
The Myth of the Self-Made Man
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Narrated by:
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Inés del Castillo
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Eric Yves Garcia
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Christian Barillas
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By:
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Ruben Reyes
About this listen
From a stunning new Latino voice, Myth of the Self-Made Man is a wildly inventive story - part sci-fi, with echoes of Get Out - that plunges us into a brave new American landscape.
More than a hundred years into the future, as the US approaches its 400th anniversary, Tomas, a young graduate student, searches for the real identity of one of the cyborgs that maintained American homes. He has been haunted for years by an audio clip of a cyborg named Felipe and is intent on writing Felipe’s biography. In the clip, Felipe can only recite that he was made in America, but Tomas must find out: Where was the Self-made Man really from?
In the National Archives, Tomas uncovers a trove of articles, depositions, and interviews about many other cyborgs, boys from El Salvador and Guatemala kidnapped, detained, and reengineered at a monolithic New England company.
As we follow Tomas’ determined investigation into these lives, their voices echo through our own past, present, and future with unsettling clarity.
©2021 Ruben Reyes (P)2021 Audible Originals, LLC.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Featured Article: The Best Short Story Audiobooks to Immerse Yourself In Now
Short stories have had a huge impact on the canon of great literature. In fact, some of history's most revered novelists—Ernest Hemingway, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Louisa May Alcott among them—wrote short stories, which make excellent introductions to their work. Plus, these bite-size listens are the perfect way to get a big dose of literary inspiration even when you’re short on time. To get you started, we’ve compiled a list of listens.
What listeners say about The Myth of the Self-Made Man
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- Dog lover1
- 04-20-21
Fabulous and thought provocating
Great story. Totally believable, even in the near future. Also disturbing. Ironically, I have just listen to the product in the George Floyd murder case. And while justice was done there, I’m not so sure America is ready for total justice, liberty for all and freedom.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Shannon
- 04-16-21
Devastatingly Well Written! A MUST read!
This story is so poignant and soul-shattering in all the ways great sci-fi and indeed literature at large should be... I am so grateful to the author for sharing their craft and perspective!
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14 people found this helpful
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- lynn allen
- 04-27-21
They Ruined It For Themselves
I am focusing on the negative so people can evaluate if these points would bother them. If you get through the list unbothered, it is the book for you.
1. Dropped an F-bomb, the one and only of the book, in the last 2 minutes of the book. It was completely unnecessary, said by an unlikely character, and added absolutely nothing.
2, Details insistent with futuristic setting. Holograms and cyborgs exist, but you are watching something on a DVD? Seems unlikely, Even today, historically important data is digitized and the originals are kept in a vault for safekeeping. Pretty much everything is the same as today in the "future" except for the cyborgs and mention of a hologram.
3. The information that the main character found, if the story was real, would have been unlikely to exist (or be allowed to exist) and the further information that they received no one would have cared enough about the regular-joe main character to make sure they got it.
4. The poorly pronounced Spanish was a little annoying though this might have been intentional as a literary device.
5. I'm trying to avoid spoilers. So, basically something as mentioned as being "ethically sourced" but it is something that seems impossible to source ethically and the author doesn't explain how it could be possible. Missed opportunity to introduce some futurism and make the story more believable.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Nicole
- 05-25-21
We need more!
What a captivating short story. I would have loved to listen to a full book based on this premise.
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- Blue777
- 07-06-21
Human plus technology = Selfmade man
This is a disturbing yet enjoyable nonfiction story. You don't need to worry about your job being automated, you should be worried about ending up a cyborg.LOL.
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- marisol garcia
- 05-18-21
A modern story of slavery and human trafficking
This short story is perfectly woven to include our border crisis with a dash of science fiction. I enjoyed the reader and the story. The conclusion made me so desperately sad.
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- JRCC
- 03-31-23
AMAZING, too bad it's just a short story!
AMAZING, too bad it's just a short story! left me wanting more. it's a very powerful story. In such a short time so much is conveyed.
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- Taylor
- 05-05-21
To the quick
At first I wasn’t sure what to make of this. Unfortunately, by the end I was cut to the quick and my heart was shattered. As someone of Latin descent, I feel that this is where our voices are, currently. Anyone who is looking to understand what it feels like to be latinx in a black lives and white lives matter society without anyone mentioning brown lives, needs to hear this.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mildred Enriquez
- 08-09-21
Great short story
This short story gave an interesting perspective of immigrants being taken advantage of by their own people. I would recommend listening.
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- C. Gilbert
- 06-15-24
Interesting story, abrupt ending
Ended so suddenly that I checked the app to make sure there hadn’t been some sort of error. And just when it was starting to get really interesting too!
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