Leading Men
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
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $20.25
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Edoardo Ballerini
About this listen
"Blazing...casts a spell right from the start." (Dwight Garner, The New York Times)
"A timeless and heartbreaking love story." (Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere)
"An extraordinary book." (Lauren Groff, author of Florida)
Illuminating one of the great love stories of the 20th century - Tennessee Williams and his longtime partner Frank Merlo - Leading Men is a glittering novel of desire and ambition, set against the glamorous literary circles of 1950s Italy.
In July of 1953, at a glittering party thrown by Truman Capote in Portofino, Italy, Tennessee Williams and his longtime lover, Frank Merlo, meet Anja Blomgren, a mysteriously taciturn young Swedish beauty and aspiring actress. Their encounter will go on to alter all of their lives.
Ten years later, Frank revisits the tempestuous events of that fateful summer from his deathbed in Manhattan, where he waits anxiously for Tennessee to visit him one final time. Anja, now legendary film icon Anja Bloom, lives as a recluse in the present-day US, until a young man connected to the events of 1953 lures her reluctantly back into the spotlight after he discovers she possesses the only surviving copy of Williams's final play.
What keeps two people together and what breaks them apart? Can we save someone else if we can't save ourselves? Like The Master and The Hours, Leading Men seamlessly weaves fact and fiction to navigate the tensions between public figures and their private lives. In an ultimately heartbreaking story about the burdens of fame and the complex negotiations of life in the shadows of greatness, Castellani creates an unforgettable leading lady in Anja Bloom and reveals the hidden machinery of one of the great literary love stories of the 20th-century.
©2019 Christopher Castellani (P)2019 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Playing the Palace
- By: Paul Rudnick
- Narrated by: Michael Urie
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After having his heart trampled on by his cheating ex, Carter Ogden is afraid love just isn’t in the cards for him. He still holds out hope in a tiny corner of his heart, but even in his wildest dreams he never thought he’d meet the Crown Prince of England, much less do a lot more with him. Yes, growing up he’d fantasized about the handsome, openly gay Prince Edgar, but who hadn’t? When they meet by chance at an event Carter’s boss is organizing, Carter’s sure he imagined all that sizzling chemistry. Or was it mutual?
-
-
LOL Rom com!
- By Bookworm16 on 05-31-21
By: Paul Rudnick
-
Fellow Travelers
- By: Thomas Mallon
- Narrated by: Christian Barillas
- Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a world of bare-knuckled ideology and secret dossiers, Timothy Laughlin, a recent college graduate and devout Catholic, is eager to join the crusade against Communism. An encounter with a handsome State Department official, Hawkins Fuller, leads to Tim's first job and, after Fuller's advances, his first love affair.
-
-
The tying together of the story threads at the end.
- By Oscar Davila on 12-29-23
By: Thomas Mallon
-
A Taste of Gold and Iron
- By: Alexandra Rowland
- Narrated by: Casey Jones
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kadou, the shy prince of Arasht, finds himself at odds with one of the most powerful ambassadors at court - the body-father of the queen's new child—in an altercation that results in his humiliation. To prove his loyalty to the queen, his sister, Kadou takes responsibility for the investigation of a break-in at one of their guilds, with the help of his newly appointed bodyguard, the coldly handsome Evemer, who seems to tolerate him at best.
-
-
Excellent, but leaves you wanting more.
- By Anonymous User on 12-19-22
-
We Could Be So Good
- A Novel
- By: Cat Sebastian
- Narrated by: Joel Leslie
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nick Russo has worked his way from a rough Brooklyn neighborhood to a reporting job at one of the city’s biggest newspapers. But the late 1950s are a hostile time for gay men, and Nick knows that he can’t let anyone into his life. He just never counted on meeting someone as impossible to say no to as Andy. Andy Fleming’s newspaper-tycoon father wants him to take over the family business. Andy, though, has no intention of running the paper. He’s barely able to run his life.
-
-
Be still, my cynical heart.
- By Kelsey Riddle on 06-09-23
By: Cat Sebastian
-
Dancer from the Dance
- A Novel
- By: Andrew Holleran
- Narrated by: David Pittu
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Now in audio for the first time! Award-winning actor and two-time Tony Award nominee David Pittu narrates one of the most influential books in gay literature. Andrew Holleran's Dancer from the Dance defined gay life in late 1970s New York. Published in 1978, the novel captures the time post-Stonewall and pre-AIDS where sexual freedom was celebrated and the future appeared limitless.
-
-
Excellent
- By Charles Lloyd on 12-25-22
By: Andrew Holleran
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Wonderful narration. Mediocre stories.
- By Michael Fuchs on 11-07-23
By: Stephen Fry, and others
-
Playing the Palace
- By: Paul Rudnick
- Narrated by: Michael Urie
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After having his heart trampled on by his cheating ex, Carter Ogden is afraid love just isn’t in the cards for him. He still holds out hope in a tiny corner of his heart, but even in his wildest dreams he never thought he’d meet the Crown Prince of England, much less do a lot more with him. Yes, growing up he’d fantasized about the handsome, openly gay Prince Edgar, but who hadn’t? When they meet by chance at an event Carter’s boss is organizing, Carter’s sure he imagined all that sizzling chemistry. Or was it mutual?
-
-
LOL Rom com!
- By Bookworm16 on 05-31-21
By: Paul Rudnick
-
Fellow Travelers
- By: Thomas Mallon
- Narrated by: Christian Barillas
- Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a world of bare-knuckled ideology and secret dossiers, Timothy Laughlin, a recent college graduate and devout Catholic, is eager to join the crusade against Communism. An encounter with a handsome State Department official, Hawkins Fuller, leads to Tim's first job and, after Fuller's advances, his first love affair.
-
-
The tying together of the story threads at the end.
- By Oscar Davila on 12-29-23
By: Thomas Mallon
-
A Taste of Gold and Iron
- By: Alexandra Rowland
- Narrated by: Casey Jones
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kadou, the shy prince of Arasht, finds himself at odds with one of the most powerful ambassadors at court - the body-father of the queen's new child—in an altercation that results in his humiliation. To prove his loyalty to the queen, his sister, Kadou takes responsibility for the investigation of a break-in at one of their guilds, with the help of his newly appointed bodyguard, the coldly handsome Evemer, who seems to tolerate him at best.
-
-
Excellent, but leaves you wanting more.
- By Anonymous User on 12-19-22
-
We Could Be So Good
- A Novel
- By: Cat Sebastian
- Narrated by: Joel Leslie
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nick Russo has worked his way from a rough Brooklyn neighborhood to a reporting job at one of the city’s biggest newspapers. But the late 1950s are a hostile time for gay men, and Nick knows that he can’t let anyone into his life. He just never counted on meeting someone as impossible to say no to as Andy. Andy Fleming’s newspaper-tycoon father wants him to take over the family business. Andy, though, has no intention of running the paper. He’s barely able to run his life.
-
-
Be still, my cynical heart.
- By Kelsey Riddle on 06-09-23
By: Cat Sebastian
-
Dancer from the Dance
- A Novel
- By: Andrew Holleran
- Narrated by: David Pittu
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Now in audio for the first time! Award-winning actor and two-time Tony Award nominee David Pittu narrates one of the most influential books in gay literature. Andrew Holleran's Dancer from the Dance defined gay life in late 1970s New York. Published in 1978, the novel captures the time post-Stonewall and pre-AIDS where sexual freedom was celebrated and the future appeared limitless.
-
-
Excellent
- By Charles Lloyd on 12-25-22
By: Andrew Holleran
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Wonderful narration. Mediocre stories.
- By Michael Fuchs on 11-07-23
By: Stephen Fry, and others
-
Tom Lake
- A Novel
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
-
-
So incredibly boring
- By Rhonda Morrison on 08-05-23
By: Ann Patchett
-
Young Mungo
- By: Douglas Stuart
- Narrated by: Chris Reilly
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born under different stars—Mungo a Protestant and James a Catholic—they should be sworn enemies if they’re to be seen as men at all. Their environment is a hyper-masculine and sectarian one, for gangs of young men and the violence they might dole out dominate the Glaswegian estate where they live. And yet against all odds Mungo and James become best friends as they find a sanctuary in the pigeon dovecote that James has built for his prize racing birds.
-
-
Suffering Sappho!
- By Richard Stewart on 04-12-22
By: Douglas Stuart
-
Bath Haus
- A Thriller
- By: P. J. Vernon
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch, Daniel Henning
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oliver Park, a recovering addict from Indiana, finally has everything he ever wanted: sobriety and a loving, wealthy partner in Nathan, a prominent DC trauma surgeon. Despite their difference in age and disparate backgrounds, they've made a perfect life together. With everything to lose, Oliver shouldn't be visiting Haus, a gay bathhouse. But through the entrance he goes, and it's a line crossed. Inside, he follows a man into a private room, and it's the final line. Whatever happens next, Nathan can never know.
-
-
Absolutely Gripping
- By Joseph on 06-18-21
By: P. J. Vernon
-
Shy
- The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers
- By: Mary Rodgers, Jesse Green
- Narrated by: Christine Baranski, Jesse Green
- Length: 15 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“What am I, bologna?” Mary Rodgers (1931-2014) often said. She was referring to being stuck in the middle of a talent sandwich: the daughter of one composer and the mother of another. And not just any composers. Her father was Richard Rodgers, perhaps the greatest American melodist; her son, Adam Guettel, a worthy successor. What that leaves out is Mary herself, also a composer, whose musical Once Upon a Mattress remains one of the rare revivable Broadway hits written by a woman. Shy is the story of how it all happened.
-
-
What a fun book!
- By Erik B. Rinderle on 09-17-23
By: Mary Rodgers, and others
-
The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle
- By: Matt Cain
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every day, Albert Entwistle makes his way through the streets of his small English town, delivering letters and parcels and returning greetings with a quick wave and a “how do?” Everyone on his route knows Albert, or thinks they do—a man of quiet routines, content to live alone with his cat, Gracie.
-
-
What a Treat!
- By C. Beaton on 06-24-22
By: Matt Cain
-
Confetti Hearts
- By: Lily Morton
- Narrated by: Joel Leslie
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
His own marriage was a whirlwind affair that ended before the ink could dry on the wedding certificate. Nevertheless, even with his divorce pending, he’s getting by. Or at least he was until he finds himself snowed in at a remote Scottish hotel with the wedding party from hell, a terrible ABBA tribute band, and his soon-to-be ex-husband.
-
-
Romantic and so funny!
- By RT on 10-14-23
By: Lily Morton
-
Solomon's Crown
- A Novel
- By: Natasha Siegel
- Narrated by: Ben Allen, Steve West
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twelfth-century Europe. Newly crowned King Philip of France is determined to restore his nation to its former empire and bring glory to his name. But when his greatest enemy, King Henry of England, threatens to end his reign before it can even begin, Philip is forced to make a precarious alliance with Henry’s volatile son—risking both his throne, and his heart.
-
-
Lovely
- By Kay on 03-15-23
By: Natasha Siegel
-
The Taking of Jake Livingston
- By: Ryan Douglass
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free, Michael Crouch
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sixteen-year-old Jake Livingston sees dead people everywhere. But he can't decide what's worse: being a medium forced to watch the dead play out their last moments on a loop or being at the mercy of racist teachers as one of the few Black students at St. Clair Prep. Both are a living nightmare he wishes he could wake up from. But things at St. Clair start looking up with the arrival of another Black student - the handsome Allister - and for the first time, romance is on the horizon for Jake. Unfortunately, life as a medium is getting worse.
-
-
Brings up too much trauma
- By TheColorNerd on 10-14-21
By: Ryan Douglass
-
The Danish Girl
- By: David Ebershoff
- Narrated by: Jeff Woodman
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Loosely inspired by a true story, this tender portrait of marriage asks: What do you do when the person you love has to change? It starts with a question, a simple favor asked by a wife of her husband while both are painting in their studio, setting off a transformation neither can anticipate. Uniting fact and fiction into an original romantic vision, The Danish Girl eloquently portrays the unique intimacy that defines every marriage and the remarkable story of Lili Elbe, a pioneer in transgender history.
