The Five Audiobook By Vladimir Jabotinsky cover art

The Five

A Novel of Jewish Life in Turn-of-the-Century Odessa

Preview

Try for $0.00
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 Five

By: Vladimir Jabotinsky
Narrated by: Peter Lerman
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.95

Buy for $19.95

Confirm purchase
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.
Cancel

About this listen

The Five is an captivating novel of the decadent fin-de-siècle written by Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880–1940), a controversial leader in the Zionist movement whose literary talents, until now, have largely gone unrecognized by Western readers/listeners. The author deftly paints a picture of Russia's decay and decline—a world permeated with sexuality, mystery, and intrigue. Michael R. Katz has crafted the first English-language translation of this important novel, which was written in Russian in 1935 and published a year later in Paris under the title Pyatero.

The book is Jabotinsky's elegaic paean to the Odessa of his youth, a place that no longer exists. It tells the story of an upper-middle-class Jewish family, the Milgroms, at the turn of the century. It follows five siblings as they change, mature, and come to accept their places in a rapidly evolving world. With flashes of humor, Jabotinsky captures the ferment of the time as reflected in political, social, artistic, and spiritual developments. He depicts with nostalgia the excitement of life in old Odessa and comments poignantly on the failure of the dream of Jewish assimilation within the Russian empire.

The book is published by Cornell University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©2005 Cornell University (P)2024 Redwood Audiobooks
Classics Jewish Literary Fiction Witty
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

"The most remarkable thing about this novel is how good it is." (The New Republic)

"Offers a fervent account of the temporary success and ultimate failure of Jewish assimilation in the Russian empire." (Booklist)

"With...this new English translation, The Five will become wonderfully important to a variety of different readers." (Judith Deutsch Kornblatt, University of Wisconsin–Madison)

What listeners say about The Five

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

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

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant book marred by awful narration

It's quite remarkable how good this book is. It's really a novel, not a political tract, even though of course Jabotinsky was a politician. But the narration is terrible: it's like a bad version of Virtual Voice. Worth it to me because I wanted to know the book, and if you are busy or have a commute, it is probably worth it. But someone needs to give this narrator some basic lessons.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Narrator ruins a great story

The origin story of a ground breaking individual like Jabotinsky is sadly made unbearable by this narrator. Audible claims that this story is read by a man, however I strongly doubt this as it appears to be a very poorly performed AI narration. As an audiobook, this work is not finish-able, however I’m sure this book would be great when read or even just listened to with an alternate narration .

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!