The Plot against America, Philip Roth
The Plot against America, Philip Roth
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The Plot against America

Author: Philip Roth

Narrator: Ron Silver

Unabridged: 13 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/05/2016

Synopsis

In an astonishing feat of empathy and narrative invention, our most ambitious novelist imagines an alternate version of American history.In 1940 Charles A. Lindbergh, heroic aviator and rabid isolationist, is elected president. Shortly thereafter, he negotiates a cordial “understanding” with Adolf Hitler, while the new government embarks on a program of folksy anti-Semitism.For one boy growing up in Newark, Lindbergh’s election is the first in a series of ruptures that threaten to destroy his small, safe corner of America—and with it, his mother, his father, and his older brother.

About Philip Roth

Philip Roth (1933–2018) was one of the most decorated writers in American history, having won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award twice, the PEN/Faulkner Award three times, the National Book Award, and many more. He also won the Ambassador Book Award of the English-Speaking Union and in the same year received the National Medal of Arts at the White House. In 2001 he received the highest award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Gold Medal in Fiction, given every six years “for the entire work of the recipient.”

About Ron Silver

In the 1990s, Philip Roth published five major works: Patrimony (1991) won the National Book Critics Circle Award; Operation Shylock (1993) won the PEN/Faulkner Award; Sabbath's Theater (1995) won the National Book Award; American Pastoral (1997) won the Pulitzer Prize; and I Married a Communist (1998) won the Ambassador Book Award of the English-Speaking Union.  In 1998, he was a White House recipient of the National Medal of Arts.About the reader:Ron Silver, a Tony award-winning stage actor, has starred in numerous films including Reversal of Fortune, and Enemies: A Love Story, as well as the television series Wiseguy.  He was a founder of The Creative Coalition, and President of Actors' Equity Association.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Michael on February 15, 2020

Breathtaking and highly realistic, The Plot Against America is Philip Roth's vision of an alternative path history could have taken had Charles Lindbergh have not kept his anti-Semitism as a private matter, but (like Mr Trump) brought it into the political arena. In it, Roth features himself as the......more

Goodreads review by Will on March 27, 2024

Israel didn’t exist yet, six million European Jews hadn’t yet ceased to exist, and the local relevance of distant Palestine (under British mandate since the 1918 dissolution by the victorious Allies of the last far-flung provinces of the defunct Ottoman Empire) was a mystery to me…I pledged alle......more

Goodreads review by Dave on April 23, 2025

I repost this because The New York Times has two of Philip Roth's (RIP) novels on their list of 100 best novels of the 21st century, at the one quarter-century mark: The Human Stain and The Plot Against America. Many Roth fans do not think this is one of his top books, but I do, and it remains very......more

Goodreads review by William2 on November 18, 2018

Counter-factual historical fiction, in the manner of Robert Harris' Fatherland. In it, Charles Lindbergh, the anti-Semitic aviator and admirer of the Nazis, wins the U.S. presidency by campaigning against FDR on a platform of non-intervention in the European war. I think the novel has special resona......more

Goodreads review by Lena on June 24, 2023

Alternative history that almost happened and maybe did happened to some extent. Important but quite boring book. At least for me: I don't like reading such "historical textbook style". And it was hard to comprehend sometimes probably because it's a very American. It was easy to get lost in dozens po......more

Quotes

“Enraging and discomfiting, imaginative and utterly—terrifyingly—believable.” San Francisco Chronicle

“Roth has written more subtle political books (The Human Stain, American Pastoral), but none are eerier than this one, particularly given the current state of the world.“ Washington Post

“An inspiring portrait of a family struggling to survive the days of perpetual fear. Their love is the real America, and no s—hole president will ever take that from us.” Entertainment Weekly (Grade: A)

“It’s a nightmare, and it becomes more nightmarish—and also funnier and more bizarre—as is goes along.” New Yorker

“Ambitious and chilling.” USA Today

“When we’re ten pages into the book, our own world starts to seem like a flimsy fantasy.” Time

“A terrific political novel…You turn the pages, astonished and frightened.” New York Times Book Review

“It’s startling how allegorical it is to our current political moment.” NPR

"Not necessarily a comforting read but it is an immersive one that will take you to another America, at least for a few hours.” BuzzFeed

“The overall effect of the novel is staggering. Roth has constructed a brilliantly telling and disturbing historical prism by which to refract the American psyche as it pertains to war.” Booklist (starred review)

Awards

  • New York Times Notable Book
  • BookRiot Pick
  • Guardian Pick
  • New York Public Library Staff Pick
  • PopSugar Pick
  • BuzzFeed Books Pick
  • Washington Post Staff Pick
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