Cleanness

Written by Garth Greenwell

Narrated by Garth Greenwell

"Garth Greenwell’s superb narration makes a powerful case for authors reading their own work. This bleak, honest novel is about the impossibility of knowing all the complicated truths of a person. Though the novel includes dialogue, Greenwell doesn’t alter his voice as he shifts between characters, a choice that adds to the intensity and power of the first-person point of view." -- BookTrib

This program is read by the author.

In the highly anticipated follow-up to his beloved debut, What Belongs to You, Garth Greenwell deepens his exploration of foreignness, obligation, and desire. A New York Times Notable Books of 2020

Sofia, Bulgaria, a landlocked city in southern Europe, stirs with hope and impending upheaval. Soviet buildings crumble, wind scatters sand from the far south, and political protesters flood the streets with song.

In this atmosphere of disquiet, an American teacher navigates a life transformed by the discovery and loss of love. As he prepares to leave the place he’s come to call home, he grapples with the intimate encounters that have marked his years abroad, each bearing uncanny reminders of his past. A queer student’s confession recalls his own first love, a stranger’s seduction devolves into paternal sadism, and a romance with another foreigner opens, and heals, old wounds. Each echo reveals startling insights about what it means to seek connection: with those we love, with the places we inhabit, and with our own fugitive selves.

Cleanness revisits and expands the world of Garth Greenwell’s beloved debut, What Belongs to You, declared “an instant classic” by The New York Times Book Review. In exacting, elegant prose, he transcribes the strange dialects of desire, cementing his stature as one of our most vital living writers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Jan 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781250261663

Garth Greenwell

Garth Greenwell is the author of Cleanness. His novel What Belongs to You won the British Book Award for Debut of the Year, was longlisted for the National Book Award, and was a finalist for six other awards, including the James Tait Black Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, it was named a Best Book of 2016 by over fifty publications in nine countries, and is being translated into a dozen languages. His novella Mitko won the Miami University Press Novella Prize and was a finalist for the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction and a Lambda Literary Award. His fiction has appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, A Public Space, and VICE, and he has written criticism for the New Yorker, the London Review of Books, and the New York Times Book Review, among others. He lives in Iowa City.

Reviews for Cleanness

[Jack · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Highly sexualized but a realistic and honest portrait of the conflicts of gay identity.

[Elena IS · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A book that's very honest and raw about navigating relationships with places, love, sex and trauma as a queer person.

[sashastorylover · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Good quality audio book, the author narrates the book himself but I simply didn’t like this book. If it weren’t for an audio book I would’ve dnfed it back at chapter 2.

[Chris Maxwell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Interesting story of life with some interesting events along the way.

[Jimbo Pantas · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Even better than What Belongs to You. Expanded, more complex, more satisfying.