Listen free for 30 days
-
Lessons
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Simon McBurney
- Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $7.99
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's Summary
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY VOGUE • THE NEW YORKER • THE GUARDIAN • VOX • THE WASHINGTON POST • BOOKPAGE
Both epic and intimate, the story of one man's life across generations and historical upheavals. From the Suez Crisis to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall to the current pandemic—from #1 bestselling author Ian McEwan.
When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines’s life is turned upside down. 2,000 miles from his mother’s protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade.
Now, when his wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, Roland is forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. As the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, he begins a search for answers that looks deep into his family history and will last for the rest of his life.
From the Suez Crisis to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall to the current pandemic and climate change, Roland sometimes rides with the tide of history, but more often struggles against it. Haunted by lost opportunities, he seeks solace through every possible means—music, literature, friends, sex, politics and, finally, love cut tragically short, then love ultimately redeemed. His journey raises important questions for us all. Can we take full charge of the course of our lives without damage to others? How do global events beyond our control shape our lives and our memories? And what can we really learn from the traumas of the past?
Epic, mesmerising and deeply humane, Lessons is a chronicle for our times—a powerful meditation on history and humanity through the prism of one man’s lifetime.
You may also enjoy...
-
Now You See Us
- A Novel
- Written by: Balli Kaur Jaswal
- Narrated by: Angela Lin
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An explosive news story shatters Singapore’s famous tranquility—and sends a chill down the spine of every domestic worker. Flordeliza Martinez, a Filipina maid, has been arrested for murdering her female employer. The three women don’t know the accused well, but she could be any of them; every worker knows stories of women who were scapegoated or even executed for crimes they didn’t commit. Shocked into action, Donita, Corazon, and Angel will use their considerable moxie and insight to piece together the mystery of what really happened.
-
-
So so good!
- By Naomi on 2023-07-20
Written by: Balli Kaur Jaswal
-
The Stone Diaries
- Written by: Carol Shields, Penelope Lively - introduction
- Narrated by: Deborah Drakeford
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born in 1905, Daisy Goodwill Flett drifts through the chapters of childhood, marriage, widowhood, remarriage, motherhood, and old age, bewildered by her inability to understand her own role in the unsettled decades of the twentieth century. At last, reflecting on her unobserved and unconventional life, Daisy attempts to find a way to tell her story within a novel that is itself about the limitations of autobiography.
Written by: Carol Shields, and others
-
Tom Lake
- A Novel
- Written by: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
-
-
Beautifully read, but a slow story to unravel.
- By Denise on 2023-08-29
Written by: Ann Patchett
-
Atonement
- Written by: Ian McEwan
- Narrated by: Josephine Bailey
- Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the hottest day in 1935, and on the brink of a world war, three children lose their innocence as the sweltering summer heat bears down and their lives are changed forever. Cecilia Tallis is of England's privileged class; Robbie Turner is the housekeeper's son. In their moment of intimate surrender, they are interrupted by Cecilia's hyper-imaginative and scheming 13-year-old sister, Briony. As chaos consumes the family, Briony commits a crime, the guilt of which she shall carry throughout her life.
Written by: Ian McEwan
-
Unsheltered
- A Novel
- Written by: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver
- Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Brilliantly executed and compulsively listenable, Unsheltered is the story of two families, in two centuries, who live at the corner of Sixth and Plum, as they navigate the challenges of surviving a world in the throes of major cultural shifts. In this mesmerizing story told in alternating chapters, Willa and Thatcher come to realize that though the future is uncertain, even unnerving, shelter can be found in the bonds of kindred - whether family or friends - and in the strength of the human spirit.
-
-
disappointed
- By Anonymous User on 2019-07-27
Written by: Barbara Kingsolver
-
The Water Dancer (Oprah’s Book Club)
- A Novel
- Written by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Joe Morton
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her - but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known. So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North.
-
-
Fabulous Story
- By poppies4me on 2019-10-12
Written by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
-
Now You See Us
- A Novel
- Written by: Balli Kaur Jaswal
- Narrated by: Angela Lin
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An explosive news story shatters Singapore’s famous tranquility—and sends a chill down the spine of every domestic worker. Flordeliza Martinez, a Filipina maid, has been arrested for murdering her female employer. The three women don’t know the accused well, but she could be any of them; every worker knows stories of women who were scapegoated or even executed for crimes they didn’t commit. Shocked into action, Donita, Corazon, and Angel will use their considerable moxie and insight to piece together the mystery of what really happened.
