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Liberation Day

By: George Saunders
Narrated by: George Saunders, Tina Fey, Michael McKean, Edi Patterson, Jenny Slate, Jack McBrayer, Melora Hardin, Stephen Root
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Summary

The first short story collection in ten years from the Man Booker Prize-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo.

Audio read by Stephen Root, Jack McBrayer, Edi Patterson, Melora Hardin, Michael McKean, Jenny Slate, George Saunders, Tina Fey.

MacArthur genius and Booker Prize-winner George Saunders returns with a collection of short stories that make sense of our increasingly troubled world, his first since the New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist Tenth of December

The 'best short story writer in English' (Time) is back with a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice, and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. With his trademark prose—wickedly funny, unsentimental, and perfectly tuned—Saunders continues to challenge and surprise: here is a collection of prismatic, deeply resonant stories that encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality.

'Love Letter' is a tender missive from grandfather to grandson, in the midst of a dystopian political situation in the not-too-distant future, that reminds us of our obligations to our ideals, ourselves, and each other. 'Ghoul' is set in a Hell-themed section of an underground amusement park in Colorado, and follows the exploits of a lonely, morally complex character named Brian, who comes to question everything he takes for granted about his 'reality.' In 'Mother’s Day', two women who loved the same man come to an existential reckoning in the middle of a hailstorm. And in 'Elliott Spencer', our eighty-nine-year-old protagonist finds himself brainwashed—his memory 'scraped'—a victim of a scheme in which poor, vulnerable people are reprogrammed and deployed as political protesters.

Together, these nine subversive, profound, and essential stories coalesce into a case for viewing the world with the same generosity and clear-eyed attention as Saunders does, even in the most absurd of circumstances.

©2022 George Saunders (P)2022 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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Critic reviews

"A morally passionate, serious writer.... He will be read long after these times have passed." (Zadie Smith)

"George Saunders makes you feel as though you are reading fiction for the first time." (Khaled Hosseini)

"What warm, kind-hearted and radical writing. Such delicacy, such serious wit. I love it." (Max Porter)

What listeners say about Liberation Day

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Excellent storytelling

Each of the actors in this production, deserve credit for being the characters & story to additional life.

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Fantastic book, beautifully told

Truly brilliant, moving, thought-provoking original stories exceptionally well narrated by author and a wide cast of narrators. One of the best audiobooks I've ever listened to.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful stories

Great stories and accomplished narration by some very good actors. It’s the first time I have come across Saunders, but it won’t be the last - his storytelling is spellbinding.

Yet again, however, Audible lets itself down by not giving chapter titles in the chapter headings. So we get ‘Chapter 1’, ‘Chapter 2’ etc, making it hard to find or go back to a specific story.

It’s a matter of a few minutes’ work by a member of the editorial/production team. Really, Audible, you can do better than this!

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Not his strongest collection

Several of the stories in liberation Day are an excuse for George Saunders to practice the thing he does so often, which is use his third person omniscient narrator to step into the various perspectives of his characters. It is an exercise in empathy but one that isn't always entirely successful. It feels like he owed too often leans back on old tics. Oh crappo.

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Extraordinary

Beautiful, disturbing, dark and light but mostly dark, comentary on human nature and society in the most imaginative way. Beatifully written. So many voices, allegories, narratives that slowly come together and reveal themselves. Voices of self interest, self justification, disinterest, innocence, regret, love, hate, anger, spite, ... Remarkable writing. I think I loved it .. but I had to take rest breaks, it's quite disconbobulating.

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Poignant, weird bursts of splendour.

Wow, that caught me off guard. Listen, trust it, the pay off is enchanting.

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