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Everything Is Illuminated Audiobook
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(3.50) - 56 listener ratings
Publisher Description
“Imagine a novel as verbally cunning as A Clockwork Orange, as harrowing as The Painted Bird, as exuberant and twee as Candide, and you have Everything Is Illuminated . . . Read it, and you'll feel altered, chastened — seared in the fire of something new.” — Washington Post
With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man — also named Jonathan Safran Foer — sets out to find the woman who might or might not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of the war, an amorous dog named Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior, and the unforgettable Alex, a young Ukrainian translator who speaks in a sublimely butchered English, Jonathan is led on a quixotic journey over a devastated landscape and into an unexpected past.
As their adventure unfolds, Jonathan imagines the history of his grandfather’s village, conjuring a magical fable of startling symmetries that unite generations across time. As his search moves back in time, the fantastical history moves forward, until reality collides with fiction in a heart-stopping scene of extraordinary power.
“A rambunctious tour de force of inventive and intelligent storytelling . . . Foer can place his reader’s hand on the heart of human experience, the transcendent beauty of human connections. Read, you can feel the life beating.” — Philadelphia Inquirer
Robert Petkoff has appeared on film and TV in Woody Allen’s Irrational Man, Madam Secretary, Elementary, The Good Wife, Chappelle’s Show, and Law & Order.
His Broadway credits include All The Way with Bryan Cranston, Anything Goes, Ragtime, Spamalot and Fiddler on the Roof. Mr. Petkoff is an Audie and Earphones award winner.
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"This is the best book I've read in a while. I liked it from the beginning because it was so funny. But then it went from funny to sweet to sad to devastating to hopeful(?). Actually, I don't know if it was hopeful in the end. But borrowing words from Alex, this was a "premium" novel, and Jonathan Safran Foer is indeed an "ingenious Jew"."
— Shucheta (5 out of 5 stars)
Everything Is Illuminated Listener Reviews
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" ...one of the rarer times I can say I enjoyed the movie much more... "
— Christa, 2/12/2014 -
" I might be the only one who thought this book was just okay. I found it a little difficult to follow. I did enjoy the connection to Ukraine and found humor in parts of the book. "
— Jenn, 2/2/2014 -
" well that sure was...a thing "
— Sarah, 2/2/2014 -
" Hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time. "
— Nicole, 1/29/2014 -
" I've never read anything like this. Sometimes I had no idea what I was reading, and then... Everything was illuminated. "
— Joseph, 1/12/2014 -
" Good story, entertaining characters. I found myself reading a lot of the funnier lines aloud to others. "
— Brett, 1/10/2014 -
" This was one of the books from the "1001 Books you Need to Read fore you Die" list where I thought "why is this on the list?!" I mean ... it didn't take me very long to read, and it was pretty inoffensive, but ...it didn't really make an impression on me at all. "
— Fiona, 1/10/2014 -
" Loved it. Jealous a 24 year old wrote it. Genius. "
— Rose, 12/26/2013 -
" I didn't finish this book. I give the author credit for the creative characters and "voice" but I didn't enjoy wading through it. "
— Colleen, 12/22/2013 -
" If DFW were a Jew with feelings. "
— En, 12/3/2013 -
" One of those can't put down books. Sad and funny and one of my all time favourites. I didn't rate the book five stars only because I had trouble keeping some of the history straight. "
— Maria, 8/10/2013
About Jonathan Safran Foer
Jonathan Safran Foer is the author of the novels Everything Is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and Here I Am and of the nonfiction books Eating Animals and We Are the Weather. Everything Is Illuminated won several literary prizes, including the National Jewish Book Award and the Guardian First Book Award. His work has been translated into thirty-six languages.
About Robert Petkoff
Robert Petkoff is an actor and audiobook narrator who has won a prestigious Audie Award and multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards and has been named an AudioFile Golden Voice. He has appeared on Chappelle’s Show, Law & Order, and Quantum Leap. His Broadway credits include Sir Robin in Spamalot, Perchik in Fiddler on the Roof, and Tateh in Ragtime.