Flowers for Algernon

Daniel Keyes

Sep 2009 · Recorded Books · Narrated by Jeff Woodman

About this audiobook

Charlie Gordon knows that he isn't very bright. At 32, he mops floors in a bakery and earns just enough to get by. Three evenings a week, he studies at a center for retarded adults. But all of this is about to change for Charlie. As part of a daring experiment, doctors are going to perform surgery on Charlie's brain. They hope the operation and special medication will increase his intelligence, just as it has for the laboratory mouse, Algernon. Meanwhile, each day Charlie keeps a diary of what is happening to him. This is his poignant record of the startling changes in his mind and his life. Flowers for Algernon was first published as a short story, but soon received wide acclaim as it appeared in anthologies, as a television special, and as an award-winning motion picture, Charly. In its final, expanded form, this haunting story won the Nebula Award for the Best Novel of the Year. Through Jeff Woodman's narration, now it becomes an unforgettable audio experience.

Ratings and reviews

One of the best yet tragic books I've ever read. You get a whole new outlook on life and what it means to be human. Not to mention how quickly happiness and accomplishments can fade. I could listen and reread this book a million times and learn something new about my own morals and beliefs. Highly recommend. My favorite book of all time

I've only ever read one book that is more sad than this one, I remember the first time I read this in eighth grade in English class, I didn't fully understand it then but I've remembered it every so often and thought well my might as well get the audiobook and see what it was like. and so I did and as I made my way through I saw just how much I had forgotten so many twists and turns and little details that change the story so much that I almost wish I hadn't listened to it again simply because I know I won't forget it this time It is not a story for the faint of heart It is brilliant but it is tragic the hope that you receive in the beginning by the end will be ripped away and as you finish the last few moments of the book you will feel an emptiness in your chest, yet for a story such as this no ending could be more fitting and that is the sad part, you long the entirety of the book for everything to end well but you know that a tragic ending is inevitable yet perfect in the worst way.