August Blue - Deborah Levy Audiobook

Written by Deborah Levy
Read by Alix Dunmore
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Release date: June 6, 2023
Duration: 04:19:45

At the height of her career, the piano virtuoso Elsa M. Anderson—former child prodigy, now in her thirties—walks off the stage in Vienna, mid-performance.

Now she is in Athens, watching an uncannily familiar woman purchase a pair of mechanical dancing horses at a flea market. Elsa wants the horses too, but there are no more for sale. She drifts to the ferry port, on the run from her talent and her history.

So begins her journey across Europe, shadowed by the elusive woman who seems to be her double. A dazzling portrait of melancholy and metamorphosis, Deborah Levy’s August Blue uncovers the ways in which we attempt to revise our oldest stories and make ourselves anew.

“Alix Dunmore’s lilting voice and English accent capture the musicality of this audiobook. The cadence of her narration works well, and her tones mimic the interior conflicts of Elsa, a virtuoso pianist whose career is at a standstill. In response, she dyes her hair blue and sets about inventing a new persona. The pandemic is taking place as the plot moves from Greece to Paris, London, and Sardinia. Elsa’s quest is aided by a doppelganger whom she first encounters in Greece and who then reappears–sometimes as a person, sometimes as a figment of Elsa’s imagination. Recurring symbols–two mechanical toy horses–are introduced in the opening. Levy expertly creates scenes packed with meaning as Elsa comes to understand her provenance, passion, and place in the world.”—Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award