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The Audio Book Club on Atmospheric DisturbancesOur critics discuss Rivka Galchen's debut novel.

By Meghan O'Rourke, Troy Patterson, and Katie RoiphePosted Thursday, May 21, 2009, at 10:13 AM ET

To listen to the Slate Audio Book Club discussion of Rivka Galchen's Atmospheric Disturbances, click the arrow on the player below.

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Get your 14-day free trial of Gabfest sponsor Audible.com, which includes a credit for one free audio book, here. Atmospheric Disturbances is available on Audible.

This month, the Audio Book Club looks at Rivka Galchen's Atmospheric Disturbances—a debut novel about a psychiatrist named Leo Liebenstein who wakes up one morning to find that his wife, Rima, has been replaced by a simulacrum. Leo then sets out on a picaresque journey to find the "real" Rima, which brings him both to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Patagonia. In a 45-minute conversation, critics Meghan O'Rourke, Troy Patterson, and Katie Roiphe discuss how Galchen manages to balance Postmodern playfulness with sincere warmth.

If you'd like to get an early start on the next book club selection, pick up copies of "The Swimmer" by John Cheever and A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O'Connor. Watch for—and listen to—our discussion of "The Swimmer" and A Good Man Is Hard To Find in June.

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Meghan O'Rourke is Slate's culture critic and the author of Halflife, a collection of poetry. Troy Patterson is Slate's television critic. Katie Roiphe is the author of Still She Haunts Me.

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