Listen to Best Sellers Audiobooks in Fiction, Literary

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Title: At Play in the Fields of the Lord

Author: Peter Matthiessen

Narrator: Anthony Heald

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 24 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-29-09

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 60 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

In a malarial outpost in the South American rain forest, two misplaced gringos converge and clash. Martin Quarrier has come to convert the fearful and elusive Niaruna Indians to his brand of Christianity. Lewis Moon, a stateless mercenary who is himself part Indian, has come to kill them on the behalf of the local comandante. Out of their struggle Peter Matthiessen has created an electrifying moral thriller, a novel of Conradian richness that explores both the varieties of spiritual experience and the politics of cultural genocide.

©1956 Peter Matthiessen; (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic Reviews:

"Matthiessen has produced, in expertly crafted and sometimes deeply affecting prose, an entertainment full of glittering color, nose-to-nose conflict and heroic gestures." (Washington Post Book World)

"Inventive and extremely well-written...incredibly moving and disturbing...a remarkable performance." - (San Francisco Chronicle)

"Coarse, brutal, and elementally powerful....It revives one's faith in the future of fiction." (Chicago Tribune)

Members Reviews:

Narrator

Very difficult to understand Ruined the book for me. I am disappointed. Refund my point please.

Solid read

I felt the was a bit slow towards the end, but still worth the listen.

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Title: Invisible

Author: Paul Auster

Narrator: Paul Auster

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-27-09

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 163 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

"One of America's greatest novelists" dazzlingly reinvents the coming-of-age story in his most passionate and surprising book to date. Sinuously constructed in four interlocking parts, Paul Auster's 15th novel opens in New York City in the spring of 1967, when 20-year-old Adam Walker, an aspiring poet and student at Columbia University, meets the enigmatic Frenchman Rudolf Born and his silent and seductive girlfriend, Margot. Before long, Walker finds himself caught in a perverse triangle that leads to a sudden, shocking act of violence that will alter the course of his life. Three different narrators tell the story of

Invisible, a novel that travels in time from 1967 to 2007 and moves from Morningside Heights, to the Left Bank of Paris, to a remote island in the Caribbean. It is a book of youthful rage, unbridled sexual hunger, and a relentless quest for justice. With uncompromising insight, Auster takes us into the shadowy borderland between truth and memory, between authorship and identity, to produce a work of unforgettable power that confirms his reputation as "one of America's most spectacularly inventive writers."

©2009 Paul Auster (P)2009 Macmillan Audio

Critic Reviews:

"As soon as you finish Paul Auster's

Invisible, you want to read it again. . . . It is the finest novel Paul Auster has ever written." Clancy Martin, (

The New York Times Book Review)

"Auster has never been better." (

The Seattle Times, Best Books of 2009)

"Occasionally, a novel is so masterful it leaves you breathless. Paul Auster's

Invisible is such a novel." (

The Boston Globe)

Members Reviews:

One of Auster's Best

I am a big fan of Paul Auster and this is one of his best books. It is not quite as dark as some of his other novels and the story is revealed in an intriguing manner. Unlike most novelist, Auster narrates his own book and I really enjoy his deep voice. (In fact after listening to Brooklyn Follies, I read some other books of his and I could hear his voice telling me the story.)

The characters are complex and without giving away the ending, I will say that it ties up enough of the story without seeming to be contrived. I highly recommend this engaging book.

Left me uneasy

Very creative. Despite the flat tone of the author...I forgive him because he is the author, the story moved and kept my interest. At times I found myself having to put it down because it left me so uneasy. Who's a liar, who's telling the truth? Imagined or real, the events are disturbing. I couldn't put it down yet I was happy it was over.

Be willing to suspend your disbelief

I like the author's style of writing, his lively intellect, and his intuition about what his characters are thinking. The subject of this novel, the development, and conclusion of the narrative are all quite puzzling, however, and controversial. How is Walker's incestuous relationship with his sister central to his character or relevant to his conflict with his nemesis, Robert Born? Perhaps his love of women is the product of his early-teen sexual contact with his sister and is central to understanding his protective stance with three other women in the novel. His defense of these women brings him into conflict with Professor Born on several occasions and it is those battles that power the book.

