Audiobooks by Mischa Berlinski

Mona Acts Out

"An exuberant, darkly humorous novel by the US National Book Award-shortlisted author of Fieldwork Celebrated stage actress Mona Zahid wakes up on the morning of Thanksgiving to the clamour of guests packed into her Manhattan apartment and to a wave of dread: her in-laws are lurking on the other side of the bedroom door; she has been fighting with her husband; and in just a few weeks she will begin rehearsals to play Shakespeare's Cleopatra, the most challenging role of her career. On an impulse, and pretending she needs to do some last-minute shopping, Mona leaves her family and heads out into the city to visit her estranged mentor, Milton Katz, the legendary director who has been forced out of the theatre company he founded amid accusations of sexual misconduct. Mona's escape turns into an overnight adventure that brings her face-to-face with her past, with her creative power and its limitations, and ultimately, with all the people she has ever loved.   At once funny and sad and wise, Mona Acts Out is a deeply moving novel about acting and telling the truth, about how we all play roles to negotiate our lives, and how the great roles teach us how to live. Praise for MISCHA BERLINSKI Mona Acts Out 'An instant-classic New York novel about theater, aging, sex and love' Joshua Cohen, author of Pulitzer Prize-winning The Netanyahus 'Berlinski deserves a standing ovation for this bravura performance.' Publishers Weekly 'Wonderfully constructed, witty, warm, wise, and filled with an extraordinary sense of the relation between theater and life' Kirkus Reviews   Peacekeeping 'Powerfully intelligent . . . There's magic in the way that Mr. Berlinski, in command of fact and emotion, pilots this big novel safely home.' – Dwight Garner, New York Times  'Formidable' James Wood, New Yorker                                                   'Marvelous' Washington Post    Fieldwork 'Gripping and entertaining...you know you're in the hands of a writer to whom the novel form is, when all's said, as natural as an old overcoat... A quirky, often brilliant debut, bounced along by limitless energy' – Hilary Mantel in the New York Review of Books 'A killer novel... A great story... You can't stop reading.' Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly 'This is storytelling of the highest quality: richly entertaining, intelligent and anchored in a deep sense of humanity' – Tash Aw, Guardian"

Mischa Berlinski (Author), Alyssa Bresnaham (Narrator)

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Peacekeeping: A Novel

"'Ben Williams's narration couldn't be more perfect for this tragicomic novel of Haiti ... His conversational delivery also enhances the listener's understanding of Haiti's confounding mix of politics and superstition.' — AudioFile Magazine The daring, second novel by the National Book Award-nominated author of Fieldwork. Mischa Berlinski’s first novel, Fieldwork, was published in 2007 to rave reviews—Hilary Mantel called it “a quirky, often brilliant debut” and Stephen King said it was “a story that cooks like a mother”—and it was a finalist for the National Book Award. Now Berlinski returns with Peacekeeping, an equally enthralling story of love, politics, and death in the world’s most intriguing country: Haiti. When Terry White, a former deputy sheriff and a failed politician, goes broke in the 2007–2008 financial crisis, he takes a job working for the UN, helping to train the Haitian police. He’s sent to the remote town of Jérémie, where there are more coffin makers than restaurants, more donkeys than cars, and the dirt roads all slope down sooner or later to the postcard sea. Terry is swept up in the town’s complex politics when he befriends an earnest, reforming American-educated judge. Soon he convinces the judge to oppose the corrupt but charismatic Sénateur Maxim Bayard in an upcoming election. But when Terry falls in love with the judge’s wife, the electoral drama threatens to become a disaster. Tense, atmospheric, tightly plotted, and surprisingly funny, Peacekeeping confirms Berlinski’s gifts as a storyteller. Like Fieldwork, it explores a part of the world that is as fascinating as it is misunderstood—and takes us into the depths of the human soul, where the thirst for power and the need for love can overrun judgment and morality."

Mischa Berlinski (Author), Ben Williams (Narrator)

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Fieldwork

"When his girlfriend takes a job in Thailand, journalist Mischa goes along for the ride, planning only to enjoy himself as much as possible. But when he hears about the suicide of a young woman, Martiya van der Leun, in the Thai prison where she was serving a life sentence for murder, what begins as mild curiosity becomes an obsession. It is clear that Martiya was guilty, but what was it that led her to kill?"

Mischa Berlinski (Author), Ramon de Ocampo (Narrator)

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