Middlesex

A Novel

By: Jeffrey Eugenides

Narrated by: Kristoffer Tabori

Winner of the 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.

In the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides, a student at a girls' school, Grosse Pointe, MI, 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 - leads Callie to suspect that she is not like other girls. The explanation for this shocking state of affairs takes us out of suburbia - back before the Detroit race riots of 1967, before the rise of the Motor City, to 1922, when the Turks sacked Smyrna and Callie's grandparents fled for their lives, back to a tiny village in Asia Minor where two lovers, and one rare genetic mutation, set in motion the metamorphosis that will turn Callie into a being both mythical and perfectly real: a hermaphrodite.

Sprawling across eight decades - and one unusually awkward adolescence - Jeffrey Eugenide's long-awaited second novel is a grand, utterly original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire.

Critic reviews

“Jeffrey Eugenides is a big and big-hearted talent, and Middlesex is a weird, wonderful novel that will sweep you off your feet.” —Jonathan Franzen

“The author is a gifted storyteller who relates 10 decades of one Greek family's life with evocative words and poignant images, which please the ear and mind. Kristoffer Tabori's dramatization gives a strong sense that he's savoring the telling.” —Audio File

“Without a doubt, this audio edition of Eugenide's long-awaited second novel represents an acme of the audiobook genre: the whole equals more than the sum of its parts…Tabori's performance of the text is phenomenal…Not only are his interpretations of the characters astonishingly credible, but his internalization of the narrative is nothing short of amazing.” —Publisher's Weekly, Starred Review

“What made me fall in love with audiobooks was not so much the story (which is amazing), but rather the narration of the book done by Kristoffer Tabori. This performance, for me, elevated audiobooks from a convenient way to get more books ‘read' to an actual performance art.” —Brain Candy Book Reviews

Anything but middle.

I thouroughly enjoyed this novel both for it's content and narrator. I was packing to move, and once I got well enough into it, I lay on the couch for hours listening. Packing my apartment was delayed for three days. Eugenides' painstaking detail and insight unravel one human experience. It seemed as though I were listening to an autobiography. Tabori brought each character alive with distiction. I recommend.

An OK listen

This book was OK for me. It was a little hard for me to keep my interest. The book covers the stories of three generations of a family, so after the first generation, I had a hard time leaving one set of characters to move on to the next generation. The story begins beautifully, with a story of the character's grandparents, and the first third of the book was five stars in my mind. Then my interest dwindled as the characters aged and the focus moved to other generations. I kept on wanting to hear more in depth about the life of the original characters, and I wanted them to grow. This is why, for me, the book is just three stars.

On a side note, at first, I was a little apprehensive about spending my one credit on a book that seemed to be centered around such a potentially uncomfortable topic for pleasure reading -hermaphrodites. I wanted a pleasant story to listen to, not something that would be sexually explicit. The topic is handled well in the book, and while the thread that the story follows is a physical abnormality caused by a mutation in genes, the story is more about the secrets, strengths and lives of three generations of a family.

Engaging, Exciting and utterly memorable

I picked out this book without knowing anything about it. It was one of the top books I've experienced with Audible. Completely engaging from start to finish. Never dull. Rich, lush, and unique.

Incredible story telling!

This is one of the best audio books I've heard! The story is rich, compelling and strong. It reminds me a bit of John Irving. It's unexpected, but believable. The story traces 3 generations of a family in an unexpected way. The characters are rich and well developed and the story moves quickly. The narrator does a really good job, making clear the different characters with changes in his voice, but he doesn't over do it, which is refreshing.

I can't wait for more books from this author.

Outstanding!

The author and reader have created a wonderful book! At first, I was a bit concerned that 21 hours of listening might be too much, but I almost wanted more when it ended. The book really pulls you into the story. Highly recommended.