
Liberation Day
Stories
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By:
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George Saunders
About this listen
MacArthur "genius" and Booker Prize winner George Saunders returns with a collection of short stories that make sense of our increasingly troubled world, his first since the New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist Tenth of December
The “best short story writer in English” (Time) is back with a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice, and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. With his trademark prose—wickedly funny, unsentimental, and perfectly tuned—Saunders continues to challenge and surprise: here is a collection of prismatic, deeply resonant stories that encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality.
“Love Letter” is a tender missive from grandfather to grandson, in the midst of a dystopian political situation in the not-too-distant future, that reminds us of our obligations to our ideals, ourselves, and each other. “Ghoul” is set in a Hell-themed section of an underground amusement park in Colorado, and follows the exploits of a lonely, morally complex character named Brian, who comes to question everything he takes for granted about his “reality.” In “Mother’s Day,” two women who loved the same man come to an existential reckoning in the middle of a hailstorm. And in “Elliott Spencer,” our eighty-nine-year-old protagonist finds himself brainwashed—his memory “scraped”—a victim of a scheme in which poor, vulnerable people are reprogrammed and deployed as political protesters.
Together, these nine subversive, profound, and essential stories coalesce into a case for viewing the world with the same generosity and clear-eyed attention as Saunders does, even in the most absurd of circumstances.
Cover painting: René Magritte, Man in a Bowler Hat, 1964 (detail), © 2022 C. Herscovici/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
©2022 George Saunders (P)2022 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Before Purchasing
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Interview: George Saunders’ Liberation Day Positively Stuns
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Short stories have had a huge impact on the canon of great literature. In fact, some of history's most revered novelists—Ernest Hemingway, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Louisa May Alcott among them—wrote short stories, which make excellent introductions to their work. Plus, these bite-size listens are the perfect way to get a big dose of literary inspiration even when you’re short on time. To get you started, we’ve compiled a list of listens.
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Story
In a profoundly strange country called Inner Horner, large enough for only one resident at a time, citizens waiting to enter the country fall under the rule of the power-hungry and tyrannical Phil, setting off a chain of injustice and mass hysteria. An Animal Farm for the 21st century, this is an incendiary political satire of unprecedented imagination, spiky humor, and cautionary appreciation for the hysteric in everyone.
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4.0 stars
- By ibillinsly@gmail on 06-04-19
By: George Saunders
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Fox 8
- A Story
- By: George Saunders
- Narrated by: George Saunders
- Length: 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Fox 8 has always been known as the daydreamer in his pack, the one his fellow foxes regarded with a knowing snort and a roll of the eyes. That is, until Fox 8 develops a unique skill: He teaches himself to speak Yuman by hiding in the bushes outside a house and listening to children’s bedtime stories. The power of language fuels his abundant curiosity about people - even after danjer arrives in the form of a new shopping mall that cuts off his food supply, sending Fox 8 on a harrowing quest to help save his pack.
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Sly Foxes, Wise Owls, Mean Dudes
- By Mel on 05-28-13
By: George Saunders
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The Braindead Megaphone
- By: George Saunders
- Narrated by: George Saunders
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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George Saunders's first foray into nonfiction is comprised of essays on literature, travel, and politics. At the core of this unique collection are Saunders's travel essays based on his trips to seek out the mysteries of the "Buddha Boy" of Nepal; to attempt to indulge in the extravagant pleasures of Dubai; and to join the exploits of the minutemen at the Mexican border. Saunders expertly navigates the works of Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, and Esther Forbes, and leads the listener across the rocky political landscape of modern America.
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George Saunders is a genius!
- By caitlyngarofolo on 05-31-20
By: George Saunders
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A Visit from the Goon Squad
- By: Jennifer Egan
- Narrated by: Roxana Ortega
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Jennifer Egan’s spellbinding interlocking narratives circle the lives of Bennie Salazar, an aging former punk rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Although Bennie and Sasha never discover each other’s pasts, the listener does, in intimate detail, along with the secret lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs, over many years, in locales as varied as New York, San Francisco, Naples, and Africa.
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Deep and dazzling novel, brilliantly read!
- By J. W. Coop on 06-29-19
By: Jennifer Egan
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Congratulations, by the Way
- Some Thoughts on Kindness
- By: George Saunders
- Narrated by: George Saunders
- Length: 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Three months after George Saunders gave a graduation address at Syracuse University, a transcript of that speech was posted on the website of The New York Times, where its simple, uplifting message struck a deep chord. Within days, it had been shared more than one million times. Why? Because Saunders’ words tap in to a desire in all of us to lead kinder, more fulfilling lives. Powerful, funny, and wise, Congratulations, by the Way is an inspiring message from one of today’s most influential and original writers.
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Great Speech
- By Lucas Samples on 09-23-20
By: George Saunders
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Growth
- A History and a Reckoning
- By: Daniel Susskind
- Narrated by: Daniel Susskind
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Yet prosperity has come at a price: environmental destruction, desolation of local cultures, the rise of vast inequalities, and destabilizing technologies. Faced with such damage, many now claim that the only way forward is through "degrowth," deliberately shrinking our economic footprint. Instead, Daniel Susskind argues, we must keep growth but redirect it, making it better reflect what we truly value.
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Looking for a conclusion that will sell books
- By DCS on 10-05-24
By: Daniel Susskind
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Labyrinths
- Selected Stories & Other Writings
- By: Jorge Luis Borges
- Narrated by: Dominic Keating
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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The groundbreaking trans-genre work of Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) has been insinuating itself into the structure, stance, and very breath of world literature for well over half a century. Multi-layered, self-referential, elusive, and allusive writing is now frequently labelled Borgesian.
