Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Music for Torching
    Unavailable
    Music for Torching
    Unavailable
    Music for Torching
    Audiobook12 hours

    Music for Torching

    Written by A.M. Homes

    Narrated by Penelope Rawlins

    4/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    Read the ebook instead

    About this audiobook

    Paul and Elaine have two boys and a beautiful home, yet they find themselves thoroughly, inexplicably stuck. Obsessed with 'making things good again', they spin the quiet terrors of family life into a fantastical frenzy that careens well and truly out of control. From a hilarious encounter in the pantry with a Stepford Wife neighbour, to a hostage situation at the school, Homes lays bare the foundations of marriage and family life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Ltd
    Release dateJan 1, 2015
    ISBN9781471282317
    Author

    A.M. Homes

    A.M. Homes vive en Nueva York y es profesora en la Universidad de Columbia. Ha sido denominada «reina de las bad-girl heroines» (Mademoiselle) y «la mejor retratista de la depravación contemporánea» (The New York Times Book Review). En Anagrama se han publicado El fin de Alice: «Una indagación en lo más oscuro de los deseos, una obra emparentada con la Lolita de Nabokov, pero más brutal y provocadora» (Mauricio Bach, El Mundo); «Un cruce entre Lolita y El silencio de los corderos» (Karma); Música para corazones incendiados: «Una crónica excéntrica y delirante del tejido conyugal y del fracaso de un modelo social» (Javier Aparicio Maydeu, El Periódico); Cosas que debes saber: «Un sabroso catálogo de los horrores cotidianos que anidan en los suburbios residenciales de Estados Unidos» (Juan Manuel de Prada, ABC); «Pensad en A. M. Homes como en la hija imposible de John Cheever y Dorothy Parker, unida para siempre a su hermano siamés Todd Solondz» (Rodrigo Fresán); Este libro te salvará la vida: «Destinada a convertirse en una comedia memorable sobre un pedazo de vida en la ciudad de Los Ángeles» (Iosu de la Torre, El Periódico); «Una novela frenética, nerviosa, que tiene tanto de fábula moral como de crítica certera de la sociedad de consumo» (Diego Gándara, La Razón); La hija de la amante: «Relato intenso, duro, y que crea en el lector la fascinante necesidad de continuar leyendo» (Sergi Pàmies); «Libro despiadado, sombrío y resplandeciente a la vez» (María José Obiol, El País); Ojalá nos perdonen: «Excelente el reflejo social que nos ofrece Homes» (José Antonio Gurpegui, El Mundo); Días temibles: «la maestría de Homes para el relato y su talento para la observación y la parodia y el retrato deformante pero tan fi el de seres extremos a la vez que normales» (Rodrigo Fresán, ABC); En un país para madres: «Inquietante... Captura un mundo fuera de control... Una novela psicológica fascinante» (San Francisco Chronicle) y La revelación: «Una sátira feroz… Homes captura a las élites estadounidenses con exquisita precisión… Escenas que hacen llorar de risa… Irresistible» (Ron Charles, The Washington Post).

    Related to Music for Torching

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Casey Gerald

      Dec 14, 2018

      There’s a line in my book that reads, “I have been so many things along my curious journey: a poor boy, a nigger, a Yale man, a Harvard man, a faggot, a Christian, a crack baby (alleged), the Spawn of Satan, the Second Coming, Casey.” My reading tend

      2 min read

    • Article

      Richard Milward: ‘I Hid My Writing Like A Secret Vice’

      Mar 18, 2023

      Richard Milward, 38, grew up in Middlesbrough and lives in London. He is the author of three previous novels: Apples, published when he was 22; Ten Storey Love Song, told in the form of a single 300-page paragraph; and Kimberly’s Capital Punishment (

      4 min read

    • Article

      Le Carré's Dirty Linen

      Oct 18, 2023

      The Secret Life of John le Carré By Adam Sisman Profile Books £16.99 Halfway through Adam Sisman's 2015 biography of John le Carré, something odd occurs. The book simply shuts up shop. You can all but hear the rattle of the roller shutter as if it's

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Lighter Side of Dan Chaon

      Apr 11, 2022

      I had a dystopian idea in the beginning, and in the end the dystopia caught up with me. The post The Lighter Side of Dan Chaon appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Kicked Out Of The Comedy Club

      Dec 23, 2020

      EVERY GAY PERSON WHO GREW UP before the new millennium knew that coming out of the closet wasn’t a one-off affair. It was an exercise to be repeated in the various spheres of one’s existence — family, friends, work — and there would always be new soc

      10 min read

    • Article

      Like A Writer Possessed

      Oct 8, 2022

      Like A Writer Possessed
      3 min read

    • Article

      ‘Starling Days’: Featured Fiction from Rowan Hisayo Buchanan

      Apr 7, 2020

      In today's edition of featured fiction, we present an excerpt from Rowan Hisayo Buchanan's latest novel, Starling Days. The post ‘Starling Days’: Featured Fiction from Rowan Hisayo Buchanan appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Bluff Stuff

      Mar 7, 2021

      The Bluff Stuff
      2 min read

    • Article

      50 Quid Craptic Crossword

      Mar 10, 2022

      50 Quid Craptic Crossword
      1 min read

    • Article

      Unlikely Auteur Of Mercy

      Nov 24, 2022

      Unlikely Auteur Of Mercy
      7 min read

    • Article

      Crime Travel

      Feb 3, 2022

      Crime Travel
      2 min read

    • Article

      Masochism And Despair In The Village Of The Damned

      Jun 20, 2022

      In Lapvona, Ottessa Moshfegh offers a fitting tale for the hellscape of our pandemic times; gleefully rubbing our faces in the filth of human nature. Her chosen setting – the imagined village of Lapvona – harks back to the age of medieval fiefdoms an

      2 min read

    • Article

      Grief Is Another Word For Love

      Jun 21, 2021

      I am trapped in Australia. The borders are shut, which has worked well for keeping COVID-19 out, but it has also kept me in. Over the last fifteen months in sunny Perth, where I live, there have only been two cases of COVID-19 in the community. We ha

      8 min read

    • Article

      Theatrical Seekers and True Believers

      Dec 25, 2019

      A MOMENT ON THE CLOCK OF THE WORLD Edited by Melanie Joseph and David Bruin. Haymarket Books, Chicago, 2019. 220 pp., $50 hardcover, $20 paper. MOMENT WORK: TECTONIC THEATER PROJECT’S PROCESS OF DEVISING THEATER Edited by Moisés Kaufman and Barbara P

      6 min read

    • Article

      Re-Covered: The Mischief

      Dec 2, 2019

      Re-Covered: The Mischief
      8 min read

    • Article

      Song Of The Crocodile

      Sep 24, 2020

      A Yuwaalaraay writer, storyteller and performer from the freshwater plains of the North West region of New South Wales, Simpson knows the “Crocodile Country” land very well. In her debut novel, the author tells the story of the Billymil family, who h

      1 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Andrew Martin

      Dec 18, 2019

      I cried while reading this book in an airport, and then on a plane, and then on a bus. So maybe read it at home? The post A Year in Reading: Andrew Martin appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Oldies Make The Best Holiday Companions

      Jul 28, 2022

      ON THE PENETRATING QUESTION of what fiction to take on holiday, this year The Critic offers a novel approach. Why heft around the Dolomites the bulk of an untested hardback, by a wet-behind-the-ears author who isn’t even dead yet, when you can halve

      6 min read

    • Article

      Benny vs Deon

      Dec 23, 2021

      Benny vs Deon
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Music for Torching

    4/5

    155 ratings7 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Homes writes despair REALLY well. My dearest Meghan gave this to me almost two years ago, and I couldn't read it for this very reason. Coming back to it now, I can handle it a whole lot better. It's about a relationship gone rotten and how we always think we have it the worst when that's generally not really the case. This book is darkly funny in even the worst moments and a quick read, too--it's mostly dialogue. I loved how, for a 358 page book, the action of the story evolved in maybe a week-and-a-half tops and the events were totally human and utterly surreal at the same time. Excuse me while I recoup....
    • 3/5
      I have read enough A M Homes novels to know how they are likely to go. A lot of frenetic madcappery, and the sort of inhibition shedding that makes you feel quite giddy, but also a tendency to go into lengthy lulls where not a lot happens. This had a lot of lulls, and consequently it was my least favourite by her to date.The setup here is that middle aged married couple Paul and Elaine are having a sort of joint middle aged crisis so they accidentally on purpose burn their house down (like you do). Except they don't raze it to the ground, it's still there but it needs patching up (cue eccentric insurance agents, builders etc). What I did like was the bit where they were forced to stay with their friends in their perfect house and witness the wife's perfect housekeeping. That rang true all the way. What didn't quite ring true is the way nearly burning the house down is the gateway to all sorts of life-changing/life-enriching situations - discovering lesbians in the closet and quasi life coaches on the daily commute. Surely they were already there whether the house got burned down or not? Just when it seems the book is settling down to the sort of conclusion where everyone has discovered some new meaning in life and hope for the future and wasn't-it-a-good-idea-to-commit-arson etc (I unashamedly speed-read the last hundred or so pages), the author throws all the cards back up in the air with a dramatic grand finale not dissimilar to the device used in "This Book will Save Your Life". It left me puzzled - was everything we read up to that point of no consequence? If I'm honest, I didn't get it.
    • 5/5
      Great book. Clips along well and has an ending I did NOT see coming! Very thought provoking. I highly recommend this for both its bizarre humor and its depth.
    • 5/5
      Second femme to get a 5… and since I don’t want to make a habit of this the next time I decide to read a book authored by a femme… I’ma go with Martha Stewart...
    • 4/5
      Suburban ennui gone frantic which seems exaggerated but may not be and surely not an exaggeration of fantasy. It hardly seemed funny to me, but rather sad, pitiable, and almost understandable. Feeling themselves in a prison, they're flailing away with so much energy that there's none left to open the door.
    • 5/5
      recommended! funny and interesting. definitely not the typical family, but all emotions presented by characters are very understandable and reasonable under the circumstances they are presented. it has those great moments everyone has been through but can't really find the words to describe. wonderfully written!
    • 5/5
      Brilliant novel. A light and comedic surface covers a really scary story.