American Pastoral

· Vintage Digital · Narrated by Malcolm Hillgartner
1 review
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16 hr 6 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook

Brought to you by Penguin.

Discover the Pulitzer-prize winning novel that confirmed Philip Roth as one of the greatest American writers.

'Swede' Levov is living the American dream.

He glides through life cocooned by his devoted family, lucrative business, sporting prowess and good looks. He is the embodiment of thriving, post-war America, land of liberty and hope.

Until one sunny day in 1968, when Swede's daughter, Merry, commits an outlandishly savage act of political terrorism and the Levov family is plunged into mayhem. Extraordinarily nuanced and poignant, American Pastoral is the first in an eloquent trilogy of post-war American novels that still resonates today.

PRAISE FOR AMERICAN PASTORAL:
'Angry, grieving, witty, acute' Sunday Times
'A profound and personal meditation on the changes in the American psyche over the last fifty years' Financial Times
'A momentous novel' Observer

©2016 Philip Roth (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Brought to you by Penguin. Discover the Pulitzer-prize winning novel that confirmed Philip Roth as one of the greatest American writers. 'Swede' Levov is living the American dream. He glides through life cocooned by his devoted family, lucrative business, sporting prowess and good looks. He i...

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Ratings and reviews

1 review
Elise Foxworth
May 5, 2026
A superbly written novel about the American dream and its shadow. Roth expertly dissects and depicts the complex thought processes of his well meaning but struggling protagonist. If only more writers had Roth's erudite grasp of vocabulary, expression and his exceptional ability to communicate emotional pain and conflict. Roth is, in my opinion, an old-school genius and, thus, a true novelist.... I highly recommend this rich insightful foray into the human condition. Plus I liked the narrator.
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About the author

Philip Roth was born in Newark, New Jersey on 19 March 1933, to second-generation Americans Bess and Herman. He grew up in the largely Jewish community of Weequahic, a neighbourhood his writing returned to time and again.

Roth received the National Book Award for his first book, Goodbye, Columbus (1959), but it was his fourth, Portnoy’s Complaint (1969) which secured his reputation as one of America’s finest writers, and American Pastoral (1997) which won the Pulitzer Prize. Roth wrote thirty-one books in all, winning the International Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award twice. He was presented with the National Medal of Arts and the National Humanities Medal by Presidents Clinton and Obama, respectively.

Roth died aged eighty-five on 22 May 2018, six years after retiring from writing.

Philip Roth was born in Newark, New Jersey on 19 March 1933, to second-generation Americans Bess and Herman. He grew up in the largely Jewish community of Weequahic, a neighbourhood his writing returned to time and again. Roth received the National Book Award for his first book, Goodbye, Columbu...

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Narrated by Malcolm Hillgartner