Things That Can and Cannot Be Said, Arundhati Roy
Things That Can and Cannot Be Said, Arundhati Roy
List: $14.95 | Sale: $10.47
Club: $7.47

Things That Can and Cannot Be Said
Essays and Conversations

Author: Arundhati Roy, John Cusack

Narrator: Sneha Mathan, Jim Meskimen

Unabridged: 1 hr 54 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/26/2017


Synopsis

In this rich dialogue on surveillance, empire, and power, Roy and Cusack describe meeting with National Security Agency whistleblower Ed Snowden.In late 2014, Arundhati Roy, John Cusack, and Daniel Ellsberg traveled to Moscow to meet with Edward Snowden. The result is a series of essays and dialogues in which Roy and Cusack reflect on their conversations with Snowden.In these provocative and penetrating discussions, Roy and Cusack discuss the nature of the state, empire, and surveillance in an era of perpetual war, the meaning of flags and patriotism, the role of foundations and NGOs in limiting dissent, and the ways in which capital but not people can freely cross borders.

About Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy studied architecture in New Delhi, where she now lives. She is the author of the novel The God of Small Things, for which she received the 1997 Booker Prize. The novel has been translated into forty languages worldwide. Her most recent novel is the New York Times bestseller The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. She has written several nonfiction books, including Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers and Capitalism: A Ghost Story, both published by Haymarket Books.

About John Cusack

John Cusack is a writer, actor, filmmaker, and board member of the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

About Sneha Mathan

Sneha Mathan is a voice actor and audiobook narrator. Her audiobook work has received several Earphones awards, and she is a three-time Audie Award finalist. She lives in Seattle.

About Jim Meskimen

Jim Meskimen is a stage, film, and television actor who has appeared in many well-known movies and television shows. He acted in Apollo 13 and Frost/Nixon for director Ron Howard, both of which were nominated for Best Picture Oscars. His television appearances include The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Friends, Lie to Me, Criminal Minds, and Parks and Recreation. He is also a painter, award-winning audiobook narrator, and audiobook director for Galaxy Audio.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Reid on December 25, 2016

Let me stipulate from the beginning of this review that my objection to it is not because I disagree with the politics of the authors or the two other participants in their discussions: Daniel Ellsberg and Edward Snowden. Debates about the advisability or legality of Snowden's actions, in particular......more

Goodreads review by S.Ach on September 16, 2016

4 renegades (3.5, if you please) assemble in a hotel room to talk about war, greed, terrorism, basically all those things that make you anti-national. The build-up to the conversation was brilliant. But, the conversation itself, well….. how should I put it…..leaves you keep wanting. As Ms. Roy put it......more

Goodreads review by Annie on June 25, 2016

Want to read more by Arundhati Roy, but maybe next time she could talk to Noam Chomsky (for example) instead of John Cusack? I mean, I was slightly obsessed with John Cusack for a significant subset of the years between 1989 and 2005, and he's not a dummy. But he doesn't quite have the chops for thi......more

Goodreads review by Yoda on February 05, 2017

This book just blew my mind. Never thought of the government in this way.......more

Goodreads review by Jen from Quebec :0) on September 30, 2019

This is a re-read for me, but really...this is one of those books that I am sort of ALWAYS reading, you know? It's a book that I often grab and flip through and highlight and underline, etc. It's one that is never truly closed forever. It's a book I re-visit often, and I'm so glad to own a copy. It'......more


Quotes

"[Roy is] an electrifying political essayist…So fluent is her prose, so keen her understanding of global politics, and so resonant her objections to nuclear weapons, assaults against the environment, and the endless suffering of the poor that her essays are as uplifting as they are galvanizing.” Booklist

“On its surface, the essay collection offers an account of Edward Snowden’s 2014 meeting with John Cusack, Arundhati Roy, and Daniel Ellsberg. Things That Can and Cannot Be Said is less about Snowden’s 2013 decision to leak classified NSA data than it is about the context of that decision, offering a statement on the surveillance state as it relates to war and peace in the twenty-first century…‘It definitely cannot not be written about…because the world is a millipede that inches forward on millions of real conversations.’ Things That Can and Cannot Be Said is an unapologetically radical account of several such real conversations aiming to do just that: inch the world forward.” Shelf Awareness