Middlesex Audiobook By Jeffrey Eugenides cover art

Middlesex

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Middlesex

By: Jeffrey Eugenides
Narrated by: Kristoffer Tabori
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In the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides, a student at a girls' school in Grosse Pointe, finds herself drawn to a chain-smoking, strawberry-blonde classmate with a gift for acting. The passion that furtively develops between them - along with Callie's failure to develop physically - leads Callie to suspect that she is not like other girls. In fact, she is not really a girl at all.

The explanation for this shocking state of affairs is a rare genetic mutation - and a guilty secret - that have followed Callie's grandparents from the crumbling Ottoman Empire to Prohibition-era Detroit and beyond, outlasting the glory days of the Motor City, the race riots of 1967, and the family's second migration, into the foreign country known as suburbia. Thanks to the gene, Callie is part girl, part boy. And even though the gene's epic travels have ended, her own odyssey has only begun.

Spanning eight decades - and one unusually awkward adolescence - Jeffrey Eugenides' long-awaited second novel is a grand, original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire.

Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Audie Award for best unabridged fiction, Middlesex marks the fulfillment of a huge talent, named one of America's best young novelists by both Granta and The New Yorker.

Check out more selections from Oprah's Book Club.©2002 Jeffrey Eugenides (P)2002 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC
Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction

Critic reviews

Audie Award Winner, Fiction (Unabridged), 2003

"Eugenides proves that he is not only a unique voice in modern literature but also well versed in the nature of the human heart. Highly recommended." (Library Journal )

"Not only are his interpretations of the characters astonishingly credible, but his internalization of the narrative is nothing short of amazing." (Publishers Weekly)

"A towering achievement...a story that manages to be both illuminating and transcendent...[Eugenides] has emerged as the great American writer many of us suspected him of being." (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

Masterful Storytelling • Rich Characterization • Versatile Voice Acting • Historical Depth • Emotional Impact
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I thouroughly enjoyed this novel both for it's content and narrator. I was packing to move, and once I got well enough into it, I lay on the couch for hours listening. Packing my apartment was delayed for three days. Eugenides' painstaking detail and insight unravel one human experience. It seemed as though I were listening to an autobiography. Tabori brought each character alive with distiction. I recommend.

Anything but middle.

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This book was OK for me. It was a little hard for me to keep my interest. The book covers the stories of three generations of a family, so after the first generation, I had a hard time leaving one set of characters to move on to the next generation. The story begins beautifully, with a story of the character's grandparents, and the first third of the book was five stars in my mind. Then my interest dwindled as the characters aged and the focus moved to other generations. I kept on wanting to hear more in depth about the life of the original characters, and I wanted them to grow. This is why, for me, the book is just three stars.

On a side note, at first, I was a little apprehensive about spending my one credit on a book that seemed to be centered around such a potentially uncomfortable topic for pleasure reading -hermaphrodites. I wanted a pleasant story to listen to, not something that would be sexually explicit. The topic is handled well in the book, and while the thread that the story follows is a physical abnormality caused by a mutation in genes, the story is more about the secrets, strengths and lives of three generations of a family.

An OK listen

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The author and reader have created a wonderful book! At first, I was a bit concerned that 21 hours of listening might be too much, but I almost wanted more when it ended. The book really pulls you into the story. Highly recommended.

Outstanding!

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This is one of the best audio books I've heard! The story is rich, compelling and strong. It reminds me a bit of John Irving. It's unexpected, but believable. The story traces 3 generations of a family in an unexpected way. The characters are rich and well developed and the story moves quickly. The narrator does a really good job, making clear the different characters with changes in his voice, but he doesn't over do it, which is refreshing.

I can't wait for more books from this author.

Incredible story telling!

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I picked out this book without knowing anything about it. It was one of the top books I've experienced with Audible. Completely engaging from start to finish. Never dull. Rich, lush, and unique.

Engaging, Exciting and utterly memorable

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Fantastic characters & really unique storyline. The main character kept me hooked. I really loved the narration.

Loved it.

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I have a feeling this is probably a decent book. But I am listening to NPR in the car rather than listen to this. I am not gripped - I find the narrator's rendition of female voices excruciating. I think I'll get the print edition...

Just can't get into it

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the reading of this book is so irritating that it really detracted from my enjoyment of this otherwise entertaining and interesting book. the way the narrator comically exaggerated his voice in order to mimic little girls, old greek ladies, etc... would often be so grating and harsh that you couldn't help from being taken out of the story, which itself is really absorbing. i admit i didn't listen to the sample before i got it. i'm still happy i did, but i kind of wish i'd read it instead.

entertaining, but terrible narration

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Maybe it's just me but I wish the people who were hired to read these books would just read the damn book. This narrator is so over the too with all the voices snd the accents and the high drama. Honestly dude, just read the book and leave something to the imagination. It's literally horrifying. Just read the book, you fucking ham! I feel sorry for the author to be honest.

Narration is unbearable

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Found myself totally emersed with these characters. The wonderful narrator gave me a visual image of everything he read. I'm off to look for more audiobooks by author Jeffrey Eugenides and narrator Kristoffer Tabori.

Excellent story and narrator

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