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Title details for Bertie Plays the Blues by Alexander McCall Smith - Wait list

Bertie Plays the Blues

#7 in series

by Alexander McCall Smith
Robert Ian Mackenzie
Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
Place a hold Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
Domestic bliss seems in short supply at 44 Scotland Street. Over at the Pollocks, dad, Stuart, is harbouring a secret about a secret society and Bertie is feeling kind of blue. Having had enough of his neurotic hot-housing mother, he puts himself up for adoption on eBay. Will he go to the highest bidder or will he have to take matters into his own hands? Will the lovelorn Big Lou find true love on the internet? And will Angus Lordie and Domenica make it up the aisle? Catch up with all your favourite faces down in 44 Scotland Street as we follow their daily pursuit of a little happiness.

  • Creators

  • Series

    44 Scotland Street

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 8, 2013

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781470340537
      • File size: 304599 KB
      • Duration: 10:34:34

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      If you haven't listened to Alexander McCall Smith's wonderfully amusing collection about the neighbors at 44 Scotland Street, you'll want to get to know them before starting this seventh book in the series. Narrator Robert Ian Mackenzie's performance is wise, witty, and usually tongue-in-cheek as he recounts the tribulations of Matthew and Elspeth, new parents of triplets; the realizations of engaged couple Angus and Domenica; and Big Lou's latest romantic entanglement with an Elvis impersonator. Mackenzie is completely convincing when precocious 7-year-old Bertie puts himself up for adoption on eBay, and he's believable without using cloying children's voices for Bertie's school chums, Tofu, Ranald, and Olive. Even Cyril the dog is credible. Mackenzie makes McCall Smith's humorous stories delightful listening. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from October 7, 2013
      Bestseller Smith's seventh 44 Scotland Street novel (after 2012's The Importance of Being Seven) provides another genial, witty glimpse into the life and times of the denizens of an Edinburgh neighborhood. Seven-year-old Bertie Pollock gets top billing in the title, but all the usual characters figure in the book's many subplots, including Bertie's parents, Irene and Stuart; schoolmates Ranald and Olive; Elspeth Harmony, her husband, Matthew, and their newborn triplets; Domenica Macdonald (now affianced to Angus Lordie); and the proprietress of the local cafe, Big Lou. How will Elspeth and Matthew cope with triplets? Where will Domenica and Angus live? Can Big Lou find happiness through online dating? And on the farcical side, can Bertie orphan himself by auctioning off his parents on eBay? Smith writes soap operas, but for a thoughtful, literate audience interested in the inherent conflict between the moral virtue of civility and the personal desire for happiness. As Angus puts it, there are people who "led the examined lifeâwho questioned themselves, who weighed up what to do, who developed and nurtured the self." They are philosophical but always human, and Smith's great gift is to renderâand reconcileâthat contradiction. Agent: Robin Straus, Robin Straus Agency.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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