Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

The Transcriptionist

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
Lena, the transcriptionist, sits alone in a room far away from the hum of the newsroom that is the heart of the Record, the big city newspaper for which she works. For years, she has been the ever-present link for reporters calling in stories from around the world. Hooked up to a machine that turns spoken words to print, Lena is the vein that connects the organs of the paper. She is loyal, she is unquestioning, yet technology is dictating that her days there are numbered.When she reads a shocking piece in the paper about a Jane Doe mauled to death by a lion, she recognizes the woman in the picture. They had met on a bus just a few days before. Obsessed with understanding what caused the woman to deliberately climb into the lion's den, Lena begins a campaign for truth that will destroy the Record's complacency and shake the venerable institution to its very foundation. In doing so she also recovers a life-her own.
  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

  • Formats

  • Languages

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 10, 2014
      New York Times veteran Rowland treads familiar ground (familiar to her, at least) in her debut novel, set primarily amid the remote offices of Record, a fictional newspaper. Lena is the newspaper’s sole remaining transcriptionist, her job having been made nearly redundant by technology. Lonely and prone to melancholy, she is haunted both by the words that are edited out of her transcribed stories prior to publication, and by her childhood fear of mountain lions. Both preoccupations come to a head after a blind woman, with whom Lena had a brief encounter, is found mauled to death in the Bronx Zoo’s lion exhibit. Lena’s identification with the dead woman verges on obsession as she researches the woman’s life and death. Rowland’s farcical approach (for example, Lena finds mental safety in periodically donning the biohazard escape hood that she was given by the newspaper) is balanced by the novel’s realistic insights into journalistic integrity, the evolution of contemporary newspaper publishing, and, more broadly, the importance of genuine communication. “Listening,” notes Lena, “helps us recognize our absurdity, our humanity.”

    • Library Journal

      July 1, 2014

      Lena, the transcriptionist for a fictional newspaper called The Record, waits in a remote office for calls or recordings to transcribe. She is lonely and isolated and living in a rooming house for women; her one reliable connection is with the pigeon that lives on her office window sill. When she realizes that a blind woman with whom she had brief contact has jumped into the lion's area at the zoo and been killed, it opens Lena's eyes and leads to self-examination and some uncharacteristic behaviors on her part. Former transcriber Rowland expertly covers a lot of ground in this polished and literary first novel, while Xe Sands's narration effortlessly brings the listener into Lena's world. VERDICT For fans of quirky literary fiction. ["Disturbing and powerful; the skillfully drawn Lena may remind some readers of an existentialist hero," read the review of the Algonquin hc, LJ 2/1/14.]--Mary Knapp, Madison P.L., WI

      Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 28, 2014
      Sands beautifully captures the odd life of the haunted lead character in Rowland’s novel. Lena is something of an anomaly: she is a transcriptionist for the Record, a major New York newspaper. Her job is to transcribe bits of information phoned in by reporters to be used in upcoming stories. A chance encounter with a woman who later commits suicide causes Lena to becomes intrigued by and gradually obsessed with the woman. Sands gives a quiet, subdued performance that beautifully captures the complex, lonely protagonist. She keeps her characterizations to a minimum. It’s a subtle performance that pulls the listener solidly into Lena’s world. Sands’s performance, like Lena, is mesmerizing in its seeming simplicity. Listeners will discover that these still waters do, indeed, run deep. An Algonquin hardcover.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading