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  • Preparation for the Next Life

  • By: Atticus Lish
  • Narrated by: Robertson Dean
  • Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (9 ratings)

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Preparation for the Next Life

By: Atticus Lish
Narrated by: Robertson Dean
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Editorial reviews

Editors Select, April 2015 - Winner of the 2015 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, Atticus Lish's Preparation for the Next Life is not only striking in its tightly crafted, yet incredibly detailed prose, but in its heart-breaking portrayal of people both physically and emotionally displaced. To say I fell for this book - an unlikely love story between an undocumented Chinese Muslim immigrant and a recently returned Iraq War veteran - would be an understatement. This book carried me away like no other book this year. The characters are so vivid; their physicality and voices so distinct, I couldn't help sharing in their lostness. Beautifully narrated with heartfelt sincerity by Robertson Dean, this book demands your attention and deserves it. —Doug, Audible Editor

Publisher's Summary

Zou Lei, orphan of the desert, migrates to work in America and finds herself slaving in New York's kitchens. She falls in love with a young man whose heart has been broken in another desert. A new life may be possible if together they can survive homelessness, lockup, and the young man's nightmares, which may be more prophecy than madness.

©2014 Atticus Lish (P)2015 Audible Inc.

Critic Reviews

  • Winner of the 2015 PEN/Faulkner Award
“Dizzying in its ambition and exhilarating in its triumph." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Preparation for the Next Life isn’t just the best novel I’ve read this year, it may be the best novel I’ve read, ever. I’ve seen the book appearing on quite a few 'best of' lists recently—well deserved. And I am now a believer: this book should be in the conversation for a national prize." (Publishers Weekly, Best of 2014)
"Perhaps the finest and most unsentimental love story of the new decade." (The New York Times)

What listeners say about Preparation for the Next Life

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