• We the Living

  • By: Ayn Rand
  • Narrated by: Mary Woods
  • Length: 18 hrs and 1 min
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (1,131 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
We the Living  By  cover art

We the Living

By: Ayn Rand
Narrated by: Mary Woods
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $21.80

Buy for $21.80

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

We the Living portrays the impact of the Russian Revolution on three people who demand the right to live their own lives. At its center is a girl whose passionate love is her fortress against the cruelty and oppression of a totalitarian state. Rand said of this book: "It is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write."
©1936 Ayn Rand (P)1991 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about We the Living

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    646
  • 4 Stars
    281
  • 3 Stars
    142
  • 2 Stars
    42
  • 1 Stars
    20
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    476
  • 4 Stars
    218
  • 3 Stars
    110
  • 2 Stars
    24
  • 1 Stars
    21
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    553
  • 4 Stars
    187
  • 3 Stars
    88
  • 2 Stars
    22
  • 1 Stars
    11

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Emotionally intense, historically authentic

Just days before twenty-one year old Alisa Rosenbaum escaped Leninist Russia to sail for the United States, she was enjoined by a friend to tell the world that "Russia is a huge cemetery and we are all dying." We The Living, by that same young emigre, writing now in English and calling herself Ayn Rand, was the result. It is the most accurate portrayal of life in the late workers' paradise ever committed to words. It is also a compelling work of art, and harbinger of the greatness to come.

Though the least explicitly philosophic of Ayn Rand's novels, We The Living was for me, because of its emotional intensity, the most difficult to read. Kira's relationships with Leo and Andre, her perseverance vis-a-vis the hopelessness of her situation--her struggle to breathe in a wretchedly airless environment--were nearly more than I could bear.

Listen, cry, learn, and rejoice. If you are not already familiar with the works of Ayn Rand, this is a marvelous place to begin.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

46 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story but the audio quality is patchy..

I love Ayn Rand's writing. This book (like many of her others) is classic.

This audiobook lay dormant in my library for quite a while as the sound quality was not great. It sounds like it was recorded on magnetic tape which became damaged or has aged prematurely. They should really re-record it the way they did Atlas Shrugged. It would be fantastic if Scott Brick narrated it like he did for that book.

If you are sensitive to sound quality you might find this harder to listen to.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A remarkable semi-biographical novel!

Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum, who wrote using the pen name Ayn Rand, arrived in the US from Russia at age 26 in 1931 unable to speak English. A mere five years later she wrote her first novel in English titled We the Living. The story is of a young woman's life under communism and ultimately he escape from the USSR to freedom. The most important aspects of the book are about the deterioration of the lives of middle class Russians after the communists took control in 1917. Alisa Rosenbaum not only wrote using the pen name Ayn Rand but lived using that name.

We the Living is a good and well written book, but it does not measure up to the quality of her later works of fiction. It is still well worth an audible credit.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The first book was her best literary work

Ayn Rand stands head and shoulders above most authors in her ideology. She understood what makes the world work-best. As to literature We The Living was her best effort. I feel that because she lived most of it, the story was easy to write because it was her story.
Mary Woods reading of Ayn Rand's novel/bio was marvelous with her accent just where it should be and still be easy listening, Great job all around on this one.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Intense

I have sort of a love/hate relationship with this book. It is so intense and maddening, although I believe it is an accurate portrayal of Russia during the post Bolshevik Revolution times. Ayn Rand was such a powerful writer. After finishing this book I had to get a lighter one.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

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

Buy a different narration.

Many sections were so rushed it was difficult to picture the scene. These portions were fairly short though. The performance as a whole wasn't bad.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Great novel, bad production

This novel is one of my favorites. Rand was able to depict the despair of living under a totalitarian regime very well. Coming from Soviet Russia myself, I can say that not many things have changed from birth to collapse of the Communist State.

The only thing I didn't like was the production. The narrator reads without any emphasis, and at times way too fast. One will probably get more out of reading it, rather than listening to this production.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

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

Didn't connect like I did with her other books

What did you like best about We the Living? What did you like least?

Classic Ayn Rand themes. The look into Russian past was fascinating. The story moved a lot slower than with Fountain Head and Atlas Shrugged for me. I found it much easier to connect with Howard Roark and Hank Rearden and Dagney Taggart. But the story was solid and eye opening. I can see the progression of her beliefs through her writings. Calling this the 'closet thing to a biography I have ever written', you can definitely see where her believe in the Individual above all else came from!
Still a huge fan. But if you're new to Rand, start with Fountain Head or Atlas Shrugged.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

More great Ayn Rand. Her first.

This book is a cautionary tale that perfectly illustrates the hopelessness of Communism. I wish I could get all the so-called “Millennials” who apparently are so ready to embrace Socialism to read and understand. However, just like in the period this book takes place, there are now so many that are willing to give up their freedoms for the false-promise of “security” (provided by the collective) and so-called “equity” which is really nothing more than revenge on the “1%ers” because these Millennials are operating under the misconception that their meager life is the result of someone else having more than they. Of course the only end result of this willful ignorance is that eventually everyone will be brought down to the same level of poverty. I feel the hopelessness of this book in my bones as I watch American & the West embrace the many-times failed philosophy of Socialism more and more.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

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

Communism, Self, and Freedom

I had very high hopes for We the Living . . . and parts of the story, the true historical parts of communist Russia, were very good . . . I listened intently and sadly as the young, idealistic men eagerly joined "the party", believing the garbage that they were being spoon fed. But I was deeply disappointed in the story of Kira, who was no more free than the communist government that she so despised. I tried and tried to like her, to root for her, but to no avail. She, just like her communist counterparts, justified her own actions, and was not above prostituting herself. You see, that is what happens when you deny that there is a God and you become your OWN God. Ayn Rand's hatred of socialist/communism and worship of freedom above all else . . . I'm afraid it may have made her blind to the only true freedom that is lasting.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful