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The Man Who Saw Everything

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The Man Who Saw Everything

By: Deborah Levy
Narrated by: George Blagden
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About this listen

***LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019***

Brought to you by Penguin.


Electrifying and audacious, an unmissable new novel about old and new Europe, old and new love, from the twice-Man Booker-shortlisted author of Hot Milk and Swimming Home

'The man who had nearly run me over had touched my hair, as if he were touching a statue or something without a heartbeat...'

In 1988 Saul Adler (a narcissistic, young historian) is hit by a car on the Abbey Road. He is apparently fine; he gets up and goes to see his art student girlfriend, Jennifer Moreau. They have sex then break up, but not before she has photographed Saul crossing the same Abbey Road.

Saul leaves to study in communist East Berlin, two months before the Wall comes down. There he will encounter - significantly - both his assigned translator and his translator's sister, who swears she has seen a jaguar prowling the city. He will fall in love and brood upon his difficult, authoritarian father. And he will befriend a hippy, Rainer, who may or may not be a Stasi agent, but will certainly return to haunt him in middle age.

Slipping slyly between time zones and leaving a spiralling trail, Deborah Levy's electrifying The Man Who Saw Everything examines what we see and what we fail to see, the grave crime of carelessness, the weight of history and our ruinous attempts to shrug it off.

'Levy writes on the high wire, unfalteringly' Marina Warner

©2019 Deborah Levy (P)2019 Penguin Audio
Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Political Heartfelt
All stars
Most relevant  
to try at something for a whole lifetime. which really is barely enough time to cross a road.

It's so Human

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beautifully read/performed.
well written. interesting historically.
confusing though. unlikeable and underdeveloped characters. need to read.

pleased it's over.

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This book is exceptional. Hard to describe why. The alluring character of Saul - with his pearl necklace, PhD in Eastern European history and Marc Bolan looks - never quite connects with anyone until he finds himself in a morphine induced haze of recollection, rencountering all the loves of life. i think it's the description of this "haze", which is one of the most beautiful, poetic yet completely unsentimental accounts of human connection that i've come across.

incredible, touching, intense and magical...

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The pronunciation of German and other languages could be improved, but other than that this is a beautiful, moving story performance. There is so much here! I could listen again and again.

Rich reading experience

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