Big Swiss: A Novel
Written by Jen Beagin
Narrated by Rebecca Lowman, Carlotta Brentan, Stephen Graybill and
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Named a Best Book of the Year by the New Yorker, Time, NPR, Vogue, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Huffington Post, NBC News, Lit Hub, theSkimm, Condé Nast Traveler, Town & Country, and more!
“One of the funniest books of the last few years” (Los Angeles Times) about a sex therapist’s transcriptionist and her affair with one of the patients.
Greta lives with her friend Sabine in an ancient Dutch farmhouse in Hudson, New York. The house is unrenovated, uninsulated, and full of bees. Greta spends her days transcribing therapy sessions for a sex coach who calls himself Om. She becomes infatuated with his newest client, a repressed married woman she affectionately refers to as Big Swiss.
One day, Greta recognizes Big Swiss’s voice in town and they quickly become enmeshed. While Big Swiss is unaware Greta has eavesdropped on her most intimate exchanges, Greta has never been more herself with anyone. Her attraction to Big Swiss overrides her guilt, and she’ll do anything to sustain the relationship…
“A fantastic, weird-as-hell, super funny novel” (Bustle), Big Swiss is both a love story and a deft examination of infidelity, mental health, sexual stereotypes, and more—from an amazingly talented, singular voice in contemporary fiction.
Editor's Note
Weird and endearing…
Greta, a transcriptionist for a sex coach, is beguiled by one client’s voice, nicknaming her “Big Swiss.” Then Greta meets Big Swiss in real life, and a passionate love affair begins. Only Beagin (“Vacuum in the Dark”), with her penchant for the off-color and eccentric, could pen a romantic comedy that’s as weird as it is endearing, addressing trauma while simultaneously making fun of New York elites.
Jen Beagin
Jen Beagin holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine, and is a recipient of a Whiting Award in fiction. Her first novel Pretend I’m Dead was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and Vacuum in the Dark was shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction. She is also the author of Big Swiss. She lives in Hudson, New York.
Related to Big Swiss
Related audiobooks
Death Valley: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ripe: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rouge: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Y/N: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Milk Fed: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pretend I'm Dead: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Last Innocent Year: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One’s Company: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Really Good, Actually: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Bright Young Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chlorine: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vladimir: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fruiting Bodies: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Woman, Eating: A Literary Vampire Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shmutz: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Biography of X : A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Greta & Valdin: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alice Sadie Celine Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird: Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Yellowface: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hop: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm a Fan Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sorrow and Bliss: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bliss Montage: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All-Night Pharmacy: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maame: A Today Show Read With Jenna Book Club Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ghost Lover: Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5My Husband: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Fiction For You
All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tom Lake: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nothing to See Here Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Alchemist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yellowface: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stardust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Measure: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Where the Forest Meets the Stars Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Bookshop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beneath a Scarlet Sky: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Keeper of Lost Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Norse Mythology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anxious People: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5To Kill a Mockingbird Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Big Swiss
527 ratings22 reviews
What our readers think
Readers find this title to be a mix of great and disappointing. Some readers enjoyed the tasteful descriptions, the funny and weird aspects, and the wonderful storytelling. However, others found it to be a pointless read, with a promising start that fell flat. Overall, it is an entertaining and strange book that offers something different for those looking for it.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If you enjoy anything by Ottessa Moshfegh, Alissa Nutting and possibly Dave Sedaris... this is your next fave. Bizarre, sad, funny and beautifully narrated.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing book ! Witty and romantic and very well written
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Started out with great promise. Leveled off and then wanders around until it just, stops. A novel about damaged people who can’t get out of their own way. Maybe I am not bright enough to get the point. For me, it was a pointless read.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I enjoyed listening to “Big Swiss”, but I’m left with one question. Would someone explain the meaning of e.e. cummings poem, “yes is a pleasant country”? Perhaps it expresses the relief experienced when decisive action is taken following a long period of simply existing.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The author has a way with words. The phrases used to keep the reader engaged is endearing. I felt myself smiling and/or laughing throughout the audiobook. Beautifully written, although I did not like the ending, I would recommend it to readers who enjoy witty dialogue.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5the whole story just went nowhere. very disappointed but easy read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Really enjoyed this, really different, clever, funny, too. Not my usual genre.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5What a strange book with peculiar characters and an unreliable narrator.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This had me hooked from the beginning! A great time!
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I didn’t finish it. I get dark humor and dark romance but there was a lot of talk of suicide at the beginning of the book. It should come with trigger warnings.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Funny and weird and sad, with wildly drawn interior worlds. Great voice acting as well.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Had a promise to be great, but fell flat. Disappointed
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Entertaining, but very strange. A fun read if you’re looking for something different.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book was hilarious and heartfelt without being corny. It was simply too odd to be. Highly recommend!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I truly enjoyed this weird, wonderful book. The descriptions and details on every page kept me hooked.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Really interesting and I liked the readers very much although big Swiss sounded too old. I truly felt as though I lived in the heart and mind of Greta’s life. This was hard sometimes. It was amazing how words were sculpted into experiences. Didn’t like the anal stuff.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Absurd. Women. Lesbians. Funny. Easy. Five words left to post.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5a heady yet absurd affair born of the nearly holy, certainly sacred, obsession only two women can conjure up within one another.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I have never wanted to review a audiobook will listening to it for the 1st time.
Ive love the storytelling and the Story….
And I just and got to the farm. .. with Simon1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5ending was not what i expected but quite fitting and it felt like just as how it’s supposed to be without anticipation.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great story with tasteful descriptions of desire. I just finished so I still need to process, but I’m not sure how I feel about the ending. But i really enjoyed the story up to that point. Maybe I’m just sad there isn’t more.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Such a disappointment! Don’t waste your time. It had such grate potential to be great but fell so flat.