Miss Subways: A Novel

by David Duchovny Narrated by David Duchovny, Tea Leoni

Overview

This program is read by the author and Tea Leoni, with their daughter, West Duchovny.

New York Times bestselling author David Duchovny reimagines the Irish mythological figure of Emer in Miss Subways, a darkly comic fantasy love story set in New York City.

Emer is just a woman living in New York City who takes the subway, buys ice cream from the bodega on the corner, has writerly aspirations, and lives with her boyfriend, Con. But is this life she lives the only path she's on? Taking inspiration from the myth of Emer and Cuchulain and featuring an all-star cast of mythical figures from all over the world, David Duchovny's darkly funny fantasy audiobook Miss Subways is one woman's trippy, mystical journey down parallel tracks of time and love. On the way, Emer will battle natural and supernatural forces to find her true voice, power, and destiny.

A fairy tale of love lost and regained, Miss Subways is also a love letter to the city that enchants us all: New York.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

07/16/2018
Duchovny’s possibility-fueled romance, both intellectual and approachable, seamlessly blends frenetically paced pop culture references with the antics of bored, nearly forgotten gods in this modern retelling of the Emer and Cuchulain myth. Emer is a teacher and New Yorker who has a comfortable life with her partner, Con. When she’s offered a difficult choice by a mysterious man who calls himself Sid, she finds comfort in the inevitability of change and the strange, déjà vu quality of life in Manhattan. Then life takes a bit of a different turn, sliding seamlessly into an alternate reality in which the consequences of her choice expand like ripples on a pond; each interaction takes her simultaneously closer to and further away from who she is. It doesn’t help that her path is being manipulated by someone—or something. The story’s fantastical nature provides an elegant foundation for an in-depth exploration of self laced with sharp social commentary and a generous dose of the absurd. Agent: Andrew Blauner, Blauner Books. (May)

From the Publisher

"As David Sedaris is to his essays in audio format, so is David Duchovny to his fiction. Neither author's works should ever be voiced by anyone but themselves, or crucial interpretations, inflections, and emotions would be lost. ...this treasured, crumpled love letter to a fantasy other-world of New York City is an essential purchase for libraries serving listeners who favor witty word play and realistically complex characters and enjoy finding the absurdity in daily life." -Booklist, Starred Review

MAY 2018 - AudioFile

David Duchovny ("The X-Files") narrates his third novel with a little help from his family. His writing chops—he has an M.A. in English literature from Yale—are apparent as he weaves ancient Irish myth and literary references into a modern-day New York City-based fantasy/romance. Emer’s longtime boyfriend, Con, is marked for death by higher powers. But Emer is allowed to save his life by agreeing to forever remain separated from him. The pair doesn’t remember their prior love, but their paths keep crossing nonetheless. Duchovny is relaxed and confident, never overdoing things and focusing on his characters. His ex-wife, Téa Leoni, sounds like she’s having a blast reading Emer’s dialogue, and the featured voices of their two kids round out this audiobook’s loose, easygoing charm. A.T.N. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2018-02-20
A woman stumbles into the realm of myth when a supernatural creature offers her a heartbreaking choice.Fresh off a new season of the evergreen X-Files and a late-blooming music career, the multitalented Duchovny (Bucky F*cking Dent, 2016, etc.) offers a spooky domestic drama that is equal parts Nick Hornby and Neil Gaiman. In this tale based on an ancient Irish legend about two star-crossed lovers, Duchovny transposes the story to present-day New York, a city he clearly loves. Emer Gunnels is a masterful second-grade teacher who still experiences fleeting visions from a childhood brain tumor. Her boyfriend is Cuchulain Constance "Con" Powers, an academic who is writing an obscure, right-wing treatise on pre-Christian deities and folklore—"J.K. Rowling meets Michael Lewis in a London pub, they fuck and have a baby that William Buckley raises," more or less. Things go dark when Emer is confronted by Bean Sidhe, a wildly profane Celtic fairy, who offers her an impossible choice: Con (who has been canoodling with the scary spider goddess Anansi, by the way) may live, but the lovers must separate forever—or he dies right here, right now. After a glimpse of how each choice plays out, Emer makes her fateful decision. "The man lives. Love dies," declares Sidhe. Duchovny finds a deft balance here between Emer's domestic rituals and the machinations of actual gods and monsters. It's also worth praising the novel's upside-down love story in which Emer grows into the hero of her own story, not merely the object of a man's quest. As happens, Emer and Con are drawn to each other over and over, while the old gods yearn to break their eternal cycle. With mythical embodiments scattered among the book's surprisingly down-to-earth milieu—a trio of goddesses and a foulmouthed "mistress-dispeller" among them—Duchovny adroitly couches a Nora Ephron-esque romance in the sphere of Joseph Campbell.An entertaining, postmodern fairy tale that tests the boundaries of love and fate.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171982805
Publisher:	Macmillan Audio
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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