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Title: Letting Go

Author: Philip Roth

Narrator: Luke Daniels

Format: Unabridged

Length: 25 hrs and 3 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-15-09

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 39 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Driven by the desire to live seriously and act generously, Gabe meets an impassable test in the person of Martha Reganhart, a spirited, outspoken, divorced mother of two, a formidable woman who, according to critic James Atlas, is masterfully portrayed with "depth and resonance."

The complex liaison between Gabe and Martha, and Gabe's moral enthusiasm for the trials of others, are at the heart of this ambitious first novel.

Critic Reviews:

"A first novel of awesome maturity." (James Atlas)

"A rich book, full of incident, wry and sad and even in its most desolating scene somehow amusing." (Elizabeth Hardwick, Harper's)

"[Roth] has the finest eye for the details of American life since Sinclair Lewis." (Stanley Edgar Hyman)

Members Reviews:

A Chronicle of Real People Living Real Lives

There's a documentary-like feel to this novel. Everyone feels so real. We see the full range of their lives -- their dreams, desires, compromises, expectations, pettiness. The problem for me was they weren't very interesting. Perhaps when this was written, it was revealing -- people didn't live like they do in a 50s sitcom. Today, though, it's old hat that people have unwholesome desires and sometimes act upon them. The prose is excellent, of course, and the narration, except for the nasally dialogue the narrator uses for one of the children (whichi is incredibly annoying), is good.

Unbearable!

No question about it, Mr Roth attended his English lessons. Excellent vocabulary, but what's the point of any excellency if it is used to dwell in muck. The author just wallows on the worse of human soul. Not even down right evil, just nagging pettiness. I've made it to half the book, and I just can't listen to another line of it. He definitely has gathered a wide range of characters decidedly enjoying their separate miseries, not a trace of "letting go" until now, just hanging on and on and on to their unhappiness until one just has to let go of this book. What's the point of listening to people's whining for another second. First audio book I won't finish.

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Title: A Gate at the Stairs

Author: Lorrie Moore

Narrator: Mia Barron

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-10-09

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 279 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

In her dazzling new novel--her first in more than a decade--Moore turns her eye on the anxiety and disconnection of post-9/11 America, on the insidiousness of racism, the blind-sidedness of war, and the recklessness thrust on others in the name of love. As the United States begins gearing up for war in the Middle East, twenty-year-old Tassie Keltjin has come to a university town as a college student, her brain on fire with Chaucer, Sylvia Plath, Simone de Beauvoir. She takes a part-time job as a nanny, to a mysterious and glamorous couple. As the year unfolds and she is drawn deeper into each of these lives, her own life back home becomes ever more alien to her: her parents are frailer; her brother, aimless and lost in high school, contemplates joining the military. Tassie finds herself becoming more and more the stranger she felt herself to be, and as life and love unravel dramatically, even shockingly, she is forever changed.

©2009 Lorrie Moore; ©2009 BBC Audiobooks America

Editorial Reviews:

Narrator Mia Barron has an ironic tone that keeps her voice grounded, and she plays with the level of anxiety in the voices of the main characters. Tassie goes to work as a babysitter for Sarah Brink, who is about to adopt a baby, and muses during their interview on the Midwestern tic of agreeing by saying "Sounds good!" a phrase so unassuming that it's "mere positive description". Forever accomodating in this way, Tassie allows herself to be drawn into a family drama she's wildly unprepared for. The engine of this drama is Sarah, and Barron's performance makes her voice distinctively high and tight, brittle but controlled. At first, this control seems only a cover for new-mother jitters, but as time goes on we begin to detect something darker beneath.

Life is arbitrary and chaotic in Moore's world, and the inner monologues of her characters are correspondingly thick with puns: accidental, meaningless resonances between words that have no real relationship each other. An overheard conversation at a support group slips from talk about "suffering sweepstakes" to "suffering succotash". How can anyone be sure what they mean when they have to rely on these slippery words? What Tassie learns during this year of college is that in life, as in language, it's easy to find false affinities. If this sounds light, it's not. What's said is complex, and what isn't said has devastating consequences.

Members Reviews:

Great Writing - Not Great Book

Lorrie Moore is a terrific writer of short stories. I found many of the qualities of those stories in this book - funny, ironic, fierce and clear-eyed about people, close observation of social norms, and dead-on dialogue. But this novel didn't work for me. It hung on plot devices and characters' backstories that were unbelievable - and not in an intentional absurdist way - just out there. The connection to 9/11 seemed very thin, and most of the characters felt underdeveloped over the length of the book - keenly portrayed for a few scenes but not with much depth. Still, I kept thinking wow can Lorrie Moore write! Sometimes sad, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. Narration was well-suited to the main character's voice. Looking forward to more short story masterpieces from Moore.

not believable

Tassie reminds me of a kid who, after going strong for hours straight, comes in for dinner.

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Title: That Old Cape Magic

Author: Richard Russo

Narrator: Arthur Morey

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-04-09

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 322 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

The storytelling is flawless throughout, moments of great comedy and even hilarity alternating with others of rueful understanding and heart-stopping sadness, and its ending is at once surprising, uplifting and unlike anything this Pulitzer Prize winner has ever written.

Members Reviews:

What you buy Russo books for....

Richard Russo fans think about his books like Yogi Berra thinks about pizza. You don't buy Russo for the drama, the sex & violence, or the crisp pace. You get them for the character development, the subtlety, and the insight into life. All of those are abundantly present in "Cape Magic". The characters aren't quite as colorful as those in "Nobody's Fool", but they are consistent with the setting of the novel. This book is probably more like "Straight Man", but there is certainly nothing wrong with that. Although the characters weren't as fully developed as in his earlier novels, I found the fast forward time skips interesting. By explaining the death of the protagonist's mother in retrospect following the hiatus, Russo leaves room for the reader to sort out the impact. Overall, it was somewhat different from Russo's earlier works, but still excellent.

Instantly-recognizable Richard Russo book

I really like Richard Russo and, while this book is not as good as "Nobody's Fool" or "Empire Falls", it's recognizably Russo and very satisfying.

Russo takes a long time to develop his characters - that's part of his style and charm. If you're not willing to be patient and let the story unfold, then you probably won't like this book (or any of his other ones).

That said, this book struck me almost like "Russo Abridged". There were some time and character jumps that, in previous books, would have been explored in much more detail. The other books were all at least twice as long, and the difference shows.

Even without the normal depth of character development, I liked these characters, cared what happened to them, and didn't want the book to end.

While it's not the best Russo book ever, I found it enjoyable and extremely easy to slip back into Russo's world and way of writing. Also, it's narrated well, which always helps. I recommend it, particularly if you've read and enjoyed any of his other books.

Entertaining

Perhaps not one of Richard Russo's best, but fun to read nonetheless. If you know and love Cape Cod, you may experience an added layer of enjoyment.

In The Middle

I absolutely loved Nobody's Fool and was very dissappointed with The Straight Man. This was in the middle of those two. I appreciate Russo's tales for his male perspective. The story is still interesting to me, as a woman, as I can relate to many (not all) of the family, growing up quirks he describes. Families and marriages are never very simple and neither is this story.

Guess ya gotta be a Russo fan...

How anyone, who is a fan, does not like this book makes my eyes cross. This book has more humor than I found in any of the other books. And I "read" them all. If you are considering this and are a fan, my money is on the fact that you will enjoy it! I sure did!!

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Title: Everything Matters!

Author: Ron Currie

Narrator: Abby Craden, Hillary Huber, Mark Deakins, Lincoln Hoppe, Arthur Morey, Doug Wert

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-25-09

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 204 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

In infancy, Junior Thibodeaux is encoded with a prophecy: a comet will obliterate life on Earth in 36 years. Alone in this knowledge, he comes of age in rural Maine grappling with the question, "Does anything I do matter?"

While the voice that has accompanied him since conception appraises his choices, Junior's loved ones emerge with parallel stories - his anxious mother; his brother, a cocaine addict turned pro-baseball phenomenon; his exalted father, whose own mortality summons Junior's best and worst instincts; and Amy, the love of Junior's life and a North Star to his journey through romance and heartbreak, drug-addled despair, and superheroic feats that could save humanity.

While our recognizable world is transformed into a bizarre nation at endgame, where government agents conspire in subterranean bunkers, preparing citizens for emigration from a doomed planet, Junior's final triumph confounds all expectation, building to an astonishing and deeply moving resolution.

Ron Currie, Jr., gets to the heart of character, and the voices who narrate this uniquely American tour de force leave an indelible, exhilarating impression.

Editorial Reviews:

Everything Matters! tidily places Ron Currie, Jr. among the most talented and creative new American novelists. In his first novel since the story collection God Is Dead, Currie reveals a style not unlike Vonnegut dry, but deadly funny, irreverent, and wholly meaningful. The storytelling is delicately but deliberately choppy, filled with impending dread and lingering hope. In utero, Junior Thibodeaux learns of a catastrophic, world-ending event some 30 years in his future. A voice explains the inevitability of the event, and Junior is born with the crippling knowledge of the impending doom he and everyone he'll grow to love will face. The voice is never explained it could be a group of all-knowing beings (the voice refers to "we") or it could be the author himself, but it remains ever-present in Junior's life.

This mysterious voice reveals important and otherwise unknowable details about the world to Junior, and becomes an established character, however vague and unknowable. Spoken with authority by Mark Deakins, the voice can be likened to that of a gently persistent psychiatrist. It reveals almost no opinion about Junior's choices. In neutral tones, Deakins lends the voice a feeling of all-knowing and all-seeing non-participation it does not step in to prevent or spark any decision by Junior. At the same time, the soft, steady narration includes subtleties of inflection that color the listener's perception. When Junior partakes in some dangerous activity, Deakins sounds almost imperceptibly disappointed and even a little concerned. This act of subtlety injects compassion and calm to what could have been a very cold, omnipresent voice.

Throughout the timeline of the novel, Currie pops in and out of the first person narratives of Junior, his parents, his girlfriend, and his brother, performed by several talented actors. These include Lincoln Hoppe (Junior), Hillary Huber (Junior's girlfriend Amy), Abby Craden (Junior's mother), Arthur Morey (Junior's father), and Doug Wert (Junior's brother Ron). Each narrator brings a unique voice perfectly matched to Currie's nonchalant, matter-of-fact tone.

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Title: Paradise

Author: Toni Morrison

Narrator: Toni Morrison

Format: Abridged

Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-01-09

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 90 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

In Paradise, Toni Morrison gives us a bravura performance. As the book begins deep in Oklahoma early one morning in 1976, nine men from Ruby (pop. 360), in defense of "the one all-black town worth the pain", assault the nearby Convent and the women in it. From the town's ancestral origins in 1890 to the fateful day of the assault, Paradise tells the story of a people ever mindful of the relationship between their spectacular history and a void "Out There...where random and organized evil erupted when and where it chose."

Richly imagined and elegantly composed, Paradise weaves a powerful mystery.

Critic Reviews:

"Paradise is Toni Morrison's first novel since she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, and it is possibly her best work of fiction to date. Morrison is an extraordinary novelist." (The New York Times Book Review)

"It is a fascinating story, wonderfully detailed by Morrison's shrewd and vivid portraits of Ruby's citizens and forebears....Her town is the stage for a profound and provocative debate - always personified and always searching - about black identity and destiny in America's past and present." (The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review)

Members Reviews:

Interestingly Bizarre

I read Paradise with my book club. Many had a difficult times making sense of it. I had to listen twice myself. There are a lot characters and it is difficult to keep up with who is who. Over all it was an interestingly bizarre story that introduces you to the strangest group of people. Morrison did make me curious about all these troubled people but it disappointed me by ending so with many unanswered questions.

Grandma Morrison reading at Bedtime

Morrison reading her own words gives deeper depth to the story. The attitudes of each character come forth from her deliberate cadence. It's so worth the 25 bucks.

Abridged...

For some reason or another Morrison does not want to read all that she has written. It makes it difficult to follow along with the text, as she skips paragraphs at a time. The confusing thing is if she did not like these lines why write them?

Waste of money

Same version of book so I was planning on reading it and listening at same time but the audio is different from the book

Where to start

Would you try another book from Toni Morrison and/or Toni Morrison?

I was very disappointed in the reading of this book, she does not go word for word and even skips paragraphs and pages of the detailed information which made this EXTREMMELY HARD TO FOLLOW, AS if this story was not hard enough to catch on to. Needless to say I made it half way through and gave up entirely, not even curious how it ends because the end is in the 1st sentence. She seems brilliant as I heard her speak in an interview apparently she was simply a bit over my head.

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Title: The Blind Assassin

Author: Margaret Atwood

Narrator: Lorelei King

Format: Unabridged

Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-19-09

Publisher: Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 66 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Man Booker Prize, Fiction, 2000

Even now, at the age of 82, Iris lives in the shadow cast by her younger sister, Laura. Now poor and trying to cope with a failing body, Iris reflects on her far-from-exemplary life, in particular the events surrounding her sister's tragic death.

Members Reviews:

Loved it

Oh I loved this story, didn't totally understand it after the end at the first read, so downloaded the study notes and listened to it again and it made more sense. Thank goodness for Audible, I don't have time to sit and read a book. Margaret Atwood is amazing.

My first Atwood

I loved it. The narration is spectacular. The story can be a bit long but every chapter has something for you to look forward to in the next chapter. This is the first time I have consumed any book by Atwood and I loved it. I love myself for pursuing through it. :)

Blinded by boredom

I am astonished that this book was published, utterly gob smacked that it won the Booker. It is badly written, has a plot as thin as a pancake, a "twist" that is hilariously predictable and a feeling of boredom that pervades both the narration of the protagonist and the mind of the reader. There are many books where there is a slight plot, but there is usually great writing that compensates for this. The Blind Assassin has neither.

Compelling

A glorious book full of intrigue, secrets and the frailties of human relationships. The book was a litle difficult to get into but once the listener understands the elements of moving back and forth in time, it becomes unputdownable! At times the story seemed surreal reminding me of stories by Michael Cox another great novelist. The sister Laura is clearly much confused by her mothers untimely death which to all intents and purposes does much to shape her life during her teens and later years. Iris the main character hovers between timidness and strength in her unhappy and unfulfilled life and secretly harbours such anger against those who have become her intimate family.

The characters were well defined and believable and the story as a whole never became tedious or drawn-out.

Brilliant with a satisfactory ending!

Beautifully brutal

The secrets and lies behind a families story. A novel within a novel. This book with more layers than puff pastry slowly invites you to delve into what is inside. The ways in which sisters can love and hurt and what we choose to see or not to see in order to survive.

A few coincidences create a slight air of disbelief in what is otherwise an engaging and astonishingly descriptive book. Set against a backdrop of the wars that would make Canada a nation, it also provides great historical insight into a countries development alongside individual tragedy.

The perfectly pitched performance made it a pleasurable if uncomfortable listen.

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Title: Telex from Cuba

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Rachel Kushner

Narrator: Lloyd James

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-03-08

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 190 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

For half a century, Americans controlled Cuba's sugar and nickel operations---the country's two most lucrative exports. Between the United Fruit Company's 300,000-acre plantation and the nearby Nicaro nickel mines, Americans tended their own fiefdom in Cuba's Oriente Province. Everly Lederer and K. C. Stites come of age in this world. Each has a keen eye for the indulgences and betrayals of the grown-ups around them. Meanwhile, in faraway Havana, a cabaret dancer and a French agitator with a shameful past become enmeshed in the brewing political underground. When Fidel and Raúl Castro lead a revolt from the mountains just above the Americans' privileged enclave, torching sugarcane fields and recruiting rebels, K. C. and Everly begin to discover the complexities of class and race and the barely disguised brutality that keeps the colony humming. If their parents seem blissfully untouched by the forces of history, the children hear the whispers of what's to come, as Kushner deftly merges the rural and urban dramas.

At the time, urgent news was conveyed by telex. Kushner's first novel is a tour de force, haunting and compelling, with the urgency of a telex from a forgotten time and place.

Editorial Reviews:

We may be 50 years past the Cuban revolution, but Rachel Kushner's debut novel, Telex from Cuba, weaves the tale of the years preceding the event with such warmth and urgency, that this forgotten time seems the most present thing in the world. Kushner writes from what she knowsand good thing for us. A trained journalist and editor whose American mother grew up in imperialist Cuba of the 1950s, she combines meticulous historic research with a rich world of fictional characters that brings those details to life. It's a multi-perspective narrative, told mostly through the eyes of two children of the American ruling class, K.C. Stites and Everly Letterer, who see the inherent racism (though they don't yet know that's what it is) in their daily lives and the foreshadowing of a revolution that their parents cannotor will notacknowledge. Adding to the chorus are a burlesque dancer in Havana mysteriously connected to the revolution, a French arms dealer, and even the Castro brothers make a cameo.

The book truly comes to life as narrated by Lloyd James, a veteran of more than 400 audiobooks. James uses his even, soothing baritone to create a sense of momentum and suspenseno small feat in a novel written mostly in third person description, with bits of dialogue few and far between. Pauses, both subtle and pronounced, accomplish the significance. "He liked the diaphanous allure of fishnets. They were"pause"an enticement in the guise of a barrier," he reads during the first meeting of the arms dealer and the burlesque dancer. When there is dialogue, James alters his tone, making clear what the author intends that character to represent (strength, stupidity, tragedy). With many characters narrating and few ways to distinguish them through dialogue, Telex can be a bit challenging to follow, but for those who do, there's a real pay-off: The colorful imagery and masterful analogies Kushner sprinkles liberally throughout her tale recreate a historical time with a love and understanding, for both sides, rarely seen. Kelly Marages

Critic Reviews:

"A riveting drama....

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Title: Birdy

Author: William Wharton

Narrator: Jim Colby, James Yaegashi

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-10-08

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 20 votes

Genres: Fiction, Literary

Publisher's Summary:

Growing up, Birdy dreams of flying like a bird and shares these fantasies with his best friend, Al. Years later, World War II sends both men to hospitals - Al for physical wounds and Birdy for psychological trauma. When Birdy falls into a catatonic state, it is Al who tries to pull him out.

Critic Reviews:

"A writer's triumph and a reader's delight." (Toni Morrison)

Members Reviews:

I really enjoyed this. I first was exposed to the movie ...

I really enjoyed this. I first was exposed to the movie which captured the books essence. It's set to different time periods but still is true in so many ways. Truly loved it!

Birdy and Al: best friends

Birdy a skinny kid obsessed with birds and flying, and his muscled atheletic friend intrested in girls are an unlikely pair, yet they spent much time together growing up having interesting experiences as boys. They keep pigeons for a while then Birdy becomes obsessed with canaries. He builds an avariy and breeds canaries. He spends hours watching them wishing he could fly, could be a bird himself. He falls in love with a female canary, Perta, and nightly dreams that he is a canary and is Perta's mate. They raise a dream family.

Birdy and Al join the army in world war II. Birdy ends up in a mental ward, catonic and acting like a bird. Al is badly injured and is sent back to the States for operations and plastic surgery. Al visits Birdy in the mental ward and talks to him eventually bringing him out of his catatonic-birdlike state. They both have discovered things about themselves they don't like to face, but they talk things out and help each other to face the their futures.

There are discriptions of horrible combat which have a viceral impact on the reader. Why must mankind throw their young men in front of cannons, mines, machine guns, sharpnel? It is horrible.

A facinating readable book.

A wonderfully schizoid story of two friends (complete opposites) that are ...

A wonderfully schizoid story of two friends (complete opposites) that are bound together by inquisitive spirits as children and existentialist meltdowns as adults. It's very touching. There are also (I thought) emotional parallels between this story and Slaughterhouse Five.

Fast!

I was so surprised at how quickly I received my book 'Birdy'. It was an older one, in pretty good condition according to the seller .. I was very pleased with the condition as it had never even been opened from what I see .. an older book, but as 'new' as it was the day it was originally purchased! Very nice surprise!

Weird and fascinating

This book is so weird, and completely fascinating. Wonderful perspective into the life of birds, and people.