The Emperor's Children
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Suzanne Toren
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By:
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Claire Messud
About this listen
Friends at Brown University, Marina, Danielle, and Julius are still looking to make their marks as they approach their 30s. Marina lives with her celebrated parents on the Upper West Side while trying to complete her book. TV producer Danielle's success is due to the puff pieces she churns out. Freelance critic Julius can barely make ends meet. Into this mix comes Bootie, Marina's college dropout cousin, who is just the catalyst the three friends need to start making significant changes in their lives.
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French ex-pat Tristan Mourault is the wealthy, urbane heir to a world-renowned collection of art - and an insatiable voyeur enamored with Karen Miller, a 15-year-old from a working-class family in San Francisco. Deciding he must 'rescue' Karen from her unhappy circumstances, Tristan kidnaps her and stages her death to mask his true crime.
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In malice,Quite close
- By Wendy on 09-06-11
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Late in the Day
- A Novel
- By: Tessa Hadley
- Narrated by: Abigail Thaw
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Alexandr and Christine and Zachary and Lydia have been friends since they first met in their 20s. Thirty years later, Alex and Christine are spending a leisurely summer’s evening at home when they receive a call from a distraught Lydia: She is at the hospital. Zach is dead. In the wake of this profound loss, the three friends find themselves unmoored; all agree that Zach, with his generous, grounded spirit, was the irreplaceable one they couldn’t afford to lose. Inconsolable, Lydia moves in with Alex and Christine. The loss warps their relationships.
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It's all in the performance
- By RueRue on 02-08-19
By: Tessa Hadley
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I'm Supposed to Protect You from All This
- A Memoir
- By: Nadja Spiegelman
- Narrated by: Nadja Spiegelman
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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For a long time, Nadja Spiegelman believed her mother was a fairy. More than her famous father, Maus creator Art Spiegelman, and even more than most mothers, hers - French-born New Yorker art director Françoise Mouly - exerted a force over reality that was both dazzling and daunting. As Nadja's body changed and "began to whisper to the adults around me in a language I did not understand", their relationship grew tense.
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Aweful
- By Haley Abreu on 07-05-17
By: Nadja Spiegelman
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The Ramblers
- A Novel
- By: Aidan Donnelley Rowley
- Narrated by: Erica Sullivan
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in the most magical parts of Manhattan - the Upper West Side, Central Park, Greenwich Village - The Ramblers explores the lives of three lost souls bound together by friendship and family. During the course of one fateful Thanksgiving week, a time when emotions run high and being with family can be a mixed blessing, Rowley's sharply defined characters explore the moments when decisions are deliberately made, choices accepted, and pasts reconciled.
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Lovely Portrait of The City
- By Dingo27 on 02-19-16
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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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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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London Fields
- By: Martin Amis
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 21 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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The murderee is Nicola Six, a "black hole" of sex and self-loathing who is intent on orchestrating her own extinction. The murderer may be Keith Talent, a violent lowlife whose only passions are pornography and darts; or the rich, honorable, and dimly romantic Guy Clinch. As Nicola leads her suitors towards the precipice, London--and, indeed, the whole world--seems to shamble after them in a corrosively funny novel of complexity and morality.
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Big chewy novel, excellent narration
- By Sand on 08-21-14
By: Martin Amis
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Conversations with Friends
- A Novel
- By: Sally Rooney
- Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Frances is a cool-headed and darkly observant young woman vaguely pursuing a career in writing while studying in Dublin. Her best friend and comrade-in-arms is the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi. At a local poetry performance one night, Frances and Bobbi catch the eye of Melissa, a well-known photographer, and as the girls are then gradually drawn into Melissa's world, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman's sophisticated home and tall, handsome husband, Nick.
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Interesting point of view; glad I listened!
- By Amazon Customer on 08-23-17
By: Sally Rooney
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Inheriting Edith
- A Novel
- By: Zoe Fishman
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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For years Maggie Sheets has been an invisible hand in the glittering homes of wealthy New York City clients, scrubbing, dusting, mopping, and doing all she can to keep her head above water as a single mother. Everything changes when a former employer dies, leaving Maggie a staggering inheritance - a house in Sag Harbor. The catch? It comes with an inhabitant: the deceased's 82-year old mother, Edith.
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Narrator is distracting.
- By Onelove on 05-13-20
By: Zoe Fishman
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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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What listeners say about The Emperor's Children
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- cjuli
- 03-09-17
overwrought narration
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
I feel the narration really overwhelmed my impression of the book. Audiobooks, I suppose, are prone to this phenomenon for good or for bad. In this case, trust me, it took away from the book. There is some pretty prose in this novel though the story itself may disappoint. Lots of navel gazing and some whining, and sympathetic characters were scarce. The writer has a gift for expression. I may try another of her novels sans the over affected, boorish narration.
