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Julia: A Novel Audiobook
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A PEOPLE Magazine Must-Read Book for Fall 2023 | An Esquire Best Book of Fall 2023 | A Guardian Biggest New Book of 2023 | A LitHub Most Anticipated Book of 2023
An imaginative, feminist, and brilliantly relevant-to-today retelling of Orwell’s 1984, from the point of view of Winston Smith’s lover, Julia, by critically acclaimed novelist Sandra Newman.
Julia Worthing is a mechanic, working in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. It’s 1984, and Britain (now called Airstrip One) has long been absorbed into the larger trans-Atlantic nation of Oceania. Oceania has been at war for as long as anyone can remember, and is ruled by an ultra-totalitarian Party, whose leader is a quasi-mythical figure called Big Brother. In short, everything about this world is as it is in Orwell’s 1984.
All her life, Julia has known only Oceania, and, until she meets Winston Smith, she has never imagined anything else. She is an ideal citizen: cheerfully cynical, always ready with a bribe, piously repeating every political slogan while believing in nothing. She routinely breaks the rules, but also collaborates with the regime when necessary. Everyone likes Julia.
Then one day she finds herself walking toward Winston Smith in a corridor and impulsively slips him a note, setting in motion the devastating, unforgettable events of the classic story. Julia takes us on a surprising journey through Orwell’s now-iconic dystopia, with twists that reveal unexpected sides not only to Julia, but to other familiar figures in the 1984 universe. This unique perspective lays bare our own world in haunting and provocative ways, just as the original did almost seventy-five years ago.
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“Louise Brealey powerfully performs this sci-fi novel, inspired by the novel 1984…Newman’s audiobook expands the story, capturing the unique struggles of its women…Brealey doesn’t hold back on the intensity required. She delivers the novel’s shocking moments, as well as its surprising subtle humor. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
— AudioFile
Quotes
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“Newman does much more than update 1984, she makes it seem essential reading again.”
— Sunday Times (London) -
“A stunning look into what happens when a person of strength faces the worst in humanity, as well as a perfect specimen of derivative art that, in standing on another’s shoulders, can reach a higher plane.”
— Los Angeles Times -
“A smashing feminist utopia (or dystopia)…Newman provides powerful insights on the limits of sacrifice…This is a stunner.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Awards
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Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award
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A London Guardian Best Book of the Year
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A People Magazine Pick for Fall
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An Esquire pick of Best Fall Books
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About Sandra Newman
Sandra Newman is the author of several novels, including The Heavens, named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and The Country of Ice Cream Star, longlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post and NPR. Her writing has appeared in Harper’s and Granta, among other publications.
About Louise Brealey
Louise Brealey, AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator, studied history at Cambridge University before studying acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in Manhattan. On television, she appeared in the long-running medical drama Casualty on BBC One in 2002, appearing in ninety-six episodes. Afterwards, she appeared in the BBC serialization of Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, as well as Hotel Babylon, Law & Order: UK, Ripper Street, and in all series of Sherlock as Molly Hooper.