Download Best Sellers Audiobooks in Fiction, Literary

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Title: Extinctions

Author: Josephine Wilson

Narrator: William McInnes

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-26-17

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 8 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Winner of the 2017 Miles Franklin Literary Award

He hated the word retirement, but not as much as he hated the word village, as if ageing made you a peasant or a fool. Herein lives the village idiot.

Professor Frederick Lothian, retired engineer, world expert on concrete and connoisseur of modernist design, has quarantined himself from life by moving to a retirement village. His wife, Martha, is dead, and his two adult children are lost to him in their own ways. Surrounded and obstructed by the debris of his life - objects he has collected over many years and tells himself he is keeping for his daughter - he is determined to be miserable but is tired of his existence and of the life he has chosen.

When a series of unfortunate incidents forces him and his neighbour, Jan, together, he begins to realise the damage done by the accumulation of a lifetime's secrets and lies and to comprehend his own shortcomings. Finally, Frederick Lothian has the opportunity to build something meaningful for the ones he loves.

Humorous, poignant and galvanising by turns, Extinctions is a novel about all kinds of extinction - natural, racial, national and personal - and what we can do to prevent them.

Members Reviews:

A man analysing his past and realising stuff......dreadfully slowly,

I'm not sure what to say about this book. It is well written and the narrator has a very pleasant voice, but the story goes along like a slow plod through a muddy field lugging a suitcase. I caught myself zoning in and out but when I rewound I realised I hadn't missed anything. I couldn't really like the characters enough to care one way or another about their "angst" and every thing from a broken cup to reminiscing about the death of loved was delivered with the same depth of emotion. I kept listening and waiting for it to step into another gear or for something uplifting to happen but it just didn't.

Very good work Josephine Wilson

The main character starts out as a grumpy and disengaged man, but an honest and straight talking neighbour triggers some frightening realisations and a good attempt to make amends. His is an interesting back story and family dynamic, but now his respectable academic career is a distant memory and his personal short comings are suddenly obvious. There are awkward and funny moments that made me laugh out loud. William McInnes has a beautiful voice and he does old man Frederick brilliantly.

A wonderful read

A beautifully written and insightful book which explores many different issues including ageing and extinction. The characters are so very real and much of what they deal with is very confronting. William McInnes is simply brilliant!

The characters sweep you away...

William McInnes does an amazing job of bringing Josephine's characters to life in all their troubled glory. The story makes you think about your own pending extinction and what the world will remember you for when you are gone. Josephine goes to great lengths to get inside the world of reinforced concrete and William McInnes solidifies the character of a troubled retired engineer. A great listen.

Thoughtful and funny

My husband and I listened to this as we drove across outback Australia. Its a great story about very believable characters. William McInnes is a terrific narrator and plays each character extremely well. The book tackles many difficult topics such as failed parenting, long term marriage, careers pressures and adoption of children.

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Title: The Talk-Funny Girl

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Roland Merullo

Narrator: Em Eldridge

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-24-17

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

In one of the poorest parts of rural New Hampshire, teenage girls have been disappearing, snatched from back country roads, never to be seen alive again. For 17-year-old Marjorie Richards, the fear raised by these abductions is the backdrop to what she lives with in her own home, every day.

Marjorie has been raised by parents so intentionally isolated from normal society that they have developed their own dialect, a kind of mountain hybrid of English that displays both their ignorance of and disdain for the wider world. Marjorie is tormented by her classmates, who call her "The Talk-Funny Girl," but as the nearby factory town sinks deeper into economic ruin and as her parents fall more completely under the influence of a sadistic cult leader, her options for escape dwindle. But then, thanks to a loving aunt, Marjorie is hired by a man, himself a victim of abuse, who is building what he calls "a cathedral", right in the center of town.

Day by day, Marjorie's skills as a stoneworker increase, and so too does her intolerance for the bitter rules of her family life. Gradually, through exposure to the world beyond her parents' wood cabin thanks to the kindness of her aunt and her boss, and an almost superhuman determination, she discovers what is loveable within herself.

Members Reviews:

Sad. Good book. Haunting

Not sad as in depressing, or as in pitiful, but matter of fact some things in life are sad. And most people are good, but it only takes one bad one close to you whose hurt can shake you to the core.

