Vladimir

'Favourite Book of the Year' Vogue

De: Julia May Jonas

Narrado por: Rebecca Lowman

A Sunday Times Paperback of the Year

'An astonishing debut . . . I was utterly hooked . . . by this twisty, sexy, shocking treat of a novel . . . How on earth will Julia May Jonas better this?' – The Sunday Times

A provocative, razor-sharp, and timely novel about a beloved English professor facing a slew of accusations against her husband from his former students – a situation that becomes more complicated when she herself develops an obsession of her own . . .

When I was a child, I loved old men, and I could tell that they also loved me.

And so we meet our deliciously incisive narrator: a popular English professor whose husband, a charismatic professor at the same small liberal arts college, is under investigation for his inappropriate relationships with his former students. The couple have long had a mutual understanding when it comes to their extramarital pursuits, but with these new allegations, life has become far less comfortable for them both.

And when our unnamed narrator becomes increasingly infatuated with Vladimir, a celebrated, married young novelist who’s just arrived on campus, their tinder-box world comes dangerously close to exploding.

Julia May Jonas takes us into charged territory, where the restrictions of morality bump up against the impulses of the human heart. Darkly funny and moving, Vladimir maps the personal and political minefield of our current moment, exposing the messy contradictions of power and desire.

Reseñas de la Crítica

Female ageing and desire, sexual agency in the era of #MeToo, the relationship between morality and art, even a nod to Stephen King's <i>Misery</i>: it's all here in this <b>sexy stealthy slippery debut, one of the year's hottest reads.</b>

This <b>deliciously dark</b> American debut . . . A boisterous campus novel with an <b>outrageously acerbic</b> narrator, it <b>delivers uncomfortable truths</b>

This impressive debut . . . <b>A twisty and thought-provoking tale</b>

Haunted by the spirit of Nabokov, this sly satire <b>challenges today&rsquo;s &ldquo;insistence on morality in art&rdquo;</b>

This <b>astonishing debut</b> is anything but another #MeToo morality tale . . . <b>I was utterly hooked</b> . . . [by] this <b>twisty, sexy, shocking treat of a novel</b> . . . How on earth will Julia May Jonas better this?

<b>Darkly comic</b> . . . Jonas&rsquo;s novel is full of sly satire . . . The first-person narrative is <b>beautifully rich, and the novel is playing enjoyable games with the ghost of Nabokov throughout</b> . . . <i>Vladimir</i> isn&rsquo;t a novel that cares for the taking of sides. The words &ldquo;snowflake&rdquo; and &ldquo;woke&rdquo; don&rsquo;t appear &ndash; Jonas is too smart for that laziness &ndash; and when the narrator compares her students&rsquo; cutlery to &ldquo;pitchforks&rdquo;, the simile has Nabokovian skill

<i>Vladimir</i> is peppered with subversions . . . Jonas artfully fashions a protagonist mired in contradictions . . . [An] <b>intelligent knowing portrayal of a woman's midlife crisis</b>

This slippery debut challenges to often electrifying effect the moral pieties concerning women, sex and power that have sprung up in the wake of #MeToo . . . <b>A welcome addition to the growing number of #MeToo novels, many of which feel in comparison a little tired</b>

It is delicious to spend so much time with a narrator who wants the way this one does, who wants so badly she&rsquo;ll send her life up in flames.

Jonas's assured debut may be operating in Nabokov's long shadow, but it's difficult not to gobble up the unadorned, plot-driven prose, with its hints of kidnap and bondage, at a greedy pace

[An] engaging debut . . . [Jonas&rsquo;s] storylines are <b>full of nuance, loopholes, granular details that refuse easy definition</b>

'<i>Vladimir</i> contains far too many uncomfortable truths to be merely fun, but . . . it is, by turns, <b>cathartic, devious and terrifically entertaining</b>.&rsquo;