Play Audiobook Sample
The Listener Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(2.04) - 190 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
Critically acclaimed author Shira Nayman has been praised by School Library Journal for her "breathtaking storytelling" and her ability to write with "stunning clarity." Nayman's debut novel, The Listener is a tale of madness and passion set in a psychiatric hospital just after the end of WWII.
Download and start listening now!
"Loved it! I could hardly put this down. Well written and a great psychological thriller. I don't understand the low ratings for this book as the plot was so complex and interesting. Read it!"
— Heidi (5 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
-
“The Listener explores with great subtlety and perceptiveness the issues of trama and quilt, illustrating the complexity of the way in which a mind that has experienced horrors—whether as perpetrator or victim—may create elaborate defenses that are paradoxically self-destructive.”
— Charles Palliser, author of The Quincunx and The Unburied -
“Nayman turns a jaundiced eye on her own profession…The line between sanity and insanity and the questioning of the rules that govern the patient-doctor relationship are consistently intriguing.”
— Booklist -
“Vividly imagined and evoked.”
— Kirkus Reviews
The Listener Listener Reviews
-
" Bah. Read it for book club and couldnt finish it. I felt like I didnt really care about the main character and he was more creepy than anything. I felt like the author was trying too hard to write from a man's perspective and just could not deliver. There was nothing holding me to stay with this book. Good book club discussion though. "
— Risapopelka, 2/7/2014 -
" I really enjoyed this book--the writing and the story--right up until the end when I had NO IDEA what happened! The book was obviously building up to have a mysterious twist and I thought I'd had it figured out--but I guess not. Can anyone explain it to me? "
— Karen, 2/2/2014 -
" Had the potential to be really good, but i just got confused... "
— Elizabeth, 2/1/2014 -
" I had very high hopes for The Listener, the blurb made the book appear exciting and with lots of twists and turns. The first two parts of the book lived up to expectation. The psychology was riveting and the characters were well shaped. However the third part of the novel just crawled along to an easily predictable conclusion. "
— Katie, 1/13/2014 -
" A funny book - I found it absorbing, even though I wasn't sure if it was a good book. I have noticed that books about psychiatrists often portray them as creeps, or not so astute as they are supposed to be, or messed up people. I'd love to hear others' thoughts about it. "
— Merry, 1/12/2014 -
" Interesting plot but the writing was disjointed. The most interesting character in the book, Bertram Reiner, is the one you end up learning about the least. I wish the flashbacks and jumping from scene to scene had been more seemless. "
— Kt, 1/10/2014 -
" Boring & contrived. "
— Laura, 1/4/2014 -
" A strange story of madness. Takes place in a private asylum in New York in 1948 which caters to men with war neurosis. You have to "stay sharp" while trying to figure out this book. I found the effort not worth it. Nothing was clear cut. Everything was filled with ambiguity. "
— Donna, 12/21/2013 -
" North Side Book Club (NSBC) selection for April 2010 "
— Kat, 10/12/2013 -
" Really tried to like this book, but just couldn't stay interested. "
— Mindy, 10/2/2013 -
" I know this book did not get a lot of positive reviews, but I liked it. It posed a lot of moral questions about behavior in war & madness. "
— Joye, 9/29/2013
About Shira Nayman
Shira Nayman is a writer and psychologist/consultant. She also teaches literature and fiction writing. She is the recipient of the Cape Branch Award for an Emerging Woman Writer and of three grants from the Australia Council for the Arts. Born in South Africa, she grew up in Australia, has lived in Israel, Mexico, and France, and currently lives in Brooklyn.
About Jefferson Mays
Jefferson Mays, an Earphones Awards-winning narrator, is also an award-winning theater and film actor. In 2004 he won a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, an Obie Award, and a Theatre World Award for his solo Broadway performance in I Am My Own Wife, a Pulitzer Prize–winning play by Doug Wright. He holds a BA from Yale College and an MFA from University of California–San Diego.