Audio only
Length16h 22m
About this audiobook
A new edition of one of bestselling author Lionel Shriver’s early novels, reissued 25 years after first publication—an engrossing commentary on the intersection of politics and human relationships, set in turbulent Northern Ireland.
For ten years, Estrin Lancaster has fled Philadelphia. From the Philippines to Berlin, she’s been a traveler without a destination, an expatriate without a motherland. In each of the cities Estrin favors, she manages an apartment, a job, a lover, and never tarries past the first signs of ennui.
Her latest destination is Belfast, in Northern Ireland. After twenty years of ritualized violence, this city, too, is exhausted—a town where when one more bomb explodes in the city center, old ladies blow the dust off their treacle cakes and count their change. Here the lanky and spiteful Farrell O’Phelan, former purveyor of his own bomb-disposal service, technically Catholic but everyone’s aggravation, wrangles through the maze of factions in the North by despising every side. Farrell’s affair with the curious Estrin is nonetheless a meeting of two loners; like hers, Farrell’s marathoning around the planet has become a running in place. In deadlocked Northern Ireland, it has become harder and harder to believe that anything is happening at all.
A grand tragi-comedy—one of the earliest displays of the ambition and intelligence that has since earned Lionel Shriver worldwide acclaim—Ordinary Decent Criminals is about conflict groupies, people terrified of domesticity, who stir up anguish in their lives and their countries to avoid the greater horror of what lies closest to home.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★ 3.3 (434)
Includes Goodreads, LibraryThing, Amazon, StoryGraph
GenreFantasy, General Fiction
Length16 hrs 22 mins
Narrated byMelanie MacHugh
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateAug 11, 2015
LanguageEnglish
More from Lionel Shriver
The MandiblesLionel Shriver13h 46m3.8 (13K)$33 · $0.00
Should We Stay or Should We GoLionel Shriver10h 13m3.7 (9.7K)$29 · $0.00
We Need to Talk About Kevin movie tie-inLionel Shriver16h 10m4.2 (252.8K)$33 · $0.00
Big BrotherLionel Shriver13h 2m3.5 (18.6K)$33 · $0.00
AbominationsLionel Shriver11h 36m4.0 (737)$29 · $0.00
PropertyLionel Shriver14h 10m3.7 (3.4K)$33 · $0.00
A Better LifeLionel Shriver10h 35m4.1 (2.5K)$29 · $0.00
ManiaLionel Shriver9h 23m3.6 (5.3K)$29 · $0.00
The MandiblesLionel Shriver13h 46m3.7 (16.4K)$33 · $0.00
The New RepublicLionel Shriver13h 16m3.3 (2.5K)$33 · $0.00
Demon CopperheadBarbara Kingsolver21h 3m4.5 (949.4K)$46 · $0.00
Remarkably Bright CreaturesShelby Van Pelt11h 17m4.4 (1.7M)$29 · $0.00
Before the Coffee Gets Cold: A Toshikazu Kawaguchi Book SetToshikazu Kawaguchi18h 55m4.5 (1.4K)$40 · $0.00
The Song of AchillesMadeline Miller11h 15m4.3 (2.3M)$29 · $0.00
The Left and the LuckyWilly Vlautin6h 40m4.4 (1.1K)$24 · $0.00
Hunt of the DragonJuliette Cross9h 46m4.4 (736)$20
Deadly GameChristine Feehan13h 20m4.3 (15.8K)$30
A Tree Grows in BrooklynBetty Smith14h 55m4.4 (577.6K)$33 · $0.00
Dark GuardianChristine Feehan12h 32m4.5 (26.3K)$33 · $0.00
The Neil Gaiman ReaderNeil Gaiman27h 3m4.5 (3.2K)$53 · $0.00
