Fleishman Is in Trouble
A Novel
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Fleishman Is in Trouble
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Narrated by:
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Allyson Ryan
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Written by:
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Taffy Brodesser-Akner
About this listen
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST • “A masterpiece” (NPR) about marriage, divorce, and the bewildering dynamics of ambition
Now an FX limited series on Hulu, starring Claire Danes, Jesse Eisenberg, Lizzy Caplan, and Adam Brody
ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Entertainment Weekly, The New York Public Library
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Time, The Washington Post, USA Today Vanity Fair, Vogue, NPR, Chicago Tribune, GQ, Vox, Refinery29, Elle, The Guardian, Real Simple, Financial Times, Parade, Good Housekeeping, New Statesman, Marie Claire, Town & Country, Evening Standard, Thrillist, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, BookPage, BookRiot, Shelf Awareness
Toby Fleishman thought he knew what to expect when he and his wife of almost fifteen years separated: weekends and every other holiday with the kids, some residual bitterness, the occasional moment of tension in their co-parenting negotiations. He could not have predicted that one day, in the middle of his summer of sexual emancipation, Rachel would just drop their two children off at his place and simply not return. He had been working so hard to find equilibrium in his single life. The winds of his optimism, long dormant, had finally begun to pick up. Now this.
As Toby tries to figure out where Rachel went, all while juggling his patients at the hospital, his never-ending parental duties, and his new app-assisted sexual popularity, his tidy narrative of the spurned husband with the too-ambitious wife is his sole consolation. But if Toby ever wants to truly understand what happened to Rachel and what happened to his marriage, he is going to have to consider that he might not have seen things all that clearly in the first place.
A searing, utterly unvarnished debut, Fleishman Is in Trouble is an insightful, unsettling, often hilarious exploration of a culture trying to navigate the fault lines of an institution that has proven to be worthy of our great wariness and our great hope.
Alma’s Best Jewish Novel of the Year • Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize for Best First Book
What the critics say
“This glorious debut has the humor of Maria Semple, the heart of Meg Wolitzer, the lustiness of Philip Roth, and a voice that is pure. It’s wild and wonderful and goes in so many directions, each with profundity—my favorite thing that novels can do. How does one's favorite journalist become one's new favorite novelist? With this book.”—Emma Straub
“When his ex drops the kids off and doesn’t come back, a father of two revisits the choices that led to this moment. He searches for answers, hilariously and heartbreakingly avoiding the darkest questions. Brodesser-Akner’s debut is a referendum on marriage, friendship, and how we live (and love) right now.”—People
“Whip-smart, gleefully scatological . . . [Brodesser-Akner] aims a perfect gimlet eye at the city’s relentless self-regard. . . . But her best trick may be the novel’s narrator: An elusive presence identified at first only as an old friend of Toby’s from their study-abroad days, she turns out to be both the book’s Trojan horse and—in a brilliant third-act pivot—its greatest gift, transforming a fizzy comedy of manners into something genuinely, unexpectedly profound.”—Entertainment Weekly
Editorial Review
When his marriage of 15 years ends, Manhattan-based hepatologist Toby Fleishman thinks he knows exactly what to expect—weekends with his children, shared holidays and a decent dose of resentment and tension while navigating the world of co-parenting. But he never imagined he would become a single dad. His ex-wife Rachel has vanished, his patient load is mounting, and his only forms of comfort are his newly found popularity on dating apps, the victim role he has adopted and his best friend from college, Libby.
Fleishman Is in Trouble is the dazzling debut novel from Taffy Brodesser-Akner. An instant New York Times bestseller, it has been named one of the best books of 2022 by the New York Times Book Review and garnered rave reviews from the likes of NPR and the Washington Post. Expertly narrated by Allyson Ryan, this audiobook is a riveting and timely examination of the bewildering dynamics of ambition, marriage and divorce that carries the heft of societal pressures with exquisite ease.
At times laugh-out-loud funny and always teetering on uncomfortably relatable, Fleishman Is in Trouble is full of what makes society and relationships so dreary, so frustrating and desperately underlined by great hope. The novel was recently adapted into a miniseries streaming on Hulu.
What listeners say about Fleishman Is in Trouble
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Holly
- 2023-04-07
End up liking it but took awhile
This story turns out to be quite interesting but there is a long middle that made me wonder why I was listening. Interesting commentary on marriage,divorce and gender roles.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- nom de plume
- 2020-01-16
As excellent as the actual story is ...
... I couldn't finish it. The narrator's voice is prissy and unimaginative, and drones on. I may purchase the print copy and read the rest of the book.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Chelsea Radke
- 2024-04-04
Love the story, don't love the performance
I struggled with the narration on this story. The book is great, the show is amazing.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Motel
- 2023-01-01
Loved it.
I watched the series then listened to the book. As usual the book is better, more in-depth into the characters. And the narrator was good also.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- B
- 2019-08-22
drag
It's amazing how little can happen in so many words. The voice narrator was alright, given the content she had to read she did well. The narrator in the story is not credible at all. She can't know their state of mind at this depth by just hearing it from them. There's no ending, which the narrator warned us about. There are a few worthy thought provoking pieces and quotes, but not for the length of the book.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Francoise Mathieu
- 2024-08-22
This book never launches
The only reason I listened to the end is because I thought, surely to goodness something happens eventually in this book! But, no, it does not. Taffy’s other book was a fantastic story and I highly recommend it, but this one? Hard pass
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