Mercury: A Novel Audiobook, by Margot Livesey Play Audiobook Sample

Mercury: A Novel Audiobook

Mercury: A Novel Audiobook, by Margot Livesey Play Audiobook Sample
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Read By: Nicol Zanzarella, Derek Perkins Publisher: HarperAudio Listen Time: at 1.0x Speed 6.33 hours at 1.5x Speed 4.75 hours at 2.0x Speed Release Date: September 2016 Format: Unabridged Audiobook ISBN: 9780062571717

Quick Stats About this Audiobook

Total Audiobook Chapters:

54

Longest Chapter Length:

38:13 minutes

Shortest Chapter Length:

12 seconds

Average Chapter Length:

10:26 minutes

Audiobooks by this Author:

4

Other Audiobooks Written by Margot Livesey: > View All...

Publisher Description

A taut emotional thriller about love, obsession and the secrets that pull a family apart.

Donald believes he knows all there is to know about seeing. An optician in suburban Boston, he rests assured that he and his wife, Viv, who works at the local stables, will live out quiet lives with their two children. Then Mercury—a gorgeous young racehorse—enters their lives and everything changes.

Viv’s friend Hilary has inherited Mercury from her brother after his mysterious death—he was riding Mercury late one afternoon and the horse returned to the stables alone. When Hilary first brings Mercury to board at the stables everyone there is struck by his beauty and prowess, particularly Viv. As she rides him, Viv dreams of competing with Mercury, rebuilding the ambitions of grandeur that she held for herself before moving to the suburbs. But her daydreams soon morph into consuming desire, and her infatuation with the thoroughbred quickly escalates to obsession.

By the time Donald understands the change that has come over Viv, it is too late to stop the impending fate that both their actions have wrought for them and their loved ones. A beautifully crafted, riveting novel about the ways in which relationships can be disrupted and, ultimately, destroyed by obsession, secrets and ever-escalating lies.

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“Narrator Derek Perkins performs wonderfully as Donald, a Scotsman who is transplanted to Boston…Narrator Nicol Zanzarella delivers Viv’s sections in an agitated, sincere tone that is perfect for the high-strung middle-aged woman whose insights never touch on her own personal problems. Perkins and Zanzarella deliver convincing performances as a violent act brings devastation in this convoluted drama, which is less about a horse than about the erosion of trust due to secrets, lies, and willful blindness. Intense listening.”

— AudioFile 

Quotes

  • “Explores themes of honesty and understanding by showing the impact that obsessions—grief, rapacity—can have on a marriage.”

    — New Yorker
  • “Livesey’s prose has a brusque sensuality…Livesey roots tension not just in the bones but the very marrow of the book.”

    — Boston Globe
  • “Step by step, Livesey brilliantly assembles a truly painful and frightening picture of delusion.”

    — Barnes&Noble.com
  • “A probing morality study that chips away at the age-old question: Would you turn in a loved one if you knew they did something reprehensible? Better yet: When, if ever, is it OK to lie?”

    — San Francisco Chronicle
  • “Mercury explores that thrilling, terrifying moment when grief turns blind, when passion becomes obsession.”

    — Lily King, author of Euphoria
  • “As her accolades attest, Margot Livesey is a refreshingly efficient writer with a talent for including minute details without losing the writer in excessive wording. Her portrayal of life as a Scottish transplant in the United States feels authentic, and the main characters have a complex personalities.”

    — RT Book Reviews

Awards

  • A Seattle Times Best Book of 2016
  • One of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2016
  • A BookPage Best Book of 2016
  • A People Pick of the Week

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About Margot Livesey

Margot Livesey is a New York Times bestselling author. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, Vogue, and the Atlantic, and she is the recipient of grants from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. The House on Fortune Street won the 2009 L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award. Born in Scotland, Livesey currently lives in the Boston area and is a professor of fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

About the Narrators

Nicol Zanzarella is an Earphones Award–winning audiobook narrator and a theater and television actress. She has appeared in productions of Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, The Winter’s Tale, Cousin Bette, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, and many others.

Derek Perkins is a professional narrator and voice actor. He has earned numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, as well as numerous Society of Voice Arts nominations. AudioFile magazine named him a Best Voice consecutively in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Augmented by a knowledge of three foreign languages and a facility with accents, he has narrated numerous titles in a wide range of fiction and nonfiction genres.