-
-
So so good!
- By Naomi on 2023-07-20
Written by: Balli Kaur Jaswal
-
The Stone Diaries
- Written by: Carol Shields, Penelope Lively - introduction
- Narrated by: Deborah Drakeford
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born in 1905, Daisy Goodwill Flett drifts through the chapters of childhood, marriage, widowhood, remarriage, motherhood, and old age, bewildered by her inability to understand her own role in the unsettled decades of the twentieth century. At last, reflecting on her unobserved and unconventional life, Daisy attempts to find a way to tell her story within a novel that is itself about the limitations of autobiography.
Written by: Carol Shields, and others
-
Tom Lake
- A Novel
- Written by: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
-
-
Beautifully read, but a slow story to unravel.
- By Denise on 2023-08-29
Written by: Ann Patchett
-
Atonement
- Written by: Ian McEwan
- Narrated by: Josephine Bailey
- Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the hottest day in 1935, and on the brink of a world war, three children lose their innocence as the sweltering summer heat bears down and their lives are changed forever. Cecilia Tallis is of England's privileged class; Robbie Turner is the housekeeper's son. In their moment of intimate surrender, they are interrupted by Cecilia's hyper-imaginative and scheming 13-year-old sister, Briony. As chaos consumes the family, Briony commits a crime, the guilt of which she shall carry throughout her life.
Written by: Ian McEwan
-
Unsheltered
- A Novel
- Written by: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver
- Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Brilliantly executed and compulsively listenable, Unsheltered is the story of two families, in two centuries, who live at the corner of Sixth and Plum, as they navigate the challenges of surviving a world in the throes of major cultural shifts. In this mesmerizing story told in alternating chapters, Willa and Thatcher come to realize that though the future is uncertain, even unnerving, shelter can be found in the bonds of kindred - whether family or friends - and in the strength of the human spirit.
-
-
disappointed
- By Anonymous User on 2019-07-27
Written by: Barbara Kingsolver
-
The Water Dancer (Oprah’s Book Club)
- A Novel
- Written by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Joe Morton
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her - but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known. So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North.
-
-
Fabulous Story
- By poppies4me on 2019-10-12
Written by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
-
Lucy by the Sea
- A Novel
- Written by: Elizabeth Strout
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a panicked world goes into lockdown, Lucy Barton is uprooted from her life in Manhattan and bundled away to a small town in Maine by her ex-husband and on-again, off-again friend, William. For the next several months, it’s just Lucy, William, and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the moody, swirling sea. Rich with empathy and emotion, Lucy by the Sea vividly captures the fear and struggles that come with isolation, as well as the hope, peace, and possibilities that those long, quiet days can inspire.
-
-
Just the best one !
- By Anonymous User on 2023-06-29
Written by: Elizabeth Strout
-
Pluck
- A Memoir of a Newfoundland Childhood and the Raucous, Terrible, Amazing Journey to Becoming a Novelist
- Written by: Donna Morrissey
- Narrated by: Donna Morrissey
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Donna Morrissey left the only home she had ever known, an isolated Newfoundland settlement, at age 16, she was ready for adventure. She had grown up without television or telephones but had absorbed the tragic stories and comic yarns of her close-knit family and community. The death of her infant brother marked the family, and years later, Morrissey suffers devastating guilt about the accidental death of her teenage brother, whom she'd enticed to join her in the oilfields.
-
-
Wonderful Grand!
- By G. Bonnell on 2022-01-16
Written by: Donna Morrissey
-
A Town Called Solace
- Written by: Mary Lawson
- Narrated by: Maggie Huculak, Tajja Isen, Ian Lake
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Town Called Solace, the brilliant and emotionally radiant new novel from Mary Lawson, her first in nearly a decade, opens on a family in crisis. Sixteen-year-old Rose is missing. Angry and rebellious, she had a row with her mother, stormed out of the house and simply disappeared. Left behind is seven-year-old Clara, Rose’s adoring little sister. Isolated by her parents’ efforts to protect her from the truth, Clara is bewildered and distraught.
-
-
What a lovely story
- By Beth Toly on 2021-02-24
Written by: Mary Lawson
-
Kairos
- Written by: Jenny Erpenbeck
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jenny Erpenbeck’s much anticipated new novel Kairos is a complicated love story set amidst swirling, cataclysmic events as the GDR collapses and an old world evaporates.
-
-
A tough read at times, lightened by performance
- By owenca on 2024-10-10
Written by: Jenny Erpenbeck
-
Demon Copperhead
- A Novel
- Written by: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
- Length: 21 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses.
-
-
Brilliant narration of beautifully written story
- By Kareem on 2023-05-28
Written by: Barbara Kingsolver
-
Snow Road Station
- A Novel
- Written by: Elizabeth Hay
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Hay
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the winter of 2008, as snow falls without interruption, an actor in a Beckett play blanks on her lines. Fleeing the theatre, she beats a retreat into her past and arrives at Snow Road Station, a barely discernible dot on the map of Ontario. The actor is Lulu Blake, in her sixties now, a sexy, seemingly unfooled woman well-versed in taking risks. Out of work, humiliated, she enters the last act of her life wondering what she can make of her diminished self.
-
-
The best of author-read novels
- By Robyn on 2023-10-03
Written by: Elizabeth Hay
-
Fayne
- A Novel
- Written by: Ann-Marie MacDonald
- Narrated by: Ann-Marie MacDonald
- Length: 30 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the late nineteenth century, Charlotte Bell is growing up at Fayne, a vast and lonely estate straddling the border between England and Scotland, where she has been kept from the world by her adoring father, Lord Henry Bell, owing to a mysterious condition. Charlotte, strong and insatiably curious, revels in the moorlands, and has learned the treacherous and healing ways of the bog from the old hired man, Byrn, whose own origins are shrouded in mystery.
-
-
So rich in detail!
- By samONT on 2022-10-28
Written by: Ann-Marie MacDonald
-
The Good Wife of Bath
- A Novel
- Written by: Karen Brooks
- Narrated by: Fran Burgoyne
- Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England, 1364: When married off at aged twelve to an elderly farmer, brazen redheaded Eleanor quickly realizes it won’t matter what she says or does, God is not on her side—or any poor woman’s for that matter. But then again, Eleanor was born under the joint signs of Venus and Mars, making her both a lover and a fighter.
-
-
A fun, brave, and brilliant piece of work
- By Erin M. Naef on 2022-10-11
Written by: Karen Brooks
-
Maisie Dobbs
- Maisie Dobbs, Book 1
- Written by: Jacqueline Winspear
- Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Maisie Dobbs got her start as a maid in an aristocratic London household when she was thirteen. Her employer, suffragette Lady Rowan Compton, soon became her patron, taking the remarkably bright youngster under her wing. Lady Rowan’s friend, Maurice Blanche, often retained as an investigator by the European elite, recognized Maisie’s intuitive gifts. The outbreak of war changed everything. Ten years after the Armistice, in the spring of 1929, Maisie sets out on her own as a private investigator, one who has learned that coincidences are meaningful, and truth elusive.
-
-
Creative storytelling with intelligent vocabulary.
- By LK on 2024-04-20
Written by: Jacqueline Winspear
-
The Sleeping Car Porter
- Written by: Suzette Mayr
- Narrated by: Chris McPherson
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Baxter’s name isn’t George. But it’s 1929, and Baxter is lucky enough, as a Black man, to have a job as a sleeping car porter on a train that crisscrosses the country. So when the passengers call him George, he has to just smile and nod and act invisible. What he really wants is to go to dentistry school, but he’ll have to save up a lot of nickel and dime tips to get there, so he puts up with “George.” On this particular trip out west, the passengers are more unruly than usual, especially when the train is stalled for two extra days.
-
-
Distorted sound - could not endure
- By Claire on 2022-11-12
Written by: Suzette Mayr
-
Barbarian Days
- A Surfing Life
- Written by: William Finnegan
- Narrated by: William Finnegan
- Length: 18 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pulitzer Prize, Biography, 2016. Barbarian Days is William Finnegan's memoir of an obsession, a complex enchantment. Surfing only looks like a sport. To initiates it is something else entirely: a beautiful addiction, a demanding course of study, a morally dangerous pastime, a way of life.
-
-
Gripping and poignant
- By Rachel on 2018-05-07
Written by: William Finnegan
-
Adult Onset
- Written by: Ann-Marie MacDonald
- Narrated by: Ann-Marie MacDonald
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mary Rose MacKinnon is a successful author of YA fiction doing a tour of duty as stay-at-home mom while her partner Hilary takes a turn focusing on her career. She tries valiantly to balance the (mostly) solo parenting of two young children with the relentless needs of her aging parents. But amid the hilarities of full-on domesticity arises a sense of dread. Do others notice the dents in the expensive refrigerator?
-
-
Powerful and heartful!
- By Fadia Zakkak on 2018-08-25
Written by: Ann-Marie MacDonald
What the critics say
“Brilliant . . . Nobody is better at writing about entropy and indignity — among other topics — than Ian McEwan. . . . One way to read Lessons is as a self-repudiation of the maneuver at which McEwan has become virtuosic. More authors should repudiate their virtuosity. The results are exciting.” (The New York Times Book Review)
“A profound demonstration of [McEwan's] remarkable skill. . . . Indeed, even more than McEwan’s previous novels, Lessons is a story that so fully embraces its historical context that it calls into question the synthetic timelessness of much contemporary fiction.” (The Washington Post)
“Astonishing. . . . McEwan, who is steeped in the sounds and rhythms of English literature, and for whom novels and poems practically assume the importance of characters, has written a masterpiece of a novel that is simultaneously about the business of growing up and getting old, and the business of writing fiction. . . . How does McEwan pull it off? Through the patient accretion of closely observed detail and one beautiful, shimmering sentence after another.” (USA Today)
What listeners say about Lessons
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- shakti
- 2023-07-02
Excellent Novel
Could relate to the characters and times as well as a deeper insight into myself. Thoroughly enjoyed this book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Joseph H. Clarke
- 2022-12-21
A Compelling Read
McKwan is an amazing storyteller. The narration offered by McBurney is brilliant. The tale is gritty and unapologetic, as uncomfortable as it was at times McKwan’s prose relentlessly drew me in.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michelle Benson
- 2023-01-01
Ian McEwan knows the human spirit
A novel about nothing, but at the same time about everything. A human story beautifully told, the hardships, the trumps, the normality, the uniqueness of a life well lived.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- cj
- 2023-07-18
A lot to process
One of my favourite authors for many years. Though I was initially disappointed and struggled to follow the storyline. It soon revealed itself and wrapped itself around me. The writing is simply captivating, the way world events unfold and tuck themselves into each setting is simply impressive. The time just flew by!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- David Goorevitch Javelin Pictures Inc.
- 2023-07-09
A giant of a book
One man’s journey through the turbulent 20th century and what promises to be the equally turbulent 21st says much about the undying values of duty, dignity and equanimity in the face of trauma. Written with McEwan’s formidable literary artistry. McBurney’s characterizations can get repetitive and tiresome at times.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 2023-07-23
McEwan at his best!
Remarkable. Spectacular. A very sympathetic story from an aging male perspective. There may be a bit too much politics in it for some, but that is just the nature of his central character. As good as anything McEwan has ever written, or better.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marsha Mah Poy
- 2023-02-24
Wonderful story
I loved this story. It is vivid! Characters will remain with me. It reminds me of the book”Lives of the Wives: Five Literary Marriages.”
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marla
- 2023-02-25
Modern history
Initially I thought the book would be another pontificating white guy’s journey. It was but it also wasn’t. The events and experiences traveled through recentish time and addressed issues old and new in a way that gets you thinking.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 2023-09-17
Love it
It’s a wonderful story of forgiveness and humility. It was confusing in the beginning but it became gripping
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- H G
- 2023-07-30
Great narration, boring story
If it wasn’t for the wonderful narration by simon mcburney, I wouldn’t have been able to finish this book. It’s long and it rambles on and on!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!