Amsterdam cover art

Amsterdam

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Amsterdam

By: Ian McEwan
Narrated by: Adrian Scarborough
Try Premium Plus free

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $18.99

Buy Now for $18.99

About this listen

Winner of the Booker Prize 1998.

Brought to you by Penguin.

On a chilly February day two old friends meet in the throng outside a crematorium to pay their last respects to Molly Lane. Both Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday had been Molly's lovers in the days before they reached their current eminence, Clive as Britain's most successful modern composer, Vernon as editor of the quality broadsheet The Judge. Gorgeous, feisty Molly had had other lovers too, notably Julian Garmony, Foreign Secretary, a notorious right-winger tipped to be the next prime minister.

In the days that follow Molly's funeral Clive and Vernon will make a pact that will have consequences neither has foreseen. Each will make a disastrous moral decision, their friendship will be tested to its limits and Julian Garmony will be fighting for his political life.

©1998 Ian McEwan (P)2019 Penguin Audio Dark Humour Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction
All stars
Most relevant  
A great story about two Egoists, old friends of course, clashing and leading to a 21st Century finale. Brilliantly written and beautifully read! I listened to it three times in three days

Ahead of its time

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Sequence of events symmetrically align like a tonic in a symphony the protagonist died trying to finish

Symmetry

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I didn't love the story, but who cares when the writing is so good and clever.

<heading>

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I love McEwan, but this novel left me feeling hard done by. I can't put my finger on it. I think I just loathed the characters too much.

Not his best.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved it. Molly is indulgent soil in which indulgence grows best and then rots.

Brilliant farce and morality tale

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved this story from the beginning to the end. Interesting characters, thought provoking plot

Highly recommended

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.