Thrust

A Novel

By: Lidia Yuknavitch

Narrated by: Natasha Soudek, Ron Butler, Cassandra Campbell, Robbie Daymond, Darrell Dennis, Dominique Franceschi, Kathleen Gati, Graham Halstead, Austin Ku, Omar Leyva, Karen Murray, TL Thompson

Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER

THRUST IS:

“Epic.”–The New York Times

“A triumph.”—Elle

“Stunningly beautiful.”—The Daily Beast

“Both of the moment and utterly timeless.”—Chicago Review of Books

“A book to take in wide-eyed.”—Rebecca Makkai

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST

As rising waters—and an encroaching police state—endanger her life and family, a girl with the gifts of a "carrier" travels through water and time to rescue vulnerable figures from the margins of history

Lidia Yuknavitch has an unmatched gift for capturing stories of people on the margins—vulnerable humans leading lives of challenge and transcendence. Now, Yuknavitch offers an imaginative masterpiece: the story of Laisvė, a motherless girl from the late 21st century who is learning her power as a carrier, a person who can harness the power of meaningful objects to carry her through time. Sifting through the detritus of a fallen city known as the Brook, she discovers a talisman that will mysteriously connect her with a series of characters from the past two centuries: a French sculptor; a woman of the American underworld; a dictator's daughter; an accused murderer; and a squad of laborers at work on a national monument. Through intricately braided storylines, Laisvė must dodge enforcement raids and find her way to the present day, and then, finally, to the early days of her imperfect country, to forge a connection that might save their lives—and their shared dream of freedom.

A dazzling novel of body, spirit, and survival, Thrust will leave no listener unchanged.

©2022 Lidia Yuknavitch (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“[The] most mind-blowing book about America I’ve ever inhaled. . . . I read Thrust in a state of flustered fascination and finished longing to dream it again.”—Ron Charles, Washington Post

“There’s so much that feels deeply present about Yuknavitch’s latest novel: the ever-expanding police state, lower Manhattan under water, and a woman on a mission to rescue other vulnerable women. Yuknavitch’s words are incantations, and Thrust is a triumph.”—Elle

“An indignant and impressive novel.”—Alexandra Jacobs, The New York Times

Phenomenal

An amazing fluid story with all that is to be human: fear, longing, sex, absolution, redemption and more. The cast here is overwhelmingly good, bringing each different aspect of the story to shimmering life.

A fabulous tale that took me for a ride

I'll never hear the word "object" the same again. This story is magical, beautiful, sad, and informational. I love the monologs about Earth's history, or detailed information about the makeup of an earthworm. There are some very graphic sex scenes, but they fit this tale so perfectly. I am so pleased to have listened to this book.

The narrations were all amazing. Each narrator fit their role so well, especially the "main" narrator. I drank in her every word.

Extraordinary. A masterpiece.

This audiobook and story is absolutely phenomenal… a total masterpiece! I binged it in one day! And I found my new favorite writer and new favorite narrator, yay! All the narrators did an extraordinary job, but it was the woman who was the primary narrator (Natasha Soudek) and voiced Liceveh the time traveler (and other characters too) who left me absolutely breathless. Her voice had me utterly spellbound, brimming with magic, and hanging on every word. Hoping she will be narrating more books in the future by this remarkable and unique author. Can’t wait!!!! Also, the author’s writing style is like listening to a timeless song, or the best music in the world, or like listening to a master play the cello in English. Brilliant, unique, inter-dimensional, and better than kundalini or drugs. I’m totally serious. So, thank you for this audiobook!!!

Interesting…

Interesting listen. I love Lidia’s writing. The imagery in this book is magical. It kept me hanging on. However, the story was just too quirky for me.

It’s a no for me.

I just…not my cup of tea. Not sure what cup it belongs to, but not mine. Felt weird. Couldn’t really tell you what it was about without sounding like I needed a trip to the hospital. Anyway, maybe don’t read, but if you do and you get it I’m happy for you.

Beautiful prose ruined by Sapphic and Homoerotic excess

The images, themes, ideas and exquisite language of Thrust was unnecessarily compromised not by Sapphic and Homoerotic themes but by the excessiveness of these themes. I can’t recommend a book that I mostly love if a big chunk embarrasses me.

gave my best effort

I kept thinking the book would make so sort os turn toward the interesting but I give up. I have no idea what the professional reviewers see in this other than maybe agreeing how bad humans are for the planet and each other.
WASTE OF A CREDIT

Tedious Manifesto

This was a tedious read. The kind of book where you keep checking to see how much longer you have till it's over. I prefer my history, biology, anthropology, environmental science, and philosophy straight up. The thinnest of plot lines and shoddy world building stitches together the monologues of sketchily developed characters who mouth the endless didactic rants about all of the above. While I was interested in the content and agreed with the general philosophy delivered through the story, centered around the apocalyptic results of humankind's brutal treatment of the planet and each other, I was overwhelmed by the ponderous detail and tended to zone out during the disconnected and decontextualized encyclopedic entries delivered by the characters. The endlessly detailed kinky and anachronistic sex interludes did nothing to enhance the storyline and were frankly cringy.

I'm not sure why I persevered to the end of this book but I would certainly not recommend it nor read another by this author.

Waste of credit

I came across this book on Time Magazine’s list for recommended summer 2022 reads. I was looking forward to listening to it after I read the summary about a girl who travels through time. That really sounds like a great sci-fi fiction, however that was not the case at all.
The author mixes human suffering with sexuality in a cumbersome way that makes absolutely no sense at all. It sounds like it was written by somebody with serious mental issues and high on LSD.

I tried to like it

I felt like I was missing the whole time, like there was something I just didn't get.

I was listening to it one night in bed when my partner crawled in and I told her, "if things get weird, it's because it's a weird book." and I think that sums it up.