Get Your Free Audiobook

Prime logo New to Audible Prime Member exclusive:
2 credits with free trial
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks
Download titles to your library and listen offline
₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.
The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios cover art

The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios

Written by: Yann Martel
Narrated by: Jeff Woodman, Johnny Stange, John Randolph Jones
Free with 30-day trial

₹199 per month after trial ends. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for ₹632.00

Buy Now for ₹632.00

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice.

Publisher's Summary

Here are four unforgettable stories by Yann Martel, the New York Times best-selling author of Life of Pi. In the exquisite title novella, a very young man dying of AIDS joins his friend in fashioning a story of the Roccamatio family of Helsinki, set against the yearly march of the 20th century. In "The Time I Heard the Private Donald J. Rankin String Concerto with One Discordant Violin, by the American composer John Morton", a Canadian university student visits Washington, D.C., and experiences the Vietnam War and its aftermath through an intense musical encounter. In "Manners of Dying", variations of a warden's letter to the mother of an executed man reveal how each life is contained in its end. The final story, "The Vita Eterna Mirror Company: Mirrors to Last till Kingdom Come", is about a young man who discovers an antique mirror-making machine that runs on memories.

Written earlier in Martel's career, these tales are as moving as they are thought-provoking, as inventive in form as they are timeless in content. They display the startling mix of dazzle and depth that have made Yann Martel an international phenomenon.

©1993, 2004 Yann Martel (P)2004 HighBridge Company

Critic Reviews

  • 2005 Audie Award Nominee, Short Stories/Collections

"These are stunning stories." (Booklist)
"Pathos is leavened with inventiveness and humor in this collection of a novella and three short stories....Richly satisfying." (Publishers Weekly)
"A small masterpiece....A serious and convincing work that demands to be read." (The Guardian [London])

What listeners say about The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios

Average Customer Ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.