Double Blind

A Novel

By: Edward St. Aubyn

Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch

Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

"In his remarkable performance of Edward St. Aubyn's newest novel, stage and screen actor Benedict Cumberbatch proves yet again that he is a master of pacing and characterization...When not delivering a silky, warm, and beautifully enunciated narration, Cumberbatch subsumes himself into a multiplicity of male and female roles." (AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner)

Double Blind follows three close friends and their circle through a year of extraordinary transformation. Set between London, Cap d'Antibes, Big Sur, and a rewilded corner of Sussex, this thrilling, ambitious novel is about the headlong pursuit of knowledge - for the purposes of pleasure, revelation, money, sanity, or survival - and the consequences of fleeing from what we know about others and ourselves.

When Olivia meets a new lover just as she is welcoming her best friend, Lucy, back from New York, her dedicated academic life expands precipitously. Her connection to Francis, a committed naturalist living off the grid, is immediate and startling. Eager to involve Lucy in her joy, Olivia introduces the two - but Lucy has received shocking news of her own that binds the trio unusually close. Over the months that follow, Lucy’s boss, Hunter, Olivia’s psychoanalyst parents, and a young man named Sebastian are pulled into the friends’ orbit, and not one of them will emerge unchanged.

Expansive, playful, and compassionate, Edward St. Aubyn's Double Blind investigates themes of inheritance, determinism, freedom, consciousness, and the stories we tell about ourselves. St. Aubyn's major new novel is as compelling about ecology, psychoanalysis, genetics, and neuroscience as it is about love, fear, and courage. Most of all, it is a perfect expression of the interconnections it sets out to examine, and a moving evocation of an imagined world that is deeply intelligent, often tender, curious, and very much alive.

Academy Award Nominee Benedict Cumberbatch is known for playing Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock, a role that has earned him international acclaim and several awards, including a Primetime Emmy. In 2015, Benedict portrayed Alan Turing in the multi-award-winning film The Imitation Game, which earned him a BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Academy Award nomination as Best Actor. Benedict joined the Marvel Universe as the titular character in 2016’s Doctor Strange, a role he reprised in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. More recently, Benedict’s performance in David Nicholls’s adaptation of Edward St. Aubyn’s beloved Patrick Melrose has earned him a BAFTA for Best Actor and Emmy and Golden Globe Best Actor nominations.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

©2021 Edward St. Aubyn (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

More story please

I was amazed that the story ended where it did. So much is left unfinished.

Benedict Cumberbatch

So BC could read the phone book and I would listen to it. Loved this book. Learned a lot from it—it was entertaining—the characters were amazing. I cared so much about the characters that I wanted to know more…by that I mean that the end felt rushed. It needed like 40-60 more pages. I hope there is a sequel.

Cumberbatch - What a listening pleasure

I’m already looking for my next book: narrated by Cumberbatch. Can’t say the story was very “gripping”, but manages to keep your attention by means of creating a kaleidoscope of verbal exercise.

Great book if you like loose ends.

I loved the idea of scientists as main characters. The characters and dialogue are interesting, for sure. And the story isn’t bad, but I would have skipped it knowing it wasn’t going to have an actual “end”.
It also seems there’s a lot of build up and foreshadowing to things that never actualize.
If there will be a sequel, I may read it and change my review. Otherwise, I can’t recommend this one.

Brilliant, poignant glimpse at intersecting lives

Edward St. Aubyn has outdone himself in this novel. It is by turns witty, overbearing, sweet, sad, and engaging. It offers a kaleidoscopic glimpse into lives and worlds that doesn’t need a satisfying resolution of every character and issue to make complete. The performance by Benedict Cumberbatch was as brilliant as anticipated, he is a truly fabulous actor and narrator.

Amazing narration by Benedict Cumberbatch.

Always amazed to find someone else shares the stream of thoughts that go through one’s mind, like looking into a metaphoric mirror of consciousness. Edward St. Auburn again brings various characters to life, some very human and some incredibly superficial. Cumberbatch masterfully and credibly brings them all to life. Thank you.

Characters are a world apart from me

The character development was odd. I don’t feel I got a good idea of how the characters have changed. There was so much else happening that I felt alienated.

More, please

Although Edward St Aubyn’s books have been important to me, as the mother of a schizophrenic man this one was particularly moving. Funny as his books always are,
acute and insightful, I’m so glad Double Bind came along.

Sublime narration, quirky, pertinent tale

A book quite different from his other fiction, but worthwhile and full of authors keen descriptive eye. I tuned out during most passages of detailed scientific analysis but it’s a book for our time. I was really sad when it ended. (I would hear Benedict Cumberbatch read the telephone book, if audible offered it!)

A Masterpiece

Anyone who has read Edward St Aubyn knows that he can write in the dark zone. Here is St. Aubyn celebrating life.