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The Topeka School: A Novel Audiobook
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Publisher Description
Named one of the most anticipated fall books by: Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, Vogue, Vulture, The Observer, Kirkus, Lit Hub, The Millions, The Week, Oprah Magazine, The Paris Review Daily, Nylon, Pacific Standard, Publishers Weekly, Slate, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Guardian From the award-winning author of 10:04 and Leaving the Atocha Station, a tender and expansive family drama set in the American Midwest at the turn of the century: a tale of adolescence, transgression, and the conditions that have given rise to the trolls and tyrants of the New Right. Adam Gordon is a senior at Topeka High School, class of ’97. His mother, Jane, is a famous feminist author; his father, Jonathan, is an expert at getting “lost boys” to open up. They both work at a psychiatric clinic that has attracted staff and patients from around the world. Adam is a renowned debater, expected to win a national championship before he heads to college. He is one of the cool kids, ready to fight or, better, freestyle about fighting if it keeps his peers from thinking of him as weak. Adam is also one of the seniors who bring the loner Darren Eberheart—who is, unbeknownst to Adam, his father’s patient—into the social scene, to disastrous effect. Deftly shifting perspectives and time periods, The Topeka School is the story of a family, its struggles and its strengths: Jane’s reckoning with the legacy of an abusive father, Jonathan’s marital transgressions, the challenge of raising a good son in a culture of toxic masculinity. It is also a riveting prehistory of the present: the collapse of public speech, the trolls and tyrants of the New Right, and the ongoing crisis of identity among white men. Cover photograph from The Wichita Eagle. © 1990 McClatchy. All rights reserved. Used under license. Kansas.com
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"The Topeka School is the best novel of the Donald Trump era thus far—in no small part because it isn’t much interested in Trump. Rather, it investigates the weird and twisty relationships between Trump’s political context and the state of American language.”
— Slant
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“Narration from the present-day and interludes hinting at a terrible tragedy add intrigue to this study of polarization and toxic masculinity.”
— Entertainment Weekly -
"[A] fiercely intelligent Midwestern drama.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“Thoroughly, intimidatingly brilliant and absolutely contemporary…It’s funny and, at times, painfully acute.”
— Harper’s magazine -
“For anyone looking to understand contemporary America, this tale of toxic masculinity, resentful outcasts, rigged high-school debate,s and political disaster is a good place to start.”
— The Times (London) -
“An extraordinarily brilliant novel that’s also accessible to anyone yearning for illumination in our disputatious era.”
— Washington Post -
“With acute social insight into the crisis of toxic masculinity… this is the rare novel of ideas that never skimps on depth of feeling.”
— Esquire
Awards
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A Vulture.com Pick as #1 Best Book of the Year
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An Esquire Magazine Pick of the Year
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A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice of the Week
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An Electric Literature Pick of the 15 Best Novels of the Year
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A Time Magazine Top 10 Book of the Year
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A Buzzfeed Best Books of the Year selection
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An Atlantic Best Book of the Year
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A GQ Pick of 2019's Top Ten Books
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A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
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Finalist for the 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction
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Longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Fiction
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Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
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A Washington Post Top 10 Book of the Year
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A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
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Finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
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Among longlisted titles for New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year, 2019
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Winner of L.A. Times Book Prize - Winner, 2019
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Among longlisted titles for NPR Best Book of the Year, 2019
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Among shortlisted titles for National Book Critics Circle Award - Nominee, 2019
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Among longlisted titles for Vogue Magazine Best Books of the Year, 2019
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Among shortlisted titles for L.A. Times Book Prize - Finalist, 2019
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Among longlisted titles for Time Magazine Best Books of the Year, 2019
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Among longlisted titles for The Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year, 2019
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Among shortlisted titles for Folio Prize Shortlist, 2020
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Among longlisted titles for NYPL Best Books of the Year, 2019
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Among longlisted titles for Washington Post Best Books of the Year, 2019
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Among longlisted titles for The New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year, 2019
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Among longlisted titles for Amazon.com Best Books of the Year, 2019
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Among longlisted titles for New York Magazine Best Books of the Year, 2019
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Among shortlisted titles for Pulitzer Prize - Finalist, 2020
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Among longlisted titles for Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year, 2019
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Among longlisted titles for Esquire Magazine Best Books of the Year, 2019
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About Ben Lerner
Ben Lerner, born in Topeka, Kansas, is an acclaimed author and a professor of English at Brooklyn College. His novel The Topeka School was named a best book of the year by Time, Esquire, Vogue, Vulture, and many other major publications. His first novel, Leaving the Atocha Station, won the 2012 Believer Book Award, and excerpts from 10:04 have been awarded the Paris Review‘s Terry Southern Prize. He has published three poetry collections: Mean Free Path, The Lichtenberg Figures, Angle of Yaw, which was a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry. He has received fellowships from the Fulbright, Guggenheim, Howard, and MacArthur Foundations.
About the Narrators
Nancy Linari is an actress and Eaphones Award–winning narrator. She has appeared on Fringe, Brothers and Sisters, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, and General Hospital. Her theater credits include I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road, and I’m Not Rappaport.
Peter Berkrot, winner of Audie and Earphones Awards for narration, is a stage, screen, and television actor and acting coach. He has narrated over 450 works that span a range of genres, including fiction, nonfiction, thriller, and children’s titles. His audiobook credits include works of Alan Glynn, Eric Van Lustbader, Nora Roberts and Dean Koontz. In film and television, he appeared in Caddyshack, America’s Most Wanted, and Unsolved Mysteries. He performs in regional and New York theaters and directs the New Voices acting school.