A Boy's Own Story cover art

A Boy's Own Story

A Novel

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

A Boy's Own Story

By: Edmund White
Narrated by: George Backman
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Originally published in 1982 as the first of Edmund White's trilogy of autobiographical novels, A Boy's Own Story became an instant classic for its pioneering portrayal of homosexuality. The audiobook's unnamed narrator, growing up during the 1950s, is beset by aloof parents, a cruel sister, and relentless mocking from his peers, compelling him to seek out works of art and literature as solace-and to uncover new relationships in the struggle to embrace his own sexuality. Lyrical and poignant, with powerful evocations of shame and yearning, this is an American literary treasure.

©1997 Edmund White (P)2014 Audible Inc. Coming of Age Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction LGBTQIA+ Creators Literature & Fiction Fiction LGBTQIA+

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The City and the Pillar cover art
So Late in the Day cover art
Call Me by Your Name cover art
English Creek cover art
Little Big Man cover art
Split Infinity cover art
The Summer Queen cover art
The Rabbi cover art
Stonefather cover art
The Serpent and the Pearl cover art
Priestdaddy cover art
Eaters of the Dead cover art
The Once and Future King cover art

The Pride List of Queer Storytelling

To mark Pride 2023 Audible teamed up with non-profit organisation, Out on the Page, supporter and champion of LGBTQIA+ writers and writing, to release an extensive Pride List of Queer Storytelling. Featuring contributions from some of the UK’s most important and exciting voices from the LGBTQIA+ community, this audiobook is one of the many featured on the list that is available to listen to on Audible.
Explore the list
All stars
Most relevant

Where does A Boy's Own Story rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It's got probably the worst performance of all the audiobooks I've listened to.

Would you be willing to try another book from Edmund White? Why or why not?

Yes, if it has a different narrator.

Would you be willing to try another one of George Backman’s performances?

No.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Difficult to say, considering the performance was so off.

Any additional comments?

George Blackman read as if the narrator was a wheezy and overly camp kid. This is true to an extent of what Edmend White was portraying. But the story is also supposed to be funny. If you listen to Edmund White read extracts from the novel, you can see he plays it for laughs, especially some of the sex scenes. However George Blackman doesn't convey this humour. Instead from his performance everything seems to feed back into the main protagonist's insecurity and overt sensitivity. This way of reading makes the main character sound like a caricature of a young gay teen instead of the actual well-rounded character, which is what you get when you read the book.

Good Book, Poor Performance

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Written from the perspective of a developing adolescent, this is a very sharp and entertaining book. Lots of humour and a skilful use of language with an astute portrayal of masculinity. George Backman reads well, catching the uncertain tone of the key character. Deserves a wide audience.

More Than Meets The Eye

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
George Bachman's reading is so arch and camp it makes listening to the story so enjoyable. Normally with audible I alternate between the audible recordings and the actual book - but not in this case - the reading is just so good I listened to it in its entirety in sound. He seems to perfectly render the kind of "curl" of an Edmund White sentence. The readers in audible seem to vary so much - the only other reading performance of comparable level is that given by the reader of the Mark Lewisohn history of the Beatles book (sorry I cant remember the title).

George Bachman is just a fantastic reader and I totally recommend this.

One of the best audible narrators

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Dreadful reading and couldn’t get in to the story. Couldn’t bear to listen to it

Dull

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I have no idea who George backman is but he is rubbish at reading

awful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews