Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Orfeo cover art

Orfeo

By: Richard Powers
Narrated by: William Roberts
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance cover art
The Time of Our Singing cover art
All the Lasting Things cover art
Earthly Powers cover art
The Long List Anthology cover art
Shardlake: The Complete BBC Radio Collection cover art
Ulysses cover art
Solaris cover art
Anna Karenina cover art
The Fountainhead cover art
The Sound and the Fury cover art
Invisible Man cover art
Contact cover art
Priestdaddy cover art
John Henry Days cover art
Quicksilver cover art

Summary

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2014

Seventy-year old avant-garde composer Peter Els opens the door one evening to find the police outside. His DIY microbiology lab has come to the attention of Homeland Security. Panicked by the raid on his house, Els flees and turns fugitive, waiting for the evidence to clear him and for the alarm surrounding his activities to blow over. But alarm turns to national hysteria.

As Els feels the noose around him tighten, he embarks on a cross-country trip to visit, one last time, the people in his past who have most shaped his failed musical journey.

©2014 Richard Powers (P)2014 W F Howes Ltd

Critic reviews

"Extraordinary and confounding… mind-spinning and wonderful" ( Independent on Sunday)
"Sweet, funny, sad and haunting… A formidably intelligent, ecstatically noisy novel" ( Guardian)

What listeners say about Orfeo

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    13
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    14
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    13
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

The narrator William Powers

I couldn’t listen to this on audible as the narration was so dreadful. The whole thing was shouted and the expression was extreme all the time. It was exhausting . I have rated the story as only one star but it might be better. I will read the book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

awesome

loved it
the more you read the better it gets. very well informed and written.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A novel take on recent history

In some respects, this story is similar to the Forrest Gump story - it's about one man's journey through the post-WW2 world.

It helps if you have a basic understanding of musical scales and intervals, but it's easy just to ignore the bits you don't understand.

It was the narrator who kept me interested - there are lots of funny bits which the narrator exploited to the full.

Overall, I don't think the story gave me much to think about but it was hugely enjoyable nevertheless.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Made my ears bleed

I like a challenging read and quirky story, but the narration of this book was relentlessly intense - as was the story. It wore me down. I couldn't sustain my listening and didn't get far. Not like me at all. Might have helped if I was a classical music buff, but... probably not.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A sophisticated and enjoyable listen/read!

Would you consider the audio edition of Orfeo to be better than the print version?

Not necessarily - I enjoyed both, reading on my kindle, then listening on my iPhone while in the car, doing the dishes or gardening! The reading is very good.

What does William Roberts bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

How to pronounce complex scientific and musical terms! The sound of the reader's voice is very believable as a representation of the narrator.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It is a bit long for that, but I certainly always wanted to carry on listening.

Any additional comments?

A really great novel narrated in a thoughtful and appropriate manner. Particularly enjoyable for fans of 'serious' music, science and those with an interest in the absurdities of modern social media, technology, the 'news cycle' and paranoia.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!