Doppelganger

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

*WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION*

*THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*
*A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE TIMES, NEW YORK TIMES, GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, AND PROSPECT*

When Naomi Klein discovered that a woman who shared her first name, but had radically different, harmful views, was getting chronically mistaken for her, it seemed too ridiculous to take seriously. Then suddenly it wasn't. She started to find herself grappling with a distorted sense of reality, becoming obsessed with reading the threats on social media, the endlessly scrolling insults from the followers of her doppelganger. Why had her shadowy other gone down such an extreme path? Why was identity - all we have to meet the world - so unstable?

To find out, Klein decided to follow her double into a bizarre, uncanny mirror world: one of conspiracy theories, anti-vaxxers and demagogue hucksters, where soft-focus wellness influencers make common cause with fire-breathing far right propagandists (all in the name of protecting 'the children'). In doing so, she lifts the lid on our own culture during this surreal moment in history, as we turn ourselves into polished virtual brands, publicly shame our enemies, watch as deep fakes proliferate and whole nations flip from democracy to something far more sinister.

This is a book for our age and for all of us; a deadly serious dark comedy which invites us to view our reflections in the looking glass. It's for anyone who has lost hours down an internet rabbit hole, who wonders why our politics has become so fatally warped, and who wants a way out of our collective vertigo and back to fighting for what really matters.

‘If I had to name a single book that makes sense of these last few dark years, it would be this one’ New York Times

‘A deeply compelling read … urgent and necessary’ Evening Standard
Naomi Klein, author of era-defining bestsellers, The Shock Doctrine, This Changes Everything and No Logo, is back with her most compulsive and personal book yet: a revelatory journey into the mirror world of our polarised age


©2023 Naomi Klein (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

Dazzling and erudite ... There is something hopeful in this project, in its sheer intellectual ambition and range, its effort to pick apart and decipher the absurdities and ironies of our political derangement, which almost no other writer could pull off. If I had to name a single book that makes sense of these last few dark years, it would be this one.
New York Times Book Review
A deeply compelling read, one which feels urgent and necessary as we enter yet another period of political strife. In Doppelganger, Klein gives shape and context to that apocalyptic mindset – and implores us to offer up an alternative.
Evening Standard
A book of surprising insights, unexpected connections and great subtlety ... Doppelganger is really a story of political and psychic confusion ... True to form, Klein’s ultimate message is log off and get on to the streets.
Guardian
I’ve been raving about Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger ... I can’t think of another text that better captures the berserk period we’re living through.
New York Times
A deeply insightful inquiry into the ways in which the technology that drives our lives increasingly demands mirror-image doubles, tribal combatants to fuel a divided culture ... a powerful antidote. In articulating and examining some of the darker forces of the world her “double” inhabits, Klein never forgets that the primary purpose of mirrors is actually self-reflection; to understand the other, you first have to know yourself.
The Observer
This book is the product of Klein’s fascination with her doppelgänger. As she charts [Naomi] Wolf’s journey towards extremism, Klein shines a light on the dangers of social media and the new world of online conspiracy theories.
The Times Books of the Year
The most comforting book I read this year – Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger tells of her slightly paranoid obsession with Naomi Wolf, her conspiracy theorist “double”. Klein catches that sense that the world has become fictional, but she manages to stay sane, interesting and trenchantly political throughout. In difficult times, this feels very empowering.
The Observer Books of the Year
Wonderfully esoteric ... it expands into the territory of mass confusion: about politics, technology and what we can ever really know.
Prospect Books of the Year
This story of mistaken identity would on its own be gripping and revealing enough, both as a psychological study and for its explorations of the double in art and history, the disorienting effects of social media, and the queasy feeling of looking into a distorted mirror. But the larger subject of Doppelganger turns out to be a far more complex and consequential confusion ... A uniquely astute account of the scrambled political formations that have come out of the pandemic.
The New Republic
Klein wields her polymathic expertise like a sword, slicing through the mirror world ... There's a lot going on in Doppelganger, yet somehow Klein ties it all together into what we seem to be lacking as individuals: a cohesive whole. Doppelganger is both timely and timeless, a work in a grand tradition.
LA Times

User Reviews

Book 4.7
Narration 4.9
5.0
5.0
A fascinating listen - linking the divergent paths of two different authors named Naomi diagnosing how someone from a progressive background might find a path to the alt right.

The author cleverly uses the theme of mirror worlds and the work of other authors on the same topic to explore this doppelganger situation, forcing more self reflection than she was expecting.
kellifb 22/07/2025
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sophiemgprice 08/07/2025
5.0
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jacob.jones2 21/06/2025
5.0
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NellyG 19/06/2025
5.0
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airin85 13/06/2025
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4.0
katieag 28/05/2025
5.0
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Nesthocker26 08/05/2025
5.0
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retiredmessiah 20/04/2025
4.0
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MrsBrightside 16/04/2025
5.0
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chloe.mosonyi 18/03/2025
5.0
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GrouchoHicks 05/09/2024
4.0
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Praniya Rai 28/08/2024
5.0
5.0
jmf1872 15/08/2024
5.0
5.0
Truly a brilliantly researched book, excellently written - tells us so much about the world we're living in and where we're headed. Really enjoyed the narration by the Author too, would 100% recommend!
cathconway 09/07/2024
5.0
5.0
This book is one of the best I’ve EVER read, covers so much more than you’d expect and changed my view of myself and my place in the world. I cannot overstate how much you should READ IT. (Also please can we get Naomi Klien to read all of her audiobooks?! The other readers put me off for their mechanicalness and Naomi is such a natural narrator, I’d love to buy her others in her own voice).
leena norms 09/07/2024
5.0
5.0
zofialefay 17/06/2024
4.0
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hannahpeters 10/05/2024
4.0
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Tdk 16/03/2024
5.0
5.0
peakyzeb 07/01/2024
5.0
5.0
This book is about so much more than the confusion between two Naomis. The section on Palestine/Israel and colonialism is a must read especially now (October 2023). It’s very well read by the author. Easy to listen to.
justRMJ 19/10/2023

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