Letters of Insurgents - Audiobook

An unabridged reading of Fredy Perlman's novel Letters of Insurgents by the group Audio Anarchy.

Author
Submitted by Reddebrek on November 29, 2018

Letters of Insurgents is one of those novels that never made it big but virtually all the people who have read it declare it to be important and amazing. Looking for information I've come across a dozen or so reviews and positive comments, all positive.

It's obscurity was partly a result of it being out of print for many years but small booksellers have started republishing it, here's Left Bank Books notice

Left Bank Books is republishing Fredy Perlman's classic novel Letters of Insurgents. Originally published by Black and Red in 1976, and out of print for several years, this epistolary novel tells the story of two individuals living on distant continents resume contact through correspondence. They describe meaningful events and relationships in their lives during the twenty years since their youthful liaison, comparing the choices each took. Yarostan lives in a "workers' republic"; Sophia in a "Western democracy." They both make efforts to lead meaningful lives. Along the way, they encounter bureaucrats, idealists, racists, flaunters of social convention, labor militants, professors, jailors, hucksters and more. In important respects, Sophia's biography parallels that of Fredy Perlman.
Left Bank Books is a not-for-profit project owned and operated by its workers, founded in 1973.
Copies can be pre-ordered from https://leftbankbooks.bigcartel.com/

That was from 2014 so you can no longer pre-order it, but you can still order a copy from their site.

Another champion of the novel was Audio Anarchy whom undertook the task of creating an Audio book version of it in 2006.

Freddy Perlman's Letters Of Insurgents is a thoroughly brilliant story about anarchist ideas. It takes the form of fictional letters between two eastern european workers who were separated after a failed revolution; one spent twelve years in statist jails, the other escaped to the west. After twenty-five years without contact, they begin to write each-other about their experiences, their lives, their hopes, and their memories of the past. The characters that emerge from these narratives tell a story that is both incredibly subtle and infinitely complex. Nothing is taken for granted, no assumptions are left unchallenged, and the reader is left with a set of questions that only a story about relationships could present.
Being a particularly long book, each letter will be presented here a week at a time until the entire recording is finished. And everyone who listens to the entire book will receive a Letters Of Insurgents Merit Badge.

In total the book was over 31 hours. It also appears to have finished off the group as sadly their recording of Letters of Insurgents appears to have been the last project of the group.

Playlist Link https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs2TxwyLLUrj9M2gqinFaNUeEz8zh7YHc

Link to first part https://youtu.be/mzl-2mM9_Oc

Mp3 Download folder

Comments

Reddebrek

5 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Reddebrek on November 29, 2018

I've been having a look around via the wayback machine and I believe this is the final audiobook created by Audio Anarchy in 2006.

The Audio is a bit scratchy in parts, a member of the Audible Anarchist has been practising their sound engineering skills using the recordings. https://soundcloud.com/fredy-perlman/yarostans-first-letter

Feedback is appreciated.