Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Timbuktu

  • By: Paul Auster
  • Narrated by: Joe Barrett
  • Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (70 ratings)
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.
Timbuktu cover art

Timbuktu

By: Paul Auster
Narrated by: Joe Barrett
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 £19.99

Buy Now for £19.99

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...

Moon Palace cover art
Mr. Vertigo cover art
The Music of Chance cover art
Leviathan cover art
The New York Trilogy cover art
The Good Soldier Svejk cover art
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter cover art
A Prayer for Owen Meany cover art
Ruritanian Rogues: Volumes 1-3 cover art
Second Shot cover art
Epic cover art
Live Free or Tri cover art
The Color of Our Sky cover art
Slaughterhouse-Five cover art
Midnight Cowboy cover art
Brothers and Bones cover art

Summary

Meet Mr. Bones, the canine hero of Paul Auster's remarkable novel, Timbuktu. Mr. Bones is the sidekick and confidant of Willy G. Christmas, the brilliant, troubled, and altogether original poet-saint from Brooklyn. Like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza before them, they sally forth on a last great adventure, heading for Baltimore, Maryland, in search of Willy's high school teacher, Bea Swanson. Years have passed since Willy last saw his beloved mentor, who knew him in his previous incarnation as William Gurevitch, the son of Polish war refugees. But is Mrs. Swanson still alive? And if she isn't, what will prevent Willy from vanishing into that other world known as Timbuktu?

Mr. Bones is our witness. Although he walks on four legs and cannot speak, he can think, and out of his thoughts Auster has spun one of the richest, most compelling tales in recent American fiction. By turns comic, poignant, and tragic, Timbuktu is above all a love story. Written with a scintillating verbal energy, it takes us into the heart of a singularly pure and passionate character, an unforgettable dog who has much to teach us about our own humanity.

As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of Paul Auster's book, you'll also get an exclusive Jim Atlas interview that begins when the audiobook ends.

This production is part of our Audible Modern Vanguard line, a collection of important works from groundbreaking authors.
©2000 Paul Auster (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"After reading Timbuktu, we ramble through our world with reawakened senses and newly alert minds. This is the Auster magic." (Paul Kafka, Boston Globe)
"A novel of haunted love whose themes loop around one another like glowing coils, connecting gracefully beneath Auster's clear prose, eliciting the fanciful and the tragic." ( San Francisco Chronicle)
"[ Timbuktu is] held aloft with audacity and brilliant, idiosyncratic language....It's risk-taking and brazen energy suggest a writer on the verge of an even more rewarding leap into the air of his own uncharted territory." ( Chicago Tribune)

What listeners say about Timbuktu

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    38
  • 4 Stars
    22
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    33
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    35
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2

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

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful

A great book for dog lovers & non-dog lovers. Not too sentimental but very touching & has humorous moments. I thoroughly enjoyed it

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

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

Wonderful writing with excellent narration

Touching take told from a dog’s point of view. Auster is a subtle writer whose mastery of words and storytelling creep up on you.

The narration of this book is also done subtly without drama or over-emphasis.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

The magical world of Paul Auster

I don't know what it is about Paul Auster's books; they feel other worldly while remaining firmly rooted in the everyday. I would almost classify then as Reality-Fantasy, but even that doesn't capture the essence of what they are.
In this tale our protagonist is a dog. However, we do not hear the story from the dog, but rather in the 3rd person, which adds to the mystery. Who is overseeing the narrative? Who is it that is privy to the thoughts of Mr Bones?
Mr Bones himself is the sweetest of souls (just like all of our pet dog)s, who is unfortunate to suffer the slings and arrows of life. He reminds me of Prince Nikolaevic in Dostoyevsky's The Idiot. A simple genius who deserves better than he gets.
As events unfold, nothing world shattering happens, yet by the end this reader feels like he's accompanied Mr Bones on something greater than the sum of its parts.
And that is what I love about Paul Auster. He can make something as mundane as the misfortunes of a dog feel like the most poignant of stories ever told.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

For dog lovers everywhere...

I’m writing this review several years after listening. I still remember the story with absolute fondness, a must for dog lovers everywhere. A delight and wondrous Paul Auster read.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!