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The Son: A novel Audiobook, by Jo Nesbø Play Audiobook Sample

The Son: A novel Audiobook

The Son: A novel Audiobook, by Jo Nesbø Play Audiobook Sample
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Read By: Gildart Jackson Publisher: Random House Audio Listen Time: at 1.0x Speed 11.67 hours at 1.5x Speed 8.75 hours at 2.0x Speed Release Date: May 2014 Format: Unabridged Audiobook ISBN: 9780553397833

Quick Stats About this Audiobook

Total Audiobook Chapters:

199

Longest Chapter Length:

09:55 minutes

Shortest Chapter Length:

06 seconds

Average Chapter Length:

05:16 minutes

Audiobooks by this Author:

20

Other Audiobooks Written by Jo Nesbø: > View All...

Publisher Description

The author of the best-selling Harry Hole series now gives us an electrifying stand-alone novel set inside Oslo’s maze of especially venal, high-level corruption.

 

Sonny Lofthus is a strangely charismatic and complacent young man. Sonny’s been in prison for a dozen years, nearly half his life. The inmates who seek out his uncanny abilities to soothe leave his cell feeling absolved. They don’t know or care that Sonny has a serious heroin habit—or where or how he gets his uninterrupted supply of the drug. Or that he’s serving time for other peoples’ crimes.

           

Sonny took the first steps toward addiction when his father took his own life rather than face exposure as a corrupt cop. Now Sonny is the seemingly malleable center of a whole infrastructure of corruption: prison staff, police, lawyers, a desperate priest—all of them focused on keeping him high and in jail. And all of them under the thumb of the Twin, Oslo’s crime overlord. As long as Sonny gets his dope, he’s happy to play the criminal and the prison’s in-house savior.

But when he learns a stunning, long-hidden secret concerning his father, he makes a brilliantly executed escape from prison—and from the person he’d let himself become—and begins hunting down those responsible for the crimes against him . . . The darkly looming question is: Who will get to him first—the criminals or the cops?

From the Hardcover edition.

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“Gildart Jackson gives just theright unobtrusive narration to Jo Nesbø’s stand-alone novel, a richly layeredlook into the human heart…Jackson’s artistry offers soft-voiced women and menwhose personalities live in their voices. Nesbø’s thrilling journey into Oslo’scriminal underground of drugs, human trafficking, and murder is nail-biting,thanks to Jackson’s insightful performance. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award.”

— AudioFile

Quotes

  • A deftly plotted novel that probes the deepest mysteries: sin, redemption, love, evil, the human condition. . . . One of Nesbø’s best, deepest and richest novels.

    — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)  
  • Excellent . . . Nesbø takes the reader on a chilling ride with many unexpected twists.

    — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
  • The standard bearer for the phenomenon that is Scandinavian crime fiction. . . . Fast-paced and imaginatively violent, this latest example of Nesbo’s Nordic noir hurtles like an express train towards a last act of almost operatic extravagance that leaves dead bodies and carefully nurtured reputations littering the stage. Great stuff altogether.

    — Independent (Ireland)
  • [Nesbø is] one of the current leading lights in Scandinavian crime fiction . . . Ridiculously talented . . . with his clear gift for hairpin twists and turns. . . . The thriller is so tightly plotted that it will keep readers steadfastly glued to their seat. . . . What Nesbø has crafted is not a whodunit in the traditional sense, as the writer is interested in the far more fascinating question of what can drive a person to evil?

    — Daily Style (Australia)
  • Scandinavian Reviews

  • Nesbø’s new book makes all the hype before publication seem like false modesty, and is quite simply a fantastic piece of crime literature. . . . First and foremost, this is a clever, enthralling and driven story that is impossible to put down.

    — Dagens Næringsliv (Norway)
  • Yet another powerful demonstration of Nesbø’s talent for creating a story that plays on all nerve strands and with so much intensity that it embodies both the Bible and Batman at once. It is really well done. It is still early in the year, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone should dub The Son as the crime novel of the year.

    — Ekstra Bladet (Denmark)
  • The pace proves to be on top in the new book, in a positive sense. This remains Norwegian crime literature in a class by itself. A plot that stretches and spreads out like great mathematical formulas, with many unfamiliar characters in the equation, but without being arcane or excessive in his fantastic interpretations. . . . Jo Nesbø prevails once again.

    — Dagsavisen (Norway)
  • Tremendously well written by Nesbø. . . . There is something unstoppably vital about Jo Nesbø as a designer of crime stories in the baroque style. His pen is on fire and although it may be noted that it goes too fast sometimes linguistically, the stories he creates has so many staggering twists and turns that it is almost physically impossible not to get hooked.

    — Aftenposten (Norway)
  • Crime novels are rarely so skillfully told and at the same time so much more than pure entertainment. But Nesbø is a master.

    — Berlingske (Denmark)
  • No Norwegian crime writer can create such complex crime plots without losing in detail like Nesbø can. You might say that Nesbø is both high and low in his texts, and that is one of the main reasons why his novels rise above most others in this genre.

    — Dagbladet (Norway)
  • It is a formidable, diabolically clever and devilishly good book that is well put together, down to the smallest detail.

    — Nordjyske Stiftstidene (Denmark)
  • The story . . . is propelled with great force and an unerring sense of detail. . . . It is simply thrilling to read.

    — NRK (Norway)
  • Fast-paced and rip-roaring suspenseful.

    — Politiken (Denmark)
  • No one at our latitudes knows the game like Nesbø does. No one is even close to his craftsmanship in writing crime novels that hold such international standard.

    — Adresseavisen (Norway)”
  • A high level of suspense all the way and limitless brutality. The bad guys get what they deserves and Nesbø’s writing is almost more cynical and concrete than usual. There are also a few love stories along the way, that—almost—end happily.

    — Lolland-Falsters Folketidende (Denmark)
  • The Son is a modern take on the story about Christ, that tackles the corruption in Oslo. . . . Jo Nesbø’s writing is incredible as usual.

    — Jyllands-Posten (Denmark)
  • “Disturbing…with its creepy, sinister, purgatorial cops and crooks in an extravagant universe, you keep waiting to see light poking through.”

    — New York Times Book Review
  • “The standard bearer for the phenomenon that is Scandinavian crime fiction…Fast paced and imaginatively violent, this latest example of Nesbo’s Nordic noir hurtles like an express train towards a last act of almost operatic extravagance that leaves dead bodies and carefully nurtured reputations littering the stage. Great stuff altogether.”

    — Independent (Ireland)
  • “[Nesbø is] one of the current leading lights in Scandinavian crime fiction…with his clear gift for hairpin twists and turns…The thriller is so tightly plotted that it will keep readers steadfastly glued to their seat…What Nesbø has crafted is not a whodunit in the traditional sense, as the writer is interested in the far more fascinating question of what can drive a person to evil.”

    — Daily Style (Australia)
  • “Nesbø’s new book makes all the hype before publication seem like false modesty and is quite simply a fantastic piece of crime literature…First and foremost, this is a clever, enthralling, and driven story that is impossible to put down.”

    — Dagens Næringsliv (Norway)
  • “This excellent standalone from Nesbø, best known for his Harry Hole series, centers on Sonny Lofthus (aka the Son), who’s serving a sentence at Oslo’s Staten Maximum Security Prison for two murders to which he confessed but which he did not commit…A chilling ride.”

    — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
  • “A terrific thriller but also a tragic, very moving story of intertwined characters swerving desperately to avoid the dead ends in their paths.”

    — Booklist (starred review)
  • “A deftly plotted novel that probes the deepest mysteries: sin, redemption, love, evil, the human condition…One of Nesbø’s best, deepest, and richest novels.”

    — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
  • “The bestselling author of the Harry Hole series delivers an exceptional, gritty, fast-paced stand-alone thriller; the smooth transitions among each character’s perspectives lure readers in, and Barslund’s translation is accessible to American readers.”

    — Library Journal

Awards

  • A Publishers Weekly Pick of the Week, May 2014
  • Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award
  • A New York Times bestseller
  • A USA Today bestseller
  • A Washington Post bestseller
  • A Publishers Weekly bestseller
  • A San Francisco Chronicle bestseller
  • One of Barnes & Noble's Biggest Books, May 2014
  • One of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2014
  • An AudioFile Best Audiobook of the Year for 2014

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About Jo Nesbø

Jo Nesbø is a musician, songwriter, and economist, as well as a writer. His Harry Hole novels include The Redeemer, The Snowman, The Leopard, and Phantom, and he is also the author of several stand-alone novels and the Doctor Proctor series of children’s books. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Glass Key for best Nordic crime novel.

About Gildart Jackson

Gildart Jackson’s acting credits span the stage and screen. He is most often recognized for his roles as Gideon on Charmed and Simon Prentiss on General Hospital. He has also starred in numerous television shows, including CSI and Vegas, and he played the lead in the highly acclaimed independent feature film You, directed by his wife, Melora Hardin.