Absolution
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Jesse Vilinsky
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Rachel Kenney
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By:
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Alice McDermott
About this listen
"A breath of fresh air."—BookPage
"Both narrators bring deep emotional tonality...this exceptional listen will foster deep book club discussions."—Booklist
"Alternately gripping, moving, and thought-provoking...this is an audiobook to savor."—AudioFile
A riveting account of women’s lives on the margins of the Vietnam War, from the renowned winner of the National Book Award.
You have no idea what it was like. For us. The women, I mean. The wives.
American women—American wives—have been mostly minor characters in the literature of the Vietnam War, but in Absolution they take center stage. Tricia is a shy newlywed, married to a rising attorney on loan to navy intelligence. Charlene is a practiced corporate spouse and mother of three, a beauty and a bully. In Saigon in 1963, the two women form a wary alliance as they balance the era’s mandate to be “helpmeets” to their ambitious husbands with their own, inchoate impulse to “do good” for the people of Vietnam.
Sixty years later, Charlene’s daughter, spurred by an encounter with an aging Vietnam vet, reaches out to Tricia. Together, they look back at their time in Saigon, taking wry account of that pivotal year and of Charlene’s altruistic machinations, and discovering as they do how their own lives as women on the periphery—of politics, of history, of war, of their husbands’ convictions—have been shaped and burdened by the same sort of unintended consequences that followed America’s tragic interference in Southeast Asia.
A virtuosic new novel from Alice McDermott, one of our most observant, most affecting writers—about folly and grace, obligation, sacrifice, and, finally, the quest for absolution in a broken world.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
©2023 Alice McDermott (P)2023 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
2023 Vogue Magazine Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2023 Amazon.com Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2023 Esquire Magazine Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2024 Missouri Mark Twain Award, Winner
2023 Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year, Long-listed
2023 NPR Best Book of the Year, Long-listed
2023 Time Magazine Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2024 PEN/Faulkner Award - Nominee, Short-listed
2024 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature, Short-listed
2023 Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2023 Oprah.com Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2023 Los Angeles Times Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
"Rachel Kenney and Jesse Vilinsky each deliver spellbinding interpretations of Alice McDermott's superb new novel.... Kenney performs the remarkable feat of personifying the young Tricia and her wry older self, fierce Charlene, and many local Vietnamese and GIs. Vilinsky, as Charlene's daughter, Rainey, creates an invaluable vocal throughline for the characters while crafting a believable adult child tussling with the legacy of a complicated parent. Alternately gripping, moving, and thought-provoking, this is an audiobook to savor." (AudioFile; winner of AudioFile Earphones Award)
"Damning and dazzling, this is the story of a Vietnam we never got in history class—a story of innocence lost, the bounds of womanhood tested, and our nation held to account."—Charley Burlock, Oprah Daily
"For more than 40 years, McDermott’s deep understanding of human nature and wizardry in creating characters has been the seedbed of one bestselling, award-winning novel after another. Now she has outdone herself with an exquisitely conceived and executed novel that explores her signature topic, moral obligation, against the backdrop of the fraught time preceding the Vietnam War . . . This transporting, piercing, profound novel is McDermott’s masterpiece."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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- By Morgan Meaux on 08-22-24
By: Freida McFadden
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Holiday Hideaway
- A Short Story
- By: Mary Kay Andrews
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky
- Length: 1 hr and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Tilly Farriday isn’t feeling very jolly this season. Recently divorced and broke, she’s squatting in one of her rental agency’s properties until her new home is ready. The sprinkles on top of the burnt Christmas cookie that is her life? The new owner shows up early, forcing Tilly to hide in the attic to save her job…and what remains of her dignity.
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I ain’t afraid of no ghosts
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 10-31-24
By: Mary Kay Andrews
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The Art of War
- By: Sun Tzu
- Narrated by: Aidan Gillen
- Length: 1 hr and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The 13 chapters of The Art of War, each devoted to one aspect of warfare, were compiled by the high-ranking Chinese military general, strategist, and philosopher Sun-Tzu. In spite of its battlefield specificity, The Art of War has found new life in the modern age, with leaders in fields as wide and far-reaching as world politics, human psychology, and corporate strategy finding valuable insight in its timeworn words.
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The actual book The Art of War, not a commentary
- By Fred271 on 12-31-19
By: Sun Tzu
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Mr. and Mrs. Christmas
- By: Michelle Stimpson
- Narrated by: Marcella Cox, Ian Hackney
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Original Recording
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There's no place like home for the holidays ... especially for Lesley Carver. Life in the big city just wasn't her jam and now she's back in Hickory Falls, working at the family diner and helping her mom after she took a tumble. Lesley longs to build a life here, working at the cafe, selling her handmade ornaments and ... er, apparently reviving her high school crush on her best friend’s older brother. Only one problem, her mom wants her to leave Hickory Falls far behind.
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Loved the book!
- By Amazon Customer on 11-15-24
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Technically Speaking
- By: Michael Elliot
- Narrated by: Coco Jones, Keith Powers, Queen Latifah, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 50 mins
- Original Recording
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Oakland-bred LaVeesha “Vee” Gilliam (Coco Jones) is a determined single mother of an autistic son and a gifted aspiring coder. When Vee loses her job as a food-services worker at the onsite restaurant at Grapengine, a large Silicon Valley tech company, she’s unable to pay for her son’s much-needed specialized education. By a twist of fate, mistaken identity, and her tech skills, Vee meets Troy Wilson (Keith Powers), the company’s wealthy founder and CEO and a wunderkind in the tech industry, who believes that Vee is a college-educated techie who works at his company.
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Overdue Diverse Representation in Tech!
- By Jatai Pollock on 09-26-24
By: Michael Elliot
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Ghost Stories: Stephen Fry's Definitive Collection
- By: Stephen Fry, Washington Irving, M.R. James, and others
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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As the days grow shorter and the temperature drops, Halloween approaches. Come, brave listener, pull up a chair, and spend some time with master storyteller Stephen Fry as he tells us some of his favourite ghost stories of all time, in truly terrifying spatial audio. From the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow to the tortured spirits of M.R. James, from Edgar Allan Poe’s terrifying tale of a doppelganger to Charlotte Riddell’s Open Door that should definitely stay shut, join Stephen as he tells you some truly terrifying tales.
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Wonderful narration. Mediocre stories.
- By Michael Fuchs on 11-07-23
By: Stephen Fry, and others
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Fahrenheit 451
- By: Ray Bradbury
- Narrated by: Tim Robbins
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television "family."
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Wish I Hadn't Cliff Noted This in High School
- By Joel on 03-27-17
By: Ray Bradbury
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Brain Damage
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Megan Tusing
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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As Charly struggles to recover from her brain injury, she begins to realize that the events of that fateful night are trapped in the damaged right side of her brain. Now, she must put the jigsaw pieces together to discover the identity of the man who tried to kill her...before he finishes the job he started.
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Who Else Laughed, Cried, and Shuddered?
- By Jennifer Chichester on 09-16-22
By: Freida McFadden
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Starship Troopers
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Johnnie Rico never really intended to join up—and definitely not the infantry. But now that he’s in the thick of it, trying to get through combat training harder than anything he could have imagined, he knows everyone in his unit is one bad move away from buying the farm in the interstellar war the Terran Federation is waging against the Arachnids. Because everyone in the Mobile Infantry fights. And if the training doesn’t kill you, the Bugs are more than ready to finish the job.
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The definitive version!
- By Kristopher G. Hesson on 10-03-24
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Slayers: A Buffyverse Story
- By: Christopher Golden, Amber Benson
- Narrated by: Amber Benson, Charisma Carpenter, James Charles Leary, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall
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Performance
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Original cast members from the beloved TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, reunite for an all-new adventure about connections that never die—even if you bury them. A decade has passed since the epic final battle that concluded Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV). The game-changing spell that gave power to all potential Slayers persists. With new Slayers constantly emerging, things are looking grim for the bad guys.
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A dream come true
- By Anonymous User on 10-12-23
By: Christopher Golden, and others
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Well that was depressing
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tedious boring trite
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Refreshing....
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Small World
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Falls Short of an Ambitious Story
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Sophomores
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It's fall 1987, and life as normal is ending for the Malone family. With their sterile Dallas community a far cry from the Irish-American Bronx of their youth, Pat and Anne Malone have reached a breaking point. Pat, faced with a debilitating MS diagnosis, has fallen into his drinking. Anne, his devoutly Catholic wife, is selected as a juror for a highly publicized attempted murder trial, one that raises questions - about God, and about men in power - she has buried her entire life. Together, they try to raise their only son, Daniel.
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Welcome back to ‘87
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What listeners say about Absolution
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Karen Lausa
- 12-13-23
The narration was brilliant…totally engrossing and beautifully spoken
Loved EVERY minute. Never wanted this audiobook to end. An unforgettable story, I cannot recommend this format for McDermott’s stunning novel, enough.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Pearl
- 03-07-24
Saigon in the early 60’s
I was a child in Saigon during this time. I was one of those attending the movie that was bombed by the VC. My father was briefly chief of the Saigon CIA station after Richardson was dismissed. Henry Cabot Lodge was ambassador. Robert Mc Namera was at our house when Lodge won the New Hampshire primary. Mc Namara and McCone, CIA director, phoned Lodge from our house (right next door to Lodge) to congratulate him. They all thought it was hilarious. Dad was on the Taylor mission and told Kennedy our presence there was a mistake. I don’t think many women had their rooms prepared for afternoon naps or wore stunning clothes.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Claudia Addison
- 02-18-24
The skill of the author
This was an interesting story that gave a look into characters and tried to figure out what motivated them during the years in the early 1960s. Listen intently so you do not miss any of the important facts.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Margot
- 12-21-23
McDermott’s pitch perfect writing
What I liked most were the deeply explored thoughts & emotions of Tricia & Rainey. What an unforgettable character McDermott created in Charlene. The others, like Lily & Dominic, were expertly drawn, too, as were the descriptions of Vietnam’s climate & places. Absolution is a captivating winner.
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3 people found this helpful
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- mom10
- 01-14-24
Seemed thin, superficial in some ways, unfocused
I usually thoroughly enjoy the many books I’ve listened to here. This reader was a problem to my ears from the beginning… too glib and kind of knowing in her tone. As things got more serious, the glibness disappeared, but I had a hard time really connecting with the narrator/main character. Which brings me to the story, a story that never really got off the ground. Was this about a false friend, a woman’s quest to find her own voice and her own mind, a glimpse inside the corruption of our govt (no surprise!) and the mercenary ambitions of all involved in the Vietnam War, a story about men and women’s roles in mid 20th century, or what?? It could be all those and presumably become a novel of great depth, but this isn’t it! Finished as it’s for my book club, but I really didn’t enjoy it, I’m sorry to say.
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2 people found this helpful
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- :)
- 03-10-24
Had a hard time getting into this book :(
I was bothered by the narrator for the first half of the book. Chapter 1 that lasted forever. I liked the narrator for chapter II and by chapter III I guess I was used to her style of narrating .
I felt parts were dragged out and how it ended with Lily was just ehhhh
Sorry but disappointed in this book yet glad to get the tiniest bit of an insight to these women’s experiences.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Tina
- 02-08-24
The point of view of the narrator.
A frank description of some of the American civilians who live in Saigon in the Vietnam during the 1960s
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1 person found this helpful
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- Elise
- 04-13-24
It’s ok…
This is a ridiculous thing to hang on but the narrator’s jumping indiscriminately back and forth between pronouncing “Charlene” and “Chalene” was so distracting as Charlene was a main character. I mean… was there a director on this project? The story was fine, but I don’t think it will stick with me.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Gail
- 11-20-23
Fascinating story about a time not usually written about.
Having lived through the early 60s and remembering them vividly I appreciate Alice McDermott’s portrayal of the role of women, the US involvement in Viet Nam, our obsession with the Kennedys, and our lack of knowledge at the time in so many medical areas. As usual she has a thorough knowledge of the Irish Catholic family and the readers learn so much about that from her.
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- Deborah ddubord
- 11-14-23
Untold
Enjoyed being told from a wife’s perspective about the importance of being able to have opportunities to help be helpful and all the questioning that comes with it.
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