Preview

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Electric Hotel

By: Dominic Smith
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.24

Buy for $20.24

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

From the New York Times best-selling author Dominic Smith, a radiant audiobook tracing the intertwined fates of a silent-film director and his muse.

Dominic Smith’s The Electric Hotel winds through the nascent days of cinema in Paris and Fort Lee, New Jersey - America’s first movie town - and on the battlefields of Belgium during World War I. A sweeping work of historical fiction, it shimmers between past and present as it tells the story of the rise and fall of a prodigious film studio and one man’s doomed obsession with all that passes in front of the viewfinder.

For nearly half a century, Claude Ballard has been living at the Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel. A French pioneer of silent films, who started out as a concession agent for the Lumière brothers, the inventors of cinema, Claude now spends his days foraging mushrooms in the hills of Los Angeles and taking photographs of runaways and the striplings along Sunset Boulevard.

But when a film-history student comes to interview Claude about The Electric Hotel - the lost masterpiece that bankrupted him and ended the career of his muse, Sabine Montrose - the past comes surging back. In his rundown hotel suite, the ravages of the past are waiting to be excavated: celluloid fragments and reels in desperate need of restoration and Claude’s memories of the woman who inspired and beguiled him.

©2019 Dominic Smith (P)2019 Macmillan Audio
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about The Electric Hotel

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    25
  • 4 Stars
    19
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    29
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    24
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1

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

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Narrator is stellar!

The story is nice, I did enjoy the whole thing, the structure, the organization, the story and characters. But the narrator my god! I want him to narrate everything, he’s perfect and his accents and voices are so perfect and made the whole thing much more enjoyable and so real. It felt like watching an old movie. Stellar performance. Loved listening to this.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The descriptions are so vivid!

This is an ever widening portal into the past. Wonderful characters, compelling stories - and a complete wrap up at the end, which is so unusual these days!

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

narrator worth it

the narrator made this book. last third was unneeded, but the rest of the book was very interesting.

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
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Historical fiction at its best

This book came as recommended to me based upon my previous reading. I downloaded it a while ago and forgot about it. When I discovered I had an unread book in my library I decided to give it a listen. What a transfixing great story about the beginnings of moving pictures World War I tuberculosis stunt work and Hollywood glamour. It’s also one of those great books that spans decades and allows the reader to find out what happens to all the characters he’s become so invested in. I really enjoyed this book and hope others do too

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The eElectric Hotel

A wonderful story very well read. Loved it. Got me wondering how much of the story is based on life circumstances

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful