
Acts of Service
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Rebecca Lowman
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By:
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Lillian Fishman
About this listen
A “bold and unflinchingly sexy” (Vogue) debut novel about a young woman who follows her desires into a world of pleasure, decadence, and privilege, unraveling everything she thought she knew about sex . . . and herself.
“One of the most entertaining books about sex I’ve ever read . . . The perfect read for fans of Raven Leilani and Ottessa Moshfegh, this is a book that will have people talking.”—BuzzFeed
“A sex masterpiece.”—The Guardian
A Kaia Gerber Book Club Pick • Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New Yorker and The Hollywood Reporter
“Anytime I want, I can forsake this dinner party and jump into real life.”—Eve Babitz
Eve has an adoring girlfriend, an impulsive streak, and a secret fear that she’s wasting her brief youth with just one person. So one evening she posts some nudes online. This is how Eve meets Olivia, and through Olivia the charismatic Nathan. Despite her better instincts, the three soon begin a relationship—one that disturbs Eve as much as it enthralls her.
As each act of their complicated, three-way affair unfolds across a cold and glittering New York, Eve is forced to confront the questions that most consume her: What do we bring to sex? What does it reveal of ourselves, and one another? And how do we reconcile what we want with what we think we should want?
In the way only great fiction can, Acts of Service takes between its teeth the contradictions written all over our ideas of sex and sexuality. At once juicy and intellectually challenging, sacred and profane, Lillian Fishman’s riveting debut is bold, unabashed, and required reading of the most pleasurable sort.
©2022 Lillian Fishman (P)2022 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Extraordinary . . . a work of ferocious moral and sensual intelligence and a masterly defense of sex for its own sake.”—The Guardian
“A stylish, elegant piece of provocation that is also as sincere and searching as its heroine. Even if it pisses you off, it’s hard not to keep turning the pages. Acts of Service is a bold, promising debut.”—Mary Gaitskill
“Radical, daring and bracing . . . It is a book of exciting, provocative complexity, and, for me, it made the human creature feel like something new.”—Sheila Heti, author of Pure Color
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- Unabridged
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Rachel is 24, a lapsed Jew who has made calorie restriction her religion. By day, she maintains an illusion of existential control through obsessive food rituals while working as an underling at a Los Angeles talent management agency. Rachel is content to carry on subsisting - until her therapist encourages her to take a 90-day communication detox from her mother, who raised her in the tradition of calorie counting. Rachel soon meets Miriam, a zaftig young Orthodox Jewish woman who works at her favorite frozen yogurt shop and is intent upon feeding her.
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Funny and uncomfortable
- By Kayla on 04-01-21
By: Melissa Broder
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Happy Hour (German Edition)
- By: Marlowe Granados
- Narrated by: Viola Müller
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Isa Epley ist einundzwanzig Jahre alt und weise genug, um zu wissen, dass der Sinn des Lebens im Vergnügen liegt. Tagsüber verkauft sie mit ihrer besten Freundin Gala Klamotten an einem Straßenstand, um ihre Zwischenmiete in Brooklyn zu finanzieren.
By: Marlowe Granados
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Boy Parts
- By: Eliza Clark
- Narrated by: Eliza Clark
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Irina obsessively takes explicit photographs of the average-looking men she persuades to model for her, scouted from the streets of Newcastle. Placed on sabbatical from her dead-end bar job, she is offered an exhibition at a fashionable London gallery, promising to revive her career in the art world and offering an escape from her rut of drugs, alcohol and extreme cinema. The news triggers a self-destructive tailspin, centred around Irina's relationship with her obsessive best friend and a shy young man from her local supermarket who has attracted her attention....
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A modern American psycho but British
- By sofia on 09-23-21
By: Eliza Clark
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Luster
- A Novel
- By: Raven Leilani
- Narrated by: Ariel Blake
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Edie is stumbling her way through her 20s - sharing a subpar apartment in Bushwick, clocking in and out of her admin job, making a series of inappropriate sexual choices. She is also haltingly, fitfully giving heat and air to the art that simmers inside her. And then she meets Eric, a digital archivist with a family in New Jersey, including an autopsist wife who has agreed to an open marriage - with rules.
