
Blue Ruin
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Hari Kunzru
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By:
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Hari Kunzru
About this listen
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK • From one of the sharpest voices in fiction today, a profound and enthralling novel about beauty and power, capital, art and those who devote their lives to creating it
Once, Jay was an artist. After graduating from art school in London, he was tipped for greatness, a promising career taking shape before him. That was not to happen. Now, undocumented in the United States, having survived Covid, he lives out of his car and barely makes a living as an essential worker, delivering groceries in a wealthy area of upstate New York. One day, as Jay attempts to make a delivery at a house surrounded by acres of woods, he is confronted by his destructive past: Alice, a former lover from his art school days, and the friend she left him for. Recognizing Jay’s dire circumstances, Alice invites him to stay on their property—where an erratic gallery owner and his girlfriend are isolating as well—setting in motion a reckoning that has been decades in the making.
Gripping and brilliantly orchestrated, Blue Ruin moves back and forth through time, delivering an extraordinary portrait of an artist as he reunites with his past and confronts the world he once loved and left behind.
©2024 Hari Kunzru (P)2024 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“[Blue Ruin is a] sharp dissection of the oily inner workings of the art world, and a compelling portrait of one man’s desperate attempt to escape complicity in the capitalist machine. . . . [Kunzru’s] portrait of east London in the 1990s has real texture, grit and grunge rubbing up against the crude new money of the exploding art scene.” —Lucy Scholes, Financial Times
“Blue Ruin is bracingly intelligent and often just plain beautiful. . . . The seamy, drug-crazed, millenarian atmosphere of the 90s British art world, with its intermingled idealism and cynicism, is brilliantly evoked . . . The use of artworks—a difficult trick in fiction—is especially impressive in Blue Ruin . . . [Blue Ruin is] a reminder that fiction, at its best, is a place to encounter new experiences and dwell in big ideas. Kunzru is known for ambitious novels that bring politics to rich, imaginative life; Blue Ruin shows him at the top of his game.” —Sandra Newman, The Guardian
“Blue Ruin is a story about creative labor’s inevitable crash into politics, as well as the allure—and danger—of artistic monomania. . . . What ultimately distinguishes the novel is its searching quality, a greater open-endedness than [Kunzru’s White Tears or Red Pill]. . . . If the binaries Blue Ruin wrestles with—money versus art, action versus refusal—feel familiar, it’s because we are still so far from resolving them.” —Jess Bergman, The New Republic
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Story
It's 2038 and Jacinda (Jake) Greenwood is a storyteller and a liar, an overqualified tour guide babysitting ultra-rich vacationers in one of the world's last remaining forests. It's 2008 and Liam Greenwood is a carpenter, sprawled on his back after a workplace fall, calling out from the concrete floor of an empty mansion. It's 1974 and Willow Greenwood is out of jail, free after being locked up for one of her endless series of environmental protests: attempts at atonement for the sins of her father's once vast and violent timber empire.
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tedious boring trite
- By Marc Buchalter on 11-19-21
By: Michael Christie
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Kala
- A Novel
- By: Colin Walsh
- Narrated by: Frank Blake, Moe Dunford, Seána Kerslake
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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In the seaside town of Kinlough, on Ireland’s west coast, three old friends are thrown together for the first time in years. They—Helen, Joe, and Mush—were part of an original group of six inseparable teenagers in the summer of 2003, with motherless, reckless Kala Lanann as their group’s white-hot center. Soon after that summer’s peak, Kala disappeared without a trace. Now it’s fifteen years later.
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Great writing, deeply depressing story
- By Amazon Customer on 01-14-24
By: Colin Walsh
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White Tears
- A Novel
- By: Hari Kunzru
- Narrated by: Lincoln Hoppe, Danny Campbell, Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Two 20-something New Yorkers. Seth is awkward and shy. Carter is the glamorous heir to one of America's great fortunes. They have one thing in common: an obsession with music. Seth is desperate to reach for the future. Carter is slipping back into the past. When Seth accidentally records an unknown singer in a park, Carter sends it out over the Internet, claiming it's a long lost 1920s blues recording by a musician called Charlie Shaw.
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How the Blues Got There, Captain Jack
- By W Perry Hall on 06-02-17
By: Hari Kunzru
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Seven Demons
- By: Aidan Truhen
- Narrated by: Christian Coulson
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Meet Jack Price and the Seven Demons: Doc, the evil mad scientist presently using Jack for sex; Rex, an explosives expert who doesn’t ask too many questions so long as something goes boom; Volodya, a Ukrainian assassin who may or may not be a cannibal; Charlie, a comic book artist with computer skills and an anarchist bent; Lucille, whose specialty is razor-edged hugs; and Jack’s predecessor, Fred, who doesn’t contribute a whole lot owing to being a severed head on a stick. Finally there’s Jack himself, former coffee magnate turned cocaine dealer turned First Demon.
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The story was written for the narrator.
- By roptics on 07-21-23
By: Aidan Truhen
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Malas
- A Novel
- By: Marcela Fuentes
- Narrated by: Christine Avila, Victoria Villarreal
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1951, a mysterious old woman confronts Pilar Aguirre in the small border town of La Cienega, Texas. The old woman is sure Pilar stole her husband and, in a heated outburst, lays a curse on Pilar and her family. More than forty years later, Lulu Muñoz is dodging chaos at every turn: her troubled father’s moods, his rules, her secret life as singer in a punk band, but most of all her upcoming quinceañera. When her beloved grandmother passes away, Lulu finds herself drawn to the glamorous stranger who crashed the funeral and who lives alone and shunned on the edge of town.
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A great story, well told.
- By Leslie A. M. Smith on 04-21-25
By: Marcela Fuentes
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The History of Sound
- Stories
- By: Ben Shattuck
- Narrated by: Ben Shattuck, Zachary Chastain, Paul Mescal, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In twelve luminous stories set across three centuries, The History of Sound examines the unexpected ways the past returns to us and how love and loss are entwined and transformed over generations. In Ben Shattuck's ingenious collection, each story has a companion story, which contains a revelation about the previous, paired story. Mysteries and murders are revealed, history is refracted, and deep emotional connections are woven through characters and families.
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Gorgeous written connected stories
- By Briana R. on 07-22-24
By: Ben Shattuck
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Human Acts
- A Novel
- By: Han Kang, Deborah Smith
- Narrated by: Sandra Oh, Deborah Smith - introduction, Greta Jung, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Amid a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed. The story of this tragic episode unfolds in a sequence of interconnected chapters as the victims and the bereaved encounter suppression, denial, and the echoing agony of the massacre. From Dong-ho’s best friend; to an editor struggling against censorship; to a prisoner and a factory worker, each suffering from traumatic memories; and to Dong-ho's own grief-stricken mother; and through their collective heartbreak and acts of hope is the tale of a brutalized people in search of a voice.
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Tedious
- By Kindle Customer on 02-16-17
By: Han Kang, and others
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The Rich People Have Gone Away
- A Novel
- By: Regina Porter
- Narrated by: William DeMeritt, Shayna Small
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Brooklyn, 2020. Theo Harper and his pregnant wife, Darla, head upstate to their summer cottage to wait out the lockdown. Not everyone in their upscale Park Slope building has this privilege: not Xavier, the teenager in the Cardi B T-shirt, nor Darla’s best friend, Ruby, and her partner, Katsumi, who stay behind to save their Michelin-starred restaurant. During an upstate hike on the aptly named Devil’s Path, Theo divulges a long-held secret—and when Darla disappears after the ensuing argument, he finds himself the prime suspect.
