. Sean Barrett’s beautifully modulated voice enhances the brilliance of Farrell’s writing.”
the Observer


J.G. Farrell

J.G. Farrell (1935-79) is an English-born novelist of Irish descent. Troubles won the Lost Man Booker Prize in 2010, while another of his novels, The Siege of Krishnapur, won the 1973 Booker Prize.