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Spellbinding
- By Nana on 08-07-20
By: Raven Leilani
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A Touch of Jen
- By: Beth Morgan
- Narrated by: Casey Turner
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Remy and Alicia, a couple of insecure service workers, are not particularly happy together. But they are bound by a shared obsession with Jen, a beautiful former coworker of Remy’s who now seems to be following her bliss as a globe-trotting jewelry designer. In and outside the bedroom, Remy and Alicia's entire relationship revolves around fantasies of Jen, whose every Instagram caption, outfit, and new age mantra they know by heart. Imagine their confused excitement when they run into Jen, in the flesh, and she invites them on a surfing trip to the Hamptons.
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Speechless
- By Schabel on 07-16-21
By: Beth Morgan
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Animal
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Taddeo
- Narrated by: Emma Roberts
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Joan has spent a lifetime enduring the cruelties of men. But when one of them commits a shocking act of violence in front of her, she flees New York City in search of Alice, the only person alive who can help her make sense of her past. In the sweltering hills above Los Angeles, Joan unravels the horrific event she witnessed as a child - that has haunted her every waking moment - while forging the power to finally strike back.
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Should come with a lot of trigger warnings
- By Quinn on 07-13-21
By: Lisa Taddeo
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Motherthing
- By: Ainslie Hogarth
- Narrated by: Adina Verson
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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When Ralph and Abby Lamb move in with Ralph’s mother, Laura, Abby hopes it’s just what she and her mother-in-law need to finally connect. After a traumatic childhood, Abby is desperate for a mother figure, especially now that she and Ralph are trying to become parents themselves. Abby just has so much love to give—to Ralph, to Laura, and to Mrs. Bondy, her favorite resident at the long-term care home where she works. But Laura isn’t interested in bonding with her daughter-in-law. She’s venomous and cruel, especially to Abby, and life with her is hellish.
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A great story with horrible narration
- By Calliope on 09-18-23
By: Ainslie Hogarth
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Lapvona
- A Novel
- By: Ottessa Moshfegh
- Narrated by: Ottessa Moshfegh
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Little Marek, the abused and delusional son of the village shepherd, believes his mother died giving birth to him. One of Marek’s few consolations is his enduring bond with the blind village midwife, Ina, who suckled him when he was a baby. For some people, Ina’s ability to receive transmissions of sacred knowledge from the natural world is a godsend. For others, Ina’s home in the woods is a godless place.
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uncomfortable
- By Stetson on 07-04-22
By: Ottessa Moshfegh
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Three Women
- By: Lisa Taddeo
- Narrated by: Tara Lynne Barr, Marin Ireland, Mena Suvari, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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In suburban Indiana we meet Lina, the homemaker and mother of two whose marriage, after a decade, has lost its passion. Starved for affection, Lina battles daily panic attacks and, after reconnecting with an old flame through social media, embarks on an affair that quickly becomes all-consuming. In North Dakota we meet Maggie, the 17-year-old high school student who allegedly has a clandestine physical relationship with her handsome, married English teacher; the ensuing criminal trial will turn their quiet community upside down.
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Moving, literary nonfiction
- By Homer on 07-25-19
By: Lisa Taddeo
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My Year of Rest and Relaxation
- By: Ottessa Moshfegh
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Our narrator should be happy, shouldn't she? She's young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate; she works an easy job at a hip art gallery and lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn't just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It's the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?
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I love it...
- By Claudia Gallegos on 07-12-18
By: Ottessa Moshfegh
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Down the Drain
- By: Julia Fox
- Narrated by: Julia Fox
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Julia Fox is famous for many things: her captivating acting, such as her breakout role in the film Uncut Gems; her trendsetting style, including bleached eyebrows, exaggerated eyeshadow, and cutout dresses; her mastery of social media, where she entertains and educates her millions of followers. But all these share the trait for which she is most famous: unabashedly and unapologetically being herself. This commitment to authenticity has never been more on display than in Down the Drain. With writing that is both eloquent and accessible, Fox recounts her turbulent path to cultural supremacy.
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Zero Character Growth.
- By Alisa on 11-27-23
By: Julia Fox
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Playground
- A Novel
- By: Richard Powers
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Robin Siegerman, Eunice Wong, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Four lives are drawn together in a sweeping, panoramic new novel from Richard Powers, showcasing the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Overstory at the height of his skills. Twelve-year-old Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs. Ina Aroita grows up in naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home. Two polar opposites at an elite Chicago high school bond over a three-thousand-year-old board game; Rafi Young will get lost in literature, while Todd Keane’s work will lead to a startling AI breakthrough.
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What a tremendous story
- By Deb Hatch on 11-08-24
By: Richard Powers
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Intermezzo
- A Novel
- By: Sally Rooney
- Narrated by: Éanna Hardwicke
- Length: 16 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke. Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret.
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I felt a lot of empathy towards the excellently developed characters.
- By Hanoverian girl on 09-29-24
By: Sally Rooney
What listeners say about Acts of Service
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- SPM
- 04-03-25
The narrative moved so naturally and I found the reader to be excellent.
The singular story unfolded with perfect pitch. The author kept me interested and alert. I don’t want to write anything here that would spoil it for a review reader. So I’ll leave it there.
Well worth a listen or a read. I look forward to Ms Fishman’s next novel.
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- Anonymous User
- 10-04-23
A pleasant but disturbing surprise!
This book was a surprise in every way! Sex as the main character and the people as the co stars. It’s arousing but also disturbing at times , How humans can relinquish power for pleasure , also finding out some disturbing truths about oneself. Hands down one of the best reads I’ve had this year. Also the voice over is one of my comfort zones when listening.
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- Anonymous User
- 09-16-24
Thought, provoking and pro
A fascinating journey through sexuality it’s meaning, it’s purpose, it’s Joyce, it’s insecurities and the profound and intangible relationships it creates.
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- Jen S
- 01-28-23
Disturbingly haunting story.
Putting sex and the main character’s relationship to it at the center of this story, may lead people to think this book is just steamy. It is sexy, but also disturbing. It makes you question power and what we desire in sex. And leaves you uneasy.
The reader is slow. But increase the speed and it’s easier to listen to.
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- Natasha b
- 01-12-24
Thought Provoking
Really enjoyed this thought provoking analysis of desire and shame as it plays out in this bizarre love triangle. Smart writing and sensuous voiceover make it the perfect bedtime read.
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- Charlie
- 01-17-24
The weirdest pick-me bull ever.
The story of a woman justifying her relationship with a narcissist masquerading as a sexual awakening is nauseating. You want for the character to redeem herself in some way, but it never comes. Instead, she convinces herself despite all evidence to the contrary, that she is now enlightened by this extremely anticlimactic novel. However, it’s well written and the narrator’s voice is very enjoyable to listen to. I really got the feeling that I could have been listening to the main character’s inner thoughts.
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- Cindy A. Ossias
- 05-07-24
An overall feeling of ennui…
For a book mainly about sex, Acts of Service was surprisingly unsexy — more of an intellectual exercise than even fleetingly a turn on.
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- Stephen D. Sloan
- 03-29-23
Just Awesome
This was amazing. It was well written and human, so very human. The author is a very visual writer and she paints a story that is not for everyone. I adore her writing style. Yes, it's sexy. But it's more, way more.
Yes, some folks will be shocked by her writing. It's hard to read, not because it's not poorly written. It's not, it's superbly written, but it's accessible only to a reader with a very good vocabulary and who's willing to really think about the concepts the author articulates. The subject matter is explicit and gritty. Some folks will struggle with relating to the content and characters. It's not easy to find "nice" people in this book. It's like everyone is naked all the time and you can see their flaws and their beauty. This book does not have a binary of good and bad and it's easy to judge the characters in this book. Of course that’s true in real life too.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Cheyanne
- 08-14-22
Less than expected but enough to keep you wanting more
This book seemed to be rated very highly but that’s probably bc it contains great sex. I do like the way she explains her feelings throughout but it left me wanting a little more out of it at the end. The story just needed more to it. But the narrator was great and I’m still glad I listened till the end.
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- Anonymous User
- 06-27-23
ugh
truly loathsome listening experience, would not recommend. painful to get through, i had to force myself to finish
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