The Wall Audiobook By Marlen Haushofer cover art

The Wall

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The Wall

By: Marlen Haushofer
Narrated by: Christa Lewis
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Buy for $19.07

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A haunting feminist sci-fi masterpiece and international bestseller that is as absorbing as Robinson Crusoe (Doris Lessing)

While vacationing in a hunting lodge in the Austrian mountains, a middle-aged woman awakens one morning to find herself separated from the rest of the world by an invisible wall. With a cat, a dog, and a cow as her sole companions, she learns how to survive and cope with her loneliness.

Allegorical yet deeply personal and absorbing, The Wall is at once a critique of modern civilization, a nuanced and loving portrait of a relationship between a woman and her animals, a thrilling survival story, a Cold War-era dystopian adventure, and a truly singular feminist classic.

©1968, 1990 Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH, Berlin; Shaun Whiteside (P)2023 New Directions Publishing Corp. Literary Fiction Survival Dystopian Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Genre Fiction Cats World Literature

Critic reviews

"A haunting feminist sci-fi masterpiece and international bestseller that is as absorbing as Robinson Crusoe." (Doris Lessing)
Beautiful Writing • Contemplative Story • Feminist Insights • Thought-provoking Plot • Revolutionary Perspective

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Well written, but very slow moving. The author reads from her diary, and not much happens. It is a rolling story, and more of a quiet commentary on a woman’s role in the world. Do not expect much excitement in this work.

I liked the postscript most

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The afterword really hammered more of this home than I realized and I hadn’t know just how old the book was which makes it feel even more impactful.

Fantastic

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This is the rare kind of audiobook that makes me want to (1) track down everything else this author has written, and (2) track down everything else this narrator has narrated. There’s a Murakami-like dreaminess to the whole affair that I found hypnotic, and made me very glad I listened to it instead of read it, since I think reading it in print might have encouraged me to skim over some parts. I suspect you need to take in every word to make the ending really hit. Just a fascinating meditation on loneliness and determination. Don’t skip the afterword.

A masterpiece. I’ll be thinking about this for years.

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I enjoyed reading this book. The main character makes the most of her situation and I felt like I was walking in her shoes. I wonder what I would do in this situation. I could only hope to cope so well.

Wow! So good but also gut wrenching!

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Interesting plot and very well written. The details are superb, like you are living there with the protagonist. However, I found it a bit boring as nothing really happens; the majority of the book, the protagonist homesteads (which I suppose WAS revolutionary for a woman in 1950s rural Austria). The last 30 minutes, there is a jarring event that felt completely random, unconnected, and incredibly unsatisfying.

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