Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Crudo

  • Love in the Apocalypse
  • By: Olivia Laing
  • Narrated by: Olivia Laing
  • Length: 3 hrs and 39 mins
  • 3.7 out of 5 stars (62 ratings)
Get this deal Try for £0.00
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
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.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
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.
Crudo cover art

Crudo

By: Olivia Laing
Narrated by: Olivia Laing
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £6.99

Buy Now for £6.99

Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Modern Nature cover art
Packing Up cover art
Cruel Optimism cover art
The Front Seat Passenger cover art
Staying with the Trouble cover art
Extinctions cover art
There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job cover art
Quicksand Tales cover art
To Throw Away Unopened cover art
Public Confessions of a Middle Aged Woman cover art
Milkshakes and Morphine cover art
Under the Duvet cover art

Summary

Read by the author, Olivia Laing.

Kathy is a writer. Kathy is getting married. It’s the summer of 2017 and the whole world is falling apart.

Kathy spends the first summer of her forties trying to adjust to making a lifelong commitment – marriage. But it’s not only Kathy who is changing. Political, social and natural landscapes are all in peril. Fascism is on the rise, truth is dead, the planet is hotting up. Is it really worth learning to love when the end of the world is nigh? And how do you make art, let alone a life, when it could all end at any moment?

From a Tuscan hotel for the super-rich to a politically-paralysed UK, Olivia Laing's first novel is a love letter, inspired by the life and work of Kathy Acker. It is a blistering rewire of the form and a brilliant, funny and emphatically raw account of love in the apocalypse.

Winner of the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction

Shortlisted for the Goldsmith's Prize and the Gordon Burn Prize

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2018 Olivia Laing (P)2018 Macmillan Digital Audio
Literary Fiction Political Contemporary
Show More Show Less

Critic reviews

Written at a war-mongering time of rising nationalisms, the vitality of Olivia Laing's
questioning love letter to life and to art will blow you away (Deborah Levy)
Laing’s prose shimmers and is selfish then, suddenly, full of love. It’s a high-wire act. This is the novel as a love letter to Acker. She gives her a happier ending than the one she had. She asks us what a novel can do when unreality rules. She asks what it is like to be alive when the old order is dying . . . Crudo is a hot, hot book. The fuse is lit. (Susanne Moore)
Finally, I don’t think I’ll ever forget the day I spent reading Olivia Laing’s Crudo. I couldn’t put it down, and then it overwhelmed me so much I had to put it down, and then I had to pick it back up again. A beautiful, strange, intelligent novel. (Sally Rooney, author of Conversations With Friends)

What listeners say about Crudo

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    21
  • 4 Stars
    17
  • 3 Stars
    11
  • 2 Stars
    10
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    28
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    11
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    19
  • 4 Stars
    14
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    3

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.co.uk reviews

Amazon reviews
Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Garth S.

Great read, could not put it down

Keep going back to it . Specially over a holiday .
Where you might hear missing chapters which you missed the first time . Painting a picture of privilege or just a reflection of our time. Non fantasy . But fantasy to many . Paints a picture like no other .
An escape in a “ White Lotus “ relevance .

Report this

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Rachel Hart

Took a while to get into it

I loved the Lonely City, so looked forward to this one. But it was hard to start with and confusing. I let it wash over me. I’m beginning to think authors should avoid reading their own books: the narration was distracting. But I’m glad I stuck with it, for it captured events & feelings from 2017 in a powerful way.

Report this

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Mr C.

Oh! livia, encore

blew me cashmere socks off
touching
lyrical
such a strong voice
opened me

great to listen to an author read their own work

best thing I've heard in a long time

Report this

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Brooke

Highly recommend this work from a brilliant writer

I came to Crudo after reading 'The Lonely City' which I loved and admired. Crudo is a supremely clever, but accessible work of art. I love that Olivia herself reads it.

Report this

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Leanne Waterhouse

Cluedo!

Not for me . I’m not keen on authors reading their own work but I don’t think a different narrator would have made any difference to this story. The character lacked development and whilst isolated observations were amusing they weren’t “ blisteringly funny” as described in one review. It was more a cross between a personal diary and complaints letter. I hope other people find it more enjoyable.

Report this

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful