Preview

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Barn 8

By: Deb Olin Unferth
Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $17.19

Buy for $17.19

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

An unforgettably exuberant and potent novel by a writer at the height of her powers

Two auditors for the US egg industry go rogue and conceive a plot to steal a million chickens in the middle of the night - an entire egg farm's worth of animals. Janey and Cleveland - a spirited former runaway and the officious head of audits - assemble a precarious, quarrelsome team and descend on the farm on a dark spring evening. A series of catastrophes ensues.

Deb Olin Unferth's wildly inventive novel is a heist story of a very unusual sort. Swirling with a rich array of voices, Barn 8 takes listeners into the minds of these renegades: a farmer's daughter, a former director of undercover investigations, hundreds of activists, a forest ranger who suddenly comes upon 40,000 hens, and a security guard who is left on an empty farm for years. There are glimpses 20,000 years into the future to see what chickens might evolve into on our contaminated planet. We hear what hens think happens when they die. In the end the cracked hearts of these indelible characters, their earnest efforts to heal themselves, and their radical actions will lead them to ruin or revelation.

Funny, whimsical, philosophical, and heartbreaking, Barn 8 ultimately asks: What constitutes meaningful action in a world so in need of change? Unferth comes at this question with striking ingenuity, razor-sharp wit, and ferocious passion. Barn 8 is a rare comic-political drama, a tour de force for our time.

©2020 Deb Olin Unferth (P)2020 Recorded Books
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about Barn 8

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    12
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    10
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    15
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    9
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Can I eat eggs while I listen?

I downloaded this because of the Buzzfeed Bookclub, and was pleasantly surprised! The narration was great, and the story was compelling. I laughed. I cried twice. I do wish we had more detail in the last part of the book because it felt a bit rushed, but overall I really enjoyed it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

meh

I downloaded this based on NPR's book concierge recommendation which perhaps erroneously categorised it as "funny stuff". If you are the kind of person who reads the word 'chicken' and giggles for a half hour, perhaps under the influence of one too many THC gummies,... maybe so, but for the rest of us I think their categorization did the book a bit of a disservice. There are no unenhanced giggles to be had.

Good writing but a bit dystopian with characters that are hard to like. I did certainly learn a lot about chickens and modern agriculture. Would recommend for ... chicken enthusiasts? maybe a bit of a niche audiance

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!