The Anatomy Lesson
The Nathan Zuckerman Series: Book #3
- By: Philip Roth
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 7 hours 37 minutes
Description
At forty, the writer Nathan Zuckerman comes down with a mysterious affliction—pure pain, beginning in his neck and shoulders, invading his torso, and taking possession of his spirit. Zuckerman, whose work was his life, is unable to write a line. Now his work is trekking from one doctor to another, but none can find a cause for the pain or assuage it. Zuckerman himself wonders if the pain could have been caused by his own books. And while he is wondering, his dependence on painkillers grows into an addiction to vodka, marijuana, and Percodan.The third volume in the Nathan Zuckerman series, The Anatomy Lesson provides some of the funniest scenes in all of Roth’s fiction—as well as some of the fiercest.
Audiobook gift memberships
Gift audiobooks to anyone in the world (including yourself!) from the comfort of your home. You choose the membership (1, 3, 6, or 12 months/credits), your gift recipient picks their own audiobooks, and your local bookstore is supported by your purchase.
Start gifting
The Nathan Zuckerman Series Series

The Ghost Writer
By: Philip Roth
Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
Length: 4 hours 31 minutes
Abridged: No
The Ghost Writer introduces Nathan Zuckerman in the 1950s, a budding writer infatuated with the great books, discovering the contradictory claims of literature and experience while an overnight guest in the secluded New England farmhouse of his idol, E. I. Lonoff.At Lonoff’s, Zuckerman meets Amy Bellette, a haunting young woman of indeterminate... Read more »
Learn more
Zuckerman Unbound
By: Philip Roth
Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
Length: 5 hours 28 minutes
Abridged: No
Now in his mid-thirties, Nathan Zuckerman, a would-be recluse despite his newfound fame as a bestselling author, ventures onto the streets of Manhattan in the final year of the turbulent sixties. Not only is he assumed by his fans to be his own fictional satyr, Gilbert Carnovsky (“Hey, you do all that stuff in that book?”), he also finds himself... Read more »
Learn more
The Anatomy Lesson
By: Philip Roth
Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
Length: 7 hours 37 minutes
Abridged: No
At forty, the writer Nathan Zuckerman comes down with a mysterious affliction—pure pain, beginning in his neck and shoulders, invading his torso, and taking possession of his spirit. Zuckerman, whose work was his life, is unable to write a line. Now his work is trekking from one doctor to another, but none can find a cause for the pain or... Read more »
Learn more
The Prague Orgy
By: Philip Roth
Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
Length: 2 hours 17 minutes
Abridged: No
In quest of the unpublished manuscript of a martyred Yiddish writer, the American novelist Nathan Zuckerman travels to Soviet-occupied Prague in the mid-1970s. There, in a nation straightjacketed by totalitarian Communism, he discovers a literary predicament, marked by institutionalized oppression, that is rather different from his own. He also... Read more »
Learn more
The Counterlife
By: Philip Roth
Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
Length: 12 hours 14 minutes
Abridged: No
The Counterlife is about people enacting their dreams of renewal and escape, some of them going so far as to risk their lives to alter seemingly irreversible destinies. Wherever they may find themselves, the characters of The Counterlife are tempted unceasingly by the prospect of an alternative existence that can reverse their fate.Illuminating... Read more »
Learn moreNotice to our customers about The Anatomy Lesson
Due to publisher restrictions we are unable to offer this audiobook via membership credits. To help combat restrictive licensing for our customers, we've lowered the price of this audiobook as much as we can.