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Sign up todayEuphoria
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Learn moreFrom New England Book Award winner Lily King comes a breathtaking novel about three young anthropologists of the 1930s caught in a passionate love triangle that threatens their bonds, their careers, and ultimately, their lives.
English anthropologist Andrew Bankson has been alone in the field for several years, studying the Kiona river tribe in the territory of New Guinea. Haunted by the memory of his brothers' deaths and increasingly frustrated and isolated by his research, Bankson is on the verge of suicide when a chance encounter with colleagues, the controversial Nell Stone and her wry and mercurial Australian husband, Fen, pulls him back from the brink. Nell and Fen have just fled the bloodthirsty Mumbanyo and, in spite of Nell's poor health, are hungry for a new discovery. When Bankson finds them a new tribe nearbyāthe artistic, female-dominated Tamāhe ignites an intellectual and romantic firestorm between the three of them that burns out of anyone's control.
Set between two World Wars and inspired by events in the life of revolutionary anthropologist Margaret Mead, Euphoria is an enthralling story of passion, possession, exploration, and sacrifice from accomplished author Lily King.
Lily King is the author of several award-winning novels. Euphoria won the Kirkus Prize and the New England Book Award for Fiction and was named a best book of the year by Time magazine, the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, and many others. Her debut novel, The Pleasing Hour, won the Barnes & Noble Discover Award and was a New York Times Notable Book and an alternate for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her second book, The English Teacher, was a Publishers Weekly Top Ten Book of the Year, a Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year, and the winner of the Maine Fiction Award. Father of the Rain was a New York Times Editorsā Choice, a Publishers Weekly Best Novel of the Year, and winner of the 2010 New England Book Award for Fiction.
Simon Vance is a critically acclaimed narrator who has recorded over eight hundred audiobooks and has received over fifty Earphones Awards. A twelve-time Audie Award winner and frequent finalist, he has been named an AudioFile Golden Voice, an AudioFile Best Voice, and the first Booklist Voice of Choice. A former BBC Radio presenter and newsreader in London, he currently lives in California, where he also pursues stage and television acting.
Xe Sands has more than a decade of experience bringing stories to life through narration, performance, and visual art, including recordings of the Nightwalkers series from Jaquelyn Frank. She has received several honors, including AudioFile Earphones Awards and a coveted Audie Award, and she was named Favorite Debut Romance Narrator of 2011 in the Romance Audiobooks poll.
Reviews
āA taut, witty, fiercely intelligent tale of competing egos and desires in a landscape of exotic menaceāa love triangle in extremis.ā
āMasterfulā¦A thrilling and beautifully composed novelā¦a riveting and provocative novel, absolutely first rate.ā
āCaptures the amber of one manās exquisite longing for a woman who changed the way we look at ourselves.ā
āSet between the First and Second World Wars, the story is loosely based on events in the life of Margaret Mead. There are fascinating looks into other cultures and how they are studied and the sacrifices and dangers that go along with it. This is a powerful story, at once gritty, sensuous, and captivating.ā
āIām always happy to read Lily King, and I particularly enjoyed reading Euphoria.ā
āLily King delves into the intellectual flights and passions of three anthropologistsāas complex, rivalrous, and brutal as any of the cultures they study. Euphoria is a brilliantly written book.ā
āAdventure and romance, danger and knowledge, desire and desolation: these are a few of my favorite things. And, exquisitely braided, they form the core of Euphoriaā¦This passionate and thrilling new novel reminds us that all our mores are fictions, that culture itself is only a story we tell ourselves. And what a harrowing tale Lily King weaves from these threads. Iām left breathless, excited, ready to wander and explore, a little afraid, enamored, enlightened.ā
āIn a perfect marriage of words and voice, narrators Simon Vance and Xe Sands join author Lily King to produce an extraordinary audiobook experienceā¦Sands and Vance perform the stupendous feat of creating memorable versions of the same characters. Their performances offer nuanced interpretations of the different personalities andā¦a unique narrative pace that enhances the listenerās understanding of this unforgettable tale. Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award.ā
āThis audio version, read by Simon Vance and Xe Sands, may well become my favorite audio of 2015ā¦The narrators make this intense, emotionally charged tale of desire and depair, both physical and intellectural, even more vivid.ā
āStunningly passionate and gorgeously written.ā
āFresh, brilliantly structured, and fully imagined.ā
āA searing and absolutely mesmerizing glimpse into 1930ās New Guinea, a world as savage and fascinating as Conradās Heart of Darknessā¦Jaw-droppingly, heart-stoppingly beautiful.ā
āI was totally captivated. Euphoria is a great book.ā
āEuphoria is at once romantic, exotic, informative, and entertaining.ā
āEnthrallingā¦In the beauty and cruelty of others, we discover our own.ā
āItās smart and steamy, and like the best historical fiction, it made me want to read about Mead.ā
ā Itās both romantic and intelligentā¦This is the best kind of historical novelāthe kind that sent me running to read more about its real-life inspiration.ā
āKing builds an intense, seductive, sexual, and intellectual tension among the three [anthropogists]: This taut, fraught triangulation is the novelās driving force.ā
āWhile the love triangle sections do turn pages, Kingās immersive prose takes center stage.ā
āInspired by an event in the life of Margaret Mead, this novel tells the story of three young anthropologists in 1930s New Guineaā¦This three-way relationship is complex and involving, but even more fascinating is the depiction of three anthropologists with three entirely diverse ways of studying another culture.ā
āKing changes the names (and the outcome) in this atmospheric romantic fiction set in New Guinea and clearly based on anthropologist Margaret Meadās relationship with her second and third husbandsā¦A small gem, disturbing and haunting.ā
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