The House of Baltazar

Twenty years ago, John Balthazar, a notable and brilliant Cambridge mathematician, left England abruptly as he found himself falling in love with a woman who was not his wife. No one hears from him for 20 years and it's assumed he's dead. He travels to China where he steeps himself in the culture and returns incognito 20 years later with his Chinese pupil, Quong Ho. They live in a remote farmhouse where he stays in blissful ignorance of the events of the First World War until a German zeppelin crashes nearby and blows up his house. Abruptly brought back to the reality of life in 1916, Baltazar finds that his wife has long since died but has left a son (a soldier) he did not know existed, who has coincidentally met his former love in a nursing home. The second half of the book picks up the story from there. (Summary by Simon Evers) (10 hr 40 min)

Chapters

Chapter 1	31:59	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 2	22:38	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 3	24:59	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 4	26:17	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 5	22:01	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 6	28:09	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 7	25:19	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 8	30:18	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 9	23:51	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 10	28:50	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 11	24:23	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 12	23:36	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 13	17:31	Read by Simon Evers
Chaprer 14	28:17	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 15	28:37	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 16	19:09	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 17	32:55	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 18	36:08	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 19	21:20	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 20	23:15	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 21	27:43	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 22	23:43	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 23	31:35	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 24	16:47	Read by Simon Evers
Chapter 25	20:52	Read by Simon Evers

Reviews

Excellent Reading

(5 stars)

Scott in Sandy Eggo

Simon Evers rescues what is perhaps not the best WJL novel, but still captivating. Perhaps it’s the chauvinism of the times when this was written that made this story feel more like a period piece than the intellectual adventure that it wants to be. Nonetheless, thanks and gratitude for Mr. Evers and his exceptional artistic talent with the spoken word.