Inside Story cover art

Inside Story

Preview
Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Inside Story

By: Martin Amis
Narrated by: Alex Jennings
Try Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $33.99

Buy Now for $33.99

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

This extraordinary novel gives the listener the heart-to-heart testimony of one of our finest writers - a wonder of literary invention and a boisterous modern classic.

His most intimate and epic work to date, Inside Story is the portrait of Martin Amis' extraordinary life, as a man and a writer. This novel had its birth in a death - that of the author's closest friend, Christopher Hitchens. We also encounter the vibrant characters who have helped define Martin Amis, from his father Kingsley, to his hero Saul Bellow, from Philip Larkin to Iris Murdoch and Elizabeth Jane Howard, and to the person who captivated his 20s, the alluringly amoral Phoebe Phelps.

What begins as a thrilling tale of romantic entanglements, family and friendship evolves into a tender, witty exploration of the hardest questions: how to live, how to grieve and how to die? In his search for answers, Amis surveys the great horrors of the 20th century and the still-unfolding impact of the 9/11 attacks on the 21st - and shares all he has learned on how to write.

The result is one of Amis' greatest achievements: a love letter to life that is at once exuberant, meditative, heartbreaking and ebullient, to be savoured and cherished for many years to come.

©2020 Martin Amis (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Biographical Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction Biography Heartfelt Witty
All stars
Most relevant
A most enjoyable book, beautifully narrated by Alex Jennings. This has been the best book of the year for me, this year.

Great story telling

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Amis really went out on a high - his father and his best friend Philip Larkin then Amis himself and his best friend, all succumb to the dreaded esophageal cancer (thanks to their shared enthusiasm for cigarette smoking) but that's all in the future for the author at the time of writing this book.

The book's structure centres around the careers of Larkin, Saul Bellow and his dear friend, Christopher Hitchens - but Amis gives us so much more.

Martin Amis is so generous in sharing his approach to writing and word craft which he makes as riveting reading as his journey documenting the working lives of each poet, novelist and essayist.

Magnificent and beautifully narrated - although my wife wants to get the Kindle version so she can use it for reference for her writing classes.

Superb - doesn't get any better than this!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I've noted some negative reviews and thought I'd spell it out: if you love Martin Amis' work – and if you love any of the several writers he spends time on (and with) – Christopher Hitchens, Saul Bellow, Philip Larkin, Kingsley Amis – you'll love the book.
If you don't, you might not. So read or listen to some of the work first to decide.

As a lover of Amis...I loved it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

And better consumed as an audio book as the masterful Alex Jennings read all the footnotes, where the heartbeat lies. Just finished and I am ready to start all over again. Rosemary February 2021

Extraordinary

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I loved this book and the narration. SO, why does Amis/Audible use that terrible American narrator Steven Pacey on 3 of Amis' most brilliant and quintessentially English novels? Unbearable.

Great narration. Terrible narrator on other books

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews
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.