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Trust Exercise cover art

Trust Exercise

Written by: Susan Choi
Narrated by: Adina Verson, Jennifer Lim, Suehyla El-Attar
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Publisher's Summary

Winner of the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction

"Electrifying" (People) • "Masterly" (The Guardian) • "Dramatic and memorable" (The New Yorker) • "Magic" (Time) • "Ingenious" (The Financial Times) • "A gonzo literary performance" (Entertainment Weekly) • "Rare and splendid" (The Boston Globe) • "Remarkable" (USA Today) • "Delicious" (The New York Times) • "Book groups, meet your next selection" (NPR)

In an American suburb in the early 1980s, students at a highly competitive performing-arts high school struggle and thrive in a rarefied bubble, ambitiously pursuing music, movement, Shakespeare, and particularly, their acting classes. When within this striving "Brotherhood of the Arts", two freshmen, David and Sarah, fall headlong into love, their passion does not go unnoticed - or untoyed with - by anyone, especially not by their charismatic acting teacher, Mr. Kingsley.  

The outside world of family life and economic status, of academic pressure and of their future adult lives, fails to penetrate this school’s walls - until it does, in a shocking spiral of events that catapults the action forward in time and flips the premise upside-down. What the listener believes to have happened to David and Sarah and their friends is not entirely true - though it’s not false, either. It takes until the audiobook’s stunning coda for the final piece of the puzzle to fall into place - revealing truths that will resonate long after the final sentence.  

As captivating and tender as it is surprising, Trust Exercise will incite heated conversations about fiction and truth, and about friendships and loyalties, and will leave listeners with wiser understandings of the true capacities of adolescents and of the powers and responsibilities of adults. 

©2019 Susan Choi (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

What the critics say

2019 National Book Awards - Winner
2019
New Yorker Best Books of the Year
2019
New York Magazine Best Books of the Year
2019 NPR Best Book of the Year
2019
Slate Book Review Best Books of the Year
2019
Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year
2019 Shelf Awareness Best Books of the Year
2019
Time Magazine Top 10 Books of the Year
2019 Hudson Booksellers Best of the Year
2019
New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year
2019
Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year
2019 NYPL Book for Reading and Sharing

What listeners say about Trust Exercise

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Very disappointing

The story starts well and then falls apart in the second half. There names are changed, or maybe not, there are several time jumps, and many questions left not quite resolved. The review in The New York Times is quite harsh (which is unusual - they tend to not review books they don't feel somewhat positive about). Here is the final summary paragraph from that review: "In the end, the experience of reading “Trust Exercise” is reminiscent of the most famous trust exercise of all: the one where you fall backward into your partner’s outstretched arms. You believe your partner will catch you. In this case, she doesn’t."

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2 people found this helpful