High-Rise

By: J. G. Ballard

Narrated by: Tom Hiddleston

Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

From the author of the Sunday Times best seller Cocaine Nights comes an unnerving tale of life in a modern tower block running out of control.

Within the concealing walls of an elegant forty-storey tower block, the affluent tenants are hell-bent on an orgy of destruction. Cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on "enemy" floors and the once-luxurious amenities become an arena for riots and technological mayhem.

In this visionary tale of urban disillusionment from the renowned author of Crash and Cocaine Nights, society slips into a violent reverse as the isolated inhabitants of the high-rise, driven by primal urges, recreate a dystopian world ruled by the laws of the jungle.

The audiobook of High Rise arrives as interest in the book and J.G. Ballard’s work reaches a new peak. The film adaptation of High Rise, directed by Ben Wheatley (Kill List, Sightseers) will be released in September 2015, starring Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans and Elisabeth Moss.

Tom Hiddleston, who is known to millions worldwide for his role as the evil god Loki in the blockbuster Thor and Avengers movies, has lent his voice to this first UK audiobook adaptation of High Rise, which was published in 1975.

J. G. Ballard was born in 1930 in Shanghai, where his father was a businessman. After internment in a civilian prison camp, he and his family returned to England in 1946. He published his first novel, The Drowned World, in 1961. His 1984 bestseller Empire of the Sun won the Guardian Fiction Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It was later filmed by Steven Spielberg. His memoir, Miracles of Life, was published in 2008. J. G. Ballard died in 2009.

©1975 J. G. Ballard (P)2015 Audible, Ltd

Critic reviews

"Ballard’s finest novel.... A triumph” ( The Times)
"Another eerie glimpse into the future. A fast-moving, spine-tingling fable of the concrete jungle.” ( Daily Express)
“A gripping read, particularly if you like your thrills chilly, bloody and with claims to social relevance.” ( Time Out)