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Vladimir

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Vladimir

By: Julia May Jonas
Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
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*Now a major Netflix series starring Leo Woodall and Rachel Weisz*

'An astonishing debut . . . I was utterly hooked . . . by this twisty, sexy, shocking treat of a novel ' – The Sunday Times

One evening, a fifty-something literature professor invites her new and beautiful young colleague, Vladimir, to join her for a drink. Her husband is out a lot these days, having been suspended from their college amid accusations of inappropriate relationships with his former students.

However, as the professor attempts to disentangle herself from her husband's behaviour, it becomes clear that her desire for the new arrival might bring the couple's tinder-box world dangerously close to exploding . . .

'This clever, engrossing debut explores female creativity, rage and desire . . . Astonishing' - The Guardian

'So exciting . . . Sexy and satirical and incredibly gripping, impossible to put down' - The Observer

 Contemporary Dark Humour Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Fiction Heartfelt Student Comedy
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Critic reviews

Female ageing and desire, sexual agency in the era of #MeToo, the relationship between morality and art, even a nod to Stephen King's Misery: it's all here in this sexy stealthy slippery debut, one of the year's hottest reads.
This deliciously dark American debut . . . A boisterous campus novel with an outrageously acerbic narrator, it delivers uncomfortable truths
This impressive debut . . . A twisty and thought-provoking tale
Haunted by the spirit of Nabokov, this sly satire challenges today’s “insistence on morality in art”
This astonishing debut is anything but another #MeToo morality tale . . . I was utterly hooked . . . [by] this twisty, sexy, shocking treat of a novel . . . How on earth will Julia May Jonas better this?
Darkly comic . . . Jonas’s novel is full of sly satire . . . The first-person narrative is beautifully rich, and the novel is playing enjoyable games with the ghost of Nabokov throughout . . . Vladimir isn’t a novel that cares for the taking of sides. The words “snowflake” and “woke” don’t appear – Jonas is too smart for that laziness – and when the narrator compares her students’ cutlery to “pitchforks”, the simile has Nabokovian skill
Vladimir is peppered with subversions . . . Jonas artfully fashions a protagonist mired in contradictions . . . [An] intelligent knowing portrayal of a woman's midlife crisis
This slippery debut challenges to often electrifying effect the moral pieties concerning women, sex and power that have sprung up in the wake of #MeToo . . . A welcome addition to the growing number of #MeToo novels, many of which feel in comparison a little tired
It is delicious to spend so much time with a narrator who wants the way this one does, who wants so badly she’ll send her life up in flames.
Jonas's assured debut may be operating in Nabokov's long shadow, but it's difficult not to gobble up the unadorned, plot-driven prose, with its hints of kidnap and bondage, at a greedy pace
[An] engaging debut . . . [Jonas’s] storylines are full of nuance, loopholes, granular details that refuse easy definition
'Vladimir contains far too many uncomfortable truths to be merely fun, but . . . it is, by turns, cathartic, devious and terrifically entertaining.’
'Vladimir goes into such outrageous territory that my jaw literally dropped at moments while I was reading it. There’s a rare blend here of depth of character, mesmerizing prose, and fast-paced action.’
In darkly funny terms, Jonas creates a portrait of a narcissist reckoning with her age and vanity, but also the limits of her power.
All stars
Most relevant
First chapter of two didn't grab me but I'm glad I stuck with it as it really gets going. Narrator is great.

Good Story, Great Narrator

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Not for me but others may like it. Waiting for excitement that never really arrived or something to happen.

Waiting for someone to happen.

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I love a narrator that I can't quite trust. Make that narrator fascinating, intriguing and at times laugh out loud funny and you are well on the way to having something that people want to read or listen to.

I don't get the fuss about the ending, this wasn't a joke needing a punchline or a whodunnit needing a killer. It is a version of a life that is still ongoing at the end of the book.

Brilliantly read.

Fascinating narrator.

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I'm a big fan of the campus novel, and this had some pertinent and amusing observations. But they tended to be submerged by the often unconvincing ruminations of the main character and her obsession with Vladimir. Not so much an unreliable narrator as a self-indulgent one whose story does not quite convince.

Patchy campus novel

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Loved this twisty decent into the story of the narrator. I enjoyed very much

Have a listen!

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