
The Golden House
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $20.25
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Vikas Adam
-
By:
-
Salman Rushdie
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A modern American epic set against the panorama of contemporary politics and culture—a hurtling, page-turning mystery that is equal parts The Great Gatsby and The Bonfire of the Vanities
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR, PBS, Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, Financial Times, The Times of India
On the day of Barack Obama’s inauguration, an enigmatic billionaire from foreign shores takes up residence in the architectural jewel of “the Gardens,” a cloistered community in New York’s Greenwich Village. The neighborhood is a bubble within a bubble, and the residents are immediately intrigued by the eccentric newcomer and his family. Along with his improbable name, untraceable accent, and unmistakable whiff of danger, Nero Golden has brought along his three adult sons: agoraphobic, alcoholic Petya, a brilliant recluse with a tortured mind; Apu, the flamboyant artist, sexually and spiritually omnivorous, famous on twenty blocks; and D, at twenty-two the baby of the family, harboring an explosive secret even from himself. There is no mother, no wife; at least not until Vasilisa, a sleek Russian expat, snags the septuagenarian Nero, becoming the queen to his king—a queen in want of an heir.
Our guide to the Goldens’ world is their neighbor René, an ambitious young filmmaker. Researching a movie about the Goldens, he ingratiates himself into their household. Seduced by their mystique, he is inevitably implicated in their quarrels, their infidelities, and, indeed, their crimes. Meanwhile, like a bad joke, a certain comic-book villain embarks upon a crass presidential run that turns New York upside-down.
Set against the strange and exuberant backdrop of current American culture and politics, The Golden House also marks Salman Rushdie’s triumphant and exciting return to realism. The result is a modern epic of love and terrorism, loss and reinvention—a powerful, timely story told with the daring and panache that make Salman Rushdie a force of light in our dark new age.
Listeners also enjoyed...




















Editorial reviews
Editors Select, September 2017
A new book by Salman Rushdie is always a literary event, so The Golden House has been on my radar since I first heard rumors of an upcoming “Trump-themed” Rushdie novel. Then Vikas Adam (Lion) was announced as narrator, and it quickly went to the top of my fall 2017 to-listen list. With its plethora of mythic, literary, and pop culture references, this book is a challenge - but one well worth taking on. It deftly explores issues of the day (and eternity, apparently), from love, immigration, class, and gender identity to family, history, and yes...politics. At times mesmerizing, often confounding, but always verbose and beautiful, The Golden House is Rushdie doing realism (rather than magical realism) with the skill of a master storyteller. —Tricia, Audible Editor
Critic reviews
“[A] modern masterpiece . . . telling a story full of wonder and leaving you marveling at how it ever came out of the author’s head.”—Associated Press
“Wildly satiric and yet piercingly real . . . If F. Scott Fitzgerald, Homer, Euripides, and Shakespeare collaborated on a contemporary fall-of-an-empire epic set in New York City, the result would be The Golden House.”—Poets & Writers
“A tonic addition to American—no, world!—literature . . . a Greek tragedy with Indian roots and New York coordinates.”—San Francisco Chronicle
People who viewed this also viewed...







An exacurated plot brilliantly told
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Top Notch
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great storyline, failed miserable dramatization
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A good story set against the madness of 2016
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
He protesteth much
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
My frustration reading/listening to this book ranged many times between giving up on finishing the book because I didn't like it at all, to believing that this massive experience would only get better if you reread it, and maybe it did deserve to be reread
And... While writing this review I suddenly realize that a more subtle allegory than the joker/Trump might be Nero Goldens marriage to the Russian babba-yaga being about selling out to putin...? Oh boy... I struggled sooo hard to be done with this book, but I guess it seems that it kinda payed of, because there is more to it than meets the ear, and a reread seems unavoidable. I hope you enjoy reading this review as much as I did writing it, and I processed my experience doing so. I highly recommend reading/listening to the book as well as reviewing it afterwards.
Struggled to finish, but no regrets (barely)
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Tremendous Saga
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Excellent production and story
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great story and performance
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.