Man in the Empty Suit, Sean Ferrell
Man in the Empty Suit, Sean Ferrell
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Man in the Empty Suit

Author: Sean Ferrell

Narrator: Mauro Hantman

Unabridged: 9 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/05/2013

Synopsis

Say you're a time traveler and you've already toured the entirety of human history. After a while, the outside world might lose a little of its luster. That's why this time traveler celebrates his birthday partying with himself. Every year, he travels to an abandoned hotel in New York City in 2071, the hundredth anniversary of his birth, and drinks twelve-year-old Scotch (lots of it) with all the other versions of who he has been and who he will be. Sure, the party is the same year after year, but at least it's one party where he can really, well, be himself. The year he turns thirty-nine, though, the party takes a stressful turn for the worse. Before he even makes it into the grand ballroom for a drink he encounters the body of his forty-year-old self, dead of a gunshot wound to the head. As the older versions of himself at the party point out, the onus is on him to figure out what went wrong—he has one year to stop himself from being murdered, or they're all goners. As he follows clues that he may or may not have willingly left for himself, he discovers rampant paranoia and suspicion among his younger selves, and a frightening conspiracy among the elders. Most complicated of all is a haunting woman possibly named Lily who turns up at the party this year, the first person besides himself he's ever seen at the party. For the first time, he has something to lose. Here's hoping he can save some version of his own life.

About Sean Ferrell

Sean Ferrell’s fiction has appeared in literary journals such as the Adirondack Review and his short story “Building an Elephant” won the Fulton Prize. His debut novel, Numb, was described as “eye catching,” “daring,” and “offbeat.” He lives and works, in no particular order, in New York City.

About Mauro Hantman

Mauro Hantman is a graduate of RISD and the Trinity Rep Conservatory who has performed at the Rhode Island Shakespeare Theater, the Sandra Feinstein Gamm Theatre, the Actor's Theatre of Louisville, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He also has performed and taught around the country as an improviser.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Dorie

chapter 1 - ok i'm hooked. damn that was effective. chapter 2 - already picturing David Lynch directing the movie version chapter 3 - most genius chapter ever since the dawn of chapters. chapter 7 - cracked book open a couple hours ago and might have to call out sick tomorrow so i can finish this. chap......more

Goodreads review by Andrew

A real surprise this one, I loved it. It's one of the most original time travel books I've read (and I've read a few). A thoughtful tale of a time traveller who returns to a hotel on his birthday where the only other attendees are himself, at different ages, some older and some younger than his curr......more

Goodreads review by Brandon

The Man in the Empty Suit follows an unnamed time traveller as he attends his 39th birthday at the Boltzman Hotel. While your mind is probably imagining a lavish party with friends and loved ones, you’d be mistaken. The only people in attendance happen to be multiple versions of the protagonist who......more

Goodreads review by Ken

I really wanted to love this book, but I didn't. It had ingredients that I normally delight in: time travel, mind-bending paradox, creepy/weird semi-abandoned future city. What a cool premise: a man invents a time travel vehicle, and leaps forward a century to throw a party for himself. Every year,......more

Quotes

“An arresting setup—the same character is simultaneously the murder victim, suspect, and investigator—and Ferrell exploits it carefully…[presenting] the reader with some ugly truths about life and owning up to who we really are. Ferrell himself has jokingly called it the time-travel book of 3102, but I wouldn’t suggest waiting that long.” Atlantic

“Out of this intriguing premise Sean Ferrell proceeds to spin a dark hybrid of Paul Auster and the film Memento, complete with a mysterious love interest…Best of all, however, is the evocation of mid-twenty-first century New York as a melancholy, dilapidated place high in entropy, cluttered with ruined buildings, and weirdly infested with parrots.” Toronto Star

“Ferrell’s novel satisfies as both a tale of a four-dimensional conspiracy and as a stark meditation on solitude.” Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“[Man in the Empty Suit has] an ingenious setup…both Looper and Man in the Empty Suit track the trajectory of a pained, lonely man who learns what it means to sacrifice for the sake of another’s well-being.” AV Club

“Man in the Empty Suit has a clever enough premise that it could be straight out of a Philip K. Dick or Kurt Vonnegut novel.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“A genre-bending read that's part noir and part sci-fi…[A] speedy story.” Time Out New York

“This is trippy book; a great read…Ferrell spins a web of lies, deceit, and self-loathing, sprinkles it with intelligent humor and wit, a dash of love and loss, and presents it to the reader on a silver platter.” Examiner

“Ferrell has written a brain-teasing, paradox-defying, time travel mystery in the tradition of such pretzel-bending-logic classics as Fritz Leiber’s The Big Time and Robert A. Heinlein’s ‘By His Bootstraps.’” Publishers Weekly

“Full of imagination and head-scratching conundrums…It should definitely appeal to those who enjoy offbeat [sci-fi] and mystery fiction.” Booklist

“Engaging and thought-provoking…It will also appeal to readers of Stephen King’s 11/22/63.” Library Journal

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