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Vladimir

A Novel

by Julia May Jonas

Narrator Rebecca Lowman

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Length 9 hours 40 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“A diverting fun read. The themes of academic privilege, student sensitivity, aging, lust, and self-image are well done, and it has some great food descriptions. It made me giggle.”
— Andrea • Bookstore1Sarasota

Bookseller recommendation

“Situations sometimes arise that appear to be one thing and prove to be something very different indeed. This is Vladimir. Crisp, clever, darkly darkly funny and brilliantly written with a reader whose voice nails the character spot on. Book club discussions of this one are going to be lively for sure.”
— Angie • The Country Bookshop

Bookseller recommendation

“Vladimir is an audacious story about gender, power, and shame told through the charged voice of an English professor at a small liberal arts college. The personal and political come to an explosive conclusion in this clever debut.”
— Linda Kass • Gramercy Books

Bookseller recommendation

“Vladimir is a get-under-your-skin story about obsession, power, the ivory tower of academia, and 'PC culture' movements told from the point of view of a female professor whose husband has been accused of sexual misconduct by many of his former students. As her husband faces hearing committees, she becomes fixated on Vladimir—the young, new (and very married) bombshell professor in the English department. Even as the emotions roiling throughout Vladimir are chaotic, the book's delicate construction means not a single word is out of place. Rebecca Lowman's voice is uncannily perfect for the main character down to every last lilt, and listening to this audiobook feels private, as if you're being given your very own perverse, one-on-one lecture on sex and morality and the intricacies of well-executed emotional manipulation. ”
— Wulfe • Raven Book Store

Summary
About the author

An NPR, Washington Post, Time, People, Vulture, Guardian, Vox, Kirkus Reviews, Newsweek, LitHub, and New York Public Library Best Book of the Year * “Delightful…cathartic, devious, and terrifically entertaining.” —The New York Times * “Timely, whip-smart, and darkly funny.” —People (Book of the Week) * One of Shondaland’s 13 Best College-Set Novels of All Time

A provocative, razor-sharp, and timely debut novel about a beloved English professor facing a slew of accusations against her professor husband by former students—a situation that becomes more complicated when she herself develops an obsession of her own...

“When I was a child, I loved old men, and I could tell that they also loved me.” And so we are introduced to our narrator who’s “a work of art in herself” (The Washington Post): a popular English professor whose charismatic husband at the same small liberal arts college is under investigation for his inappropriate relationships with his former students. The couple have long had a mutual understanding when it comes to their extra-marital pursuits, but with these new allegations, life has become far less comfortable for them both. And when our narrator becomes increasingly infatuated with Vladimir—a celebrated, married young novelist who’s just arrived on campus—their tinder box world comes dangerously close to exploding.

“Timely, whip-smart, and darkly funny” (People), Vladimir takes us into charged territory, where the boundaries of morality bump up against the impulses of the human heart. This edgy, uncommonly assured debut perfectly captures the personal and political minefield of our current moment, exposing the nuances and the grey area between power and desire.

Fiction Fiction - Literary

Julia May Jonas is a writer and theater director. She has taught theater at Skidmore College and New York University, and lives in Brooklyn with her family. Vladimir is her debut novel.