My favorite lines:

âDo you ever think itâs unfair?â Sands asked me.

"You canât ever know what might come later to fair it up.â

The writing is amazing in this book! The author has come up with a dialect that seems to be consistent and effortless, but takes a lot of talent to write/invent.

This is a story of overcoming. I did guess the end, but kept reading to see how the author got there. I recommend it for those who like thoughtful studies on the spectrum of what human beings are capable of...such amazing good, and such horrendous evil.

Interesting, touching, surprising!

I read every novel Roland Merullo writes; I teach 10th grade English and am always on the look-out for novels of quality with adolescent protaagonists. Talk-Funny Girl is well crafted, engaging, and thoroughly worth discussion in any setting. The development of character is good and sustained. The central character uses a distinctive locution that will interest anyone who enjoys thinking about how language works; it's an important part of establishing the character's distance from any culture and touching in its persistence.

Not for me

About halfway through the book I said to myself that I couldn't keep reading it because it was so depressing, but I hate not to finish reading a book once I start. I plowed ahead but was hard to keep going. To be honest I don't even know what decade the story was supposed to have been in. The portrayal of the girls parents were just so dark and evil it was hard to read and the whole story about the man building the cathedral was just a little too far fetched to me.

Felt a lot like a book for young readers

A fan of Merullo's Buddha books, this was a bit predictable. Assuming a young woman's voice narration often felt forced and made the character seem a tad "slow".

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Title: The Kite Runner

Author: Khaled Hosseini

Narrator: Alexey Bagdasarov

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-22-17

Publisher: Dialar Navigator

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Since its publication in 2003, nearly 7 million readers have discovered "The Kite Runner". Through Khaled Hosseini's brilliant writing, a previously unknown part of the world was brought to vivid life for readers. Now, in this beautifully narrated audiobook, Hosseini brings his compelling story to a new generation of readers.

Please note: this audiobook is in Russian.

©2015 Vimbo (P)2016 Vimbo

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Title: Quiet Until the Thaw

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Alexandra Fuller

Narrator: Alma Cuervo

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-27-17

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

The debut novel from the best-selling author of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight and Leaving Before the Rains Come.

Lakota Oglala Sioux Nation, South Dakota. Two Native American cousins, Rick Overlooking Horse and You Choose Watson, though bound by blood and by land, find themselves at odds as they grapple with the implications of their shared heritage. When escalating anger toward the injustices, historical and current, inflicted upon the Lakota people by the federal government leads to tribal divisions and infighting, the cousins go in separate directions: Rick chooses the path of peace; You Choose, violence.

Years pass, and as You Choose serves time in prison, Rick finds himself raising twin baby boys orphaned at birth in his meadow. As the twins mature from infants to young men, Rick immerses the boys in their ancestry, telling wonderful and terrible tales of how the whole world came to be and affirming their place in the universe as the result of all who have come before and will come behind. But when You Choose returns to the reservation after three decades behind bars, his anger manifests, forever disrupting the lives of Rick and the boys.

A complex tale that spans generations and geography, Quiet Until the Thaw conjures the implications of an oppressed history, how we are bound not just to immediate family but to all who have come before and will come after us, and, most of all, to the notion that everything was always, and is always, connected.

Members Reviews:

Read it and weep. And laugh out loud.

Tragic, but often startlingly funny, this heartfelt novel gives a unique perspective on the lives, history and philosophy of a small (but representative) group of native American Indians. I read it, then almost immediately re-read it. It is that good. Alexandra Fuller is an extraordinary writer. The novel is short, but the impact is long-lived.

Absolutely Authentic

Absolutely authentic. Not in any way patronizing. The short sections made it easy to read and then digest. Well written and structured.

A great and poignant story.

The story of contemporary Native American life, on and off the reservation, is one that should be told. Alexandra Fuller tells it in a fresh and unique way. She captures the life. I love the structure and writing.

Prose that cuts to the bone. So touching.

Prose that cuts to the bone. So touching. She must have had a past life as a Native American

Langugage, Culture, Broken Dreams

This book was an impulse choice for me at the book store. I am happy to say it met my hopes!

Alexandra Fuller is a new author to me. I had read the flap information and decided to buy the book based on my interest in Indian life.

Fuller presents minimalist chapters, each one seeming to carry a little plot and a lot of thought. In small snippets she reveals some of the treasured customs of the Lakota Sioux as well as the deadening live on the Rez for modern tribes. She pulls back the covers on the poverty, alcoholism, freezing cold, and joblessness. The use of Indians for Uncle Sam's draft also makes an appearance.

What I liked best were the kernels of wisdom based on Sioux beliefs about time, place, and character. This book (as you can see by the ratings) is definitely not for everyone. I would call it closer to a prose poem than to a novel. It is a book I will definitely read more than once.

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Titel: Zeiten des Aufbruchs (Jahrhundert-Trilogie 2)

Autor:: Carmen Korn

Erzähler: Carmen Korn

Format: Abridged

Spieldauer: 10 hrs and 48 mins

Sprache: Deutsch

Veröffentlichungsdatum: 06-26-17

Herausgeber: Random House Audio, Deutschland

Kategorien: Fiction, Literary

Zusammenfassung des Herausgebers:

Wirtschaftswunder, Cocktailpartys und Rock 'n' Roll - der zweite Teil der "Jahrhundert-Trilogie" um Henny und ihre Freundinnen

Der Zweite Weltkrieg ist vorbei, das Naziregime zerschlagen. Hamburg liegt in Trümmern, und Henny und ihre Familie gehören zu den Ausgebombten, finden jedoch Obdach. Endlich geht es aufwärts: Mit den Fünfziger Jahren beginnen Wirtschaftswunder, Schlager und Rock 'n' Roll. Marike hat zum großen Stolz ihrer Mutter Henny Medizin studiert und erwartet ihr erstes Kind. Lina, die während der Nazizeit ihre Stellung als Lehrerin verlor, gründet eine Buchhandlung. Und Ida hat endlich den Mut, ihr Schicksal selbst in die Hand zu nehmen. Aufbruch überall. Nur wohin die Schreckenszeit Käthe verschlagen hat, wissen die Freundinnen nicht. Hat sie überlebt?

Carmen Korn begeistert mit einer großartigen Autorenlesung.

©2017 Carmen Korn / Kindler (P)2017 Random House Audio

Mitglieder Bewertungen:

I liked the story but not the way of writing' jumping ...

I liked the story but not the way of writing' jumping from very short chapters one to other all the time.

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Titel: Die Vermessung der Welt

Autor:: Daniel Kehlmann

Erzähler: Ulrich Noethen

Format: Unabridged

Spieldauer: 8 hrs and 39 mins

Sprache: Deutsch

Veröffentlichungsdatum: 06-22-17

Herausgeber: Argon Verlag

Bewertung: 4.5 von 5 von 3 Stimmen

Kategorien: Fiction, Literary

Zusammenfassung des Herausgebers:

Gegen Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts machen sich zwei junge Deutsche an die Vermessung der Welt. Der eine, Alexander von Humboldt, kämpft sich durch Urwald und Steppe, befährt den Orinoko, kostet Gifte, zählt Kopfläuse, kriecht in Erdlöcher, besteigt Vulkane und begegnet Seeungeheuern und Menschenfressern. Der andere, der Mathematiker und Astronom Carl Friedrich Gauß, der sein Leben nicht ohne Frauen verbringen kann und doch in der Hochzeitsnacht aus dem Bett springt, um eine Formel zu notieren - er beweist auch im heimischen Göttingen, dass der Raum sich krümmt. Alt, berühmt und ein wenig sonderbar geworden, treffen sich die beiden 1828 in Berlin.

©2005 Rowohlt Verlag GmbH, Reinbek bei Hamburg (P)2017 Argon Verlag GmbH, Berlin

Mitglieder Bewertungen:

A wonderful book

This is an incredibly funny and entertaining book that I enjoyed reading. My American friends read it in English translation and had trouble distinguishing the humor - reading it in German will certainly alleviate that problem though I figure the language is rather demanding for a non-native speaker. People versed in original German literature from that time period will certainly get a kick out the read.

Well-crafted story

An interesting, surprising plot that brings together two very distinct personalities in the German culture. Easy to read, since the style avoids ponderous language.

