August Blue

A Novel

By: Deborah Levy

Narrated by: Alix Dunmore

A new novel from the Booker Prize finalist Deborah Levy, the celebrated author of The Man Who Saw Everything and The Cost of Living.

At the height of her career, the piano virtuoso Elsa M. Anderson—former child prodigy, now in her thirties—walks off the stage in Vienna, mid-performance.

Now she is in Athens, watching an uncannily familiar woman purchase a pair of mechanical dancing horses at a flea market. Elsa wants the horses too, but there are no more for sale. She drifts to the ferry port, on the run from her talent and her history.

So begins her journey across Europe, shadowed by the elusive woman who seems to be her double. A dazzling portrait of melancholy and metamorphosis, Deborah Levy’s August Blue uncovers the ways in which we attempt to revise our oldest stories and make ourselves anew.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Critic reviews

Advance Praise

“[A] magnificent experiment in surrealism . . . This is a stunner.”
—Publisher’s Weekly (starred)

“An economical, elliptical, but always entertaining novel of transformation by a highly skilled enigmatist.”
—Kirkus Reviews

Charming

I was drawn both to the reader and the story. Delicious details. The story doesn’t really need a reason to exist. But I loved being taken on Elsa’s travels.

Enchanted

Deborah Levy is one of my favorite authors. I was enchanted by this book. The reader was perfect for it. Am going to listen again. So many lasting impressions. The double experience of reading, to lose yourself in a book. Magic

Unsure about this

I'm giving August Blue by Deborah Levy 3.5 stars because I feel like it was just a story that was not for me. It was beautifully told and I think the voice in this short story was really well done, but I just don't know that I actually cared one way or another about it. It's the story of a musical prodigy who the reader encounters months after she walked off the stage and who is obviously struggling emotionally to get through some sort of mental health crisis. This a very literary book and probably half of the metaphors and symbolism went right over my head, to be honest. I was curious about the woman she begins seeing in different locations and found it interesting enough to finish the story. But to be fair, it was a very short story. If you are a reader who likes literary mind f-ks this is for you.

Stunning

This novella is kind of indescribable. Intriguing, luscious, melancholy and charming at the same time. Highly, highly recommend.

The lack of plot and explanation of the relationship between the characters described as the main pivot of the novel.

l feel cheated by reading through to the end and not knowing much more about what connected these women that I did at the beginning. The narration was excellent.