The Autograph Man
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Ben Barnes
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By:
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Zadie Smith
About this listen
We live in a world of signs.
But not everybody has to trade in them....
Alex-Li Tandem sells autographs. A small blip in a huge worldwide network of desire, his business is to hunt for names on paper, collect them, sell them, and occasionally fake them - all to give the people what they want: a little piece of Fame. But what does Alex want? Only the return of his father, the reinstatement of some kind of all-powerful, benevolent God-type figure, the end of religion, something for his headache, three different girls, infinite grace, and the rare autograph of '40s movie actress Kitty Alexander. With fries.
The Autograph Man is a deeply funny existential tour around the hollow things of modernity: celebrity, cinema, and the ugly triumph of symbol over experience. Through London and then New York, searching for the only autograph that has ever mattered to him, Alex follows the paper trail while resisting the mystical lure of Kabbalah and Zen, and avoiding all collectors, con men, and interfering rabbis who would put themselves in his path. Pushing against the tide of his generation, Alex-Li is on his way to finding enlightenment, otherwise known as some part of himself that cannot be signed, celebrated, or sold.
Cover title lettering by Leanne Shapton.
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The Brightest Star in the Sky follows seven neighbors whose lives become entangled when a sassy and prescient spirit pays a visit to their Dublin townhouse with the intent of changing at least one of their lives. But what will this metamorphosis be and who will the sprite choose?
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Terrible sound quality, worse narration
- By Jan on 02-23-10
By: Marian Keyes
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After the Party
- By: Lisa Jewell
- Narrated by: Helen Duff
- Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In this irresistible novel from the author of Then She Was Gone, Jem and Ralph discover the power of starting over after 11 years together have left them drifting apart.
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Bitter, Anti-Christian Stereotyping Detracts.
- By Gretchen on 11-23-18
By: Lisa Jewell
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The Bone Clocks
- By: David Mitchell
- Narrated by: Jessica Ball, Leon Williams, Colin Mace, and others
- Length: 24 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Following a scalding row with her mother, 15-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her old life. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: A sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew only as "the radio people," Holly is a lightning rod for psychic phenomena. Now, as she wanders deeper into the English countryside, visions and coincidences reorder her reality until they assume the aura of a nightmare brought to life.
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Not Short Listed, This Time
- By Mel on 09-23-14
By: David Mitchell
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Stories
- All-New Tales
- By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, Al Sarrantonio - editor, Joe Hill, and others
- Narrated by: Anne Bobby, Jonathan Davis, Katherine Kellgren, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more—to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal.
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Something for Everyone
- By Nicole on 05-24-17
By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, and others
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Ordinary Thunderstorms
- A Novel
- By: William Boyd
- Narrated by: Gideon Emery
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
One May evening in London, Adam Kindred, a young climatologist in town for a job interview, is feeling good about the future as he sits down for a meal at a little Italian bistro. He strikes up a conversation with a solitary diner at the next table, who leaves soon afterward. With horrifying speed, this chance encounter leads to a series of malign accidents, through which Adam loses everything—home, family, friends, job, reputation, passport, credit cards, cell phone—never to get them back.
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Amazing Story Teller
- By Dorothy on 09-07-14
By: William Boyd
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Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See
- By: Juliann Garey
- Narrated by: Dan Butler
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
In her tour-de-force first novel, Juliann Garey takes us inside the restless mind, ravaged heart, and anguished soul of Greyson Todd, a successful Hollywood studio executive who leaves his wife and young daughter and for a decade travels the world giving free reign to the bipolar disorder he's been forced to keep hidden for almost 20 years.
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Psychosis or Syphilis?
- By Vira on 04-02-13
By: Juliann Garey
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The Poison Tree
- By: Erin Kelly
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Successful journalist Erin Kelly has electrified readers and critics alike with her debut novel The Poison Tree. In this scintillating work, Karen and her daughter Alice have established a safe, happy life free from the madness of Karen’s past. But when Karen’s former lover Rex is released from prison, her old associations intrude upon the present - and threaten everything she holds dear.
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I couldn't stop listening the book.
- By Gladys on 07-29-15
By: Erin Kelly
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About a Girl
- By: Lindsey Kelk
- Narrated by: Penelope Rawlins
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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The brand new summer bestseller from the immensely popular Lindsey KelkTess Brookes has always been a girl with a Plan. But when the Plan goes belly up, she’s forced to reconsider.After accidently answering her flatmate Vanessa’s phone, she decides that since being Tess isn’t going so well, she might try being Vanessa. With nothing left to lose, she accepts Vanessa’s photography assignment to Hawaii - she used to be an amateur snapper, how hard can it be? Right? But Tess is soon in big trouble.
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Ahhh okay...
- By lzydaizy on 08-02-16
By: Lindsey Kelk
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Secret Smile
- By: Nicci French
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Miranda's sister Kerri has a new boyfriend. He's a handsome charmer who seems to dote on Kerri. But Brendan isn't the man he says he is. Miranda should know. She broke off her own affair with him just a few weeks ago when she found him reading her diary.
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I want my 9 hours back
- By Ashley on 07-19-23
By: Nicci French
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Strong Motion
- By: Jonathan Franzen
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello
- Length: 20 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Louis Holland arrives in Boston in a spring of ecological upheaval (a rash of earthquakes on the North Shore) and odd luck: the first one kills his grandmother. Louis tries to maintain his independence, but falls in love with a Harvard seismologist whose discoveries about the earthquakes' cause complicate everything.
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Compelling Story, Ridiculous Narrator
- By DianeReads on 02-28-16
By: Jonathan Franzen
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A Nail Through The Heart
- A Poke Rafferty Thriller
- By: Timothy Hallinan
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- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
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Poke Rafferty was writing offbeat travel guides for the young and terminally bored when Bangkok stole his heart. Now the American expat is assembling a new family with Rose, the former go-go dancer he wants to marry, and Miaow, the tiny, streetwise urchin he wants to adopt. But trouble in the guise of good intentions comes calling just when everything is beginning to work out.
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Ever been to Bangkok?
- By Richard Delman on 12-11-11
By: Timothy Hallinan
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What listeners say about The Autograph Man
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Peter Bassing
- 05-19-23
Disappointment
This was a huge disappointment after White Teeth. It appeared that Smith had no idea where she was going and strung together not-very-funny sketches with incoherent, cartoonish characters. She tried to hide this with similarly-incoherent references to Cabala, etc
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- Tep
- 05-14-18
Hooked! Great narration!
I've never listened to an audio book before so it was all new to me. I started to get used to being read to. I LOVED Ben Barnes's narration. He did all the voices and really got me invested in the story. Very pleased --Tep
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1 person found this helpful
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- A. Young
- 09-15-19
I Wanted to Choke the Protagonist
I enjoyed Zadie Smith’s writing style and her focus on fame, race and religion. Ben Barnes’ performance captured the characters and tone of the story perfectly. It does start off slow but it’s a necessary slow build. I really loathed the protagonist, Alex-Li, at several points, which propelled me throughout the story. I loved how the storyline played with my feelings.
Overall, I enjoyed the audiobook. 😊
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- Azra King-Abadi
- 07-26-21
Fantastic Narration!
I found this protagonist pretty unlikable. That being said the book told us on an interesting journey that compelled me to find out what happens next. Perhaps some of the traits that make the main character so frustrating are things we generally don’t like about a ourselves. There are a lot of interesting ideas that are explored during the course of the book.
The narration was fantastic! You could tell a lot of work went in to creating distinct voices for each character. Voices that were distinct but not cartoonish or caricatures. I would love to listen to more books narrated by him.
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- Ashley J.
- 05-14-18
Maybe it's ...me? (But I don't think it's me.)
Can't remember the last time my apathy towards a protagonist teetered on actual contempt. This was a tedious listen for me, salvaged only by Ben Barnes gifting the story an energy it didn't deserve. He's rocky to start but soon finds his comfort zone, giving each character their own voice and doing the best he can with the source material. It took a good eight hours for the book to get interesting, and that plot line is painfully short-lived. I basically only managed to finish the listen out of spite for having spent a credit on it.
Zadie Smith seems to be quite highly regarded as an author, but I was unfamiliar with her work and this was not the best first impression. There are a few gems as far as turns-of-phrase go; there was, I think, one line in the whole text that got an honest laugh out of me. Those highlights, however, were too few and far between.
Then again, I don't claim to be some great intellect, so maybe the whole thing was lost on me. I am a natural pragmatist; I have an odd sense of humour; I've read some really cerebral/artsy/dark/weird stuff in my time. I tend to gravitate more towards books that want to be appreciated; this thing is so je-ne-sais-quoi that I'm not sure it actually expects anyone to finish it, let alone come out the other side with anything other than indifference and a wish for their time back.
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4 people found this helpful