A bestseller with somewhat tedious dialogues

I ordered this book because it was on the German Bestseller List for some time and is currently being made into a movie. The premise sounds interesting enough - the lives of Alexander Humboldt and Friedrich (?) Gauss intersecting in history. Humboldt was a famous explorer in the Americas, Gauss an equally famous mathematician at home who hated to travel. Both were interested in "measuring the world", as the title suggests.

I don't know enough about history to judge the veracity of the novel, although I believe the two never met in reality. Previous reviews had praised the dialogues as being especially clever. It would have been helpful if the text had used contemporary quotation marks. As it stands, the dialogues become tedious after a while; that might be even more true for a non-native speaker.

I was looking for something like TC Boyle in German

and this seems like a pretty good fit. Funny, intellectual. I haven't read anything else yet by Kehlman, but at least this novel isn't weighted down by endless ruminations about the war, nor does it wrap itself in knots trying to be politically correct. Which I haven't always easily found in modern German literature. If you are a science or history buff, or appreciate German culture, there's a good chance you'll enjoy it.

Wonderful book

I could I t put this book down. Very well written and highly entertaining and somewhat educational! Somewhat forcing my friends to read it as well...

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Title: Small Hours

Author: Jennifer Kitses

Narrator: Tanya Eby, Dan John Miller

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-13-17

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 11 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

In the vein of Richard Russo and Tom Perrotta, a gripping, suspenseful, and gorgeous debut novel - told hour by hour over the course of a single day - in which a husband and wife try to outrun long-buried secrets, sending their lives spiraling into chaos.

Critic Reviews:

"Jennifer Kitses slowly and artfully turns up the flames in her debut novel until Small Hours reaches a raging boil. Tom's and Helen's disparate twenty-four hours, wracked and ruined by a jumble of anxieties and miscues, unravel with the tension of a thriller and the gimlet-eyed observations of a novel of manners." (Teddy Wayne, Whiting Award-winning author of The Love Song of Jonny Valentine and Loner)

"A brave, brilliant debut, written in prose like the edge of a razor blade, about how little it takes for any of our lives to spin out of control - and how we can struggle to put back the pieces. Gripping, haunting - and dare I say it? Life changing." (Caroline Leavitt, New York Times best-selling author of Pictures of You, This Is Tomorrow, and Cruel Beautiful World)

"Well paced, offering heart-pounding tension.... Fans of Matthew Norman, Sarah Dunn, and Emma Straub will enjoy this cautiously optimistic domestic drama full of small kindnesses and deep betrayals." (Booklist)

Members Reviews:

Small but not insignificant hours

Cleverly constructed and a real anxiety producer albeit somewhat predictable. Covers one helluva lot of ground in 24 hours.

Quick and easy read

How could two people be so dysfunctional and still survive? Hard to put the book down until you figure it out. Very well-defined characters. Easy to become totally immersed.

Loved this book

Loved this book. It pulled me in right away and had me as stressed as the characters. Couldn't wait for the outcome.

I could not empathize with either of the main characters

Brief summary and review, no spoilers.

This books tells us about married couple Tom and Helen. They are in their early 40's and have twin 3 year old daughters Sophie and Ilona. They had both lived and worked in New York City but just 5 years earlier they had moved to the countryside to an old house in the hopes of bettering their lives. Unfortunately, they bought their home at the height of the market and the neightbood hasn't quite turned out to be the haven they thought it would be.

Helen works from home via computer, designing visuals for online marketing campaigns. Her job is not what she had hoped for and her boss is always changing and editing her assignments for her. It's frustrating and it also doesn't pay well enough to meet her increasing needs and she finds herself falling behind on daycare and household bills. She is concerned about telling Tom.

Tom still works in midtown New York and commutes by car and train. He works at a newspaper as a science editor but like Helen, he is unhappy with his work and find himself distracted and concerned about his own increasing carelessness and the possibility of his losing this job. We soon enough find out what is so distracting for Tom, and what secret he keeps from Helen.

This story is all told in one day, and there is both an upside and a downside with that. Certainly that makes the story a little different than the average book and that is fun. The problem, is that we never get to really know or empathize with these characters. I found myself feeling very frustrated with them.

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Title: Hold Back the Stars

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Katie Khan

Narrator: Gemma Whelan

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-23-17

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

A startling and evocative novel, harkening to both One Day and Gravity. A man and a woman revisit memories of their love affair on a utopian Earth while they are trapped in the vast void of space with only 90 minutes of oxygen left.

After the catastrophic destruction of the Middle East and the United States, Europe has become a utopia, and every three years the European population must rotate into different multicultural communities, living as individuals responsible for their own actions. While living in this paradise, Max meets Carys and immediately feels a spark of attraction. He quickly realizes, however, that Carys is someone he might want to stay with long-term, which is impossible in this new world.

As their relationship plays out, the connections between their time on Earth and their present dilemma in space become clear. When their air ticks dangerously low, one is offered the chance of salvation - but who will take it?

An original and daring exploration of the impact of first love and how the choices we make can change the fate of everyone around us, this is an unforgettable listen.

Members Reviews:

Worth it in the end(s)

I found myself more interested in the space scenes than in the flashbacks of their courtship, which seemed overly lengthy and got a bit bogged down in the details, but in the end(s) (that ending!), it was worth it and I grew to care for Carys and Max and their plight. Looking forward to the movie adaptation that was recently announced.

Stressful in a good way!

*I kind of sort of(?) got this eArc of this book from Netgalley so thank you to the publisher for this chance! It doesnât change my opinions at all

*I say sort of because itâs already out through one publisher but itâs not out through this one xD)

What I Liked

-From the very beginning Hold Back The Stars was a thrilling, somewhat stressful adventure. It has been quite a while since I felt so strongly about a book as I did for Hold Back The Stars. My heart was pounding, my hands were sweating, I just wanted the main characters to be okay. As the story progressed, my emotions didnât go away, they stayed with me until the very last page. Hold Back The Stars is an emotional adventure that had me stressed out and, at some points, almost in tears.

-I highly enjoyed the story of Hold Back The Stars, it was unlike anything I have ever read in a while (well, I donât often read science fiction for some reason). But the main characters are trapped in a void with only 90 minutes of oxygen? YES, THIS WAS A BOOK I HAD TO READ. And Iâm glad I did. The story skips back and forth from them in space to their lives on Earth. There are questions and mysteries that go unanswered until the very last few pages. And life on Earth is also equally as unique, the people live in one area for a year and change it up so they donât form enemies or relationships until theyâre old enough. Now that was very interesting to me!

What I Didnât Like

-While I did love the story there were some parts that felt slow or unnecessary. I was so bored at some points that I just began skimming. Sometimes their past memories were boring as well. The only consistently interesting part was when they were in space, this is why I only give it a 3/5 instead of a 4/5.

Overall

-Grab some tissues and take a nice hot bath because this book is one stressful (in a good way) and an emotional ride.

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Title: New Boy

Author: Tracy Chevalier

Narrator: Prentice Onayemi

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-16-17

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 21 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Arriving at his fifth school in as many years, diplomat's son Osei Kokote knows he needs an ally if he is to survive his first day - so he's lucky to hit it off with Dee, the most popular girl in school. But one student can't stand to witness this budding relationship: Ian decides to destroy the friendship between the black boy and the golden girl. By the end of the day, the school and its key players - teachers and pupils alike - will never be the same again.

The tragedy of Othello is transposed to a 1970s suburban Washington schoolyard, where kids fall in and out of love with each other before lunchtime and practice a casual racism picked up from their parents and teachers. Peeking over the shoulders of four 11-year-olds - Osei, Dee, Ian, and his reluctant "girlfriend", Mimi - Tracy Chevalier's powerful drama of friends torn apart by jealousy, bullying, and betrayal will leave you reeling.

Members Reviews:

Intimate, Sad, and Beautiful

This book will break your heart. I initially read it for the novelty of one of the greatest tragedies taking place in an elementary school, but found the story incrediblly compelling. The tenderness and intimacy between D and O are spellbinding. The tragedy is alarming, romantic, and deeply sad. This story invigorates an already beautiful tale into something intensely real and present. New Boy is a live play acted on a playground and I'm still reeling.

Sad

The writing is excellent, but the ending is awful. Well, what did I expect? It is Othello. Also it seemed unlikely that a six grader(the villain) would be old enough to be so diabolical and crafty.When I finished, I felt bad for everyone including the narrow minded teachers.

I felt it was a great young adult book

An interesting contribution to the Hogarth series on retelling Shakespeare. I felt it was a great young adult book.

Very good

Very good. It's a very humble writing. Tracy Chevalier proved herself as an excellent writer again by making one Shakespeare plot contemporary for our times.

"Othello" cast with suburban 1974 sixth graders

I had two major problems suspending disbelief about Tracy Chevalierâs updating of âThe Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Veniceâ: (1) that a teacher would assign a girl to the task of cluing in a new boy to a school and (2) that the oversize passions and jealousies of Shakespeareâs play could exist among six graders over the course of one school day. I was assigned the task of familiarizing a boy who transferred into the school in which I moved (eastward) form kindergarten to high school, and canât believe a teacher would ask a girl to do this, though girls know where the boyâs rest rooms are, etc. And that the boy is black (the son of a diplomat in the Ghana Embassy in D.C.) in a heretofore all-white school makes it even harder to believe that Dee (christened Daniela) would be asked to clue in Osei (who suggests calling him âOâ).

(And, within the Hogarth Shakespeare modernization series, I think that Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed is more entertaining and illuminates the original rather than just updating to the present-day it in prose.)

That the whole story is compressed into one school day makes it even more difficult to credit sixth graders with the passions of Othello and Desdemona. The malice of a preteen Iago, herein named Ian, is easier to credit, as is the manipulability of his confederate (Roderigo turned Roger).

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Title: Sycamore

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Bryn Chancellor

Narrator: Cassandra Campbell, Steven Jay Cohen, Sara Morsey, Xe Sands, Teri Schnaubelt

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-09-17

Publisher: Harper Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 59 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

An award-winning writer makes her debut with this mesmerizing must-listen in the spirit of Everything I Never Told You and Olive Kitteridge.

Out for a hike one scorching afternoon in Sycamore, Arizona, a newcomer to town stumbles across what appear to be human remains embedded in the wall of a dry desert ravine. As news of the discovery makes its way around town, Sycamore's longtime residents fear the bones may belong to Jess Winters, the teenage girl who disappeared suddenly some 18 years earlier, an unsolved mystery that has soaked into the porous rock of the town and haunted it ever since. In the days it takes the authorities to make an identification, the residents rekindle stories, rumors, and recollections both painful and poignant as they revisit Jess' troubled history. In resurrecting the past, the people of Sycamore will find clarity, unexpected possibility, and a way forward for their lives.

Skillfully interweaving multiple points of view, Bryn Chancellor knowingly maps the bloodlines of a community and the indelible characters at its heart - most notably Jess Winters, a thoughtful, promising adolescent poised on the threshold of adulthood. Evocative and atmospheric, Sycamore is a coming-of-age story, a mystery, and a moving exploration of the elemental forces that drive human nature - desire, loneliness, grief, love, forgiveness, and hope - as witnessed through the inhabitants of one small Arizona town.

Critic Reviews:

"In this masterful performance, Bryn Chancellor explores the loss around which an entire community has calcified with humanity and wisdom. Chancellor digs deep in these pages, unearthing broken hearts, secrets, betrayals, passion and - most impressively - grace. What a joy to find a book that is both propulsive and perfectly composed." (Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, author of The Nest)

Members Reviews:

Excellent!

This book stands out among the many I listen to every week. Well told and unfolds as a story should - giving each character a full descriptive part. I hope we see more from this author

Complex and thought-provoking

Gripping study of characters and their miscommunications or missed communications. Complex, probing, revealing how easily we can misconstrue a situation and react instead of listening.

Excellent!

Great story, characters and narration!

I enjoyed it tremendously!

LISTEN! You won't be disappointed!

Enjoy,

Moving story, beautifully written

Beautifully written, a character-driven narrative that shifts between 1991 and 2009. The effect of an unsolved disappearance in a small community is told through the POV of several people. It is both heartbreaking and cathartic. A wonderful book.

Good story but too drawn out

This is a good story, but there are so many unnecessary details and characters that it becomes bogged down. After the listener discovers what happened to Jess, the missing teenager, there is still an hour of narrative left. In that time, the lives of the long character list are wrapped up. The performance is great.