The HobbitJ. R. R. Tolkien10h 51m4.4 (4.9M)$12 · $0.00
Bad HabitAlana S. Portero5h 37m4.4 (52.3K)$24 · $0.00
Science Fiction & Fantasy CollectionH. P. Lovecraft16h 32m4.5 (2.7K)$2 · $0.00
The Undead PoolKim Harrison16h 13m4.4 (34.6K)$33 · $0.00
The Edge of DawnBeverly Jenkins10h 15m4.5 (1.1K)$29 · $0.00
The Tapestry of FateShannon Chakraborty20h 2m4.4 (3.4K)$46 · $0.00
The Lack of LightNino Haratischwili26h 20m4.4 (9.2K)$53 · $0.00
My Dear HamiltonStephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie23h 7m4.4 (63.6K)$46 · $0.00
A Broken People's PlaylistChimeka Garricks6h 40m4.4 (3.7K)$24 · $0.00
Wicked BiteJeaniene Frost8h 56m4.4 (14.6K)$29 · $0.00
WhistlerAnn Patchett10h 45m4.6 (4.6K)$29 · $0.00
Demon CopperheadBarbara Kingsolver21h 3m4.5 (949.4K)$46 · $0.00
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
Remarkably Bright CreaturesShelby Van Pelt11h 17m4.4 (1.7M)$29 · $0.00
Cast in BloodMichelle Sagara16h 35m4.6 (607)$33 · $0.00
The Captain Blood Trilogy (Annotated)Rafael Sabatini29h 20m4.6 (1K)$3 · $0.00
Ship of the Line (Annotated)Cecil Louis Troughton Smith11h 13m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
The George Orwell CollectionGeorge Orwell24h 46m4.5 (14.4K)$12 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust15h 38m4.5 (9.2K)$2 · $0.00
Driving ForceElle James4h 58m4.6 (407)$20 · $0.00
When God Calls the HeartBrian Bird, Michelle Cox3h 24m4.6 (439)$10 · $0.00
Five Little IndiansMichelle Good10h 34m4.5 (64.5K)$29 · $0.00
Lolth's WarriorR. A. Salvatore13h 20m4.6 (2.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Things We Cannot SayKelly Rimmer13h 48m4.5 (359.1K)$33 · $0.00
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du BoisHonoree Fanonne Jeffers29h 49m4.5 (58K)$8 · $0.00
Going PostalTerry Pratchett11h 23m4.5 (189.9K)$29 · $0.00
Glen AffricKarine Giebel22h 51m4.5 (3.2K)$46 · $0.00
The Book Of NegroesLawrence Hill15h 45m4.5 (107.3K)$33 · $0.00
Anne of Green GablesL. M. Montgomery11h 1m4.5 (1.2M)$2.30 · $0.00
Lieutenant Hornblower (Annotated)C. S. Forester11h 41m4.5 (2.9K)$2 · $0.00
You may also like
ZamaAntonio Di Benedetto7h 56m4.0 (4.9K)$20
Saint JackPaul Theroux8h 19m3.7 (1.1K)$26 · $0.00
The Kid Stays in the PictureRobert Evans6h 22m4.1 (7.1K)$24 · $0.00
The OutsiderRichard Wright22h 35m4.3 (2.6K)$46 · $0.00
Death in VeniceThomas Mann3h 3m3.9 (100.2K)Free
Why We Did ItTim Miller8h 15m4.0 (9.3K)$26 · $0.00
Let It Come DownPaul Bowles12h 41m4.0 (2.8K)$33 · $0.00
The Sirens of BaghdadYasmina Khadra8h 38m3.9 (4.1K)$17
The Coyotes of CarthageSteven Wright9h 6m3.9 (8.5K)$29 · $0.00
Nostromo - A Tale of the Seaboard (Unabridged Deluxe Edition)Joseph Conrad43h 2m3.8 (41.9K)$2 · $0.00
Fools DieMario Puzo19h 45m3.7 (8.6K)$32
The Collected Works of Joseph Conrad: Novels, Short Stories, Letters & MemoirsJoseph Conrad261h 21m4.6 (683)$2 · $0.00
Under Western EyesJoseph Conrad11h 18m3.9 (6K)$21
The RoverJoseph Conrad9h 30m3.9 (1.1K)$2 · $0.00
Mercy StreetJennifer Haigh10h 37m3.8 (13.3K)$29 · $0.00
The FountainheadAyn Rand32h 6m4.0 (383.5K)$30
Exit GhostPhilip Roth7h 36m3.6 (8.7K)$17
An Outcast Of The Islands Joseph Conrad10h 57m3.7 (1.9K)Free
Writer, Sailor, Soldier, SpyNicholas Reynolds9h 15m3.9 (3.4K)$29 · $0.00
Nicomachean EthicsAristotle11h 37m4.2 (71.7K)$4 · $0.00