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Look, this is Borges
- By Lars Spuybroek on 05-27-20
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Crossroads
- A Novel
- By: Jonathan Franzen
- Narrated by: David Pittu
- Length: 24 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Jonathan Franzen’s novels are celebrated for their unforgettably vivid characters and for their keen-eyed take on contemporary America. Now, in Crossroads, Franzen ventures back into the past and explores the history of two generations. With characteristic humor and complexity, and with even greater warmth, he conjures a world that resonates powerfully with our own.
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How do narrators still do clownish stuff like this in 2021?
- By Hotrodimus on 10-30-21
By: Jonathan Franzen
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Train Dreams
- A Novella
- By: Denis Johnson
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 2 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Suffused with the history and landscapes of the American West—its otherworldly flora and fauna, its rugged loggers and bridge builders—this extraordinary novella poignantly captures the disappearance of a distinctly American way of life. It tells the story of Robert Grainer, a day laborer in the American West at the start of the twentieth century—an ordinary man in extraordinary times. Buffeted by the loss of his family, Grainer struggles to make sense of this strange new world.
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2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist
- By Louis on 06-20-12
By: Denis Johnson
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The Maniac
- By: Benjamin Labatut
- Narrated by: Gergo Danka, Eva Magyar
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Benjamín Labatut’s When We Cease to Understand the World electrified a global readership. A Booker Prize and National Book Award finalist, and one of the New York Times’ Ten Best Books of the Year, it explored the life and thought of a clutch of mathematicians and physicists who took science to strange and sometimes dangerous new realms. In The MANIAC, Labatut has created a tour de force on an even grander scale.
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Gergo Danka and Eva Magyar are excellent narrators
- By Barbara S on 11-04-23
By: Benjamin Labatut
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Ulysses
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Jim Norton
- Length: 27 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Ulysses is regarded by many as the single most important novel of the 20th century. It tells the story of one day in Dublin, June 16th 1904, largely through the eyes of Stephen Dedalus (Joyce's alter ego from Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) and Leopold Bloom, an advertising salesman. Both begin a normal day, and both set off on a journey around the streets of Dublin, which eventually brings them into contact with one another.
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Ulysses (Unabridged)
- By Peter Deane on 01-22-09
By: James Joyce
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Ambergris
- City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek, Finch
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot, Cassandra Campbell, Oliver Wyman
- Length: 43 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Before Area X, there was Ambergris. Jeff VanderMeer conceived what would become his first cult classic series of speculative works: the Ambergris trilogy. Now, for the first time ever, the story of the sprawling metropolis of Ambergris is collected into a single volume, including City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek: An Afterword, and Finch.
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Entrancing “weird” novel
- By Joe on 12-04-20
By: Jeff VanderMeer
What listeners say about Liberation Day
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- L. Henkel
- 10-26-22
Stunning Performances
Superbly original writing and storytelling. Stunning performances by the whole cast. Thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook.
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- Todd W Schappi
- 11-11-22
Absolutely Brilliant!
George Saunders is at his best, and the performances are the best I've heard in the hundreds of Audible books I've listened to. I would rarely recommend listening to a book over reading it, but this is one of those books. Worth the price of the book just to hear Tina Fey narrate "The Mom of Bold Action".
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-30-22
Go George Go
This collection of stories from the day after tomorrow assails the senses and hangs you out to dry, so rich the fecund earth life
springs from. The glorious music that bookends, by Caroline Shaw, is the sound that The Speakers create as they recreate the Past, the horrific, racist, murderous Past of US. It’s all here, the hate and soulless stupidity of digital tech and the glimmers of light of life as the world falls apart and rots around our ears. The spell it casts will nag me forever. The moon takes over the sky. Go back, live under the bridge in a hailstorm. Make love or die. And die. And make love. Go George go
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- Formandfunction
- 05-13-23
Spectacular storytelling
A literary autopsy of post-modern U.S, and Saunders does not allow you to look away from the horror, the absurdity, the humor, or ourselves. Not a light read, but an outstanding read. Listened on Audible and it was perfect. This collection will stay with me for quite some time.
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- Griffin Moss
- 11-30-22
Excellent read
It’s been a long time since I’ve had so many short stories grab me and punch me in the gut, all in a row. Bravo.
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- Mark J. Royse
- 01-28-24
All-Star Cast Captures Saunders' Magic
Liberation Day is a masterful collection of short stories by one of my favorite authors. Each story is a weird gem, a seductive puzzle, a captured moment of humanity. The audiobook adds even more goodness to the mix. The narrators of Liberation Day are an all-star cast: Tina Fey, Michael McKean, Edi Patterson, Jenny Slate, Jack McBrayer, Melora Hardin, and Stephen Root. From Penguin Random House Audio. Treat yourself to a fantastic literary and auditory experience
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- Josef Sikelianos
- 11-02-22
As good as it gets
I don’t have it in me to write a long review at the moment but it’s George Sanders at the top of his game and really good readers 👍
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- Anonymous User
- 05-04-24
High novelty
Highly novel and unexpected and futuristic exploration of if/when things get out of hand. How one little thing can mushroom.
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- EZK303
- 01-17-23
Wonderful Bite Size Genius!
Don’t hesitate - do it - the quality of the stories and the performances exceded my expectations.
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- Anonymous User
- 09-09-24
Dense varied collection
In the end, I really enjoyed each of these stories. I had had to skip the first two, beginning my listening immediately after finishing a quieter, easier to enter audiobook, and finding the disparity between my two listens quite jarring. But listening to them out of order was not a problem. In fact, I went back and listened to a couple of the stories more than once. I do generally enjoy short story collections, and I appreciated the variation in readers in this book. Note to future listeners: the narrators for each of the stories are listed in the end credits. I had frustratedly tried to find them online while I was listening. Jump to the end credits if you want to know ahead of time.
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