Leviathan

By: Paul Auster

Narrated by: Peter Ganim

When his closest friend, Benjamin Sachs, accidentally blows himself up on a Wisconsin road, Peter Aaron attempts to piece together the life that led to Sach's tragic demise and determine the reason for his death.

As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of Paul Auster's book, you'll also get an exclusive Jim Atlas interview that begins when the audiobook ends.

This production is part of our Audible Modern Vanguard line, a collection of important works from groundbreaking authors.©1993 Paul Auster (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Rich and complex...with fully fleshed characters, a fast-paced plot, thematic sophistication, and narrative cunning." ( The Boston Globe)

"Auster’s most accessible, engaging book. He treats us to his best clear-eyed prose." ( New York Times Magazine)

"Brisk and compelling...Auster’s powerful narrative engine keeps us reading and rushing toward a breathless conclusion." ( Los Angeles Times)

It absolutely caught me

This book absolutely caught me from page 1. A small masterpiece. Perfectly written...an amazing story with deep and interesting characters, full of suspense and seduction. I absolutely loved it.

I love the “intense interiority” of Auster’s novels.

Paul Auster understands how humans think and feel, and the struggles and contradictions resonate as being very real. In this book about a book about books and their authors’ stories we see this again. I didn’t like so much not understanding some of the interlaced stories in a more linear way, but that is my problem, not the book’s

Better than the "trilogy"

This is the best book by Paul Auster that I have read. I read the famous "New York trilogy" first but that one is very conceptual and abstract. This one is more a book of flesh and blood. Very interesting plot. I'm at 3/4 of the book and I hesitate to read further, because I've become quite attached to the main character and I'm afraid all will not end well ...

The strange world of unlikely justifications

The characters of the story are authors and they as the real author create their own realities. My problem was that I was constantly lost in their realities and sometimes was forgetting which reality supposed to be the book's reality.

Baby’s first Auster Novel

I loved this so damn much. The faux autobiographicality (is that a word?). The extremely specific setting details in New York and Brooklyn over vast expanses of the narrator’s life. The way he starts out with the conclusion and works his way back through the meandering relationships that lead to the moment it begins with (no spoilers). And the crystal clarity and realism of his descriptions of the interiority of the feelings and motivations of the characters is genius. I get why people love Auster now and I will be reading more. I’m sorry it took me so long to get here but better late than never. The interview at the end of the audiobook with him is amazing too.