Under the Volcano cover art

Under the Volcano

A Novel

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Under the Volcano

By: Malcolm Lowry
Narrated by: John Lee
Try Premium Plus free

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

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

About this listen

 On the Day of the Dead, in 1938, Geoffrey Firmin, an alcoholic and ruined man, is fatefully living out his last day, drowning himself in mescal while his former wife and half-brother look on, powerless to help him. The events of this one day unfold against a backdrop unforgettable for its evocation of a Mexico at once magical and diabolical.©1947 Peter Matson (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction United States World Literature Latin American Mexico

Critic reviews

"The book obviously belongs with the most original and creative novels of our time." (Alfred Kazin)
"One of the towering novels of [the twentieth] century." ( New York Times)
"[Lowry's] masterpiece...has a claim to being regarded as one of the ten most consequential works of fiction produced in this century...." ( Los Angeles Times)
All stars
Most relevant
Before I began listening to the book I read Lowry's biography in Wikipedia and that gave me insight into the motive for his writing of this great work. He was a poet as well as a novelist and that accounts for the astonishing descriptions of landscape and the inner voices of his characters. It is hard to witness the tragic downward spiral of the main protagonist as he descends into the hell of alcoholism. His journey takes place in one day, The Day of the Dead, in Mexico. It compares to Dante's Inferno or Marlowe's Faust - both mentioned, among other works of literature, in the novel. The undercurrent of fascism runs through the narrative hinting at a dark underbelly of fear that slowly gains a hold as the work progresses.

The narrator was brilliant in my humble opinion.

Absorbing, Poetic, Tragic, Brilliant

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really struggled with the narrator. In the end, I decided to buy a physical book and read it traditionally.

Struggled with narrator

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A brilliant but dense book which is made all the better for a fantastic narration. Stick with it, the first chapter is the hardest to get through.

A book destined for audio.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautiful, sad, and absorbing novel - one of my favourites ever. I get sucked into it every time, reading or listening. Narrator John Lee does a startlingly beautiful job. Thank you.

Narrator does justice to this brilliant novel

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I'm three chapters in and it's fantastic so far. Obviously the book itself needs no recommendation being an absolute classic. Tried to read it once but lost focus if you know what I mean. Don't be put off by the bad reviews about the reader, I think he does a great job. Don't know him but he must be a great actor. I'm from the north of England not far from where Lowry was from and I think the reader did really well. Do we know how Lowry spoke? Another wonderful delivery from Audible 👍

Great job done well

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