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Stella Maris

By: Cormac McCarthy
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Julia Whelan
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Publisher's summary

'A drought-busting, brain-vexing double act’ – Guardian

Alicia Western is the following: Twenty years old. A brilliant mathematician at the University of Chicago. And a paranoid schizophrenic who does not want to talk about her brother, Bobby.

Told entirely through the transcripts of Alicia’s psychiatric sessions, Cormac McCarthy's Stella Maris is a profoundly moving companion to The Passenger. It is a powerful enquiry that questions our notions of God, truth, and life itself.

‘Cormac McCarthy was such a virtuoso, his language was so rich and new . . . his books were terrifying and absolute. His sentences were astonishing.’ - Anne Enright

©2022 Cormac McCarthy (P)2022 Penguin Random House
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Critic reviews

'It's an uncanny, unsettling dream, tuned into the static of the universe' – New York Times

What listeners say about Stella Maris

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fabulous

perfect connection to the passenger. Loved the voices and the word battle. thank you Cormac

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Fantastic Voice Acting!

Mathematics, psychiatry, philosophy - these are a few of my favourite things! I liked the book, but struggled to take it as seriously as I think it wanted to be taken. Certain ideas that McCarthy wants us to challenge (understating/material of reality, for example, via the not-hallucinations) are made difficult by his presentation of it (…hallucinations?). Other events (e.g. one-true-love decided at the age of 12) cast a shadow on the reliability of the character’s observations overall.

Many interesting ideas, questions, ponderings, but all made slightly questionable via the ‘oddities’ of the character.

Despite that, the mathematical insights were delicious. And the voice actors were superb! McCarthy has an interesting writing style whereby he ignores certain use of punctuation, making it slightly challenging to follow character differentiation sometimes. But these two voice actors made the conversation seem so natural. “What else?”, which is asked so many times and can feel unnatural when read, is done so naturally when spoken. Praise to them!

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