Publisher's summary
In the midst of campus tumult over the bombing, a letter arrives from a figure in Lee's past, which forces him to revisit events and choices that shaped his failed marriage, his life as a father, and his work as a scholar of middling achievement. While Lee becomes further ensnared in the FBI's attempts to find the bomber, the churned-up regrets from his past bring him to an examination of extremes in his own life as he tries to exonerate himself, face his tormentor from his past, and atone for his failings.
Critic reviews
"She has an eye for the telling details that reveal complicated, fully developed characters as well as an equally acute sensitivity for the times we live in." (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
"Pulitzer Prize finalist Susan Choi returns with a straight-up thriller....gripping, smart." (GQ)
Related to this topic
-
White Noise
- By: Don DeLillo
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When an industrial accident unleashes an "airborne toxic event", a lethal black chemical cloud floats over the Gladneys' lives. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the "white noise" engulfing the Gladneys - radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmurings - pulsing with life yet suggesting something ominous.
-
-
Designed to be analyzed by an English class
- By RI in Canada on 10-15-16
By: Don DeLillo
-
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules (Unabridged Selections)
- By: Edited by David Sedaris
- Narrated by: David Sedaris, Mary-Louise Parker, Cherry Jones
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules is a collection of short stories, some classic, others impending, selected and introduced by David Sedaris.
-
-
Great stories but only 5 of 17 are included
- By Terri Kirk on 07-13-12
-
The Patriots
- A Novel
- By: Sana Krasikov
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren, George Guidall
- Length: 22 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Florence Fein grows up in Brooklyn in the 1930s, in a family that is gaining a foothold in the middle class. At City College she becomes engaged politically with the left-leaning student groups, and eventually, in the midst of the Depression, she takes a job with a trade organization that has a position for her in Moscow. There, she falls in love with another expatriate American and has a son. Soon after, Florence is sent to a work camp and her son to an orphanage.
-
-
Point of View of characters, past and present collide
- By Angela Adams on 01-29-19
By: Sana Krasikov
-
The Snow Garden
- By: Christopher Rice
- Narrated by: James Daniels
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is more than just the late November weather that has cast a chill over the campus of Atherton University. When the wife of respected professor Eric Eberman is killed in a tragic accident, his secret student lover, Randall Stone, fears the professor tried to avert career suicide by committing homicide. Or do the dead woman’s haunting last words point to an even more damning crime? Fearing the truth, Randall digs into his lover’s hidden history.
By: Christopher Rice
-
Driving on the Rim
- By: Thomas McGuane
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The unforgettable voyager of this dark picaresque is I. B. "Berl" Pickett, M.D., whose die was probably cast the moment his mother thought to name him after Irving Berlin. Other insults piled on apace thereafter: the spasms of Pentecostal Sunday worship; the social debilitation of following his parents' itinerant rug-shampooing business; the erotic initiation at the hands of his aunt. It's hard to imagine what would have become of him had he not gone to medical school.
-
-
Delightful
- By Roy on 01-05-11
By: Thomas McGuane
-
When She Woke
- By: Hillary Jordan
- Narrated by: Heather Corrigan
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hannah Payne awakens to a nightmare. She is lying on a table in a bare room, covered only by a paper gown, with cameras broadcasting her every move to millions at home. She is now a convicted criminal, and her skin color has been genetically altered. Her crime, according to the State of Texas: the murder of her unborn child, whose father she refuses to name. Her color: red. The color of newly shed blood.
By: Hillary Jordan
-
White Noise
- By: Don DeLillo
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When an industrial accident unleashes an "airborne toxic event", a lethal black chemical cloud floats over the Gladneys' lives. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the "white noise" engulfing the Gladneys - radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmurings - pulsing with life yet suggesting something ominous.
-
-
Designed to be analyzed by an English class
- By RI in Canada on 10-15-16
By: Don DeLillo
-
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules (Unabridged Selections)
- By: Edited by David Sedaris
- Narrated by: David Sedaris, Mary-Louise Parker, Cherry Jones
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules is a collection of short stories, some classic, others impending, selected and introduced by David Sedaris.
-
-
Great stories but only 5 of 17 are included
- By Terri Kirk on 07-13-12
-
The Patriots
- A Novel
- By: Sana Krasikov
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren, George Guidall
- Length: 22 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Florence Fein grows up in Brooklyn in the 1930s, in a family that is gaining a foothold in the middle class. At City College she becomes engaged politically with the left-leaning student groups, and eventually, in the midst of the Depression, she takes a job with a trade organization that has a position for her in Moscow. There, she falls in love with another expatriate American and has a son. Soon after, Florence is sent to a work camp and her son to an orphanage.
-
-
Point of View of characters, past and present collide
- By Angela Adams on 01-29-19
By: Sana Krasikov
-
The Snow Garden
- By: Christopher Rice
- Narrated by: James Daniels
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is more than just the late November weather that has cast a chill over the campus of Atherton University. When the wife of respected professor Eric Eberman is killed in a tragic accident, his secret student lover, Randall Stone, fears the professor tried to avert career suicide by committing homicide. Or do the dead woman’s haunting last words point to an even more damning crime? Fearing the truth, Randall digs into his lover’s hidden history.
By: Christopher Rice
-
Driving on the Rim
- By: Thomas McGuane
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The unforgettable voyager of this dark picaresque is I. B. "Berl" Pickett, M.D., whose die was probably cast the moment his mother thought to name him after Irving Berlin. Other insults piled on apace thereafter: the spasms of Pentecostal Sunday worship; the social debilitation of following his parents' itinerant rug-shampooing business; the erotic initiation at the hands of his aunt. It's hard to imagine what would have become of him had he not gone to medical school.
-
-
Delightful
- By Roy on 01-05-11
By: Thomas McGuane
-
When She Woke
- By: Hillary Jordan
- Narrated by: Heather Corrigan
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hannah Payne awakens to a nightmare. She is lying on a table in a bare room, covered only by a paper gown, with cameras broadcasting her every move to millions at home. She is now a convicted criminal, and her skin color has been genetically altered. Her crime, according to the State of Texas: the murder of her unborn child, whose father she refuses to name. Her color: red. The color of newly shed blood.
By: Hillary Jordan
-
One Last Dance
- By: Eileen Goudge
- Narrated by: Sandra Burr
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the eve of their 40th wedding anniversary, the Seagraves are among the most envied couples in their community, and still deeply in love - until the night Lydia Seagrave picks up a gun and shoots her husband. Confronting a tangle of family lies in the wake of this shocking tragedy are the three Seagrave sisters.
-
-
Sit it out
- By Laurie on 08-29-08
By: Eileen Goudge
-
A Doubter's Almanac
- A Novel
- By: Ethan Canin
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Milo Andret is born with an unusual mind. A lonely child growing up in the woods of Northern Michigan in the 1950s, he gives little thought to his own talent. But with his acceptance at UC Berkeley, he realizes the extent - and the risks - of his singular gifts. California in the '70s is a seduction, opening Milo's eyes to the allure of both ambition and indulgence. The research he begins there will make him a legend; the woman he meets there - and the rival he meets alongside her - will haunt him for the rest of his life.
-
-
The curse of genius?
- By Bonny on 03-03-16
By: Ethan Canin
-
The Keep
- The Adversary Cycle, Book 1
- By: F. Paul Wilson
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Something is murdering my men." Thus reads the message received from a Nazi commander stationed in a small castle high in the remote Transylvanian Alps. Invisible and silent, the enemy selects one victim per night, leaving the bloodless and mutilated corpses behind to terrify its future victims. When an elite SS extermination squad is dispatched to solve the problem, the men find something that's both powerful and terrifying. Panicked, the Nazis bring in a local expert on folklore - who just happens to be Jewish - to shed some light on the mysterious happenings.
-
-
At long last, The classic horror novel on Audible
- By Shieldslinger on 07-22-20
By: F. Paul Wilson
-
Outside Looking In
- A Novel
- By: T. C. Boyle
- Narrated by: Johnathan McClain
- Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1943, LSD is synthesized in Basel. Two decades later, a coterie of grad students at Harvard are gradually drawn into the inner circle of renowned psychologist and psychedelic drug enthusiast Timothy Leary. Fitzhugh Loney, a psychology PhD student, and his wife, Joanie, become entranced by the drug’s possibilities such that their “research” becomes less a matter of clinical trials and academic papers and instead turns into a freewheeling exploration of mind expansion, group dynamics, and communal living.
-
-
STORYTELLING AS CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING
- By Christopher Meeks on 05-25-19
By: T. C. Boyle
-
Strong Motion
- By: Jonathan Franzen
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello
- Length: 20 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Louis Holland arrives in Boston in a spring of ecological upheaval (a rash of earthquakes on the North Shore) and odd luck: the first one kills his grandmother. Louis tries to maintain his independence, but falls in love with a Harvard seismologist whose discoveries about the earthquakes' cause complicate everything.
-
-
Compelling Story, Ridiculous Narrator
- By DianeReads on 02-28-16
By: Jonathan Franzen
-
The One-in-a-Million Boy
- By: Monica Wood
- Narrated by: Chris Ciulla
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For years, guitarist Quinn Porter has been on the road, chasing gig after gig, largely absent to his twice-ex-wife Belle and their odd, Guinness records-obsessed son. When the boy dies suddenly, Quinn seeks forgiveness for his paternal shortcomings by completing the requirements for one of his son's unfinished Boy Scout badges. For seven Saturdays Quinn does yard work for Ona Vitkus, the spry 104-year-old Lithuanian immigrant the boy had visited weekly.
By: Monica Wood
-
The Poison Tree
- By: Erin Kelly
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Successful journalist Erin Kelly has electrified readers and critics alike with her debut novel The Poison Tree. In this scintillating work, Karen and her daughter Alice have established a safe, happy life free from the madness of Karen’s past. But when Karen’s former lover Rex is released from prison, her old associations intrude upon the present - and threaten everything she holds dear.
-
-
I couldn't stop listening the book.
- By Gladys on 07-29-15
By: Erin Kelly
-
The Boy in the Suitcase
- A Nina Borg Mystery
- By: Lene Kaaberbøl - author/translator, Agnete Friis
- Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse, wife, and mother of two, is trying to live a quiet life. The last thing her husband wants is for her to go running off on another dangerous mission to help illegal refugees. But when Nina's estranged friend, Karin, leaves her a key to a public locker in the Copenhagen train station, and begs her to take care of its contents, Nina gets suckered into her most dangerous case yet.
-
-
Not recommended
- By Sarah C on 06-18-12
By: Lene Kaaberbøl - author/translator, and others
-
Strangers
- By: Dean Koontz
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 29 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A writer in California. A doctor in Boston. A motel owner and his employee in Nevada. A priest in Chicago. A robber in New York. A little girl in Las Vegas. They’re a handful of people from across the country, living through eerie variations of the same nightmare.
-
-
It depends on your personality I guess
- By Robert E. Swale on 10-05-08
By: Dean Koontz
-
Blind Lake
- By: Robert Charles Wilson
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Robert Charles Wilson, says The New York Times, "writes superior science fiction thrillers." His Darwinia won Canada's Aurora Award; his most recent novel, The Chronoliths, won the prestigious John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Now he tells a gripping tale of alien contact and human love in a mysterious but hopeful universe.
-
-
DIMINISHED EXPECTATIONS
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 06-22-15
-
A Chance in the World
- An Orphan Boy, a Mysterious Past, and How He Found a Place Called Home
- By: Steve Pemberton
- Narrated by: Steve Pemberton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Chance in the World is the unbelievably true story of a wounded and broken boy destined to become a man of resilience, determination, and vision. Through it all, Steve's story teaches us that no matter how broken our past, no matter how great our misfortunes, we have it in us to create a new beginning and to build a place where love awaits.
-
-
Good Book
- By Amazon Customer on 08-19-20
By: Steve Pemberton
-
Stoner
- By: John Williams
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
William Stoner is born at the end of the 19th century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar's life, far different from the hardscrabble existence he has known. And yet as the years pass, Stoner encounters a succession of disappointments.
-
-
A story of sadness and serenity
- By Anton on 10-13-12
By: John Williams
What listeners say about A Person of Interest
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Pamela Harvey
- 02-23-08
Slow going...but worth it!
This book takes patience, but the results are worth the time and energy invested. The story line is original and the protagonist is interesting, but throughout most of the book the secondary characters seem vague and the chronology can appear muddy. This is not helped by Choi's style which tends towards complex sentences and sudden shifts in plot lines, even though her writing is rich in introspection and provocative sensitivity. All of this dreaminess can frustrate the reader, and I found myself rewinding frequently. It all clears up in the end, however, and I give this book four out of five stars, because there seem to be so many loose ends and blind alleys everywhere, because so many of the characters seem ill-defined, shadowy, and many of them not really likable, and because there is an undertow of political correctness, which doesn't seem integral to the story itself. However this read does rate high on my list, though, for psychological suspense, despite its meanderings. And, if you like following a narrative without really knowing what is really going on until the last minute then this one is for you!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 09-08-08
Didn't hold my interest
I have to admit that I bailed on this one about half-way through. I usually hate giving up on a book, but I kept falling asleep and I just didn't care about the main character. I wish the main character had been more likeable, then I might have been able to stick it out.
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
-
Performance
-
Story
- D. Greble
- 05-21-08
cultural differences & POI
a well narrated tale about an individual who is Asian American and comes from a culture very different from ours. Because of the way he reacts in certain situations he becomes a possible suspect in a bombing. You can feel his frustration and you're not sure who did it until the very end of this mystery. The book tugs at one's emotions and the main character is a sympathetic one. The narrator keeps you hooked until the end.
Good ending.
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
- Jean
- 07-01-08
A Novel with a Mystery
This book strikes me as better described as a novel than a mystery. There is, indeed, a violent death; the puzzle of who-dun-it is the backdrop for the book. However, the way Choi develops her main character's reaction to the murder and its subsequent events is more intriquing than the mystery itself. At first, I found this professor to be someone I would rather not take the time to get to know. I'm glad I continued to listen for his story is fascinating. Choi has reminded me that cultural and personality differences can enrich our lives.
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
- Annie
- 01-18-09
Slow and boring story
Couldn't finish it. Didn't like or care about Lee; could not understand or accept the motivations of the characters; and I think too I didn't like the female narrator's take on the male voices. In the end, annoying.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Robert C.
- 03-22-08
Engrossing
This stunning novel blends current history with an almost 19th century sensibility of character motivation. The hero of the story is often maddening - you want to shake him, tell him to wake up. But the quality of the writing carries you along. If you enjoy precision in language - like that of great poetry - you will enjoy the author's ability to capture a huge range of emotions. In the end you end up caring for a character that many might find impossible to know. The narrator of the audio book is superb; she has several vocal styles, all of which serve the author well. Don't miss this if you enjoy great writing.
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
- Richard Pace
- 03-03-08
Absorbing and Well Written
I found my self fully engaged in this novel from its very beginning. The writing is levels above the usual bland story-telling common to this genre.
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
- Gloria
- 04-12-08
Eleanor Rigby in the time of terrorism
A marvelous book: on one level it's about a unibomber-type event and how a math professor becomes a person of interest in the investigation, on another it is how a man who defines himself as American is defined as "Asian" or "immigrant" or "suspicious" by casual colleagues and neighbors. Choi's deft exposure of subtle, unintentional racism lurking under the surface was shocking to me as an Anglo- and felt all too true. But that's just one of many threads, not a lecture to the reader- just one of many threads making up the life of a sad old man. Rather than a police procedural, it is a character study, it builds slowly and like the Sixth Sense, we too are mislead by Lee's spotty memories, with a great payoff at the end. The Village Voice compared the character to Eleanor Rigby, very apt.
I picked up the book as a computer science professor who had been in a math department, curious to see if this caught at all the rhythms of academia. It was a spot-on characterization of everything I saw in my old department.
Enjoy!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Rebecca Lindroos
- 02-26-08
a fine literary thriller
This is not a frantic, razzle-dazzle thriller. This is a character driven thriller. The unibomer killings are the obvious starting point for the author and the basic plot, but it's Dr. Lee and his personal issues which take center stage in the novel as a whole. Choi has adroitly woven a fine suspense around complex characters. I listened to this every second I could for about 2 days because I ws hooked. Dunne does a superb job in narrating.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Susan L. Stewart
- 08-18-09
Listening to it a Second Time
So that I don't spend my credits half-way through my subscriptions, I'm listening to my favorites again. This is one of them. One of the reviewers indicated that she didn't like or care about Lee. I don't necessarily like or care about him either, but I think that's part of the novel--part of what makes him "a person of interest"--how do we respond to those people the authorities deem "a person of interest?" I'm fairly certain that Lee doesn't know or like himself either. Forgive the cliche, but Choi unpeels the onion. Choi takes her time revealing the characters. If you're fine with a slow revelation of motivation and a somewhat existential novel, you'll probably enjoy this. And, while I thought it odd that a female narrates a male focalizer, I nonetheless enjoyed listening to her. There's something about her voice that engaged me.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful