Brisbane: A Novel

Eugene Vodolazkin

Aug 2022 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Daniel Henning

Audiobook

13 hr 39 min

Unabridged

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About this audiobook

After Gleb Yanovsky, a celebrated guitarist, is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at age fifty, he permits a writer, Sergei Nesterov, to pen his biography. For years, they meet regularly as Gleb recounts the life he's lived thus far: a difficult childhood in Kyiv, his formative musical studies in St. Petersburg, and his later years in Munich, where he lives with his wife and meets a thirteen-year-old virtuoso whom he embraces as his own daughter. In a mischievous and tender account, Gleb recalls a personal story of a lifetime quest for meaning, and how the burden of success changes with age. Expanding the literary universe spun in his earlier novels, Vodolazkin explores music and fame, heritage and belonging, time and memory in this beautifully-wrought and relevant tale that will resonate with fans of Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Umberto Eco, and Solzhenitsyn. At the stunning finale of Brisbane, all the carefully knit stitches unravel into a puzzle: Whose story is it-the subject's or the writer's? Are art and love really no match for death? Is memory a reliable narrator? In Brisbane, the city of our dreams, as in music, Gleb hopes he's found a path to eternity-and a way to stop the clock.

About the author

An expert in Old Russian literature, Eugene Vodolazkin has worked in the department of Old Russian Literature at Pushkin House since 1990. His debut novel, Solovyov and Larionov, was shortlisted for the Andrei Bely Prize and The Big Book Prize.

Daniel Henning is a director, producer, actor, and writer. His work has been seen on HBO, CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, MTV, Comedy Central, and on stages throughout Southern California. He won a 2017 Telly Award for "Best Writer" for the film version of his play The Tragedy of JFK (as Told by Wm. Shakespeare).

Marian Schwartz translates Russian classic and contemporary fiction, history, biography, criticism, and fine art. She is the principal English translator of the works of Nina Berberova and translated the New York Times bestseller The Last Tsar, by Edvard Radzinsky, as well as classics by other popular Russian authors.

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