• Falling Man

  • A Novel
  • By: Don DeLillo
  • Narrated by: John Slattery
  • Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
  • 3.4 out of 5 stars (246 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.
Falling Man  By  cover art

Falling Man

By: Don DeLillo
Narrated by: John Slattery
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $13.46

Buy for $13.46

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

In the opening scene of Falling Man, Keith Neudecker emerges from the smoke and ash of the burning tower where he worked and makes his way to the apartment of his ex-wife and young son uptown. Throughout this bold and haunting novel, DeLillo traces the way the events of September 11 kindled or rekindled relationships, reconfigured our emotional landscape, our memory, and our perception of the world.

Falling Man is a direct encounter with the enormous force of history, yet the story is told through the intimate lives of a few people immediately affected. It is beautiful, heartbreaking, and ultimately redemptive.

©2007 Don DeLillo. All rights reserved (P)2007 Simon and Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"There have been a number of novels written in the past years about 9/11 that have attempted to come to grips with what that horrible day means to us. None of them are like this one....It's a testament to DeLillo's brilliant command of language that readers will feel once again, whether they want to or not, as scared and as sad as they felt that day." ( Booklist)
"This novel is a return to DeLillo's best work. No other writer could encompass 9/11 quite like DeLillo does here....The writing has the intricacy and purpose of a wiring diagram....It is as if Players, The Names, Libra, White Noise, Underworld - with their toxic events, secret histories, moral panics - converge, in that day's narrative of systematic vulnerability, scatter and tentative regrouping." ( Publishers Weekly)
" Falling Man brings at least a measure of memory, tenderness and meaning to all that howling space." ( The New York Times Book Review)

What listeners say about Falling Man

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    67
  • 4 Stars
    60
  • 3 Stars
    56
  • 2 Stars
    39
  • 1 Stars
    24
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    54
  • 4 Stars
    44
  • 3 Stars
    16
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    5
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    43
  • 4 Stars
    30
  • 3 Stars
    29
  • 2 Stars
    14
  • 1 Stars
    8

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

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

A Reflection on Humanity

After reading a magazine review of this book, I was happy to find it already available on Audible. I listened to it over the course of 2 days and immediately listened to it again. There are many layers to this book, only the most obvious being the first-hand experience of the September 11 hijackings. The horror of those events is protrayed in the awestruck and stunned manner of those who were in New York on that day, but the underlying feelings are much more widespread and relect all our humanity. I experienced that day from thousands of miles and 4 time zones away, in my home in Alaska, but felt many of the same feelings that I found in this book. The simple act of looking at oneself in a mirror and comparing this view to that held by others who see us, the innocent simplicity of children's misunderstanding of the name of a terrorist and their fear of returning planes, and of course the inability to undo what happened, to have to remember it and view it repeatedly in the media are just some of the subjects covered simply but so well in this book. We have heard and read often that 9/11 was a day that changed all Americans: I think this simple yet complex and deep book captures many of the deep and human ways it changed us. I highly recommend this book as a reminder of our common feelings, whether we were on the streets of Lower Manhattan, the Interior of Alaska, or the many thousands of other places where Americans felt, and feel, the impact of that day.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

bad narration

It's rather difficult following the dialog, since the narrator doesn't try to distinguish between voices. The narrator is also very flat, indifferen and numb-- I recommend actually reading the hard copy on this one, since the audio version doesn't seem to do it justice.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Storytelling? Not!

I have no idea if the book is good or not - it was the worst narration to which I have listened. There was no storytelling skill by the narrator. I expect different voices or inflections of voice or some way to discern the differences among the characters' speech, but there was none. Thus, I had trouble keeping track of who was saying what - the first time in countless audiobooks I have experienced. I would not recommend this audiobook.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

compelling and disturbing

This is a great book. Its basically less about 9/11 itself than it is about how an event like this affects (and doesn't affect) the people afterwords. Far from your typical "I was there" fictionalized account of being there. Very well narrated.

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
    5 out of 5 stars

Since the planes...

"Since the planes" is the euphemism the main characters of this novel use to refer to the tragedy of 9/11. A fictional account of a survivor, his family, and their experiences following the devastation of the World Trade Center, this book is a clear-eyed look at the forces that led to the event, and at those that have shaped our collective consciousness since the tragedy. DeLillo makes no political points, and has no axes to grind. This story, like history itself, is ultimately a story of individual human beings, their choices, and the consequences that follow from those choices. An absorbing and chilling listen.

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
    5 out of 5 stars

Gorgeous Writing

I literally had to press 'stop' on my ipod on several occasions just to think about what I just heard because of the beautiful language and construction. Listen to this for the writing alone.

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
    2 out of 5 stars

Nobody Has Any Fun in This Book


"the point is... invalidation," one of the characters says. Or something like that. That is the point of this book, alright.
This book is lots of thought, no wisdom.
Lots of mulling and self absorption and obsession. No passion. Just mindless repetition.

Is Delillo saying this is what happens when there's a major tragedy?
Is he saying that humanity has so little energy, so little humility, so little imagination, so little humor?
Yes. That's what he's saying.
Dust thou art to dust returnest. Is what he's saying.

I think the man's in need of an anti-depressant.
God, what a deadly group of characters.
No more Delillo for me.

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
    1 out of 5 stars

Bad narrator

I Iike Don DeLillo lots, but could not enjoy this audiobook because narrator failed use voices nor other cues to indicate speaker in dialogs, forcing me rewind so often I gave-up half-way.

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
    2 out of 5 stars

Excrutiating

It took me three months to finish this book. I wish I had read it instead of listened to it. The narrator was monotonous and hard to follow, he had no emotion in his voice. I got bored and would have to stop for days before I would try again.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible writing

I read a lot of criticism about the narrator but I think he uses a style appropriate to the text. Don DeLillo is one of the finest American writers and this is a short, deeply engaging, thoughtful book. If you want something that makes you think, where each sentence is a marvel, and if you can get used to his use of the word "this" when you were expecting "that", this is for you.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful