Schroder
A Novel
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Schroder
Narrated by:
Will Collyer
Buy Now for £12.99
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Narrated by:
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Will Collyer
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By:
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Amity Gaige
About this listen
Attending a New England summer camp, young Eric Schroder-a first-generation East German immigrant-adopts the last name Kennedy to more easily fit in, a fateful white lie that will set him on an improbable and ultimately tragic course.
Schroder relates the story of Eric's urgent escape years later to Lake Champlain, Vermont, with his six-year-old daughter, Meadow, in an attempt to outrun the authorities amid a heated custody battle with his wife, who will soon discover that her husband is not who he says he is. From a correctional facility, Eric surveys the course of his life to understand-and maybe even explain-his behavior: the painful separation from his mother in childhood; a harrowing escape to America with his taciturn father; a romance that withered under a shadow of lies; and his proudest moments and greatest regrets as a flawed but loving father.
Alternately lovesick and ecstatic, Amity Gaige's deftly imagined novel offers a profound meditation on history and fatherhood, and the many identities we take on in our lives--those we are born with and those we construct for ourselves.
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Critic reviews
"Complicated and nuanced . . . the novel is absorbing, with a propulsive plot and a narrator who is charming, ambivalent, and searching-a man driven by love who understands that love cannot save him."—The New Yorker
"The measure of Gaige's great gifts as a storyteller is that she persuades you to believe in a situation that shouldn't be believable, and to love a narrator who shouldn't be lovable. Seldom has such a daring concept for a novel been grounded in such an appealing character."—Jonathan Franzen, author of Freedom and The Corrections
"You will not want to put this book down. You will want to read it in one big gulp. This is a bullet of a novel, aimed at our pieties about parenthood and familial love. You won't soon forget Schroder or his daughter or the sentences that bring them to life. To those who know Gaige's first two novels, it's no surprise she's produced another stunner. To those who don't, you're in for a treat."—Adam Haslett, author of Union Atlantic, and the New York Times best-selling short story collection You Are Not a Stranger Here
Praise for Amity Gagie
"In this tightly-written and emotionally satisfying novel, a young couple's marriage is thrown into jeopardy by the husband's workaholic tendencies... [Gaige] is extraordinarily adept at revealing her characters' personalities in just a few words... Stirring."—New York Times Book Review on The Folded World
"In this tightly-written and emotionally satisfying novel, a young couple's marriage is thrown into jeopardy by the husband's workaholic tendencies... [Gaige] is extraordinarily adept at revealing her characters' personalities in just a few words... Stirring."—New York Times Book Review on The Folded World
"The bitterness and disillusion of marriage have been thoroughly plumbed in contemporary fiction; Gaige is one of the rare novelists who is more interested in its potential for happiness and grace. A-."—Entertainment Weekly on The Folded World
"Love, marriage, and the whole damn thing-all spanned in a witty, tender first novel. With a flavor of Lorrie Moore, graceful, bright, modern writing."—Kirkus on O My Darling
"Utterly devourable...gently, and beautifully unfolds, like a gauzy curtain in an open window."—Los Angeles Times on O My Darling
"Sparkles and delights...crystalline insights into the nature of love and flashes of narrative brilliance."—Publisher's Weekly on O My Darling
"The Folded World will appeal to readers who like to dive into the muck of internal and interpersonal conflicts, and break the surface with breath born of insight and empathy. Amity Gaige's second novel lives up to the reputation she earned with her first one, as an original, compelling voice."—Chicago Tribune (Favorite Books of 2007)
What made the experience of listening to Schroder the most enjoyable?
A wonderful narrator, who really got the perfect balance between the inevitable self sabotage of the protagonist against the subtle and poetic sensitivity of his narrative voice.Who was your favorite character and why?
Schroder himself: complex, contradictory, sympathetic and repulsive at once.But I love how Amity Gaige brings so much life to the other characters with such economy of scale; she really breathes life in to them using so little, showing how much she trusts and respects her readers.
Which character – as performed by Will Collyer – was your favourite?
I like the way he portrays Meadow, he reads with great rhythm.Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Yes, it definitely moved me, but it is not sentimental and does not intentionally pull at the heart strings...it just unfolds and gives you generous space to walk around in, feeling your way through the language and the landscapes, quietly allowing you to gauge your own reactions and shifting sympathies.Any additional comments?
A great book which enjoys narrative and language without being heavy handed with it read by an intelligent narrator who really brings the best out of it with a sonorous clarity and steady focus.Beautiful and moving
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I’m not writing any spoilers here that aren’t available in the blurb; a father, hamstrung by the family courts system takes his daughter on one final, extended, access visit.
Except that if the plot alone was the ingredient of the novel then you would probably pass this on by, after all, what is there to be said? You know the story, right? Oh so wrong.
Before I say the next part; I want to be clear that no-one is physically abused in this novel. That aside, the writing reminded me of Lolita, which is another novel that uses and chooses beautiful language to tell a story that also challenges the morals of the reader.
This is a (platonic) love story written from a father to his child, their one final adventure together. It is written with tenderness and beauty.
No, this novel won’t be for everyone. However, if you want to read prose written using language which is almost poetic, one that draws you in and maybe makes your heart break a little too, without being mawkish or a tearjerker, that tells an everyday story in an individual way and challenges your own perceptions and morals then this is one for you.
To the author or the publisher, in case you read reviews; please write more. No, your next book won’t be the same but if this is any guide your talent deserves to be read and heard.
Unpalatable, beautiful and touching.
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