Shadow Tag cover art

Shadow Tag

A Novel

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Shadow Tag

By: Louise Erdrich
Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

When Irene America discovers that her husband, Gil, has been reading her diary, she begins a secret Blue Notebook, stashed securely in a safe deposit box. There she records the truth about her life and her marriage, while turning her Red Diary - hidden where Gil will find it - into a manipulative farce.

Alternating between these two records, complemented by unflinching third-person narration, Shadow Tag is an eerily gripping listen. When the novel opens, Irene is resuming work on her doctoral thesis about George Catlin, the 19th-century painter whose Native American subjects often regarded his portraits with suspicious wonder. Gil, who gained notoriety as an artist through his emotionally revealing portraits of his wife - work that is adoring, sensual, and humiliating, even shocking - realizes that his fear of losing Irene may force him to create the defining work of his career.

Meanwhile, Irene and Gil fight to keep up appearances for their three children: 14-year-old genius Florian, who escapes his family’s unraveling with joints and a stolen bottle of wine; Riel, their only daughter, an 11-year-old feverishly planning to preserve her family, no matter what disaster strikes; and sweet kindergartener Stoney, who was born, his parents come to realize, at the beginning of the end. As her home increasingly becomes a place of violence and secrets, and she drifts into alcoholism, Irene moves to end her marriage. But her attachment to Gil is filled with shadowy need and delicious ironies.

In brilliantly controlled prose, Shadow Tag fearlessly explores the complex nature of love, the fluid boundaries of identity, and one family¹s struggle for survival and redemption.

©2010 Louise Erdrich (P)2010 HarperCollins Publishers
Family Life Fiction Literary Fiction United States Marriage
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Painted Drum cover art
The Game of Silence cover art
The Plague of Doves cover art
The Border of Paradise cover art
Four Souls & Tracks cover art
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse cover art
Rabbits for Food cover art
Equal Affections cover art
Nightmare Flower cover art
David and Ameena cover art
The Spires cover art
Nervous Conditions cover art
The Time Traveler's Wife cover art
When Things Get Dark cover art

Editor reviews

Senseless destruction is horrifying to watch. It makes sense, then, that this audiobook is horrifying to hear - horrifying yet irresistible. Uncomfortable scenes replay themselves as Irene's marriage to the brilliant, troubled artist Gil twists itself into a tortured stranglehold. The two go to extremes to make each other unhappy. Coleen Marlo nimbly captures each tormented character's voice and even portrays the suffering of the children with heartbreaking authenticity. The profound selfishness of the couple makes them difficult to like, but the beauty of Erdrich's writing and the precise neutrality of Marlo's narration make the family wreckage something that can't be ignored.

What listeners say about Shadow Tag

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I am an Erdrich addict

A sad depiction of family life breaking down but beautifully observed. One of her shorter works but nonetheless worthy.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Depressing & a waste of 5 hours.

Awful. Awful. Awful. Long winded. No real story line. Certainly no punch to it. The characters are irritating so hard to feel sympathy for. Completing it was tedious. The ending was as bland as the beginning.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!