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Digital Audiobook
The Employees by Olga Ravn

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The Employees

Author
Olga Ravn
Publisher
Penguin Books Ltd
Publish Date
6 November 2025
Run Time
2 hours 32 minutes
Format
Audiobook
Rating
2.0 (1 review)

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

On the Six-Thousand Ship, things have started to feel changed. Since bringing aboard a number of strange objects from a newly discovered planet, the crew – both human and humanoid – have begun to feel a yearning. They want to be near the objects, to feel them pressed against their skin, but they also all now feel a curious new hunger for home: Earth, that place many cannot even remember.

The Board of Directors are eager to understand more, and so instruct a commission to interview each of the employees. Those who are born dream of soil, the smell of warm asphalt, the sound of animals and birds. Those who are made know only what is programmed, and yet feel it deeply, truly. As their testimonies accumulate, a tapestry of longing and quiet rebellion emerges, blurring the lines between work and life, between human and machine.

The Employees was the breakout novel from one of the most celebrated authors in world literature, and is now seen as a masterpiece of twenty-first century literary science fiction. In stark, pristine prose, Olga Ravn forms a timeless meditation on productivity, pleasure and what the far-flung future might miss.

'I was obsessed from the first page to the last. A strange, beautiful, deeply intelligent and provocative investigation into humanity. The Employees is an alarmingly brilliant work of art’ Max Porter

'Beautiful, sinister, gripping. A tantalising puzzle you can never quite solve.' Mark Haddon

© Olga Ravn 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

User Reviews

Book 2.0

Narration 3.0

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Details

Author
Olga Ravn
Narrator
Hannah Curtis
Duration
2 hours 32 minutes
Release Date
6 November 2025
ISBN
9781405982948
Format
Audiobook
Publisher
Penguin Books Ltd
Genre
Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Fiction in translation, Science fiction: apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic
Rating
2.0(1 review)
Narration
3.0(1 review)

Synopsis

Brought to you by Penguin.On the Six-Thousand Ship, things have started to feel changed. Since bringing aboard a number of strange objects from a newly discovered planet, the crew – both human and humanoid – have begun to feel a yearning. They want to be near the objects, to feel them pressed against their skin, but they also all now feel a curious new hunger for home: Earth, that place many cannot even remember.The Board of Directors are eager to understand more, and so instruct a commission to interview each of the employees. Those who are born dream of soil, the smell of warm asphalt, the sound of animals and birds. Those who are made know only what is programmed, and yet feel it deeply, truly. As their testimonies accumulate, a tapestry of longing and quiet rebellion emerges, blurring the lines between work and life, between human and machine.The Employees was the breakout novel from one of the most celebrated authors in world literature, and is now seen as a masterpiece of twenty-first century literary science fiction. In stark, pristine prose, Olga Ravn forms a timeless meditation on productivity, pleasure and what the far-flung future might miss.'I was obsessed from the first page to the last. A strange, beautiful, deeply intelligent and provocative investigation into humanity. The Employees is an alarmingly brilliant work of art’ Max Porter'Beautiful, sinister, gripping. A tantalising puzzle you can never quite solve.' Mark Haddon© Olga Ravn 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

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