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Suzanne Toren?
someone less affected and overbearing.
Was The Emperor's Children worth the listening time?
no
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Overall
- Patricia B Tripoli
- 01-17-11
Read Reviews Before Buying
This was one of those "why did I choose this?" selections for me. The majority of reviews state it like it is: a bunch of young adults whining about their sorry self-fulfilled lives. If that is your thing, go for it. But I need something a little more solid.
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6 people found this helpful
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- VK
- 09-30-24
Meh
Not sure if it was just the performance that made this hard to be excited to listen to or if the story was just kind of mediocre without any characters who were remotely likeable
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Overall
- Kate
- 02-03-07
Great Book/Lame Director
I loved the book but wasn't crazy about the narrator. I really wanted a simpler, less obvious reading of what is a morally and intellectually complex story. I felt as though the reader didn't quite trust the writing to speak for itself so added unnecessary embellishment.
I felt that several of her characterizations were really heavy-handed. Instead of trusting the listener to determine a character's strengths and weaknesses she seemed determined to telegraph them for us.
Ultimately this overwrought interpretation rests squarely on the director's shoulders. It is the director's job to help the actor temper her reading. Because he didn't do this, the reader got in the way of the beautiful narrative flow of this magnificent novel.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Ginger Bryant
- 12-14-06
Whining 20 somethings
This story has no point and in the end I was disappointed with the time I spent listening to the book. The characters wander aimlessly for too long, then just when you expect there to be some big event/blowup or closure (the affair is discovered, he really did marry her to get at her father, etc.) the book just ends. I don't know if the writer is also of this generation, but it felt like she struggled to write a book with any meaning, just as Marina couldn't pull her book together. It left me wondering if the author was describing her own unfulfilling life. The original setup of characters and situations had so much potential, but the end left me flat. For the last hour of the book (at least), I wanted to slap all 4 characters, the 3 friends and the cousin, and say 'grow up and dump this illusion that you have to 'be somebody' or do something 'significant' and be noticed and get on with your life'.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Ryan
- 06-27-11
Woes of the over-privileged
3.5, really.
None of the central characters in The Emperor's Children are very likable people, though they aren't portrayed without some sympathy. Murray Thwaite is an egotistical, two-faced ivy tower intellectual used to being fawned over by the media. His overindulged daughter, Marina, is "taking a year off" for a fatuous writing project, but is barely working on it. She gets involved with Ludovic Seeley, an ambitious, Machiavellian Australian who intends to launch a magazine. Murray's nephew, Bootie, cultivates a creepy, parasitic idealism reminiscent of Ignatius J. Reilly in A Confederacy of Dunces.
Messud takes her unpleasant cast and sets their lives in speeding motion, like billiard balls on a table, gleefully letting them race towards their inevitable collisions. Later in the book, the September 11 attacks occur, creating their own complications in everyone's lives -- which have little to do with the death and destruction, of course. It's a scathing glimpse at the underside of the privileged NYC elite, focusing on their self-absorption and sense of entitlement, and it's hard not to watch their struggles and falls.
To be fair, though, the characters are a bit caricatured, offering little to redeem the liberal intelligentsia, and not reflecting much that's positive about any other way of being. I often pitied these flawed people, sometimes identified with them, and half wanted to see them get their well-deserved comeuppance, but are they really the reality?
Still, I enjoyed this book and its plotting. If, like me, you're an urban dweller who sometimes find yourself at cocktail parties with people from this world, you might get something out of this scathing drama of its aspirants and pretenders.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Betty Slater
- 01-24-16
BORING!
I can't even remember the plot ... If there was one. Endless descriptions and philosophizing.
I stopped trying to keep track of the characters and their relationships. Sloppy writing
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- Patrica
- 08-05-16
big build up
the book to me was mostly rising action. I was really hoping for more reaction to 9/11 than all of the lead in. but overall it was a fun light read.
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Overall
- Jessica
- 09-08-07
Not all it is cracked up to be!
Not a bad book but this story has no point and in the end I was disappointed with the time I spent listening to the book.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Kelley
- 12-28-16
Waste of Time!
Any additional comments?
I always listed to the end, just in case! This book I listened for 7 hours and still didn't know what the characters were all about. Just a waste of time. Should have read the reviews more closely before buying. Others feel the same.
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1 person found this helpful