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)

I did not want this book to end

It took a couple chapters for me to fully understand what was going on, but that's probably not the book's fault. I was invested in every character, and really wanted to listen to this book forever.
The narrator - I wasn't sure at first, but after a while, I couldn't imaging anyone else telling the story.

Really enjoyed it.

It didn't start out like I expected, but it was very good. At first, I wanted him to get past the whole family history thing and get to current day, but it turned out that I got very involved in the history and can't imagine telling the story without it.

Wow! What a story!!

I could not stop listening! Always waiting to find out what happens next. My insides cringing as the story unfolds. Great read!!

Beyond Gender

A thoroughly engrossing novel that skillfully allows us to see beyond the many illusions that we hold about gender and love.

Long but well written

This is probably the longest audio book I've listened to in awhile. The story is very well written (told) and very comprehensive. It really gets you thinking about peoples heritages, how they got to the US and how the world is so much different here.

Didn't want it to end

I really enjoyed this novel and was often surprised by the turns that things took in it. I mean, you know from the title basically what's gone on or going to go on, but the interactions among the family members is really what makes this book a great read. The only thing I really didn't like about the book was the way it ended. It kinda just stops all the sudden when you want it to keep going and you want to learn more about what he does with his life.

Great book and wonderful reader

It felt like I was listening to an autobiography. The subject matter is difficult but the writer made it soooo understandable and totally humanized it. The entire book was well done and the ending brought everything together. The reader was excellent with his many voices. HE MADE IT REAL.

Very entertaining

I am definitely not a books critic. I started to listen to audio books because I moved and now I drive 3 hours total every day from home to work and I needed to find a way to make my journey less painful. Middlesex is one of those books that keeps you interested all the way and the narrator does an extraordinary job with all the characters. I did not know anything about the subject and even though I am very traditional, I enjoyed it and learned a lot. In summary, I truly enjoyed this book and I never got sleepy on the way home. Very recommended!

Hands-down the best narration of an audiobook ever

A short and sweet review, for a long but delicious journey! The story is fascinating - Desdemona and Lucky's illicit relationship resulting in mutating chromosomes that cascade through the generations, until voila! Cal arrives. This story - filled with both humor and tragedy, was made exponentially better by the outstanding narration of Kristoffer Tabori.

This book is amazing.

It is about ordinary people trying to live their lives the best they can. As events beyond their control move around them, they do what they have to do to survive and have a life. The story isn't a mystery or about some super hero with fast action events but you are drawn into the story none the less. As the story progresses, you start to care about the characters. They really don't seem so different than yourself. They are driven by wanting and desiring what we all want and desire in life. What is amazing about the book is you grow to understand the role of sexuality in life by being part of the lives of the characters in the book. The characters are so real, that I still am not sure this was fiction! This is a mind expanding book which goes beyond its entertainment value.