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Mariana  By  cover art

Mariana

By: André Aciman
Narrated by: Mamie Gummer
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Publisher's summary

A hot-blooded new story written by the New York Times best-selling author of Call Me By Your Name and performed by Mamie Gummer (The Good Wife, True Detective).  

Mariana has just arrived at the Academy in Italy, where she will spend the next few months on fellowship. That night, over dinner with the other fellows, she meets Itamar. He is handsome and charismatic, and a known Lothario. Although she is aware that an affair with this man may not end well for her, Mariana finds herself falling for Itamar nonetheless. When he abruptly leaves her, Mariana is unmoored. Intent on not giving Itamar the satisfaction of knowing he has destroyed her, Mariana must present a cool façade, until a chance encounter with him in public threatens to leave her completely undone.  

By turns incisive and scathing, Mariana is at once a keen psychological portrait and a gripping story of a scorned lover’s descent into despair and rage.    

©2021 André Aciman (P)2021 Audible Originals

Audible Questionnaire with Mamie Gummer

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About the Creator

André Aciman was born in Alexandria, Egypt and is an American memoirist, essayist, novelist, and scholar. He is the New York Times best-selling author of Call Me by Your Name and Find Me as well as of Out of Egypt and Eight White Nights, Harvard Square, False Papers, and Alibis. Homo Irrealis, his latest collection of essays, will appear in January 2021. Audible will soon release his novellas The Gentleman from Peru and Mariana. Aciman is the director of The Writers’ Institute and teaches Comparative Literature at the Graduate Center, CUNY. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, The New Republic, Condé Nast Traveler, as well as in many volumes of The Best American Essays.

About the Perfomer

Gummer recently shot a role on the upcoming HBO MAX series DMZ from Ava DuVernay, opposite Rosario Dawson. She can be seen in season 3 of HBO’s True Detective opposite Mahershala Ali, Carmen Ejogo and Scoot McNairy. Next up, she can be seen recurring in the Nat-Geo series The Right Stuff produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. Previously, she starred in the Amazon UK and BBC Worldwide 8-part series The Collection in which she plays Helen, the wife and supporter of an influential Paris couturier in the 1940s. Additionally, the actress starred as the lead of the CW’s Emily Owens, M.D. and recurred on WGN’s hit series Manhattan as well as CBS’ The Good Wife. Mamie appeared in Sony’s Ricki and the Flash opposite Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline. She also starred in James Ponsoldt’s End of the Tour opposite Jason Segel and Cake opposite Jennifer Aniston.
In 2005, Gummer made her off-Broadway debut with the premiere of Mr. Marmalade, in which she won a Theatre World Award. Her theater credits continue including The Classic Stage Company’s Uncle Vanya (Lucille Lortel Nomination) and The School for Lies, The Water’s Edge (Lucille Lortel Nomination) for The Second Stage, and the Tony Award-nominated revival of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Gummer additionally received rave reviews for her performance of Jess alongside Chris Stack in the Roundabout Theatre’s performance of Ugly Lies the Bone. Most recently, she starred in the Geffen Playhouse’s Our Very Own Carlin McCullough, written by Amanda Peet and also starring Joe Tippett.

What listeners say about Mariana

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Boring.

I kept waiting for something to happen. The narrator was fine but the story was boring. It was a lot of inner musings and dialogue that never quite crystallized into an interesting plot.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

sad and depressing

Wow. An intense look into a broken heart. Not my normal listen as I like the HEA, but this story is so gut wrenching and beautifully written showing the inner workings of a traumatized mind after a bad breakup.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Short and sweet

Short and sweet. Monsieur Aciman sure knows the emotions ppl can feel. Im not sure if I love it or liked it but I know im happy I got to read it.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Don't waste your time.

MS Bummer does an excellent job with the material. I never knew one could express dislike longing of unrequited love, boring.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Mariana

It was a one woman play about her obsession with a man who doesn't have the same obsession for her. The performance was well done. It is not what I usually listen to, but I was between books and decided to listen to an "included" book. It was an easy and short listen.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

At least the narration is great.

I found this story to be depressing, and think it's a very male-oriented wishful thinking tale of a woman's obsession. Mamie Gummer is great, and I'd listen to her again. But she's the only reason I finished this story.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Whining lost love story

Basic story about lost love. I kept waiting for the twist or hook....and got nothing.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

It was good and insightful but then went on and on and on...

SPOILER ALERT! Plot spoilers ahead do don't keep reading if you want to be surprised.

I liked the vulnerability and insight of the character of Mariana. I liked her blossoming. But then it got unintentionally creepy, obsessive. Yes,yes, mourn being taken advantage of or misconstruing a fling as a budding romance. But have some self respect, woman! Moved on with your life. How could she let such a callow playboy continue to take up so much space in her head for years? Throw the trash out so you make room for something truly precious. I guess this is supposed to be somehow romantic, but it's just patriarchal pap. I found it so distasteful that I began skipping ahead to get beyond the wallowing. But there was no end.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

The obsession! Almost tedious to keep hearing.

The protagonist was obsessive and at first deluded herself that she was not. Clearly she was, and she dropped deeper and deeper into that obsession with a narcissistic personality who was self-involved.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Rambling

I couldn't finish. A story told in ranting format. The actual story is not bad but the former in which it is told is unbearable.

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1 person found this helpful