
The Imagined Life
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Lee Osorio
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By:
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Andrew Porter
About this listen
From the award-winning, internationally acclaimed writer, a taut, elegiac novel about a man trying to uncover the truth about the father who left him behind
Steven Mills has reached a crossroads. His wife and son have left, and they may not return. Which leaves him determined to find out what happened to his own father, a brilliant, charismatic professor who disappeared in 1984 when Steve was twelve, on a wave of ignominy.
As Steve drives up the coast of California, seeking out his father’s friends, family members, and former colleagues, the novel offers us tantalizing glimpses into Steve’s childhood—his parents’ legendary pool parties, the black-and-white films on the backyard projector, secrets shared with his closest friend. Each conversation in the present reveals another layer of his father’s past, another insight into his disappearance. Yet with every revelation, his father becomes more difficult to recognize. And, with every insight, Steve must confront truths about his own life.
Rich in atmosphere, and with a stunningly sure-footed emotional compass, The Imagined Life is a probing, nostalgic novel about the impossibility of understanding one’s parents, about first loves and failures, about lost innocence, about the unbreakable bonds between a father and a son.
Cover image © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London
©2025 Andrew Porter (P)2025 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"With its quiet confidence and elegant precision, The Imagined Life is a masterpiece of memory, music, and longing. Andrew Porter is one of our finest prose stylists, and everything he’s turned his attention to here—a troubled adult son struggling to understand his troubled father; the slow disintegration of an American family; a boy coming of age amidst the wine and weed of California in the early ‘80s—shimmers into pure gold."—Kimberly King Parsons, author of We Were the Universe
"The Imagined Life is a wise and elegant novel. Andrew Porter bestows so much grace on the confusion of growing up and the relatable anguish of looking back and recognizing our parents as people—true people—who struggle just as mightily with sorrow and love."—Manuel Muñoz, author of The Consequences
"The Imagined Life delves into the space between the people we love and who we wish them to be. With unsentimental precision, Andrew Porter examines the flawed relationship between a father and son, approaching it with the grace of a true literary master."—Jai Chakrabarti, author of A Play for the End of the World
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Story
“Ask anyone non-Northern, they’ll only know Donny as punchline of a joke or place they changed trains once ont way to London.” But Doncaster’s also the home of Rach, Shaz, and Kel, bezzies since childhood and Donny lasses through and through. Never mind that Rach is skeptical of Shaz’s bolder plots; or that Shaz, who comes from a rougher end of town, feels left behind when the others begin plotting a course to uni; or that Kel sometimes feels split in two trying to keep the peace―the girls are inseparable, their friendship as indestructible as they are.
By: Colwill Brown
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Sorrowful Mysteries
- The Shepherd Children of Fatima and the Fate of the Twentieth Century
- By: Stephen Harrigan
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Sorrowful Mysteries is a detailed and extraordinarily compassionate examination of the appearance of Our Lady of Fátima, an attempt to unravel and put into perspective the lives of the three children, how this life-altering event changed them and the world they knew, and how it intersected with so many of the signal moments of the twentieth century—pandemics, revolutions, world wars, assassinations, and even skyjackings.
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We’ll researched and objectively told
- By Aaron Wohl on 06-11-25
By: Stephen Harrigan
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The High House
- A Novel
- By: Jessie Greengrass
- Narrated by: Camilla Rockley, Sam Newton, Mariam Abu-Hejleh
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Perched on a sloping hill, set away from a small town by the sea, the High House has a tide pool and a mill, a vegetable garden, and, most importantly, a barn full of supplies. Caro, Pauly, Sally, and Grandy are safe, so far, from the rising water that threatens to destroy the town and that has, perhaps, already destroyed everything else. But for how long?
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Narration difficult
- By mdelafield on 07-09-23
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Things Left Unsaid
- A Novel
- By: Sara Jafari
- Narrated by: Honor Gilles, Majid Mehdizadeh-Valoujerdy
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
When twenty-six year old Shirin Bayat bumps into Kian at a house party in London, she is taken aback by the immediate feelings that resurface. It’s been a decade since they were close friends at school, before painful events pulled them apart, suddenly and seemingly forever. Ever since, Shirin has lived with the aching weight of things left unsaid between them. Now they're back in each other's lives, at a time when Shirin needs someone she can trust the most.
By: Sara Jafari
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The Fact Checker
- By: Austin Kelley
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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It started out like any other morning for the Fact Checker. The piece, “Mandeville/Green,” didn’t raise any red flags. There were more pressing stories that week—it being 2004 New York City and all. “Mandeville/Green” was a light, breezy look at a local farm called New Egypt, whose Ramapo tomatoes were quickly becoming the summer’s hottest produce. At first glance, the story seemed straightforward, but one line made the Fact Checker pause: a stray quote from a New Egypt volunteer named Sylvia making a cryptic reference to “nefarious business” at the farmer’s market.
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Awful
- By O on 06-14-25
By: Austin Kelley
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The Wildelings
- By: Lisa Harding
- Narrated by: Jessica Regan
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Jessica and Linda have been best friends since the first day of school. Both girls are from very different broken homes—and beautiful, wilful Jessica has always ensured their survival. Now eighteen, the two have come to Wilde—an elite university in the heart of Dublin, far away from their troubled childhoods. Jessica thrives immediately, and, with the faithful Linda at her side, finds herself at the heart of a new circle of friends. But then Mark enters the picture.
By: Lisa Harding
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Cat's People
- A Novel
- By: Tanya Guerrero
- Narrated by: Elena Rey
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Núria, a single-by-choice barista with a little resentment for the “crazy cat lady” label, is a member of The Meow-Yorkers, a group in Brooklyn who takes care of the neighborhood’s stray cats. On her volunteering days, she starts finding Post-it notes left by a secret admirer in an area where she feeds her favorite stray—a black cat named Cat. Like most felines, he is both curious and observant, so of course he knows who the notes are from. Núria, however, is clueless.
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Wonderful and kind story.
- By Olesya Bracey on 06-08-25
By: Tanya Guerrero
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Glitter in the Dark
- By: Olesya Lyuzna
- Narrated by: Amber Dekkers
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Ambitious advice columnist Ginny Dugan knows she's capable of more than solving other people's beauty problems, but her boss at Photoplay magazine thinks she's only fit for fluff pieces. When she witnesses the kidnapping of a famous singer at Harlem's hottest speakeasy, nobody takes her seriously, but Ginny knows what she saw—and what she saw haunts her.
By: Olesya Lyuzna
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A Line You Have Traced
- By: Roisin Dunnett
- Narrated by: Kim Bretton
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Against a backdrop of growing violence and environmental collapse, three women living centuries apart search for meaning and connection by becoming obsessed with a mysterious red book. A Line You Have Traced asks what we owe to those who will come after us, and what it might cost us.
By: Roisin Dunnett
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The Wonder Drug
- By: Susanna Beard
- Narrated by: Christopher Weeks, Anna Cordell
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Michelle will never get tired of the view from her office window. Jagged mountains—and the wintry streets of Reykjavik, Iceland. It's a perk of her new job at Kimia Pharmaceuticals. Her old life—a dreary 9-to-5 and a cheating ex back in London—already feels a million miles away. Still, there's something strange about Michelle's new colleagues. They're all young, beautiful . . . and aloof. But then Michelle meets Lars, a jittery researcher from the restricted upper floors. She thinks she's alone in the elevator, until he squeezes between the doors. Just in time.
By: Susanna Beard
Good writing
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