Audiobooks by Joe Dunthorne

[German] - Kinder des Radiums: Auf den Spuren meiner jüdischen Familie

"Familiengeheimnisse und die Suche nach Wahrheit Als der britische Autor Joe Dunthorne gebeten wird, einen Vortrag über seine Familie im »Dritten Reich« zu halten, macht er bei seinen Recherchen dazu eine schier unglaubliche Entdeckung: Sein jüdischer Urgroßvater Siegfried Merzbacher, der in den 1920er-Jahren in Oranienburg lebte und dort als Chemiker Haushaltsartikel herstellte, darunter eine radioaktive Zahnpasta, war später maßgeblich an der Entwicklung chemischer Waffen für die Nazis beteiligt. Erst Mitte der Dreißigerjahre emigrierte die Familie in die USA. Bis an sein Lebensende haderte Merzbacher mit seiner Vergangenheit. Eine atemberaubende Spurensuche. Basierend auf den Memoiren des Urgroßvaters, die die Jahre 1890 bis 1970 umspannen »Als Kind putzte sich meine Großmutter die Zähne mit radioaktiver Zahnpasta. Die Wohnung lag so nahe an der Fabrik, dass sie noch beim Einschlafen das Schütteln des Autoklavs hörte.« Recherchen zur eigenen Familiengeschichte führen Joe Dunthorne nach Oranienburg – nicht nur wegen der vielen Blindgänger aus dem Zweiten Weltkrieg die »gefährlichste Stadt Deutschlands«: Dunthornes Urgroßvater stellte hier radioaktive Zahnpasta sowie chemische Waffen für die Nazis her. Siegfried Merzbacher musste als Jude 1935 zwar das Land verlassen, konnte dies aber vollkommen unbehelligt tun. In seinen umfangreichen Memoiren, die er später schrieb, fehlt diese Episode seines Lebens ... Die außergewöhnliche Familiengeschichte eines preisgekrönten Autors"

Joe Dunthorne (Author), Thomas Höricht (Narrator)

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Children of Radium: A Buried Inheritance

"Brought to you by Penguin. Off-beat, irreverent and subversive – a Jewish family memoir about convenient delusions and unsayable truths, from the acclaimed author of the cult classic novel, Submarine Joe Dunthorne had always wanted to write about his great-grandfather, Siegfried: an eccentric scientist who invented radioactive toothpaste and a Jewish refugee from the Nazis who returned to Germany under cover of the Berlin Olympics to pull off a heist on his own home. The only problem was that Siegfried had already written the book of his life – an unpublished, two-thousand page memoir so dry and rambling that none of his living descendants had managed to read it. And, as it turned out when Joe finally read the manuscript himself, it told a very different story from the one he thought he knew… Thus begins a mystery which stretches across the twentieth century and around the world, from Berlin to Ankara, New York, Glasgow and eventually London – a mystery about the production of something much more sinister than toothpaste. On the trail of one ‘jolly grandpa’ with a patchy psychiatric history and an encyclopaedic knowledge of poison gases, Joe Dunthorne is forced to confront the uncomfortable questions that lie at the heart of every family. Can we ever understand where we come from? Is every family in the end a work of fiction? And even if the truth can be found – will we be able to live with it? Children of Radium is a remarkable, searching meditation on individual and collective inheritance. Witty and wry, deeply humane and endlessly surprising, it considers the long half-life of trauma, the weight of guilt and the ever-evasive nature of the truth. 'A gripping story of family secrets and chemical warfare [and] a tale of one writer’s search for a reliable past... Joe Dunthorne has written a contemporary classic' Andrew O'Hagan © Joe Dunthorne 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025"

Joe Dunthorne (Author), Joe Dunthorne (Narrator)

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The Adulterants

"Ray is not a bad guy. He mostly did not cheat on his heavily pregnant wife. He only sometimes despises every one of his friends. And though his career as a freelance tech journalist is dismal and he spends his afternoons churning out third-rate listicles in his boxer briefs, he dreams of making a difference. But Ray is about to learn that his special talent is for making things worse."

Joe Dunthorne (Author), Joe Dunthorne (Narrator)

Audiobook

Wild Abandon

"An eccentric and hilarious tale of a small Welsh community as it struggles to adjust to modern life; from the acclaimed author of Submarine. Kate and Albert, sister and brother, have grown up on a secluded communal farm. Now their home is disintegrating, taking their parents' marriage with it. Ignoring their attempts to escape, Don- father of the family, leader and maker of elaborate speeches- sets to work on reunifying the commune. To bring it into the modern age he’ll need self-sufficiency, charisma and a rave with a 10k soundsystem…"

Joe Dunthorne (Author), Tom Lawrence (Narrator)

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Submarine

"Meet Oliver Tate, 15. Convinced that his father is depressed and his mother is having an affair with her capoeira teacher, 'a hippy-looking twonk', he embarks on a hilariously misguided campaign to bring the family back together. Meanwhile, he is also trying to lose his virginity - to his pyromaniac girlfriend Jordana. Will Oliver succeed in either aim? Submerge yourself in Submarine and find out . . ."

Joe Dunthorne (Author), Craig Roberts (Narrator)

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