The Listeners cover art

The Listeners

Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

The Listeners

By: Jordan Tannahill
Narrated by: Deborah Pearson
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £14.64

Buy Now for £14.64

Season's Savings | £0.99/mo for 3 months

£5.99/mo after 3 months - terms apply. Cancel monthly

Now a major BBC drama starring Rebecca Hall

‘Starts as a little hum in your ears, ends up blowing the top off your head’ EMMA DONOGHUE

‘A page-turning unravelling of a family’ ZOE WHITTALL

'Fans of The Power will love this addictive novel’ Stylist

A stunning, propulsive novel following one woman as she treads the fine lines between faith, conspiracy and mania.

While lying in bed next to her husband one night, Claire Devon hears a low hum that he cannot detect. And, it seems, no one else can either. This innocuous noise begins causing Claire headaches, nosebleeds, insomnia, gradually upsetting the balance of her life, though no obvious source or medical cause can be found.

When Claire discovers that a student of hers can also hear the hum, she and the boy strike up an unlikely and intimate friendship. Finding themselves increasingly isolated from their families and colleagues, they fall in with a disparate group of neighbours who can also pick up the sound. What starts as a neighbourhood self-help group gradually transforms into something far more extreme and with far-reaching, devastating consequences for all of them.

The Listeners is a gripping, exhilarating novel exploring the seductive pull of the unknown, the rise of online conspiracy culture and the desire for community and connection in our increasingly polarised times.

‘One of those rare novels that entered my soul … Tannahill writes with the heat and wisdom of a god’ CLAUDIA DEY, author of Heartbreaker

‘Fantastic on conspiracy theories, cults, faith and mania’ Daily Mail

‘Breathtakingly, breath-holdingly good’ IAN WILLIAMS, author of Reproduction

Dystopian Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Marriage & Long-Term Partnerships Psychological Relationships Science Fiction
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Critic reviews

Praise for The Listeners:
‘Fantastic on conspiracy theories, cults, faith and mania and stuffed full of engaging characters’ Daily Mail
‘The Listeners starts as a little hum in your ear and ends up blowing the top off your head. A deeply plausible, funny, horrifying story of a journey right off the rails’ Emma Donoghue, author of The Pull of the Stars
‘I loved this book. Tannahill is such a skilled prose stylist that this book manages to be both a page-turning unravelling of a family and a manic, fully-alive monologue of a woman going over the edge’ Zoe Whittall, author of The Spectacular
‘One of those rare novels that entered my soul, rearranged my brain cells and then my world view. Tannahill writes with the
heat and wisdom of a God’ Claudia Dey, author of Heartbreaker and Stunt
‘Breathtakingly timely. It’s an enigmatic story of 21st-century melancholia motored by sentences at once propulsive and erudite (that beautiful synthesis). Everyone’s going to be talking about this book’ Billy-Ray Belcourt, author of A History of My Brief Body
‘Tannahill has written an engaging, shocking and hilarious story about how a woman's search for deeper meaning leads to an entire town being in crisis. It is a testament to the revulsion and horror an ordinary person can inspire when they decide to simply peek outside of the box’ Heather O’Neill, author of The Lonely Hearts Hotel
‘A breathtakingly, breathholdingly good novel from one of the most original writers in this country. Tannahill serves up enormous ideas in delicious slices. What’s truth? Who do we trust? Is skepticism better than belief? He has a playwright’s ear and a director’s eye. I didn’t so much read the novel as watch it unfold’ Ian Williams, author of Reproduction
All stars
Most relevant
This book is strange. I love the way it’s written like a retrospective, the narrator does a great job you can hear the heartbreak in her voice at the end. The story kind of goes in a full circle it’s cultish and the hostage situation at the end is a great end. But yes this is a strange little book

Not dystopian

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

Such a beautiful and layered story, insights into the complexities of human nature, quite dark in places (in a psychological sense).. the voice actor was great

I loved this book

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

This on the face of it, is a novel that might appear to be quite simple with immediate themes and contemporary concerns in a modern digital age. Where the complexities of interactions with older teenagers soon to be adults, things that still make us and the wise society uncomfortable is all this novel is about. Encased in a somewhat sensationalised wrapping. But it falls far deeper than that like the unseen protagonist (no spoiler alerts) in this work. It made the think and question many things that I think most people take for granted. I personally love works that challenge me to question to interrogate my own understanding of things. And this novel certainly does that. Place Claire as the writer, looking back on a series of life defining events makes the novel sit up you pay attention - there is after all nothing more intriguing than a first hand account of controversial events. Which brings to the novel a very present,very now vibe, of how “news” and “the media” can escalate and deescalate situations. How quickly heroes and saviours can be made into devils and demons . How the pull for normalcy - perceived normalcy and the lack of it if you’re outside those remits can isolate a person. I’d thoroughly recommend The Listeners.

Complex,compound, makes you question yourself & the perception of others

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

There are at least ten instances of words being pronounced wrong in the performance. The author just gives up on the story about 2 thirds in

How artificial the writing seemed

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

I’m a raging liberal, lover of all the people, genders etc. ok with concept of holding space for people etc. but no one talks or writes like this - it’s draining. Like listening to a never ending whining TikTok think piece from someone who just hates everyone else and think they are the only evolved human in the world. It’s giving the lesbian bar and the face masks.

Couldn’t finish

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

See more reviews