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The Manchurian Candidate cover art

The Manchurian Candidate

Written by: Richard Condon
Narrated by: Christopher Hurt
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Publisher's Summary

Buried deep within the consciousness of Sergeant Raymond Shaw is the mechanism of an assassin, a time bomb ticking toward explosion, controlled by the delicate skill of its Communist masters. Shaw returns from the Korean War to an idolizing and unsuspecting country. In a farcical, uproarious scene, he is greeted amid flashbulbs and frock coats by his power-hungry, domineering mother and her politician husband, who have decided to use Shaw's fame to further their own unscrupulous ambitions. What follows is at once a spy story, a love story, and a sobering, yet outrageously funny satire on demagoguery in American politics. Two tender love stories provide an undercurrent theme: the powers of light against the powers of dark. Shaw, the pawn, the brainwashed, is caught between the forces struggling for his soul.
©1959 by Richard Condon (P)1995 by Blackstone Audiobooks
Espionage Genre Fiction
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What the critics say

"A psychoanalytic horror tale...and an irate sociopolitical satire." (The New York Times)
"Filled with that 'un-put-downable' element which makes this sort of [listening] a great deal of fun indeed." (San Francisco Chronicle)

What listeners say about The Manchurian Candidate

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  • Jim
  • 2023-02-05

Unexpectedly and refreshingly funny

As part of the broader culture, The Manchurian Candidate has a reputation as a taut political thriller — and it’s well earned! — but this book is just as much satire as it is subterfuge. Totally surprised me how wry and biting this was throughout. Great listen!

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