Speak
A Novel
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By:
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Louisa Hall
About this listen
A thoughtful, poignant novel that explores the creation of artificial intelligence - illuminating the very human need for communication, connection, and understanding.
In a narrative that spans geography and time, from the Atlantic Ocean in the 17th century to a correctional institute in Texas in the near future, and told from the perspectives of five very different characters, Speak considers what it means to be human and what it means to be less than fully alive.
A young Puritan woman travels to the New World with her unwanted new husband. Alan Turing, the renowned mathematician and code breaker, writes letters to his best friend's mother. A Jewish refugee and professor of computer science struggles to reconnect with his increasingly detached wife. An isolated and traumatized young girl exchanges messages with an intelligent software program. A former Silicon Valley wunderkind is imprisoned for creating illegal lifelike dolls.
Each of these characters is attempting to communicate across gaps - to estranged spouses, lost friends, future readers, or a computer program that may or may not understand them. In dazzling and electrifying prose, Louisa Hall explores how the chasm between computer and human - shrinking rapidly with today's technological advances - echoes the gaps that exist between ordinary people. Though each speaks from a distinct place and moment in time, all five characters share the need to express themselves while simultaneously wondering if they will ever be heard or understood.
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- Unabridged
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For a long time, Nadja Spiegelman believed her mother was a fairy. More than her famous father, Maus creator Art Spiegelman, and even more than most mothers, hers - French-born New Yorker art director Françoise Mouly - exerted a force over reality that was both dazzling and daunting. As Nadja's body changed and "began to whisper to the adults around me in a language I did not understand", their relationship grew tense.
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Aweful
- By Haley Abreu on 07-05-17
By: Nadja Spiegelman
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Fury
- By: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Salman Rushdie
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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The world renowned author of The Satanic Verses and The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Salman Rushdie is a Whitbread Award winner and recipient of the Booker Prize. His first truly American novel, Fury is a metaphorically rich black comedy that reflects the pressure-cooker of modern life. Malik Solanka, irascible doll-maker and retired historian of ideas, suffers the pain of wanting without knowing exactly what it is he wants.
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surprisingly good
- By David on 11-21-07
By: Salman Rushdie
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Driving on the Rim
- By: Thomas McGuane
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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The unforgettable voyager of this dark picaresque is I. B. "Berl" Pickett, M.D., whose die was probably cast the moment his mother thought to name him after Irving Berlin. Other insults piled on apace thereafter: the spasms of Pentecostal Sunday worship; the social debilitation of following his parents' itinerant rug-shampooing business; the erotic initiation at the hands of his aunt. It's hard to imagine what would have become of him had he not gone to medical school.
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Delightful
- By Roy on 01-05-11
By: Thomas McGuane
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The Book of Separation
- A Memoir
- By: Tova Mirvis
- Narrated by: Tova Mirvis
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Born and raised in a tight-knit Orthodox Jewish family, Tova Mirvis committed herself to observing the rules and rituals prescribed by this way of life. After all, to observe was to be accepted and to be accepted was to be loved. She married a man from within the fold and quickly began a family. But over the years, her doubts became noisier than her faith, and at age 40 she could no longer breathe in what had become a suffocating existence.
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So many parallels
- By Cortney on 01-05-18
By: Tova Mirvis
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The Night Ocean
- By: Paul La Farge
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Marina Willett, MD, has a problem. Her husband, Charlie, has become obsessed with H. P. Lovecraft, in particular with one episode in the legendary horror writer's life: In the summer of 1934, the "old gent" lived for two months with a gay teenage fan named Robert Barlow, at Barlow's family home in central Florida. What were the two of them up to? Were they friends - or something more? Just when Charlie thinks he's solved the puzzle, a new scandal erupts, and he disappears.
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Frustratingly Uneven Due to Clumsy Plot Structure
- By Adam on 06-15-17
By: Paul La Farge
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The Vine of Desire
- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Anju and Sudha formed an astounding, almost psychic connection during their childhood in India. When Anju invites Sudha, a single mother in Calcutta, to come live with her and her husband, Sunil, in California, Sudha foolishly accepts, knowing full well that Sunil has long desired her. As Sunil's attraction rises to the surface, the trio must struggle to make sense of the freedoms of America - and of the ties that bind them to India and to one another.
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Vine of desire
- By Mz Shantay on 03-27-21
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Manhood for Amateurs
- The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: Michael Chabon
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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As a devoted son, as a passionate husband, and above all as a father, Chabon's memories of childhood, of his parents' marriage and divorce, of moments of painful adolescent comedy and giddy encounters with the popular art and literature of his own youth, are like a theme played by the mad quartet of which he now finds himself co-conductor. At once dazzling, hilarious, and moving, Manhood for Amateurs is destined to become a classic.
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Terrible
- By Ken on 10-14-09
By: Michael Chabon
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The Island
- By: Victoria Hislop
- Narrated by: Emma Powell
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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On the brink of a life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding plans a trip to her mother's childhood home in Plaka, Greece hoping to unravel Sofia's hidden past. Given a letter to take to Sofia's old friend, Fotini, Alexis is promised that through Fotini, she will learn more. Arriving in Plaka, Alexis is astonished to see that it lies a stone's throw from the deserted island of Spinalonga—Greece's former leper colony. Fotini reveals the story that Sofia has buried all her life: the tale of her great-grandmother Eleni and her daughters, and a family rent by tragedy, war, and passion.
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Will listen to it again someday
- By RN on 01-07-23
By: Victoria Hislop
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10:04
- By: Ben Lerner
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In the last year, the narrator of 10:04 has enjoyed unexpected literary success, has been diagnosed with a potentially fatal heart condition, and has been asked by his best friend to help her conceive a child, despite his dating a rising star in the visual arts. In a New York of increasingly frequent super storms and political unrest, he must reckon with his biological mortality, the possibility of a literary afterlife, and the prospect of (unconventional) fatherhood in a city that might soon be under water.
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A novel worth reading
- By Bradley Paul Valentine on 01-29-15
By: Ben Lerner
What listeners say about Speak
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Snoracks
- 04-22-21
Takes a WHILE to sink in, but by the end its great
It took a long time for me to get invested in this novel. There are so many perspectives and it is quite unclear what the novel is trying to say or how the stories correlate to each other. By the end, I'm still not 100% sure I fully understand the connections or the full perspective the novel was trying to display, but thinking about it has been a ton of fun and I keep going back to different interpretations of the story. Even though it is a story about AI from 6 different perspectives, the focus stays firmly on the humanity of the characters and their interpersonal relationships as a way of digging into sci-fi concepts. I would certainly say this novel isn't for everyone, as it takes a long time (basically to the end of Part II) for it to get really interesting.
Almost all the voice talent is great, except for the person who voices Karl Dettmann, which is why I gave the performances a 4 instead of a 5.
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- Nick Jazayeri DMD
- 04-28-18
This may be one of the most influential books to live onto the future.
This book is a bridge to the hardest truths that lie in the bits of our ever expanding knowledge, and human capacity to evolve into deeper realms of consciousness. What is life? Who are we as face what we can and will be one day?
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- Anonymous User
- 06-22-17
Like nothing else
I can't quite explain what it is like to listen to these voices. It really is like nothing I've ever read.
Definitely worth your time.
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1 person found this helpful
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- James Cook
- 04-29-23
Well written; Mispronounced “Wittgenstein”
It’s really grating to hear Wittgenstein’s name mispronounced. That’s all. He was a very famous philosopher, and I would have hoped someone would catch that before releasing the audiobook.
Setting that unfortunate mispronunciation aside, the book is quite clever and poetic.
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- BookCult
- 09-03-15
Near Perfection
Such a beautiful, beautiful book. A+ prose and characters. This is not a plot heavy book. Each of the characters has a story that ties together with the other stories in some way.
I loved all of the narrators except for Bill Jurney. His voice just didn't suit the character and his reading was a little awkward. However, his parts are few and pretty short, so it wasn't too painful. The rest of the narrators are so good that it's worth getting the audiobook version. I tried to think of one of the others to single out as being the best, but couldn't decide because they're all perfection.
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- Al NC
- 01-09-21
This was such a unique book. I loved every word.
Do you want a read that takes you into the past, but that is also full of science fiction? This author challenges both technology dependence and our responsibility to any artificial intelligence that we create. It is worthy of your credit and time. I had no buyers remorse.
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- Rich Tanguy
- 04-15-21
Worth the credit.
How can you not like a novel with a plot line that includes a tech company executive being imprisoned for excessive hubris?
Caveat: I binge listened to this book on a cross country auto trip,. It is possible that I missed occasional plot connection and some nuance.
You don't need me to describe the plot. it is reviewed elsewhere. If that interests you, then the only question is whether the book delivers on its promise. In this case it generally does. The plot is quite intriguing. I like having different narrators for different voices. I was put off by one of the narrators as he sort of made his character both mentally and emotionally challenged. I now realize that the character probably was. The order of the chapters is difficult to follow in the way there are so many jumps in time. If I were to read this book in hard copy, I would read it chronologically. I may yet do so.
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- Larry
- 09-06-15
A journey in meaning.
This is a haunting exploration of what it means to have language and to hear and speak it. The lives of the characters captured in blocks of text and passed down and ultimately finding their way beyond our world.
My hat is off to the narrators for giving depth and feeling to this poignant and moving work. It is more diary, or multiple diary, than novel, but it accomplishes its work. You will think deeply on what it means to speak, what it is to hear, and what we are to feel. The voice of Mary is particularly compelling. This Audible production is top drawer.
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- Brenda
- 12-18-18
How do we define self awareness, why, for who?
An excellent study of the human condition, or rather, the mystery of selfawareness without full knowledge. Asks why would one restrict this to the human form. From 1660 to 2040, across 7 voices, the question remains unanswered. Thought provoking and lyrically written, a joy and an eye opener.
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- JZMW
- 09-13-16
A model ensemble performamce
Every character was played (and written, of course!) with such finesse. Amazing talent all the way around.
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