Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Zero and the One

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Ryan Ruby

Narrator: Bobby Long

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-07-17

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Psychological

Publisher's Summary:

A Gothic twist on the classic tale of innocents abroad, The Zero and the One is a meditation on the seductions of friendship and the power of dangerous ideas that registers the dark, psychological suspense of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley and the intellectual and philosophical intrigue of John Banville's The Book of Evidence.

A shy, bookish scholarship student from a working-class family, Owen Whiting has high hopes of what awaits him at Oxford, only to find himself adrift and out of place among the university's dim aristocrats and posh radicals. But his life takes a dramatic turn when he is assigned to the same philosophy tutorial as Zachary Foedern, a visiting student from New York City. Rich, brilliant, and charismatic, Zach takes Owen under his wing, introducing him to a world of experiences Owen has only ever read about. From the quadrangles of Oxford to the seedy underbelly of Berlin, they practice what Zach preaches, daring each other to transgress the boundaries of convention and morality, until Zach proposes the greatest transgression of all: a suicide pact. But when Zach's plans go horribly awry, Owen is left to pick up the pieces in the sleek lofts and dingy dives of lower Manhattan. Now he must navigate the treacherous boundary between illusion and reality if he wants to understand his friend and preserve a hold on his once bright future.

Critic Reviews:

"The Zero and the One is a fast-paced, philosophical meditation on what qualifies as the worst crime one can commit." (Booklist)

"Skillfully plotted and...intriguing. An undeniably propulsive read." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Promising start betrayed by sad depravity

The meaning of life, a question examined in many philosophical novels, has rarely been examined in such a dark and disturbing one as this, which I give four stars predominantly due to the writing that, in places, is among the best I've seen in some time.

Having said that, I found the plot and the characters deeply disturbing and somewhat sophomoric.

Although I felt compelled to continue to turn the pages, it was clear from early on that the story would not end happily, and so it does not. After all, the two main characters, the wealthy New Yorker Zachary Foedern, a visiting student at Oxford, and Owen Whiting, a brilliant but shy young man and the first in his working class family to attend university, make a suicide pact. It comes out fairly early on that Zach has died and Owen mourns his friend's loss.

Zach found himself totally bewitched by the thinking of fictional philosopher Hans Abendroth, of whose rare book Zero and the One he found only one copy in English, in the possession of a cult philosophical figure, despised (as we later learn) by Abendroth's publisher.