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descriptions of food
- By Lilly Daniel on 08-16-24
By: Regina Porter
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The Trackers
- A Novel
- By: Charles Frazier
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Hurtling past the downtrodden communities of Depression-era America, painter Val Welch travels westward to the rural town of Dawes, Wyoming. Through a stroke of luck, he’s landed a New Deal assignment to create a mural representing the region for their new Post Office.
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So Good
- By Ray Stewart on 04-28-23
By: Charles Frazier
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Trespasses
- A Novel
- By: Louise Kennedy
- Narrated by: Brid Brennan
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Amid daily reports of violence, Cushla lives a quiet life with her mother in a small town near Belfast. By day she teaches at a parochial school; at night she fills in at her family’s pub. There she meets Michael Agnew, a barrister who’s made a name for himself defending IRA members. Against her better judgment—Michael is not only Protestant but older and married—Cushla lets herself get drawn in by him and his sophisticated world, and an affair ignites.
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Exquisite
- By Suzanna on 11-10-22
By: Louise Kennedy
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Stay with Me
- A Novel
- By: Ayobami Adebayo
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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Yejide and Akin have been married since they met and fell in love at university. Though many expected Akin to take several wives, he and Yejide have always agreed: Polygamy is not for them. But four years into their marriage - after consulting fertility doctors and healers, trying strange teas and unlikely cures - Yejide is still not pregnant. She assumes she still has time - until her family arrives on her doorstep with a young woman they introduce as Akin's second wife.
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Do better
- By Adetoun Kolapo on 01-29-18
By: Ayobami Adebayo
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Flights
- By: Olga Tokarczuk, Jennifer Croft - translator
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Chopin's heart is carried back to Warsaw in secret by his adoring sister. A woman must return to her native Poland in order to poison her terminally ill high school sweetheart, and a young man slowly descends into madness when his wife and child mysteriously vanish during a vacation and just as suddenly reappear. Through these brilliantly imagined characters and stories, interwoven with haunting, playful, and revelatory meditations, Flights explores what it means to be a traveler, a wanderer, a body in motion not only through space but through time.
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Curious and beautifully written
- By Alejandra on 10-24-18
By: Olga Tokarczuk, and others
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A Thousand Times Before
- A Novel
- By: Asha Thanki
- Narrated by: Priya Ayyar
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Ayukta is finally sitting down with her wife Nadya to respond to a question she’s long avoided: Should they have a child? The decision is complicated by a secret her family has kept for centuries, one that Ayukta will be the first to share with someone outside their bloodline: the women in her family inherit a mysterious tapestry, through which each generation can experience the memories of those who came before her. Ayukta invites Nadya into this lineage, carrying her through its past.
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The performance was an unpleasant listen for me.
- By Ms. Esq. on 03-10-25
By: Asha Thanki
What listeners say about Blue Ruin
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Tom
- 07-11-24
Top Notch
First book of Kunzru’s for me. Outstanding work with much poignancy. Will be looking forward to more from him.
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- Judy A. Masters
- 11-12-24
Art for artists
Hari Kunzru creates a fictional world where an artist must choose over and over again what to create. Amidst the chaos of the world and his own aesthetic the artist weaves his narrative.
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- JLB
- 11-15-24
An excellent dead ringer of the ridiculous depths of the art world
Few if any writers succeed at conveying a believable reconstruction of the contemporary art world. That’s because few people actually get a real look inside it, up close, and get what the hell everyone’s on about. Kunzru is that rare bird that has seen so much of it, seen the pretentious hangups and nuanced class divisions that define its structure so foundationally and in little microcosms of specific moments in time. Can I also add that I never EVER thought I’d read a novel set in pandemic times that I’d enjoy reading and this man has proven me so wrong??? What a master of his art, what a beautiful and searing piece of cultural criticism. What a fantastic narrator he is!! Bravo Mr.Kunzru. Everyone should read this.
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- AmazonBetaShopper
- 11-02-24
Incredible narration
As if his setting, descriptive ability and plotting weren’t enough.. the narration is the icing on the cake. Keep writing. Please.
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1 person found this helpful