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Leaving the Atocha Station

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Leaving the Atocha Station

By: Ben Lerner
Narrated by: Ben Lerner
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About this listen

Adam Gordon is a brilliant, if highly unreliable, young American poet on a prestigious fellowship in Madrid, struggling to establish his sense of self and his relationship to art. Instead of following the dictates of his fellowship, Adam's 'research' becomes a meditation on the possibility of the genuine in the arts and beyond: are his relationships with the people he meets in Spain as fraudulent as he fears his poems are? Is poetry an essential art form, or merely a screen for the reader's projections? A witness to the 2004 Madrid train bombings and their aftermath, does he participate in historic events or merely watch them pass him by?

©2011 Ben Lerner (P)2011 Dreamscape Media Contemporary Fiction
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Critic reviews

"[A] noteworthy debut.... Lerner has fun with the interplay between the unreliable spoken word and subtleties in speech and body language, capturing the struggle of a young artist unsure of the meaning or value of his art...[and] succeeds in drawing out the problems inherent in art, expectation, and communication. And his Adam is a complex creation, relatable but unreliable, humorous but sad, at once a young man adrift and an artist intensely invested in his surroundings." ( Publishers Weekly)
"Well written and full of captivating ideas." ( Library Journal)
"[P]rofoundly evocative.... [Lerner] cleverly, seductively, and hilariously investigates the nature of language and storytelling, veracity and fraud." ( Booklist)

What listeners say about Leaving the Atocha Station

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Scintillatingly funny and raw all at once

Beautifully well observed. Bitingly funny. And yet somehow tragic and moving at the same time.

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Highly recommend

compulsive and brilliant from Ben Lerner, as per, and especially enjoyable to hear it read by the author

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Compelling

Probably the most compelling first person narrative I've read. And a first novel at that.

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Excellent

Really enjoyed listening this in one go. I’ve recently visited Madrid as my daughter is living there and it brought the City and its history and culture alive. I’m back again in a few weeks and will look afresh at everything.

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