The Usual Desire to Kill Audiobook By Camilla Barnes cover art

The Usual Desire to Kill

A Novel

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The Usual Desire to Kill

By: Camilla Barnes
Narrated by: Harriet Walter
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About this listen

An often hilarious, surprisingly moving portrait of a long-married couple, seen through the eyes of their wickedly observant daughter—for fans of A Man Called Ove and The Royal Tenenbaums.

Miranda’s parents live in a dilapidated house in rural France that they share with two llamas, eight ducks, five chickens, two cats, and a freezer full of food dating back to 1983.

Miranda’s father is a retired professor of philosophy who never loses an argument. Miranda’s mother likes to bring conversation back to “the War,” although she was born after it ended. Married for fifty years, they are uncommonly set in their ways. Miranda plays the role of translator when she visits, communicating the desires or complaints of one parent to the other and then venting her frustration to her sister and her daughter. At the end of a visit, she reports “the usual desire to kill.”

This wry, propulsive story about a singularly eccentric family and the sibling rivalry, generational divides, and long-buried secrets that shape them, is a glorious debut novel from a seasoned playwright with immense empathy and a flair for dialogue.

©2025 Camilla Barnes (P)2025 Simon & Schuster Audio
Editors Select Family Life Genre Fiction Small Town & Rural Funny Witty
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Editorial Review

For anyone who's ever been on either side of an "OK, boomer" eye roll?
At its start, Camilla Barnes's debut novel of a family absolutely riddled with generation gaps seems almost like a cozy comedy of errors, enhanced with instantly iconic narration. As expected, Harriet Walter's performance is outstanding and so very British, infusing an air of "Oh, you mustn't bother" and "Don't be so silly" into every breath. But as you move through the story, you realize that Barnes's storytelling style and structure—clearly informed by her career in the theater—challenges the conventional expectation that family dramas will culminate in a cathartic revelation of truth, any moldering shame sanitized with a cleansing dose of sunny truths. As with most families, there are a lot of past hurts buried here, and the relative positions of each player prevents them from seeing each other—and their history—clearly. But you as the listener are in for a revelatory experience of feeling deep sympathy and love for each and every one of them. —Emily C., Audible Editor

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Crackling dry wit and yet beautifully heartfelt. I loved these flawed, funny people. Lovely reading as well.

Brilliant

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I was a fly on the wall. More from Camilla Barnes and Harriet Walters, please.

I.iced it.

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Camilla Barnes created such a beautifully layered, comic and heartbreaking family portrait in this novel.

Excellent, subtle humor and heartbreaking family dynamics.

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