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Undermajordomo Minor: A Novel Audiobook
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Publisher Description
From the bestselling, Man Booker-shortlisted author of The Sisters Brothers, comes a brilliant and boisterous novel that reimagines the folk tale.
A love story, an adventure story, a fable without a moral, and an ink-black comedy of manners, Undermajordomo Minor is Patrick deWitt’s long-awaited follow-up to the internationally bestselling and critically acclaimed novel The Sisters Brothers.
Lucien (Lucy) Minor is the resident odd duck in the bucolic hamlet of Bury. Friendless and loveless, young and aimless, Lucy is a compulsive liar, a sickly weakling in a town famous for producing brutish giants. Then Lucy accepts employment assisting the Majordomo of the remote, foreboding Castle Von Aux.
While tending to his new post as Undermajordomo, Lucy soon discovers the place harbors many dark secrets, not least of which is the whereabouts of the castle’s master, Baron Von Aux. He also encounters the colorful people of the local village—thieves, madmen, aristocrats, and Klara, a delicate beauty whose love he must compete for with the exceptionally handsome soldier, Adolphus. Thus begins a tale of polite theft, bitter heartbreak, domestic mystery, and cold-blooded murder in which every aspect of human behavior is laid bare for our hero to observe.
Undermajordomo Minor is an adventure, a mystery, and a searing portrayal of rural Alpine bad behavior, but above all it is a love story and Lucy must be careful, for love is a violent thing.
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“Undermajordomo Minor wears a fairy-tale cloak, but at its wondrous and fantastical heart lies an unexpectedly moving story about love, home, and the difficulty of finding one’s place in the world. Elegant, beautifully strange, and utterly superb.”
— Emily St. John Mandel, New York Times bestselling author
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“A wonderfully wry and wise novel, and reading it is like coming across some twisted classic—Cervantes by way of Louis C.K.”
— Jess Walter, New York Times bestselling author -
“Delightful and dark…DeWitt uses familiar tropes to lull the reader into a false sense of grounding, delivering with abundant good humor a fully realized, consistently surprising, and thoroughly amusing tale of longing, love, madness, and mirth.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review) -
“DeWitt has delivered another intriguing, compelling, and thought-provoking winner that will appeal to anyone who wants to be captivated by a smart, entertaining read.”
— Booklist (starred review) -
“This novel’s cheeky tone, dry wit, and dark undercurrents call to mind William Goldman’s The Princess Bride and the work of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett…Recommended for the fun and whimsy of its storytelling.”
— Library Journal -
“From its very unusual title to its fantastical setting at a remote Alpine castle, deWitt’s fractured fairy tale is both daringly original and darkly hilarious.”
— BookPage -
“DeWitt’s yarn is playful and pleasing…It’s a sometimes-subversive and smart entertainment that blends lighthearted moments with more thoughtful reckonings of the human condition.”
— Kirkus Reviews -
“An electrifying adventure, both tender and profane. Nervy, hilarious, and utterly unpredictable, Patrick deWitt has served up another dazzler.”
— Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette?
Awards
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A BookPage Top Pick for September 2015
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An Indie Next List Pick for October 2015
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A BuzzFeed Books Pick for Best Selection of 2015
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A NPR’s Great Reads Selection of 2015
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About Patrick deWitt
Patrick deWitt is an author whose books include the critically acclaimed Ablutions: Notes for a Novel and The Sisters Brothers, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the basis for a major motion picture.
About Simon Prebble
N. T. Wright, former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England, now serves as chair of New Testament and Early Christianity at the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews. He has been featured on ABC News, Dateline, The Colbert Report, and Fresh Air. He is the award-winning author of such books as Simply Christian, Surprised by Hope, After You Believe, Simply Jesus, How God Became King, and the series Christian Origins and the Question of God, and he is the translator of The Kingdom New Testament.