Wish I Was Here
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
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $14.24
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Matthew Lloyd Davies
-
By:
-
M. John Harrison
About this listen
BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE GUARDIAN, THE OBSERVER (LONDON), GRANTA, AND TLS
One of our greatest and most original living writers sets out the perils of the writing life with joyful provocation in this “anti-memoir.”
M. John Harrison has produced one of the greatest bodies of fiction of any living British author, encompassing space opera, speculative fiction, fantasy, and magical and literary realism. But is there even an M. John Harrison and if so, where do we find him?
This is the question the author asks in this memoir-as-mystery, turning for clues to forty years of notetaking: “A note or it never happened. A note or you never looked.”
Are these notebooks records of failed presence? How do they shine a light on a childhood in the industrial Midlands, a portrait of a young artist in counterculture London, on an adulthood of restless escape into hill and moorland landscapes? And do they tell us anything about the writing of books, each one so different from the last that it might have been written by another version of the author?
With aphoristic daring and laconic wit, this anti-memoir will fascinate and delight. It confirms M. John Harrison still further in his status as the most original British writer of his generation.
“Wish I Was Here is a beautifully strange masterwork. It is as if M. John Harrison’s prose devises its own autobiography, while the figure of its author stands to one side tinkering at a eulogy for a dead cat, a manifesto against ruin porn, and a manual of operating procedures for creativity as funky as a Brian Eno card deck. How can this also produce a sublime fugue on memory and aging? Read it and see.”—Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude
©2024 M. John Harrison (P)2024 Simon & Schuster AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again
- By: M. John Harrison
- Narrated by: Max Dowler
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shaw had a breakdown, but he's getting himself back together. He has a single room, a job on a decaying London barge and an on-off affair with a doctor's daughter called Victoria, who claims to have seen her first corpse at age 13. It's not ideal, but it's a life. Or it would be if Shaw hadn't got himself involved in a conspiracy theory that, on dark nights by the river, seems less and less theoretical....
-
-
dull never really gets going
- By phillalf on 03-28-22
By: M. John Harrison
-
Light
- A Novel
- By: M. John Harrison
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In M. John Harrison’s dangerously illuminating new novel, three quantum outlaws face a universe of their own creation, a universe where you make up the rules as you go along and break them just as fast, where there’s only one thing more mysterious than darkness.
-
-
You’ll never see anything the same way again
- By Amazon Customer on 01-30-22
By: M. John Harrison
-
The Upside-Down World
- Meetings with the Dutch Masters
- By: Benjamin Moser
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beyond the sainted Rembrandt—who harbored a startling darkness—and the mysterious Vermeer, whose true subject, it turned out, was lurking in plain sight, Moser got to know a whole galaxy of geniuses: the doomed virtuoso Carel Fabritius, the anguished wunderkind Jan Lievens, the deaf prodigy Hendrik Avercamp. Year after year, as he tried to make a life for himself in the Netherlands, Moser found friends among these centuries-dead artists. And he found that they, too, were struggling with the same questions that he was.
-
-
Great Book
- By PaulB on 02-29-24
By: Benjamin Moser
-
The Doomed City
- By: Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky, Andrew Bromfield - Translator
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 17 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are widely considered the greatest of Russian science fiction masters, yet the novel they worked hardest on, the one that was their own favorite and that listeners worldwide have acclaimed their magnum opus, has never before been published in English. The Doomed City was so politically risky that the Strugatskys kept its existence a secret even from their closest friends for 16 years. It was only published in Russia during perestroika in the late 1980s, the last of their works to see publication.
-
-
Great Book
- By Mr. Sparkle on 03-15-18
By: Arkady Strugatsky, and others
-
Sun and Steel
- By: Yukio Mishima
- Narrated by: Matthew Taylor
- Length: 2 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this fascinating document, one of Japan's best known - and controversial - writers created what might be termed a new literary form. It is new because it combines elements of many existing types of writing, yet in the end, fits into none of them. The road Mishima took to salvation is a highly personal one. Yet here, ultimately, one detects the unmistakable tones of a self transcending the particular and attaining to a poetic vision of the universal.
-
-
SNOOZEFEST
- By Ivan Rueda on 04-17-21
By: Yukio Mishima
-
Ambergris
- City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek, Finch
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot, Cassandra Campbell, Oliver Wyman
- Length: 43 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before Area X, there was Ambergris. Jeff VanderMeer conceived what would become his first cult classic series of speculative works: the Ambergris trilogy. Now, for the first time ever, the story of the sprawling metropolis of Ambergris is collected into a single volume, including City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek: An Afterword, and Finch.
-
-
Entrancing “weird” novel
- By Joe on 12-04-20
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again
- By: M. John Harrison
- Narrated by: Max Dowler
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shaw had a breakdown, but he's getting himself back together. He has a single room, a job on a decaying London barge and an on-off affair with a doctor's daughter called Victoria, who claims to have seen her first corpse at age 13. It's not ideal, but it's a life. Or it would be if Shaw hadn't got himself involved in a conspiracy theory that, on dark nights by the river, seems less and less theoretical....
-
-
dull never really gets going
- By phillalf on 03-28-22
By: M. John Harrison
-
Light
- A Novel
- By: M. John Harrison
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In M. John Harrison’s dangerously illuminating new novel, three quantum outlaws face a universe of their own creation, a universe where you make up the rules as you go along and break them just as fast, where there’s only one thing more mysterious than darkness.
-
-
You’ll never see anything the same way again
- By Amazon Customer on 01-30-22
By: M. John Harrison
-
The Upside-Down World
- Meetings with the Dutch Masters
- By: Benjamin Moser
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beyond the sainted Rembrandt—who harbored a startling darkness—and the mysterious Vermeer, whose true subject, it turned out, was lurking in plain sight, Moser got to know a whole galaxy of geniuses: the doomed virtuoso Carel Fabritius, the anguished wunderkind Jan Lievens, the deaf prodigy Hendrik Avercamp. Year after year, as he tried to make a life for himself in the Netherlands, Moser found friends among these centuries-dead artists. And he found that they, too, were struggling with the same questions that he was.
-
-
Great Book
- By PaulB on 02-29-24
By: Benjamin Moser
-
The Doomed City
- By: Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky, Andrew Bromfield - Translator
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 17 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are widely considered the greatest of Russian science fiction masters, yet the novel they worked hardest on, the one that was their own favorite and that listeners worldwide have acclaimed their magnum opus, has never before been published in English. The Doomed City was so politically risky that the Strugatskys kept its existence a secret even from their closest friends for 16 years. It was only published in Russia during perestroika in the late 1980s, the last of their works to see publication.
-
-
Great Book
- By Mr. Sparkle on 03-15-18
By: Arkady Strugatsky, and others
-
Sun and Steel
- By: Yukio Mishima
- Narrated by: Matthew Taylor
- Length: 2 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this fascinating document, one of Japan's best known - and controversial - writers created what might be termed a new literary form. It is new because it combines elements of many existing types of writing, yet in the end, fits into none of them. The road Mishima took to salvation is a highly personal one. Yet here, ultimately, one detects the unmistakable tones of a self transcending the particular and attaining to a poetic vision of the universal.
-
-
SNOOZEFEST
- By Ivan Rueda on 04-17-21
By: Yukio Mishima
-
Ambergris
- City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek, Finch
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot, Cassandra Campbell, Oliver Wyman
- Length: 43 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before Area X, there was Ambergris. Jeff VanderMeer conceived what would become his first cult classic series of speculative works: the Ambergris trilogy. Now, for the first time ever, the story of the sprawling metropolis of Ambergris is collected into a single volume, including City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek: An Afterword, and Finch.
-
-
Entrancing “weird” novel
- By Joe on 12-04-20
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Pessoa
- By: Richard Zenith
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 42 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nearly a century after his wrenching death, the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) remains one of our most enigmatic writers. Believing he could do "more in dreams than Napoleon," yet haunted by the specter of hereditary madness, Pessoa invented dozens of alter egos, or "heteronyms," under whose names he wrote in Portuguese, English, and French. Unsurprisingly, this "most multifarious of writers" (Guardian) has long eluded a definitive biographer—but in renowned translator and Pessoa scholar Richard Zenith, he has met his match.
-
-
Captivating
- By J. M. Batista on 03-09-24
By: Richard Zenith
-
The Confidence-Man
- His Masquerade
- By: Herman Melville
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Evoking Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, this is a story of interlocking tales from a group of steamboat passengers traveling down the Mississippi toward New Orleans. Aboard the Fidèle can be found all manner of con men, from those selling stock in failing companies and herbal cure-all "medicines" to those who are raising money for supposed charitable organizations and those who simply ask for money outright.
-
-
Trust and the confidence man
- By Nelson on 01-24-22
By: Herman Melville
-
The Snail on the Slope
- By: Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky, Olena Bormashenko - translator
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Snail on the Slope takes place in two distinct worlds. One is the Administration, an institution run by a surreal, Kafkaesque bureaucracy whose aim is to govern the forest below. The other is the Forest, a place of fear, weird creatures, primitive people, and violence. Peretz, who works at the Administration, wants to visit the Forest. Candide crashed in the Forest years ago and wants to return to the Administration. Their journeys are surprising and strange, and listeners are left to puzzle out the mysteries of these foreign environments.
-
-
What insanity must feel like
- By Matt on 01-10-19
By: Arkady Strugatsky, and others
-
Gogmagog
- The Chronicles of Ludwich
- By: Jeff Noon, Steve Beard
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Nysis is unlike any other river. Mysteries unfold with each port of call. Not many can navigate these channels; not many know of its whirlpools and sandbanks, of the ravenous creatures that lurk beneath the surface. Cady used to have the necessary knowledge and the powers of spectral navigation, but her glory days are well behind her now. This might well be her final journey.
-
-
fantastic world
- By Eric Levanduski on 04-14-24
By: Jeff Noon, and others
-
When We Cease to Understand the World
- By: Benjamin Labatut, Adrian West - translator
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When We Cease to Understand the World is a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction. Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger - these are some of the luminaries into whose troubled lives Benjamín Labatut thrusts the listener, showing us how they grappled with the most profound questions of existence.
-
-
the true heir w.g. sebald
- By Thomas on 12-23-21
By: Benjamin Labatut, and others
-
Carpenter's Gothic
- By: William Gaddis
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This story of raging comedy and despair centers on the tempestuous marriage of an heiress and a Vietnam veteran. From their "carpenter Gothic" rented house, Paul sets himself up as a media consultant for Reverend Ude, an evangelist mounting a grand crusade that conveniently suits a mining combine bidding to take over an ore strike on the site of Ude's African mission.
-
-
the dialogue is superb
- By Monti Korbelle on 07-01-19
By: William Gaddis
Critic reviews
"Infectiously engaging, packed with rueful wisdom and a distinctive sense of mischief."—Keith Miller, Times Literary Supplement, Book of the Year 2023
"M. John Harrison's 'anti-memoir' is a masterpiece. Broad in scope and beautifully written, this unconventional autobiography contains some of the best advice struggling writers will ever receive."—Nicolas Lezard, The Spectator
"This book is old school experiment, several unrelated episodes from a literary reality show, a kind of negative biography with a big author-shaped hole in the middle waiting for the reader to fill based on all the evidence around it. It's also one of the best books I've read so far this year."—International Times
Related to this topic
-
How to Say It: Words That Make a Difference
- By: Allison Friederichs Atkison, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Allison Friederichs Atkison
- Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Words. We use them all the time, every day, mostly without giving them much thought at all. We take for granted that they’re here at our disposal whenever we need them. But if you’ve ever wished you could communicate more effectively, words are the place to start. It’s incumbent upon you to choose the best words to accomplish your goals, because how you choose to communicate influences—well, everything! The power of communication shapes our professional goals, our relationships, and our lives—so the words we choose to use carry a great deal of power.
-
-
Meh. Glad I didn't pay for it.
- By Paula on 07-23-22
By: Allison Friederichs Atkison, and others
-
Manifest Now
- By: Idil Ahmed
- Narrated by: Idil Ahmed
- Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Manifest Now provides a step-by-step guide with tools, techniques, and proven strategies to raise your frequency and create the reality you want. This audiobook is designed to guide you through the mental, physical, and spiritual aspects of manifesting and creating all that your heart desires. You'll learn how to start removing mental and emotional blocks so you can rediscover that manifesting is your natural birthright. You'll feel more confident, reconnected, and powerful as you listen.
-
-
This is my first review of 2 years subscribed!
- By Rodrigo on 02-22-19
By: Idil Ahmed
-
How to Release Anxiety
- By: Gabrielle Bernstein
- Narrated by: Gabrielle Bernstein
- Length: 1 hr and 29 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s not just you. Stress levels are at an all-time high—so much so that a recently convened panel of medical experts in the US has recommended that all adults under the age of 65 be screened for anxiety. In How to Release Anxiety, Gabby Bernstein offers simple, actionable steps for feeling better, living with more ease, and showing up for those around us. Gabby’s unusual advice: Rather than manage your anxiety, what if you befriended it? Gabby posits that what we befriend, we can ultimately be at ease with. So she invites us to get curious.
-
-
Not my thing, but one good point
- By Scott on 10-22-22
-
30 Covert Emotional Manipulation Tactics: How Manipulators Take Control in Personal Relationships
- By: Adelyn Birch
- Narrated by: Kitty Hendrix
- Length: 1 hr and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Identifying covert emotional manipulation is tricky. You sense something is wrong, but you can't quite put your finger on the problem. This powerful book will reveal to you if manipulation is at play in your relationships. It will open your eyes. You will learn 30 tactics manipulators use to get what they want. You will also learn to spot the warning signs within yourself that expose covert manipulation is taking place, even if you can't identify the specific tactics being used.
-
-
This book can change your life!
- By Cat O. on 04-04-18
By: Adelyn Birch
-
How to Write Best-Selling Fiction
- By: James Scott Bell, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: James Scott Bell
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most people think the way to write a best seller is to have a lot of talent and even more luck. As you will learn, there is a recipe for success, and luck may be the least important ingredient in creating a best seller. No one has cracked the code better than James Scott Bell. A best-selling author himself, and the author of the number-one best seller for writers, Plot & Structure, Mr. Bell has been teaching the principles of best-selling fiction for over 20 years, principles that apply to any genre or style.
-
-
I'm a writer and this course is to blame.
- By accentrique on 07-22-19
By: James Scott Bell, and others
-
Mind Mapping
- Improve Memory, Concentration, Communication, Organization, Creativity, and Time Management
- By: Kam Knight
- Narrated by: Jim D Johnston
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a comprehensive guide to learning about a wonderful technique called mind maps. Mind maps are an amazing organizational and creativity tool that can improve memory, concentration, communication, organization, creativity, and time management.
-
-
make sure to practice
- By Meryem on 04-24-17
By: Kam Knight
-
How to Say It: Words That Make a Difference
- By: Allison Friederichs Atkison, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Allison Friederichs Atkison
- Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Words. We use them all the time, every day, mostly without giving them much thought at all. We take for granted that they’re here at our disposal whenever we need them. But if you’ve ever wished you could communicate more effectively, words are the place to start. It’s incumbent upon you to choose the best words to accomplish your goals, because how you choose to communicate influences—well, everything! The power of communication shapes our professional goals, our relationships, and our lives—so the words we choose to use carry a great deal of power.
-
-
Meh. Glad I didn't pay for it.
- By Paula on 07-23-22
By: Allison Friederichs Atkison, and others
-
Manifest Now
- By: Idil Ahmed
- Narrated by: Idil Ahmed
- Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Manifest Now provides a step-by-step guide with tools, techniques, and proven strategies to raise your frequency and create the reality you want. This audiobook is designed to guide you through the mental, physical, and spiritual aspects of manifesting and creating all that your heart desires. You'll learn how to start removing mental and emotional blocks so you can rediscover that manifesting is your natural birthright. You'll feel more confident, reconnected, and powerful as you listen.
-
-
This is my first review of 2 years subscribed!
- By Rodrigo on 02-22-19
By: Idil Ahmed
-
How to Release Anxiety
- By: Gabrielle Bernstein
- Narrated by: Gabrielle Bernstein
- Length: 1 hr and 29 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s not just you. Stress levels are at an all-time high—so much so that a recently convened panel of medical experts in the US has recommended that all adults under the age of 65 be screened for anxiety. In How to Release Anxiety, Gabby Bernstein offers simple, actionable steps for feeling better, living with more ease, and showing up for those around us. Gabby’s unusual advice: Rather than manage your anxiety, what if you befriended it? Gabby posits that what we befriend, we can ultimately be at ease with. So she invites us to get curious.
-
-
Not my thing, but one good point
- By Scott on 10-22-22
-
30 Covert Emotional Manipulation Tactics: How Manipulators Take Control in Personal Relationships
- By: Adelyn Birch
- Narrated by: Kitty Hendrix
- Length: 1 hr and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Identifying covert emotional manipulation is tricky. You sense something is wrong, but you can't quite put your finger on the problem. This powerful book will reveal to you if manipulation is at play in your relationships. It will open your eyes. You will learn 30 tactics manipulators use to get what they want. You will also learn to spot the warning signs within yourself that expose covert manipulation is taking place, even if you can't identify the specific tactics being used.
-
-
This book can change your life!
- By Cat O. on 04-04-18
By: Adelyn Birch
-
How to Write Best-Selling Fiction
- By: James Scott Bell, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: James Scott Bell
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most people think the way to write a best seller is to have a lot of talent and even more luck. As you will learn, there is a recipe for success, and luck may be the least important ingredient in creating a best seller. No one has cracked the code better than James Scott Bell. A best-selling author himself, and the author of the number-one best seller for writers, Plot & Structure, Mr. Bell has been teaching the principles of best-selling fiction for over 20 years, principles that apply to any genre or style.
-
-
I'm a writer and this course is to blame.
- By accentrique on 07-22-19
By: James Scott Bell, and others
-
Mind Mapping
- Improve Memory, Concentration, Communication, Organization, Creativity, and Time Management
- By: Kam Knight
- Narrated by: Jim D Johnston
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a comprehensive guide to learning about a wonderful technique called mind maps. Mind maps are an amazing organizational and creativity tool that can improve memory, concentration, communication, organization, creativity, and time management.
-
-
make sure to practice
- By Meryem on 04-24-17
By: Kam Knight