Blinding Light, Paul Theroux
Blinding Light, Paul Theroux
List: $39.99 | Sale: $28.00
Club: $19.99

Blinding Light
A Novel

Author: Paul Theroux

Narrator: Joe Knezevich

Unabridged: 19 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Mariner Books

Published: 11/18/2025

Synopsis

Slade Steadman's lone opus, published twenty years ago, was Trespassing, a cult classic about his travels through dozens of countries without benefit of passport. With his soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend Ava in tow, Steadman sets out for Ecuador’s jungle in search of a rare hallucinogenic drug and the cure for his writer’s block. Amid a gang of thrill-seeking tourists, he finds his drug and his inspiration but is beset with an unnerving side effect—periodic blindness. His world is altered profoundly: Ava stays by his side, he writes an erotic, autobiographical novel with the drug serving as muse, and he returns to stardom.
Steadman becomes addicted to the drug and the insights it provides, only to have them desert him, along with his sight. Will he regain his vision? His visions? Or will he forgo the world of his imagining and his ambition?
As Theroux leads us toward the answers, he makes fresh magic out of the venerable intertwined themes of sight and insight. He also offers incisive, sometimes hilarious takes on the manifold ironies of travel, of trespass and trangession, and of the trappings of the writer’s life—from the fear of the blank page to the unexpected challenges of the book tour.

About Paul Theroux

Paul Theroux is the author of many highly acclaimed books. His novels include Burma Sahib, The Bad Angel Brothers, The Lower River, Jungle Lovers, and The Mosquito Coast, and his renowned travel books include Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, On the Plain of Snakes, and Dark Star Safari. He lives in Hawaii and on Cape Cod.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Naomi on May 13, 2016

4.5, but I rounded up, because I really think most reviewers are being a little too harsh on this book. It's almost perfect, it's just a tad verbose and repetitive at times. It could use a trim. First let me say that I read this 10 years ago, seeing it at the library. I often browse books and feel l......more

Goodreads review by Bryan on December 28, 2007

This was a great surprise in terms of the quality of the writing and the scope of its ambition. I had carelessly under-valued Theroux and bought it hoping I suppose for a page turner or brief vacation from more serious stuff. Blinding Light is a fairly savage travelogue that delights in upending th......more

Goodreads review by Jim on October 28, 2024

The opening scenes of Paul Theroux's Blinding Light in the Amazonian jungle showed great promise which the rest of the book didn't quite deliver. You might say it was about sex, drugs -- but no rock and roll. It's the tale of an unnamed author who, having written one overwhelmingly successful book -......more

Goodreads review by Frank on June 29, 2012

I've liked Theroux's writing for years - both his travel writing and fiction. Unfortunately, I haven't been keeping up with him for some time. The last book I read by him was "Hotel Honolulu" which I remember being an okay novel. I was a little mixed about "Blinding Light." I loved the premise of th......more

Goodreads review by Rob on August 11, 2015

A fantastic book following the path of the classic concept of Hubris. A modern day Shakespearian tragedy. A man wishes for something, and, to his ultimate dismay, he gets what he wished for. Excellent writing...creative story.......more

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