Preview
  • The Empire of the Senses

  • A Novel
  • By: Alexis Landau
  • Narrated by: Christopher Lane
  • Length: 20 hrs and 10 mins
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars (13 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Empire of the Senses

By: Alexis Landau
Narrated by: Christopher Lane
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $29.99

Buy for $29.99

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

A sweeping, gorgeously written debut novel of duty to family and country, passion, and blood ties unraveling in the charged political climate of Berlin between the wars.

"Empire of the Senses is lush, smart, sexy, affecting, interesting, beautifully researched and well made. Spending time in the world of this novel is an absolute pleasure" (Aimee Bender).

Lev Perlmutter, an assimilated, cultured German Jew, enlists to fight in World War I, leaving behind his gentile wife, Josephine, and their children, Franz and Vicki. Moving between Lev's and Josephine's viewpoints, part one of the novel focuses on Lev's experiences on the Eastern Front - both in war and in love - which render his life at home a pale aftermath by comparison. Part two picks up in Berlin in 1927-1928: the Perlmutter children, now young adults, grapple with their own questions - Franz drawn into the brown shirt movement, struggling with his unexpressed homosexuality; Vicki seduced by jazz, bobbed hair, and falling in love with a young man who wants to take her to Palestine.

Unlike most historical novels of this kind, The Empire of the Senses is not about the Holocaust but rather about the brew that led to it and about why it was unimaginable to ordinary people like Lev and his wife. Plotted with meticulous precision and populated by characters who feel and dream to the fullest, it holds us rapt as the tides of cultural loss and ethnic hatred come to coexist with those of love, passion, and the power of the human spirit.

©2014 Alexis Landau (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about The Empire of the Senses

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.