The Infatuations
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Narrated by:
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Justine Eyre
About this listen
From the award-winning Spanish writer Javier Marías comes an extraordinary new book that has been a literary sensation around the world: an immersive, provocative novel propelled by a seemingly random murder that we come to understand - or do we? - through one woman’s ever-unfurling imagination and infatuations.
At the Madrid café where she stops for breakfast each day before work, María Dolz finds herself drawn to a couple who is also there every morning. Though she can hardly explain it, observing what she imagines to be their "unblemished" life lifts her out of the doldrums of her own existence. But what begins as mere observation turns into an increasingly complicated entanglement when the man is fatally stabbed in the street. María approaches the widow to offer her condolences, and at the couple’s home she meets - and falls in love with - another man who sheds disturbing new light on the crime. As María recounts this story, we are given a murder mystery brilliantly reimagined as metaphysical enquiry, a novel that grapples with questions of love and death, guilt and obsession, chance and coincidence, how we are haunted by our losses, and above all, the slippery essence of the truth and how it is told.
©2013 Javier Marías; translation copyright 2013, Margaret Jull Costa (P)2013 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Blindingly intelligent, engagingly accessible—it seems there’s nothing Marías can’t make fiction do. No wonder he’s perennially mentioned as a potential Nobel laureate . . . Marías’s rare gift is his ability to make intellectual jousting as suspenseful as the chase scenes in a commercial thriller. He’s tremendously stimulating to read; arresting turns of phrase enfold piercing insights.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred)
“A haunting masterpiece . . . The lasting challenge to literature is to achieve a satisfying marriage between high art and the low drives of a simple plot. The Infatuations is just such a novel . . . Marías plays with perception, memory, and guilt like a toreador. With every flourish of his literary cape, the enthralled reader is never allowed to forget that, in the end, the author will make a killing. Just as Macbeth is a thriller that’s also a great tragedy, The Infatuations is a murder story that’s also a profound story of fatal obsession . . . Great Spanish novels don’t come along too often. Don Quixote was first published as long ago as 1620. I wouldn’t be surprised if The Infatuations soon acquired an equally devoted following.” —The Observer
“Extraordinary . . . [A] masterly novel . . . The classical themes of love, death, and fate are explored with elegant intelligence by Marías in what is perhaps his best novel so far . . . Marías has defined the ethos of our time.” —Alberto Manguel, The Guardian
“Marías [is] a consummate stylist . . . The cadences of his exquisite sentences are preserved in translator Costa’s English, the clauses balanced like a loaded scale . . . It is magic, stupendous, and not done for effect.” —Booklist (starred)
“Absorbing and unnerving . . . For all the currents that ripple across its surface, The Infatuations is powered ultimately by the pressure of good old-fashioned suspense . . . A labyrinthine exploration, at once thrilling and melancholy, of the meanings of one man’s death—and a vivid testimony to the power of stories, for good or ill, to weave the world into our thoughts and our thoughts into the world.” —The Sunday Times (London)
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An Oft-Forgotten Dostoevsky Gem
- By Ben on 02-09-20
By: Fyodor Dostoevsky, and others
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Kokoro
- By: Natsume Soseki
- Narrated by: Matt Shea
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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The subject of Kokoro, which can be translated as 'the heart of things' or as 'feeling,' is the delicate matter of the contrast between the meanings the various parties of a relationship attach to it. In the course of this exploration, Soseki brilliantly describes different levels of friendship, family relationships, and the devices by which men attempt to escape from their fundamental loneliness. The novel sustains throughout its length something approaching poetry, and it is rich in understanding and insight.
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The Heart Of Things, Relationships & Feelings
- By Sara on 04-27-15
By: Natsume Soseki
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The Zahir
- By: Paulo Coelho
- Narrated by: Derek Jacobi, Emilia Fox
- Length: 5 hrs and 16 mins
- Abridged
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It begins with a glimpse or a passing thought. It ends in obsession. One day a renowned author discovers that his wife, a war correspondent, has disappeared leaving no trace. Though time brings more success and new love, he remains mystified - and increasingly fascinated - by her absence. Was she kidnapped, blackmailed, or simply bored with their marriage? The unrest she causes is as strong as the attraction she exerts.
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Beautiful and deep read!
- By Top 1% Buyer on 09-13-15
By: Paulo Coelho
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A Feast of Carrion
- By: Keith McCarthy
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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St Benjamin's Medical School is the greatest of its kind, any death occurring within its walls would have created ripples within the academic world, but the death of Nikki Exner is far from being ordinary. Raped, and then grotesquely executed, her theatrical murder horrifies everyone. John Eisenmenger, a former forensic pathologist, finds himself dragged unwillingly into the case. Teaming up with solicitor Helena Flemming, Eisenmenger sets out to discover what really did happen to Nikki Exner.
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excellent book
- By Yves on 06-27-09
By: Keith McCarthy
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Wicked Autumn
- A Max Tudor Novel
- By: G. M. Malliet
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Max Tudor has adapted well to his post as vicar of St. Edwold's in the idyllic village of Nether Monkslip. The quiet village seems the perfect home for Max, who has fled a harrowing past as an MI5 agent. But this new-found serenity is quickly shattered when the highly vocal and unpopular president of the Women's Institute turns up dead at the Harvest Fayre. The death looks like an accident, but Max's training as a former agent kicks in, and before long he suspects foul play.
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A Classic Cozy English Village Mystery
- By Sara on 10-08-14
By: G. M. Malliet
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The Sunday Philosophy Club
- An Isabel Dalhousie Mystery
- By: Alexander McCall Smith
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith, winner of the first-ever Saga Award for Wit, has entertained millions with his beloved No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency mysteries. Now this phenomenally popular author introduces a fresh series, brimming with the charm and humor his stable of dedicated fans can't get enough of.
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Advice For Prospective Listeners
- By DCinMI on 02-18-13
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Aleph
- By: Paulo Coelho
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Transform your life. Rewrite your destiny. his most personal novel to date, internationally best-selling author Paulo Coelho returns with a remarkable journey of self-discovery. Like the main character in his much-beloved The Alchemist, Paulo is facing a grave crisis of faith. As he seeks a path of spiritual renewal and growth, he decides to begin again: to travel, to experiment, to reconnect with people and the landscapes around him. Setting off to Africa, and then to Europe and Asia via the Trans-Siberian Railway, he initiates a journey to revitalize his energy and passion.
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Strangely compelling read
- By Kathy in CA on 11-22-11
By: Paulo Coelho
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Murder at the Brightwell
- By: Ashley Weaver
- Narrated by: Billie Fulford-Brown
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Amory Ames is a wealthy young woman who questions her marriage to her notoriously charming playboy husband Milo. Looking for a change, she accepts a request for help from her former fiance, Gil Trent. Amory accompanies Gil to the luxurious Brightwell Hotel in an attempt to circumvent the marriage of his sister Emmeline to Rupert Howe, a disreputable ladies' man. Amory sees in the situation a grim reflection of her own floundering marriage.
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Horrible Narration
- By Maribee7 on 05-04-15
By: Ashley Weaver
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I, Robot
- By: Isaac Asimov
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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They mustn't harm a human being, they must obey human orders, and they must protect their own existence...but only so long as that doesn't violate rules one and two. With these Three Laws of Robotics, humanity embarked on a bold new era of evolution that would open up enormous possibilities, and unforeseen risks.
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Thank you
- By Fredrik on 06-11-04
By: Isaac Asimov
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The Shadow District
- By: Arnaldur Indridason
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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A 90-year-old man is found dead in his bed, smothered with his own pillow. On his desk, the police find newspaper cuttings about a murder case dating from the Second World War, when a young woman was found strangled behind Reykjavik's National Theatre. Konrad, a former detective, is bored with retirement and remembers the crime. He grew up in "the shadow district", a rough neighborhood bordered by the National Theatre. Why would someone be interested in that crime now?
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A slow burn!
- By Rosemary Wells on 12-12-17
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Devils
- By: Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 28 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Exiled to four years in Siberia, but hailed by the end of his life as a saint, prophet, and genius, Fyodor Dostoevsky holds an exalted place among the best of the great Russian authors. One of Dostoevsky’s five major novels, Devils follows the travails of a small provincial town beset by a band of modish radicals - and in so doing presents a devastating depiction of life and politics in late 19th-century Imperial Russia.
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Excellent translation and narration
- By L. Kerr on 09-06-13
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Fraud
- By: Anita Brookner
- Narrated by: Anna Massey
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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When Anna Durrant is reported missing her friends seem unconcerned at her disappearance. After all, her life has been one of concealment. For years Anna submitted to the protective dependence of her mother, and even after Amy Durrant’s death she simply conformed to the expectations of others. Increasingly, Anna feels herself trapped by these expectations.
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Top Shelf Brookner
- By David P on 09-15-15
By: Anita Brookner
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The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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In the bizarre world of Franz Kafka, salesmen turn into giant bugs, apes give lectures at college academies, and nightmares probe the mysteries of modern humanity’s unhappiness. More than any other modern writer in world literature, Kafka captures the loneliness and misery that fill the lives of 20th-century humanity.
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Great assortment of stories
- By Himanshu Modi on 08-20-18
By: Franz Kafka
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The Castle
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: Allan Corduner
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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A land-surveyor, known only as K., arrives at a small village permanently covered in snow and dominated by a castle to which access seems permanently denied. K.'s attempts to discover why he has been called constantly run up against the peasant villagers, who are in thrall to the absurd bureaucracy that keeps the castle shut, and the rigid hierarchy of power among the self-serving bureaucrats themselves.
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A masculine and coquettish reading
- By Alan on 05-27-12
By: Franz Kafka
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Jar City
- By: Arnaldur Indridason
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Gold Dagger Award winner Arnaldur Indridason’s novels featuring Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson became international sensations on their way to selling millions of copies worldwide. The debut of morose detective Sveinsson finds the inspector and his team delving into the murder of a retiree with horrifying secrets.
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Cerebral Police Procedural
- By Aaron on 09-14-13
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Death Is Hard Work
- A Novel
- By: Khaled Khalifa, Leri Price - translator
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Abdel Latif, an old man from the Aleppo region, dies peacefully in a hospital bed in Damascus. His final wish, conveyed to his youngest son, Bolbol, is to be buried in the family plot in their ancestral village of Anabiya. Though Abdel was hardly an ideal father, and though Bolbol is estranged from his siblings, this conscientious son persuades his older brother Hussein and his sister Fatima to accompany him and the body to Anabiya, which is - after all - only a two-hour drive from Damascus. There's only one problem: Their country is a war zone.
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The bleakness of living in a war-torn country!
- By Susan on 03-20-19
By: Khaled Khalifa, and others
What listeners say about The Infatuations
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Julie Ann Mendez-deLeon
- 08-21-13
Narration was awful.
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
Probably not. I expected more from the reviews, but was disappointed.
What could Javier Marías and Margaret Jull Costa (translator) have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
The story was alright but the author is redundant--essentially repeats himself ad nauseam
same ideas over and over. Nor are the ideas themselves particularly novel or new.
What didn’t you like about Justine Eyre’s performance?
Her vocal range is very limited. The quality of her voice was forced, breathy, and her diction is poor. The sound quality was not so great.
Was The Infatuations worth the listening time?
I could have skipped it.
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9 people found this helpful
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- R
- 01-07-16
Try to Listen Despite the Narrator's 'Vocal Fry'!
This is an amazing novel — it captivated me like no other audible book has. I agree, the narrator can have a grating voice, but if you can get over it, her voice sort of works for the novel. For the sake of the book, try to hear it that way!
The Infatuations is brilliant, eerie, mysterious book, filled with many truths and wicked insights (wickedly accurate). I enjoyed it very much and wish more of Javier Marias' books were translated and on audible.
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- SMMT
- 06-28-23
Its meh...
started very interesting then it went into some boring tangent.... so hard to finish it... i got bored
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- Jen
- 09-04-13
Narration makes the book impossible to listen to
I can't remember ever being so put off by a narrator, unless it was something technical such as a ridiculous fake accent or slow pace. This narrator simpers and whines her way through various characters in a way that totally trivializes the book. The themes of this book should provoke thought and reflection, but instead I just wanted the main characters to grow up - I couldn't imagine them feeling any emotion other than self-pity. What a shame.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Oenophile
- 09-26-16
Outstanding story
Maria's
1st the book: There is little denying that Javier Marias is a literary giant not just in the Spanish speaking world. His earlier book 'Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me' left an indelible imprint and a desire to want to read more of his works. The Infatuations is a book on the often destructive power that love and desire has on some people. Marias has an unconventional writing style ignoring some of the norms of diction. Yet that style is what sets his narrative apart from other authors. Pamuk was on the right track when he declared that Marias should be awarded the Nobel.
The narrator:
Justine Eyre does a wonderful job bringing this excellent piece of literature to life. Her slightly mezzo type voice gives the story the necessary darker tones it requires.
I immensely enjoyed immersing myself in the experience.
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- Caroline
- 01-01-14
Terrible narration; I don’t know about the story
I had to give the story a rating or else I couldn’t write a review, so I am giving it an average 3 stars. I have no idea of whether the story will be any good. I simply can’t go on listening, about 30 minutes in. The narrator is terrible. She swallows the words and doesn’t articulate clearly; it is just too much hard work to understand what she’s saying as I drive or walk. Her voice is very off-putting. I don’t have the return option on this one, or I certainly would do so.
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2 people found this helpful
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- j
- 01-15-14
Unlistenable narration - can't go beyond 30 mins
What would have made The Infatuations better?
Maria's is a fine writer, but listeners deserve better than Eyre's "vocal fry."
What didn’t you like about Justine Eyre’s performance?
Her "vocal fry" is an affected, annoying vocal pattern. It's hard to take seriously as well. It's the same technique employed by Jane Kozlowski's character on "30 Rock," which is a parody. Too bad- j. eyre did a good job in "Mad Men."
Any additional comments?
I'll buy the Kindle or paper edition to finish it. Wish I could return this one.
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3 people found this helpful
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- stl1111
- 08-19-13
Skip this one!
This book had positive publicist reviews and still sounds very interesting. I am a patient listener and more than willing to give a book lots of time to develop. But I couldn't listen to this narrator more than 4 hours. She sounds distraught and overly emotional at all times - even when not appropriate to the story. She's awful! I was driving and eventually listened to my young grandson's music rather than tolerate her another minute! This book may be one that is worth reading but don't bother listening.
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13 people found this helpful
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- Penny K
- 11-27-13
Listen to a sample before buying!
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
I am a lover of Javier Marias novels. I might have stayed with this listen beyond the first ten minutes, had I been able to tolerate the narrator's voice. She sounded drugged!
Would you ever listen to anything by Javier Marías and Margaret Jull Costa (translator) again?
Absolutely, with an alive narrator.
What didn’t you like about Justine Eyre’s performance?
The timbre of her voice is rather pleasant, but she gives the reading absolutely no life!
You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
I really could not say. I gave the story only one star because I would have to have read the text to rate it fairly.
Any additional comments?
Yes. I want to return this book, and I understand that I need to give it less than two stars in order to do so. I wish there were a way to do so without jeopardy -- for instance, a "can't judge" option, when one can not get past the opening, for one reason or another.
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2 people found this helpful
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- blkbough
- 05-20-15
found it boring, characters irritated me
What disappointed you about The Infatuations?
see title. DISCLOSURE, after first few chapters I ended up skimming.
What could Javier Marías and Margaret Jull Costa (translator) have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
way shorten it and make women characters less pathetic (or so they seemed to me)
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
dissapointment, irritation.
Any additional comments?
I'd not previously been moved to use the 'accelerated reading' feature!
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