The Counterlife

By: Philip Roth

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

The Counterlife is about people enacting their dreams of renewal and escape, some of them going so far as to risk their lives to alter seemingly irreversible destinies. Wherever they may find themselves, the characters of The Counterlife are tempted unceasingly by the prospect of an alternative existence that can reverse their fate.

Illuminating these lives in transition and guiding us through the book's evocative landscapes, familiar and foreign, is the mind of the novelist Nathan Zuckerman. His is the skeptical, enveloping intelligence that calculates the price that's paid in the struggle to change personal fortune and reshape history, whether in a dentist's office in suburban New Jersey, a tradition-bound English Village in Gloucestershire, a church in London's West End, or a tiny desert settlement in Israel's occupied West Bank.

©2016 Philip Roth (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

thought-provoking and full of surprises

The novel is a lot of fun because of the humor and the twists and turns the reader is put through. I don't recall asking so often in a book, okay, what is going on NOW?

Malcolm Hillgartner performance

Malcolm Hillgartner delivers a pitch-perfect performance of a book that deserves to be more widely appreciated. Brilliant.

The Counterlife- how deep can you get?

In his writings, Philip Roth unearths and describes human emotions in an epic narrative of reality. This book is both immensely jarring and immensely insightful at the same time. An amazing experience that can render one’s self-perception of uniqueness as something quite pedestrian.

One of Roth's Most Philosophical Novels

If you haven't read/listened to Roth before this might not be the best one to start with. Nevertheless it is a moebius strip/fun house mirror of a novel that digs deep into identity and conflict: Jew vs. Jew, Jew vs. Gentile, Man vs. Woman, Fact vs. Fiction, Brother vs. Brother, Author vs. Character....It is also a deep dive into the moral responsibility of an author: How much can one derive from real life for material? Are characters in fiction deserving of any ethical treatment or are they just to be used and manipulated? You get the sense that the mature Roth struggled with all of these issues and he skillfully lays them out here with his usual blend of wit, sarcasm, irony and psychological insight. Why this guy never got the Nobel Prize is beyond me.

excellent performance

As a non native speaker I can really appreciate when an actor’s reading is so clear and well paced and nuanced that I can appreciate this amazing novel in all its complexity