
Kings of the Earth
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $21.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
By:
-
Jon Clinch
About this listen
Author of the award-winning novel Finn, Jon Clinch has drawn favorable comparisons to William Faulkner. With Kings of the Earth, he takes listeners to an upstate New York farm where the three Procter brothers live in stasis. When one dies in his sleep, the other two are soon suspected of murder.
©2010 Jon Cinch (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLCListeners also enjoyed...
-
Marley
- By: Jon Clinch
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A masterful reimagining of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol with this darkly entertaining and moving exploration of the twisted relationship between Ebenezer Scrooge and Jacob Marley.
-
-
Marley earned those chains
- By John F. Kaess on 10-11-19
By: Jon Clinch
-
As Good as Gone
- By: Larry Watson
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Calvin Sidey - steely, hardened, with his own personal code - is one of the last cowboys. It's the 1960s, and he's living off the grid in a trailer on the prairie when his adult son, Bill, seeks his help. A mostly absentee father and grandfather, Calvin nevertheless agrees to stay with his grandchildren for a week. He decamps for his son's house in the small town where he once was a mythic figure, and soon enough problems arise: A boy's attentions to 17-year-old Ann are increasingly aggressive, and a group of reckless kids portend danger for 11-year-old Will.
-
-
Enjoyable
- By Tena Crum on 11-29-20
By: Larry Watson
-
The Missing
- By: Tim Gautreaux
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this spellbinder by critically acclaimed author Tim Gautreaux, Sam Simoneaux returns from World War I to rebuild his life. But when a girl is snatched from the New Orleans department store where he's working, he hops aboard a Mississippi steamboat to find her - and dredges up ghosts from his painful past.
-
-
The Missing
- By Michael L. Wintory on 07-11-09
By: Tim Gautreaux
-
Different Seasons
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 20 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Four gripping novellas tied together by the changing of seasons. Hope Springs Eternal - "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption": An unjustly imprisoned convict seeks a strange and startling revenge...the basis for the Best Picture Academy Award nominee The Shawshank Redemption.
-
-
Fantastic!
- By Robert A. Raymond on 02-14-16
By: Stephen King
-
Full Dark, No Stars
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Craig Wasson, Jessica Hecht
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"I believe there is another man inside every man, a stranger...." writes Wilfred Leland James in the early pages of the riveting confession that makes up "1922", the first in this pitch-black quartet of mesmerizing tales from Stephen King. For James, that stranger is awakened when his wife, Arlette, proposes selling off the family homestead and moving to Omaha, setting in motion a gruesome train of murder and madness.
-
-
Eerie, honest, frightening!
- By 9S on 01-15-11
By: Stephen King
-
The Bean Trees
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: C. J. Critt
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she meets the human condition head-on. By the time Taylor arrives in Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired a completely unexpected child, a three-year-old American Indian girl named Turtle, and must somehow come to terms with both motherhood and the necessity of putting down roots.
-
-
Barbara, can we have a "re-do?"
- By Nancy on 02-22-12
-
Marley
- By: Jon Clinch
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A masterful reimagining of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol with this darkly entertaining and moving exploration of the twisted relationship between Ebenezer Scrooge and Jacob Marley.
-
-
Marley earned those chains
- By John F. Kaess on 10-11-19
By: Jon Clinch
-
As Good as Gone
- By: Larry Watson
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Calvin Sidey - steely, hardened, with his own personal code - is one of the last cowboys. It's the 1960s, and he's living off the grid in a trailer on the prairie when his adult son, Bill, seeks his help. A mostly absentee father and grandfather, Calvin nevertheless agrees to stay with his grandchildren for a week. He decamps for his son's house in the small town where he once was a mythic figure, and soon enough problems arise: A boy's attentions to 17-year-old Ann are increasingly aggressive, and a group of reckless kids portend danger for 11-year-old Will.
-
-
Enjoyable
- By Tena Crum on 11-29-20
By: Larry Watson
-
The Missing
- By: Tim Gautreaux
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this spellbinder by critically acclaimed author Tim Gautreaux, Sam Simoneaux returns from World War I to rebuild his life. But when a girl is snatched from the New Orleans department store where he's working, he hops aboard a Mississippi steamboat to find her - and dredges up ghosts from his painful past.
-
-
The Missing
- By Michael L. Wintory on 07-11-09
By: Tim Gautreaux
-
Different Seasons
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 20 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Four gripping novellas tied together by the changing of seasons. Hope Springs Eternal - "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption": An unjustly imprisoned convict seeks a strange and startling revenge...the basis for the Best Picture Academy Award nominee The Shawshank Redemption.
-
-
Fantastic!
- By Robert A. Raymond on 02-14-16
By: Stephen King
-
Full Dark, No Stars
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Craig Wasson, Jessica Hecht
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"I believe there is another man inside every man, a stranger...." writes Wilfred Leland James in the early pages of the riveting confession that makes up "1922", the first in this pitch-black quartet of mesmerizing tales from Stephen King. For James, that stranger is awakened when his wife, Arlette, proposes selling off the family homestead and moving to Omaha, setting in motion a gruesome train of murder and madness.
-
-
Eerie, honest, frightening!
- By 9S on 01-15-11
By: Stephen King
-
The Bean Trees
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: C. J. Critt
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she meets the human condition head-on. By the time Taylor arrives in Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired a completely unexpected child, a three-year-old American Indian girl named Turtle, and must somehow come to terms with both motherhood and the necessity of putting down roots.
-
-
Barbara, can we have a "re-do?"
- By Nancy on 02-22-12
-
The Round House
- A Novel
- By: Louise Erdrich
- Narrated by: Gary Farmer
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface as Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and 13-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared.
-
-
Heavy in My Heart
- By Mel on 01-02-13
By: Louise Erdrich
-
Signals: New and Selected Stories
- By: Tim Gautreaux
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the stunning historical novels The Clearing and The Missing, Tim Gautreaux now ranges freely through contemporary life with 12 new stories and eight from previous collections. Most are set in his beloved Louisiana, many hard by or on the Mississippi River, others in North Carolina, and even in midwinter Minnesota. But generally it's heat, humidity, and bugs that beset his people as they wrestle with affairs of the heart, matters of faith, and the pros and cons of tight-knit communities.
-
-
Perfection! Amazing writer/amazing reader
- By Monique on 01-08-19
By: Tim Gautreaux
-
The Tie That Binds
- By: Kent Haruf
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Colorado, January 1977. Eighty-year-old Edith Goodnough lies in a hospital bed, IV taped to the back of her hand, police officer at her door. She is charged with murder. The clues: a sack of chicken feed slit with a knife, a milky-eyed dog tied outdoors one cold afternoon. The motives: the brutal business of farming and a family code of ethics as unforgiving as the winter prairie itself.
-
-
Sad, No Real Conclusion and Pointless
- By Debbie on 03-28-24
By: Kent Haruf
-
Lake Wobegon Days
- By: Garrison Keillor
- Narrated by: Garrison Keillor
- Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Garrison Keillor is the consummate storyteller, gifted with the rare ability, both in print and in performance, to hold an audience spellbound with his tales of ordinary people whose lives contain extraordinary moments of humor, tenderness, and grace. This exclusive recording of Garrison Keillor reading a carefully edited abridgement of the book also includes a few segments taken from live performances recorded during a fundraising tour for public radio stations in 1985.
-
-
A great shot of Garrison Keillor...
- By MrGee on 08-28-05
By: Garrison Keillor
-
The Prince of Frogtown
- By: Rick Bragg
- Narrated by: Rick Bragg
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rick Bragg closes his circle of family stories with an unforgettable tale about fathers and sons inspired by his own relationship with his 10-year-old stepson.
-
-
This guy can write.
- By colleen on 03-08-14
By: Rick Bragg
-
A Miracle of Catfish
- By: Larry Brown
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 17 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before his untimely death in 2004, Larry Brown was hailed as one of the world's greatest living writers. With A Miracle of Catfish, the unfinished but largely complete novel Brown left behind, listeners can once again savor his eloquent and unique style. This tale of fatherhood, alienation, and loneliness introduces readers to another set of Brown's irresistibly flawed characters.
-
-
Catfish Miracle
- By Doug Hemingway on 12-30-09
By: Larry Brown
-
The End of Vandalism
- By: Tom Drury
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to Grouse County - a fictional Midwest that is at once familiar and amusingly eccentric - where a thief vacuums the church before stealing the chalice, a lonely woman paints her toenails in a drafty farmhouse, and a sleepless man watches his restless bride scatter their bills beneath the stars. At the heart of The End of Vandalism is an unforgettable love triangle set off by a crime: Sheriff Dan Norman arrests Tiny Darling for vandalizing an anti-vandalism dance and then marries the culprit's ex-wife Louise.
-
-
Women do not sound like that.
- By Moana on 04-13-15
By: Tom Drury
-
The Devil All the Time
- By: Donald Ray Pollock
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia, The Devil All the Time follows a cast of compelling and bizarre characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. There’s Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can’t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrificial blood he pours on his “prayer log.”
-
-
A Comedy Blockbuster in Hades
- By Mel on 06-22-13
-
Something Rich and Strange
- Selected Stories
- By: Ron Rash
- Narrated by: Christian Baskous
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one captures the complexities of Appalachia - a rugged, brutal landscape of exquisite beauty - as evocatively and indelibly as author and poet Ron Rash. Winner of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, two O Henry prizes, and a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, Rash brilliantly illuminates the tensions between the traditional and the modern, the old and new south, tenderness and violence, man and nature.
-
-
Exhibit #1
- By W Perry Hall on 11-28-14
By: Ron Rash
-
1922
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Craig Wasson
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The chilling novella featured in Stephen King's New York Times best-selling short story collection Full Dark, No Stars - soon to be a Netflix original film starring Thomas Jane and Molly Parker. A violence awakens inside a man when his wife proposes selling off the family homestead, setting in motion a grisly train of murder and madness.
-
-
Good story; bad narration
- By Patricia King on 01-09-18
By: Stephen King
-
A Good Marriage
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Jessica Hecht
- Length: 3 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What happens when, on a perfectly ordinary evening, all the things you believed in and took for granted are turned upside down? When her husband of more than 20 years is away on one of his business trips, Darcy Anderson looks for batteries in the garage. Her toe knocks up against a box under a worktable and she discovers the stranger inside her husband. It’s a horrifying discovery, rendered with bristling intensity, and it definitively ends a good marriage.
-
-
Buy Full Dark, No Stars
- By Tim on 11-02-14
By: Stephen King
-
All Things Cease to Appear
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth Brundage
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Late one winter afternoon in upstate New York, George Clare comes home to find his wife killed and their three-year-old daughter alone—for how many hours?—in her room across the hall. He had recently, begrudgingly, taken a position at a nearby private college (far too expensive for local kids to attend) teaching art history, and moved his family into a tight-knit, impoverished town that has lately been discovered by wealthy outsiders in search of a rural idyll.
-
-
Waiting for Something to Solidify
- By Mel on 06-04-16
Editorial reviews
The use of multiple voices makes listening to Kings of the Earth, the latest novel by Jon Clinch, a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Narrated by Richard Poe, the book includes characterizations by Andrea Gallo, Ken Marks, George K. Wilson, Alan Nebelthau, T. Rider Smith, Rich Orlow, Ed Sala, and Henry Strozier. It tells of the death of 60-year-old Vernon Procter, eldest brother of a trio of eccentric, middle-aged men, and the subsequent accusation that Vernon had been murdered by his youngest brother, Creed. That the illiterate, foul-smelling men all lived together in squalor on the family farm in upstate New York throws a patina of gritty, undisturbed dust over the story’s setting.
Clinch allows Kings of the Earth to unfold by jumping back and forth in time, with all of the characters adding different dimensions to the story by sharing their various perspectives. This writing style gives ample opportunity for vocal talent to shine. The listener comes to know crusty Vernon (Marks); Audie, the simple-minded middle brother (Wilson); and Creed, a fellow who remained trusting and innocent despite having left the farm once for a short stint in the military (Smith). Donna, the sister who escaped the farm and became a nurse, voices her anxiety and exasperation at the literal filth of her brothers’ existence. The condescending, obnoxious tone of Donna’s son, Tom, is heard as he congratulates himself for his ability to operate his marijuana production right under his “ignorant” uncles’ noses. After vivid descriptions of the brothers’ lack of personal hygiene, listeners will wish that they could jump into the book and give the hapless Creed some much-needed advice as he earnestly talks about preparing to court a local waitress.
The “star” of the story is gruff but caring neighbor Preston Hatch (Strozier). Without pretension, Hatch is the know-it-all who has never entertained the fact that he might not know it all. His need to opine on everything from the stubbornness of mules or what keeps marriages strong to the best places for Sunday dinner give the book many humorous moments. Listeners will eagerly await Preston’s next pearls of wisdom. Those tangential digressions, though, do not distract from Preston’s deeply rooted sincerity for the well being of his simple neighbors and his passionate fury at how the naivete of Creed Procter has been exploited.
In Kings of the Earth, author Jon Clinch weaves a sensitive story of how three brothers living in quiet, albeit dirty, simplicity can be manipulated by the modern world. Narrator Richard Poe then leads the cast of talented actors as they give depth and personality to the book’s small town folks, the lives they chose for themselves, and their confrontation with the grit and grime of reality. Carole Chouinard
Critic reviews
What listeners say about Kings of the Earth
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Carolyn
- 07-17-10
Insightful
Jon Clinch is a master. He, and all who helped adapt this book for an ensemble cast must be commended. The narrators (actors) brought memories of the excellent radio programs of my youth. Words brought to life. I would recommend that before you listen to Kings of the Earth, that you use a search engine to find the story of the Ward Brothers near Syracuse NY. These brothers were the inspiration for Kings of the Earth. Jon Clinch took a real life mystery and transformed it into a first class detective yarn. Congratulations Jon Clinch.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Janet
- 10-06-10
I don't think it's as good as Clinch's "Finn"
BUT it's not QUITE as dark,either.
So, if you like stories with intense character studies in the Faulknerian style,this story will appeal to you since Clinch allows each person -- whether living or dead - to speak for himself. That device makes the audio version especially effective because all the actors are ideally suited for the characters they portray. PS: be sure to Google "Ward Brothers Syracuse New York" before listening. The story is based on fact, and that background information is a great preface.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- shelly rascoe
- 01-06-24
great story
Great story. I am a Northern Ny native and the author has most certainly spent some time here.
Genesee beer took me back for sure.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Denise Ryan
- 09-26-13
Depressing
Clearly I'm no learned critic. I found this story of poverty and filth and death terribly depressing. There were few characters to like and no excellence to be achieved. Lots of plodding through a painful and dreary existence. Ugh. No light at the end of this tunnel.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful