Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

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.
Trauma cover art

Trauma

By: Patrick McGrath
Narrated by: Kevin Collins
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 £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

Pay using card ending in
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.

Summary

As a psychiatrist, Charlie Weir has seen every kind of trauma New York has to offer. Yet he has never managed to overcome the tragic mistake, seven years earlier that lost him his wife and his daughter, leaving him prone to corrosive loneliness and restless anger.

Then, into his life walks the alluring Nora Chiara, with her inescapable air of sadness and mystery, and Charlie falls for her quickly, hungrily. But he is increasingly haunted by ghastly half-memories from his childhood and as he retreats further and further into the recesses of his mind the delicate fabric of his life ruptures - with horrifying consequences.

©2008 Patrick McGrath (P)2009 Bloomsbury

Critic reviews

"This masterly specimen of modern gothic delivers the unsettling sting in its tail." (Financial Times)
"A gripping expose of life on the hinterland of sanity ... McGrath is that rare yet essential thing, a writer who can expose our darkest fears without making us run away from them." (New Statesman)
"A bolt of queasily inspiring brilliance." (Eileen Battersby, Irish Times)
"McGrath has the gift, the storyteller's gift, to compel attention, so that you gaze rapt into the fire and listen to the tale unfold." (Sunday Times)

More from the same

What listeners say about Trauma

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

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

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great listen

This book captures the feel of New York in all seasons. The author conveys a sense of the architecture, sights and sounds of the city in his very psychological telling of this story, narrated by his protagonist, a troubled psychiatrist with complex personal relationships. The book is gripping and at times macabre - the overall production and telling of the story by the wonderful Kevin Collins brings you fully into McGrath's world. I recommend it to fans of McGrath's other books and to anyone who likes a good family drama with well drawn characters.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Intense and very enjoyable listen

I didn?t find Patrick McGrath?s latest novel quite as memorable or gripping as his previous ones, ASYLUM and PORT MUNGO, but it is nonetheless a very fine piece of writing. Once again, McGrath delves into the stifling world of psychiatric hospitals and exposes damaged, dysfunctional and painfully lonely characters.
The narrator, Charlie Weir, counsels traumatized war veterans returning from Vietnam. His hold on sanity rapidly weakens and New York becomes an increasingly treacherous place to be as he struggles to cope with the guilt of a failed marriage, the suicide of his brother-in-law and patient and the drama of his own family life.
McGrath is a talented writer; his prose is clear and beautiful. Kevin T. Collins?s deep narrative voice is well suited to the story and TRAUMA is an intense, effective and enjoyable listen.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful