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The Mark and the Void
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
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Publisher's summary
What links the Investment Bank of Torabundo, www.myhotswaitress.com (yes, with an s, don't ask), an art heist, a novel called For the Love of a Clown, a six-year-old boy with the unfortunate name of Remington Steele, a lonely French banker, a tiny Pacific island, and a pest control business run by an ex-KGB agent?
The Mark and the Void is Paul Murray's madcap new novel of institutional folly, following the success of his wildly original breakout hit, Skippy Dies.
While marooned at his banking job in the bewilderingly damp and insular realm known as Ireland, Claude Martingale is approached by a down-on-his-luck author, Paul, looking for his next great subject. Claude finds that his life gets steadily more exciting under Paul's fictionalizing influence; he even falls in love with a beautiful waitress. But Paul's plan is not what it seems - and neither is Claude's employer, the Investment Bank of Torabundo, which swells through dodgy takeovers and derivatives trading until - well, you can probably guess how that shakes out.
The Mark and the Void is the funniest novel ever written about the recent financial crisis and a stirring examination of the deceptions carried out in the names of art and commerce.
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- Narrated by: Ray Sawyer
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
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Things have been going pretty badly for Theo Bernstein. An unfortunate accident at work has lost him his job (and his work involved a Very Very Large Hadron Collider, so he's unlikely to get it back). His wife has left him. And he doesn't have any money. Before Theo has time to fully appreciate the pointlessness of his own miserable existence, news arrives that his good friend, a renowned physicist and Nobel laureate, has died. By leaving the apparently worthless contents of his safety deposit box to Theo, however, the professor has set him on a quest of epic proportions.
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A fun world for scifantasy fans
- By illgnosis on 06-19-13
By: Tom Holt
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Ghosts of Manhattan
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- By: Douglas Brunt
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s 2005. Nick Farmer is a 35-year-old bond trader with Bear Stearns clearing seven figures a year. The novelty of a work-related nightlife centering on liquor, hookers, and cocaine has long since worn thin, though Nick remains keenly addicted to his annual bonus. But the lifestyle is taking a toll on his marriage and on him.
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Great Book
- By Melvin on 06-30-15
By: Douglas Brunt
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The Unincorporated Man
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- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 23 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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The Unincorporated Man is a provocative social/political/economic novel that takes place in the future, after civilization has fallen into complete economic collapse. This reborn civilization is one in which every individual is incorporated at birth and spends many years trying to attain control over his or her own life by getting a majority of his or her own shares. Life extension has made life very long indeed.
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Hmm
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By: Dani Kollin, and others
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Smoke and Whispers
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Story
When a body is hauled from the River Tyne, Sarah Tucker heads to Newcastle for a closer look. She identifies the dead woman as Private Detective Zoë Boehm, but putting a name to the corpse only raises further questions. Did Zoë kill herself, or did one of her old cases come back to haunt her? Coincidence is an excuse that soon appears pretty unconvincing. Sarah can’t leave until she’s found the answers to her questions, however dangerous they might turn out to be.
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What a disappointment
- By jaf on 08-23-24
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The Brightest Star in the Sky
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The Brightest Star in the Sky follows seven neighbors whose lives become entangled when a sassy and prescient spirit pays a visit to their Dublin townhouse with the intent of changing at least one of their lives. But what will this metamorphosis be and who will the sprite choose?
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Terrible sound quality, worse narration
- By Jan on 02-23-10
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The Book of Air and Shadows
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Jake Mishkin's seemingly innocent job as an intellectual property lawyer has put him at the center of a deadly conspiracy and a chase to find a priceless treasure involving William Shakespeare. As he awaits a killer (or killers) unknown, Jake writes an account of the events that led to this deadly endgame, a frantic chase that began when a fire in an antiquarian bookstore revealed the hiding place of letters containing a shocking secret, concealed for 400 years.
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Not your average story.
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Ordinary Thunderstorms
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One May evening in London, Adam Kindred, a young climatologist in town for a job interview, is feeling good about the future as he sits down for a meal at a little Italian bistro. He strikes up a conversation with a solitary diner at the next table, who leaves soon afterward. With horrifying speed, this chance encounter leads to a series of malign accidents, through which Adam loses everything—home, family, friends, job, reputation, passport, credit cards, cell phone—never to get them back.
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Amazing Story Teller
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By: William Boyd
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Transmission
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Transmission, Hari Kunzru's new novel of love and lunacy, immigration and immunity, introduces a daydreaming Indian computer geek whose luxurious fantasies about life in America are shaken when he accepts a California job offer.
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Thoroughly Enjoyable
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Murder of Magpies
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It's just another day at the office for book editor Samantha Clair. Checking jacket copy for howlers, wondering how to break it to her star novelist that her latest effort is utterly unpublishable, lunch scheduled with gossipy author Kit Lowell, whose new book will deliciously dish the dirt on the fashion industry. But little does she know how much trouble Kit's book is about to be. Before it even goes to print.
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Excellent novel, horrible narrator
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44 Scotland Street
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The brilliant Alexander McCall Smith became an international sensation with his New York Times best-selling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels. His award-winning wit, made famous through that series, is fully on display in 44 Scotland Street.
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Smith's answer to Maupin
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Jane Bites Back
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Two hundred years after her death, Jane Austen is still surrounded by the literature she loves, but now it's because she's the owner of Flyleaf Books in a sleepy college town in Upstate New York. Every day she watches her novels fly off the shelves along with dozens of unauthorized sequels, spin-offs, and adaptations. Jane may be undead, but her books have taken on a life of their own.
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Utterly Rediculous
- By Tenaya on 05-29-10
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What listeners say about The Mark and the Void
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Catherine
- 02-19-16
Great Book
If you could sum up The Mark and the Void in three words, what would they be?
Humor. Humanity. Greed.
Because this book was written by Paul Murray and because I loved "Skippy Dies", this was a must read. Had I just read the book description blurb, I may not have picked this book up.
I've seen two separate book descriptions and both feel woefully inadequate. This book is so much more. This book is about life, love, failure, success, humanity's impact on this earth, technology's impact on humanity, income inequality, corporate greed, the haves and the have nots... to say the least.
From this work of fiction, I gained a better understanding of real life income inequality and the banking shenanigans that crashed the economy and that are still being carried out today.
I'm completely split on feeling satisfied by a humorous love story with the perfect ending and feeling really pissed about corporate and investment - some illegal but mostly legal - practices pulled over our eyes.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Mark and the Void?
Explanations of how the wealthy are making bank off the misfortune of others.
Any additional comments?
Derek Perkins did a wonderful job narrating. He covered quite a few nationalities quite well.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-04-16
Plot isn't very compelling, ending is boring
Characters are fantastic, dialogue is very funny, just not enough of a plot to be a truly great book
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- Truth Speaker
- 02-04-24
Funny and Literary
I almost never give five stars. This one earned it with a funny plot, brilliant turns of phrase, carefully plotted construction and a Goldilocks length of “just right.”
I’ve been wracking my brain to figure out who recommended this so I find I can hear what else they liked.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Lulu Dx
- 08-04-24
Really Good
I liked the premise of the book and how it kept evolving and circling back. This author has a way of encompassing all aspects of his characters and then presenting them where the reader can’t help but get deeply involved. Realistic take on the global financial crisis with a layer of humor. But it really is a story about relationships, unfulfilled emotional needs, subtle and blatant ways to self sabotage and glimmers of hope and what that provokes - fear, excitement, motivation. Enjoyed listening!
Narration was really good especially with the accents providing genuine voices and emotional ranges!!
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- Sharlotte
- 02-04-24
Only Mildly Interesting
I basically found most of this book rather boring which is surprising since Murray's other two books were masterpieces. Perhaps the dry narration didn't help much either. I do have to admit that I believe around in Chapter 12 or 13 there were some hilarious exchanges that caught me by surprise and had me burst out laughing. That was the only redeeming quality of the book.
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- Bourne Trippen
- 05-08-24
What is it that we really value?
This is the third bevel that I’ve enjoyed from the author. It was a touch slow to start but certainly filled the hours with complex detail thought and laugh out loud energy.
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- Carlile D. Crutcher
- 03-26-16
Great story. Great reader. Will make you think and laugh.
This book is a lot more than a story of a banker and an author. The way he makes a nightmarishly situation and serious philosophical discussions be riotously funny is pure magic. It's chaotic and profane but glued together with love.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-10-24
Laugh out loud funny.
Fantastic book overall, very funny, but I thought the story went on a little too long.
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- Michael
- 05-26-16
Well read but frustrating story
Narration was excellent but nothing happens until the end. The banker's life is a case study of frustration. It seems as though the author's intent was to capture the void of nothingness that plagues people living in the modern world as they struggle to find their true selves amidst a world enslaved by debt and financial ruin. The author makes the case that as the rich get richer and the poor poorer in an increasingly technology center world that people lose the ability to function in real life instead choosing to escape the doldrums of life by becoming absorbed in attempts to accumulate wealth or by living a virtual life on the internet and video games. The premise is interesting and something I sadly notice in my daily interactions with others but in this story the banker sometimes comes across as having his head stuck in the sand in an artificially deep hole.
The frustration accompanying our reading of his life seems meant to emulate the ennui in modern life but sometimes the banker just appears daft to the point where I began to suspect he could have been diagnosed with some form of autism. His inability to understand even the most obvious interactions was over-exaggerated and made me want to tear my hair out. By the end, the story behind to become too artificial although the ending is well done. I would rate the book higher if it had been shorter.
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3 people found this helpful
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- June
- 01-06-24
Boringly long
Feels like another “The Bee Sting” going on and on and on and on and on and on………
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