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  The Secret Agent , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 680min

  The Secret Agent was one of the first espionage novels ever written, and it is certainly one of the finest in the oeuvre of Joseph Conrad. The story concerns the attempt by a group of back-alley revolutionaries to destroy one of London's most famous landmarks and thereby set off a revolution. As the plot unfolds, we discover a cast of unlikely villains, self-aggrandizing intellectuals, overeager bureaucrats, fame hungry politicians, and innocent bystanders, all described with poignant psychological depth as only Conrad could. The story centers around Adolph Verloc, owner of a Soho bookshop and ostensibly a member of a group of home-grown anarchists, but actually in the pay of a foreign government. Verloc's quiescent wife, Winnie, maintains their stable household in which she tries to provide for her retarded brother and her aging mother under the thinly disguised irritability of her husband. The anarchist collective consists of "Doctor" Ossipan, who lives off his romantic attachments to women barely able to take care of themselves; "The Professor", an explosives expert who is so insecure that he is perpetually wired with a detonator in case he is threatened by police capture; and Michaelis, a corpulent writer composing an autobiography after a mitigated sentence in prison. When Verloc is summoned to the embassy in whose pay he works, he receives a cold reception from his new superior, Vladimir. Vladimir tells Verloc that he's going to have to start producing or he'll lose the wages he receives. A humiliated Verloc is shocked when he receives orders to blow up Greenwich Observatory. As the scheme takes shape, it is Verloc who is compelled to execute the plan. But his doubts and fears are only too well justified, and despite his misgivings, he pushes ahead. However, it is the man-child Stevie who brings the enterprise to its ignominious end. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Charlton Griffin. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acon/000089/bk_acon_000089_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  To Squeeze a Prairie Dog: An American Novel , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 465min

  This is the story of J. D. Wiswall, a sincere young man from a small town who joins a state government agency in a data entry department comprised of quirky clerks. Quickly endearing himself to the diverse group in Unit 3, J. D. learns his coworkers have a pact to share the $10,000 prize if they win a cost-savings program for a suggestion that could save the government money, in turn helping them rise above their own personal struggles. A multimillion-dollar cost-savings suggestion is accidentally discovered by J. D.'s supervisor, the goof-off alcoholic Brent Baker. This lucrative discovery catches the attention of crotchety Governor Dwayne Bennett, a media-hungry demagogue, who turns the coworkers of Unit 3 into props for his selfish political reasons. The publicity surrounding the clerks piques the interest of a newspaper reporter Esther Jean Stinson, whose investigative reporting threatens to reveal the governor's career-ending secret, as well as jeopardizes the prize that the clerks so desperately desire.Along with J. D. and Brent, the lives of the amiable coworkers in Unit 3 are revealed. There is Rita Jackson, the kind matriarch of her large brood, who spends her time outside of work caring for her five struggling children and 13 wily grandchildren. Then there's Deborah Martinez, a single mother to a felonious son, who struggles to keep her head above her sinking financial woes. There's also Conchino Gonzalez, a quiescent giant of Mexican and Japanese descent, who street races at night to relieve worries about his ailing grandfather in Japan. Finally, J. D. has dreams bigger than his small hometown can provide, and Brent wants nothing more than to drop the bureaucratic routine to become a rock star with his bar band.A few blocks away from the agency that houses Unit 3, Governor Bennett, a smarmy politician who whizzes around the Governor's Mansion on a gold-plated wheelchair, parades the unwitting clerks in front of the local media in an attem ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Scott Semegran. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/142629/bk_acx0_142629_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  • Price: 9.95 EUR excl. shipping

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