Middlesex

By: Jeffrey Eugenides

Narrated by: Kristoffer Tabori

Length: 21 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

In the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides, a student at a girls' school in Grosse Pointe, finds herself drawn to a chain-smoking, strawberry-blonde classmate with a gift for acting. The passion that furtively develops between them - along with Callie's failure to develop physically - leads Callie to suspect that she is not like other girls. In fact, she is not really a girl at all.

The explanation for this shocking state of affairs is a rare genetic mutation - and a guilty secret - that have followed Callie's grandparents from the crumbling Ottoman Empire to Prohibition-era Detroit and beyond, outlasting the glory days of the Motor City, the race riots of 1967, and the family's second migration, into the foreign country known as suburbia. Thanks to the gene, Callie is part girl, part boy. And even though the gene's epic travels have ended, her own odyssey has only begun.

Spanning eight decades - and one unusually awkward adolescence - Jeffrey Eugenides' long-awaited second novel is a grand, original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire.

Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Audie Award for best unabridged fiction, Middlesex marks the fulfillment of a huge talent, named one of America's best young novelists by both Granta and The New Yorker.

Check out more selections from Oprah's Book Club.

©2002 Jeffrey Eugenides (P)2002 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC

Critic reviews

Audie Award Winner, Fiction (Unabridged), 2003

"Eugenides proves that he is not only a unique voice in modern literature but also well versed in the nature of the human heart. Highly recommended." (Library Journal )

"Not only are his interpretations of the characters astonishingly credible, but his internalization of the narrative is nothing short of amazing." (Publishers Weekly)

"A towering achievement...a story that manages to be both illuminating and transcendent...[Eugenides] has emerged as the great American writer many of us suspected him of being." (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

Beautifully crafted and engaging story

This is a rich and beautifully written story that spans generations. Eugenides tells the story through the voice of the main character - giving the reader a relationship with this character before her birth and through her lived experience. Loved it!

Middlesex

Very very long. Good story - interesting characters, but omg, it's too long!!

believe the hype

Though I enjoyed the movie version of The Virgin Suicides, and had heard good things about Middlesex, my general suspicion of hot, flavor-of-the-month writers kept me away from this for quite a while. After hearing a lecture/reading by the author on NPR, however, my interest was roused. To my astonished delight, I was mesmerized. This is the first contemporary novel I've read that I believe to be a genuine classic. Pulitzer prize earned! Read it.

Fantastic narrator

I listen to a lot of audible books and this narrator was the best I have heard. As for the book itself, starts out slow but picks up in the middle. Very good overall.

Story of a family/living/healing/and contentment

I found the narration and the writing both to be amazingly interesting. I usually only listen to my audio books in the car while I am driving however I found myself not wanting to put this one down. It was recommended to me by a friend who had read the written copy. I also will highly recommend this book to others.
The story covered several generations and brought to life "issues" or "secrets" from the past. I think what I was most impressed with was the positive way in which the story was told and the contentment of the person at the end of the book. Simply happy being the person they were born to be.

masterful narrator for a masterful story

I loved Middlesex when I read it but I was in awe of the book as read by Kristoffer Tabori. He is a genius of accents and characterization and gives full due to the story in Jeffrey Eugenides' creative brain. A masterpiece. I am in awe of this audible experience.

Couldn't

Not being a big fan of audiobooks, and not expecting too much - I was totally blown away by this one! Interesting, informative, engaging and addictive. Thanks Audible - a great "read"!

Middlesex Review

This book was extremely well written, and brought to life the anguish experienced by teens facing sexual identity crisis'. This is a must read for anyone working or living with adolescents.

a beautiful story of love

Somehow I have failed to read this book before now... and I really question why I delayed. It is wonderfully vivid and highly enjoyable. It reads quickly and makes you laugh, cry and think. The story isn't exactly what I thought it would be as it doesn't center solely around Cal, the intersex (hermaphrodite) protagonist. Rather it is a multi-generational family tale. It is set in Eugenides' hometown of Detroit, and because I lived there for four years I really enjoyed the sights and history of the place I already knew. Eugenides gave his characters so much life and never seemed to judge them. And he wrote them in such a way that I didn't judge them either. In fact, it never felt like the intersex storyline was the focus despite the fact that the entire tale was the story of how it happened that this young man didn't know he was a young man until well into his teen years. No, it felt like a story of a family ... of love, of dysfunction, of secrets. But mostly of love.

Stick with it....

I must admit that when I first started listening to this selection I thought there was no way I would get through it. A slow starter to say the least and difficult for me to get in to. But not wanting to give up too quickly I stuck with it and soon found myself sitting in the car just to hear what was next. The book is long - especially as a commuter book - but was captivating and so well read that it was definately worth the download and listen.