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Here We Are

Graham Swift,

Phil Davis (Narrator)

3.48 · Rating details · 1,790 ratings · 335 reviews

It is Brighton, 1959, and the theatre at the end of the pier is having its best summer season in years. Ronnie, a brilliant young magician, and Evie, his dazzling assistant, are top of the bill, drawing audiences each night. Meanwhile, Jack – Jack Robinson, as in ‘before you can say’ – is everyone’s favorite compère, a born entertainer, holding the whole show together.

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Audible Audio, Unabridged

Published April 7th 2020 by Dreamscape Media, LLC

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· 1,790 ratings · 335 reviews

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Oct 06, 2020 Dorie - Cats&Books :) rated it liked it

Shelves: currently-listening-to, 2020-netgalley-challenge

This is a review of the audiobook edition of this novel. I had a lot of problems with this book. First off I tried to read the book which was confusing and I couldn’t get into any of the characters. So this time I tried listening, unfortunately I didn’t fare any better with this version.

The narrator spoke in a monotone for most of the story, almost as if he was sitting next to me and whispering the story in my ear. That is, when he wasn’t singing popular songs from the variety act in 1959 which This is a review of the audiobook edition of this novel. I had a lot of problems with this book. First off I tried to read the book which was confusing and I couldn’t get into any of the characters. So this time I tried listening, unfortunately I didn’t fare any better with this version.

The narrator spoke in a monotone for most of the story, almost as if he was sitting next to me and whispering the story in my ear. That is, when he wasn’t singing popular songs from the variety act in 1959 which the book is about.

I am not at all familiar with the setting, Brighton pier in the UK. I definitely would have enjoyed this more if the author had described the area more and set the atmosphere before the story unfolded.

Most of the story takes place during the summer of 1959. Meet Jack Robinson, the compere of this vaudeville theater, he is the person who begins and ends the show and often performs songs himself. The duo of Ronnie the Magician and Evie, his assistant are the hit of the season. There is chemistry between these two, but also between Evie and Jack. These relationships were a bit hard to get a handle on. The story goes back and forth in time and jumps from one person to another. I found this omniscient point of view not really working for me in this book, it felt disruptive.

It wasn’t until about half way through the book that I realized that this was Evie, 50 years later, remembering that fateful summer. There is a great presentation towards the end of the novel but it wasn’t enough to make this short novel memorable.

None of the characters were completely filled out or described. I thought I could understand Ronnie the most as we do get a little bit of back story on him. He was sent away from London during the Blitz and was raised by a foster family. We do learn that Ronnie had parents who wanted him to do well in the theater but I don’t remember much at all about Evie’s life before she became the magician’s assistant. Unfortunately I couldn’t connect with any of these characters.

If someone would ask me what the book was about I would have to say “the thoughts of a magician’s assistant, thinking back on a summer that changed her life”.

I received this audiobook from the publisher through NetGalley. ...more

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Nov 23, 2020 Sean Gibson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

For some strange reason (obviously nothing to do with global pandemics, murder hornets, and deranged, dictatorial oompa loompas), I’ve spent most of this year reading escapist fiction, from immersing myself in Silver Age Spider-Man and X-Men to hanging with my old pal Pendergast to embarking on numerous fantastical adventures, most recently with the delightful White Trash Warlock.

But, I felt the incessant pull of literary fiction, an annoying itch I must periodically quell—it’s like the reading ...more

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Sep 14, 2020 Jessica | JustReadingJess rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley

Here We Are by Graham Swift is an interesting story about magicians.

Here We Are brings you into a magician and his assistant’s head. I loved hearing both sides of the story. It took me a while to get into this book. However, once I got pulled in I was invested in the story.

Phil Davis did a great job narrating. His voice really fit with the story. However, I prefer narrators with more emotion in their voices. I don’t think that would’ve been as fitting with this story. I might have preferred to r ...more

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Aug 25, 2020 Chrissie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-read, audible-uk, hf, england, contemp-novel, magic, love

Put yourself in Brighton during the summer months of 1959. All other events either lead up to or spin off from what happened that summer. There are both flashbacks and a flashforward to 2009. Three characters are focused upon—a magician, the magician’s alluring assistant and the master of ceremonies who introduces and leads the vaudeville performers entertaining Brighton’s crowds the summer of 1959. Those who have been to Brighton will be flooded by memories pervaded by the resort town’s special ...more

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Jun 21, 2020 Antoinette rated it liked it · review of another edition

3.5 Stars

A very short novel that takes us to Brighton Beach in the days of variety shows.
Graham Swift is a very poetic writer, who creates a dream like illusion in this book. We meet Eve, in the present, as she reflects back to her time as a magician’s assistant. Ronnie is our magician and Swift spends the most time on his character. We learn his back story but very little is said about Eve and Jack, the third person in this trio. I think this novel would have been stronger if we the reader kne ...more

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Sep 24, 2020 Kasa Cotugno rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, loc-europe-uk, arc, culture-uk, theme-memory, era-early-mid-20th-century

I've been a fan of Graham Swift for over 20 years. His narratives, set in the present, are heavily influenced by a pivotal moment of time in the past, and the deep introspection that ensues usually raises a mystery that is not answered until the very last. I have taken to audio format for Swift's work since his style is better served by that format. This one is one of his best. Phil Davis's delivery is impeccable, his gravelly voice conveying the regret of the present combined with the nostalgia ...more

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Oct 20, 2020 Faith rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley, audio, reviewed

This is a novella that should have been a short story. There just isn’t enough content in this love triangle. It is comprised of the all tell - no show relationships of Jack, the handsome singer/comedian/host of a variety show in Brighton, Ronnie, his army buddy who is now a magician, and Evie who is engaged to Ronnie and adds the sex appeal to his act. We learn at the beginning that Ronnie disappeared after a performance and was never seen again. Unfortunately, there is no payoff to this slight ...more

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Sep 25, 2020 Ron Charles rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novels-about-art, guys-wandering

Catching a bullet and making the Statue of Liberty disappear are awesome tricks, but the best magicians don’t need such extravagance. I learned that truth long after hanging up my cape and leaving the birthday party racket for good. Despite years of admiring David Copperfield, the only time I felt the disorienting amazement of actual magic was while talking with a street performer outside a Boston subway station. His set-up couldn’t have been more modest, but when he made a card appear under my ...more

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May 13, 2020 Krista rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020, netgalley

So there you are, Ronnie. At last. Well thanks for coming anyway. What a pity we couldn't have had a last little chat. Perhaps it wouldn't have got us very far anyway, probably not. And in any case, here's the main item for you. Here I am. Here we are. This is your mother, Agnes. And here's a fine little trick for you to perform, if you're up for it. So come on.

Here We Are is rather short and sweet, filled with many vivid settings from different, transitional, time periods. Graham Swift writ
So there you are, Ronnie. At last. Well thanks for coming anyway. What a pity we couldn't have had a last little chat. Perhaps it wouldn't have got us very far anyway, probably not. And in any case, here's the main item for you. Here I am. Here we are. This is your mother, Agnes. And here's a fine little trick for you to perform, if you're up for it. So come on.

Here We Are is rather short and sweet, filled with many vivid settings from different, transitional, time periods. Graham Swift writes lovely and interesting sentences, but while I thoroughly enjoyed the reading experience, it didn't add up to very much. Still happy to have read it.

There are no magic wands, Ronnie. There are magic wands, but there are no magic wands. Do you understand me?

Here We Are is set (primarily) in three time periods: Just before and during WWII (from the POV of Ronnie Deane, an eight-year-old boy evacuated to a country manse from his modest London home); 2008, from the POV of aged former showgirl, Evie White; and the summer of 1959 on the Brighton Pier, when Ronnie and Evie paired up as a magician and his assistant, to appear in a variety show hosted by charming song-and-dance man, Jack Robbins. Each timeline demonstrates how people transition into new selves, conflating identity with illusion – performers assuming stage names, an actor being called by his most famous TV character's name on the street, a playboy's girlfriends collectively called “Flora” because no one could be bothered to remember their actual names, a married woman wanting to keep her maiden name but forever called by her husband's – and the idea of “illusion” is made manifest by the magic taught to Ronnie by his foster father in the country (a familial situation that each side wishes could be made permanent, even if it's never discussed):

He had an audience of two, and he stood facing them, the green-topped table beside him. He knew by now that the surface was called “baize”, a nice word, but he knew also that the table was not what it seemed. It was a table and not a table, and this might be true of a great many things. It was the first door that you had to pass through, as it were, into a new way of thinking about everything around you.

The variety show setting on the Brighton Pier makes for many entertaining scenes, but always, there's a sinister threat posed by the nearby sea. From Evie's thoughts:

And it was strange how in all those shows, all those performances, a whole season's worth, you hardly stopped to think – she never thought about it as she looked at her face in the mirror and placed the tiara, like a regular coronation, in her hair: The sea is right beneath us now. Right beneath us now the waves are swishing and swirling, the fish are darting, the seaweed is swaying this way and that. If the stage were to open up, we'd all go tumbling through to the water.

From Jack's:

Sometimes, beyond the stirrings and the gaspings of the audience, he might think he could hear the creakings and strainings of the pier itself, like a big foundering ship. But perhaps it was more that he was the one who was going under.

And from Ronnie's:

He bent to kiss her forehead. It was cold to his lips and she made no sign – no smile or frown or flinch – that she knew what he was doing. And he felt that his lips were touching also the cold surface of the water, the deep heedless water under which his father lay, unknowing too.

Rabbits and romance, parrots and rainbows, air raids and sequins: Swift paints beautiful word pictures that certainly capture a variety of times and place, but they feel more like nice little scenes than a complete novel. Still happy to have read it. ...more

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Jan 03, 2020 Louisa Jones rated it liked it · review of another edition

Curiously dissatisfying. I loved his last book but he didn't quite pull it off this time, for me at least. Some lovely descriptions and nice character development with Ronnie, though the other characters seemed sketchy by comparison - this may have been intentional. The author repeats elements of the story with slightly different details each time but it failed to layer and deepen the narrative, just got a bit repetitive and slow. I finished it feeling I'd missed something crucial, maybe I have. ...more

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Oct 11, 2020 Doug rated it liked it · review of another edition

3.5, rounded down.

I read Swift's last short novella, Mothering Sunday, and enjoyed it enough that I thought I'd try this one, as the Brighton music hall setting appealed. Like its predecessor, this is a very slight tale, one that can easily be read in one sitting, but there really isn't much to it. It has a lovely elegiac feel, and the period is nicely evoked, but - perhaps because his last work was denigrated for being too short - this seems a mite padded; it didn't really need 200 pages for th ...more

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Feb 02, 2020 Brona's Books rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I adored Swift's previous book Mothering Sunday so much that I would forgive him a multitude of sins, so I kept hoping that Here We Are would suddenly hit that mark. A couple of times when we went into the backstory of one of the main characters, I thought, ah-ha we're onto something here, but I never really got the purpose of the story or really engaged with any of the three protagonists. Sad, but true. ...more

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Jan 31, 2020 Jill rated it really liked it · review of another edition

What is the difference between tricks and illusions? To the non-magician, the answer might be, “Not much.” But for those who believe in magic, a trick is a sort of swindle that makes the audience wonder how it was done while an illusion convinces them that they have truly but inexplicably experienced the impossible.

Graham Swift is interested in exploring the sleight of hand in his slim but compelling new novel. He focuses on a threesome, a magician named Ronnie (stage name: The Great Pablo), his ...more

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Jan 21, 2020 Jaclyn Crupi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Another lovely novella from Swift, not quite at the same standard as Mothering Sunday but still a delightful read. I inevitably care deeply for Swift’s characters and this was no exception. Reading him is likely settling into a warm bath.

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Mar 07, 2020 Ryan rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Outsized short story in enlarged type. Uninvolving and dull, written in that bitty style that has spread over Swift’s work since The Light of Day like black mould.

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Oct 08, 2020 Morgan rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: did-not-finish

Never read this author before but being a “Booker Prize-winning author” and so many 4*-5* reviews I expected something – a story, a plot or something like that.

Started this book a while ago. Got bored. Gave up and read something else. Picked it up again. Got to page 30 and realized I had no idea what the book is about.

No more time to waste – too many other books to read.

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Dec 23, 2020 Maureen Grigsby rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Loved this little novel of three entertainers in 1959, in Brighton, England. Graham Swift’s writing is exquisite, as he amply demonstrated recently in his novel “Mothering Sunday”. This one was full of longing and regret. Beautiful.

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Mar 19, 2020 Claire Fuller rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: country-england, read-in-2020, 1950s

Unfortunately, I didn't love this in the way that I loved and still love Swift's Mothering Sunday. I still enjoyed the writing, but it felt too repetitive and old fashioned in that it was often in the voice of an omniscient narrator. With most of the main action taking place in 1959 in a show at the end of Brighton pier, Ronnie a magician, hires Evie as his assistant. About half way through we hear Evie 50 years later remembering that summer and what happened between her, Ronnie, and Ronnie's fr ...more

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Oct 19, 2020 Robert Sheard rated it really liked it · review of another edition

In typical Graham Swift style, we slowly fill in the details of a single summer, 1959 in Brighton, during which a magician, his assistant (and fiancé), and their friend who runs the review show they star in, cross into and out of each other's lives in unexpected ways.

It's a quiet book, told in retrospective from 50 years after the summer in question, but it's a fascinating look at the secrets, the secret lives, and the mysteries of these three people. All in a very brief 195 pages. ...more

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Mar 26, 2020 Damian rated it liked it · review of another edition

3.5 stars, in fact.
I liked this slender novel, I didn't love it. But it has some very good moments and almost throwaway brilliant lines. Once you're into the omniscient narrator you're fine...it must have been tempting to go first person with Eve as the narrator.

I live in Brighton (not in 1959) and the pier is a big part of my life. I loved the description of the theatre over the water--how everyone eould fall into the sea with the fishes if the lfoor just opened up. I wanted more of the pier an ...more

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Nov 17, 2019 Tim Armstrong rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, literary-fiction

I so wanted to like this book, as I’ve loved previous Swift books, not least Waterland and Mothering Sunday, both of which were brilliant in so many ways.
But this latest book, virtually a novella, (and probably would be if the publishers chose a smaller font) was slight in more than just its length!
The characters were ho hum, self centred and irritating and really, I think Swift has done better. A disappointment but typically it still had flashes of Swift’s wonderful prose and that was it only ...more

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Mar 16, 2020 Joe M rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2020, arc

Brighton in the 50's sets the stage for this bittersweet story of a young magician and his fiancé-assistant as they reconcile with changing hearts and times in the shadow of WWII. Full of rich detail and humor, Graham Swift's writing is vivid in its portrayal of post-war England and seaside vaudeville, but never showy. His best trick might just be how he packed so many big themes and human emotions into a slight 200 pages. So: hey, presto! ...more

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Oct 20, 2020 Jessica Haider rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley, historical-fiction

Here We Are is the 2nd novel that I've read by Graham Swift. Almost 10 years ago I read The Light of Day which is also by Swift. I was excited to pick up another book by this author especially since it was about a vaudeville/variety show. This story takes place in 1959 on the British coast. The three main characters are comedian Jack Robinson and the magic act of The Great Pablo and Eve. They spend their summer at Brighton Pier. A bit of a love triangle develops between Jack, "Pablo" and Eve.

I ...more

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Mar 21, 2020 Lesley Moseley rated it liked it · review of another edition

3 1/2 nearer. I really enjoyed this easy read.

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Feb 25, 2020 P.D. Dawson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I wasn't very excited at the opening few pages, but this book's impression grew on me as I was reading it. Swift has very cleverly weaved a tale of magic, starting off very subtle, but gradually building on what would be the final mystery. The characterisation is excellent, as is the structure, which gradually unfolds through a triangular narrative. That can be tricky to achieve without appearing clunky or distancing the reader, but here, albeit a few wobbles at the start, I found the whole stor ...more

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Feb 28, 2020 Brian Moore rated it really liked it · review of another edition

More a longer short story than a thinner novel, a nice easy couple of hours read. Nothing heavy, just a gentle and touching tale.

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May 10, 2020 Evangelos Makrakis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Despite conflicting reviews, it cannot be denied that this is a masterly narrated story, leaving you with a bittersweet taste, strong emotional scenes, beautiful pictures and some kind of magic....

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May 31, 2020 Alice rated it liked it · review of another edition

Not bad, a quick easy read. Didn't really like any of the characters hugely but it was an interesting story. ...more

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Dec 18, 2020 Rhuddem Gwelin rated it it was ok · review of another edition

What a dreary book. I didn't like 'Mothering Sunday' at all (I'm not even sure I finished it) and this one is a bit more interesting but it seems that Graham Swift's books are just not my cup of tea. In fact, I found these two rather unpleasant. Definitelt not Booker material. ...more

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Apr 04, 2020 Andy Weston rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

This is a diversion of the best sort, a really great bit of story-telling.
At the heart of the novel are a trio of colourful characters; a magician called Ronnie Deane, stage name Pablo, after a parrot he had as a childhood pet, his partner and assistant Evie, and their friend and boss, Jack Robinson, who compères their magic show on Brighton pier. This is 1959, but there are 3 timelines that make up the book; the early years of the war when Ronnie was evacuated to Oxfordshire, and later in the ...more

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About Graham Swift

Graham Swift

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Graham Colin Swift FRSL (born May 4, 1949) is an English author. He was born in London, England and educated at Dulwich College, London, Queens' College, Cambridge, and later the University of York. He was a friend of Ted Hughes.

Some of his works have been made into films, including Last Orders, which starred Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins and Waterland which starred Jeremy Irons. Last Orders was a ...more