Listen to a sample
Speak No Evil
- Author
- Uzodinma Iweala
- Narrator
- Julia Whelan, Prentice Onayemi
- Publisher
- John Murray Press
- Publish Date
- 8 March 2018
- Run Time
- 6 hours 21 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
Not available in your country
We don't have the rights to sell this audiobook where you are. If it's already in your library you can still listen to it in My Books.
What to expect
On the surface, Niru leads a charmed life. Raised by two attentive parents in Washington, DC, he's a top student and a track star at his prestigious private high school. Bound for Harvard, his prospects are bright. But Niru has a painful secret: he is queer - an abominable sin to his conservative Nigerian parents. No one knows except his best friend, Meredith - the one person who seems not to judge him.
When his father accidentally finds out, the fallout is brutal and swift. Coping with troubles of her own, however, Meredith finds that she has little left emotionally to offer him. As the two friends struggle to reconcile their desires against the expectations and institutions that seek to define them, they find themselves speeding towards a future more violent and senseless than they can imagine. Neither will escape unscathed.
Speak No Evil is a novel about the power of words and self-identification, about who gets to speak and who has the power to speak for other people.
(P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Critics Review
-
That Iweala is a writer of spectacular talent is without question
Observer
-
A memorable book from an important talent
Guardian
-
A finely observed coming-of-age story . . . an emotional eloquence that reveals the awful power of love and guilt
Mail on Sunday
-
The soul of Speak No Evil is the tortuous, exquisitely rendered relationship between Niru and his father
New Yorker
See more reviews See fewer reviews
-
Stunning
Vogue
-
Tackling race, gender and violence, it's a sharp burst of emotion
Stylist
-
Speak No Evil is the rarest of novels: the one you start out just to read, then end up sinking so deeply into it, seeing yourself so clearly in it, that the novel starts reading you
Marlon James
-
A lovely slender volume that packs in entire worlds with complete mastery. Speak No Evil explains so much about our times and yet is never anything less than a scintillating, page-turning read
Gary Shteyngart, author of Little Failure
-
A wrenching, tightly woven story about many kinds of love and many kinds of violence. Speak No Evil probes deeply but also with compassion the cruelties of a loving home. Iweala's characters confront you in close-up, as viscerally, bodily alive as any in contemporary fiction
Larissa MacFarquhar
-
A quietly tragic triumph
Financial Times
-
A craftily written heart-wrencher, it explores what it means to be black and queer in today's USA
Independent, Best LGBT novels to look out for in 2018
-
Elegant and elegiac, and evokes Washington DC with subtle power
Guardian
-
Uzodinma Iweala . . . reminds his readers of the underlying humanity of his characters, whatever their heritage, race, or sexuality
TLS
-
Adept storytelling and eye for lucid detail . . . it has the stomach-churning pace of a Greek tragedy
Financial Times
-
Elegant and elegiac
Bookseller
User Reviews
No reviews yet.
Details
- Author
- Uzodinma Iweala
- Narrator
- Julia Whelan, Prentice Onayemi
- Duration
- 6 hours 21 minutes
- Release Date
- 8 March 2018
- ISBN
- 9781473680678
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- John Murray Press
- Genre
- Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary, Historical fiction
Synopsis
In the long-anticipated novel from the author of the critically acclaimed Beasts of No Nation, a revelation shared between two privileged teenagers from very different backgrounds sets off a chain of events with devastating consequences. On the surface, Niru leads a charmed life. Raised by two attentive parents in Washington, DC, he's a top student and a track star at his prestigious private high school. Bound for Harvard, his prospects are bright. But Niru has a painful secret: he is queer - an abominable sin to his conservative Nigerian parents. No one knows except his best friend, Meredith - the one person who seems not to judge him. When his father accidentally finds out, the fallout is brutal and swift. Coping with troubles of her own, however, Meredith finds that she has little left emotionally to offer him. As the two friends struggle to reconcile their desires against the expectations and institutions that seek to define them, they find themselves speeding towards a future more violent and senseless than they can imagine. Neither will escape unscathed. Speak No Evil is a novel about the power of words and self-identification, about who gets to speak and who has the power to speak for other people.(P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
About xigxag
xigxag is an independent, UK-based audiobook platform and the UK's only B Corp certified audiobook company. We offer nearly 150,000 audiobooks, all with professional human narration. No AI-generated voices. xigxag is rated an Ethical Consumer Best Buy for audiobooks and a top-rated ethical bookshop.
There is no subscription. You buy the audiobooks you want, you own them permanently, and prices start at $13.95. The more you listen over the year, the less you pay per book, and there is always a selection in Listen for Less from $7.95. You can also send audiobooks as gifts using our audiobook gift cards or in-app gifting.
Every audiobook on xigxag has honest reviews covering both the book and the narration, and our community features make it easy to share what you are listening to, discover what others recommend, and find your next listen.
Download or stream on iOS, Android, or in your browser. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk.