About the Book
Abridged Edition
Curated Selections from the definitive, career-spanning collection of writing from Anthony Bourdain, assembled for the first time and read by Tony with Dion Graham, Kimberly Witherspoon, Kaleo Griffith, David Colacci, and Chris Patton.
Anthony Bourdain represented many things to many people--and he had many sides. But no part of his identity was more important to him, and more longlasting, than that of a writer. The Anthony Bourdain Reader is a collection of his best and most fascinating writing, and touches on his many pursuits and passions, from restaurant life to family life to the "low life," from TV to travel through places like Vietnam, Buenos Aires, Paris, and Shanghai.
The Anthony Bourdain Reader is also a showcase for new and never-before-seen material, like diary entries from Bourdain's first trip to France as a teenager and "It's Cruel and Unforgiving Terrain," a piece on the New York restaurant scene, as well asunpublished short fiction like "I Quit My Job Yesterday" and chapters from No New Messages, his unfinished novel. These newly discovered pieces all contribute to give the fullest picture of the man behind the books.
The Anthony Bourdain Reader is a testament to the enduring and singular voice Bourdain crafted, with eclectic and curated chapters that encapsulate the unique brilliance of his restless mind. Edited by Bourdain's longtime agent and friend Kimberly Witherspoon and with a foreword by Patrick Radden Keefe, this is an essential reader for any Bourdain fan as well as a vivid and moving recollection of the life and legacy of one of our most distinctive writers.
About the Author :
Anthony Bourdain was the author of the New York Times bestsellers Kitchen Confidential, Medium Raw, World Travel, and Appetites and the novels Bone in the Throat and Gone Bamboo. His work appeared in the New York Times and The New Yorker. He was the host of the popular television shows No Reservations and Parts Unknown. Bourdain died in June 2018.
Anthony Bourdain was the author of the New York Times bestsellers Kitchen Confidential, Medium Raw, World Travel, and Appetites and the novels Bone in the Throat and Gone Bamboo. His work appeared in the New York Times and The New Yorker. He was the host of the popular television shows No Reservations and Parts Unknown. Bourdain died in June 2018.
Dion Graham is an award-winning narrator named a "Golden Voice" by AudioFile magazine. He has been a recipient of the prestigious Audie Award numerous times, as well as Earphones Awards, the Publishers Weekly Listen Up Awards, IBPA Ben Franklin Awards, and the ALA Odyssey Award. He was nominated in 2015 for a Voice Arts Award for Outstanding Narration. He is also a critically acclaimed actor who has performed on Broadway, off Broadway, internationally, in films, and in several hit television series. He is a graduate of Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts, with an MFA degree in acting.
Chris Patton has narrated over seventy-five audiobooks. His voice can be heard narrating such titles as Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, the dystopian juggernaut Yesterday's Gone, Clive Barker's Books of Blood series, and two titles by Joyce Carol Oates. Chris began his career in theater at age ten, and his voice-over career at twenty-nine. Since then, he has voiced over two hundred anime titles, numerous commercials and e-learning and industrial projects, and several video games. He's also fronted a synthpop band called Paul Lynde Is Dead, written a teen urban fantasy about an emo vampire called Scene Immortal, and has appeared as a special guest at more than eighty-five pop-culture conventions.
David Colacci is an actor and director who has directed and performed in prominent theaters nationwide. His credits include roles from Shakespeare to Albee, as well as extensive work on new plays. As a narrator, he has won numerous Earphones Awards, earned Audie Award nominations, and been included in Best Audio of the Year lists by such publications as Publishers Weekly, AudioFile magazine, and Library Journal. He was a resident actor and director with the Cleveland Play House for eight years and has been artistic director of the Hope Summer Rep Theater since 1992.
Kaleo Griffith is an Earphones Award-winning audiobook narrator and classically trained actor. He graduated cum laude from Franklin Pierce University with a BA in theater, holds an MFA in acting from Rutgers University, and is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He has appeared in such television series as Law & Order and Reggie's Family & Friends, among others.
Patrick Radden Keefe is the author of several books of nonfiction, including Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, which received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, was selected as one of the ten best books of 2019 by the New York Times Book Review, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Wall Street Journal and was named one of the "10 Best Nonfiction Books of the Decade" by Entertainment Weekly. He is a staff writer at the New Yorker and also the creator and host of the eight-part podcast Wind of Change.