-
-
Read and Enjoy this tragic but spirit lifting true
- By Desi on 02-16-22
By: David Ebershoff
-
Less
- By: Andrew Sean Greer
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You are a failed novelist about to turn 50. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: Your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged to someone else. You can't say yes - it would be too awkward - and you can't say no - it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of invitations to half-baked literary events around the world. Question: How do you arrange to skip town? Answer: You accept them all.
-
-
Endearing, funny, but sometimes overly clever
- By Lili on 07-30-17
-
Something Fabulous
- By: Alexis Hall
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Valentine Layton, the Duke of Malvern, has twin problems: literally. It was always his father’s hope that Valentine would marry Miss Arabella Tarleton. But, unfortunately, too many novels at an impressionable age have caused her to grow up...romantic. So romantic that a marriage of convenience will not do and after Valentine’s proposal she flees into the night determined never to set eyes on him again. Arabella’s twin brother, Mr. Bonaventure “Bonny” Tarleton, has also grown up...romantic. And fully expects Valentine to ride out after Arabella.
-
-
The narrator and writing were good. That's it.
- By M.A. on 05-24-22
By: Alexis Hall
-
The Boy Who Loved Wicked
- By: C.P. Harris
- Narrated by: Tim Paige, Liam DiCosimo
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Day one of senior year at Denwin High was not supposed to end with my thoughts consumed by the new AP Philosophy teacher. I’d impatiently waited three years to take the course, but from the moment he strode in with his sad eyes that mirrored my own, I was intrigued by only him. Dr. Sebastian Wicked.
-
-
All the feels
- By Nova on 04-08-23
By: C.P. Harris
Critic reviews
“Vividly reimagines the relationship between Williams and Frank Merlo, and offers intricate thoughts about the nature of fidelity, the artistic impulse, and estrangement.... [Castellani’s] scenes glitter.... This book is a kind of poem in praise of pleasure. Its author knows a great deal about life; better, he knows how to express what he knows. But this is an alert, serious, sweeping novel. To hold it in your hands is like holding, to crib a line from Castellani, a front-row opera ticket.” (The New York Times)
"A seductive, steamy novel of Tennessee Williams and his lover.... Castellani's quiet portrayal of Merlo has a deep, aching appeal.... [His] prose has a beguiling lilt and color, whether he's evoking his characters' evasive or erratic emotions, or conjuring the far-flung locales where these globe-hoppers touch down." (The Boston Globe)
"Real and imagined lives collide as Tennessee Williams and his longtime lover Frank Merlo befriend a young Swedish woman named Anja on the glittering Italian Riviera in July 1953. Though entirely fictional, the enigmatic Anja, who goes on to reluctant fame and fortune as an actress, propels this story of desire, ambition, and heartbreak." (People)
Related to this topic
-
Tender Is the Night
- By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Narrated by: Therese Plummer
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set on the French Riviera in the late 1920s, Tender Is the Night is the tragic romance of the young actress Rosemary Hoyt and the stylish American couple Dick and Nicole Diver. A brilliant young psychiatrist at the time of his marriage, Dick is both husband and doctor to Nicole, whose wealth goads him into a lifestyle not his own, and whose growing strength highlights Dick's harrowing demise. A profound study of the romantic concept of character - lyrical, expansive, and hauntingly evocative.
-
-
Subtle yet grand
- By jb on 10-12-15
-
The Night Ocean
- By: Paul La Farge
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marina Willett, MD, has a problem. Her husband, Charlie, has become obsessed with H. P. Lovecraft, in particular with one episode in the legendary horror writer's life: In the summer of 1934, the "old gent" lived for two months with a gay teenage fan named Robert Barlow, at Barlow's family home in central Florida. What were the two of them up to? Were they friends - or something more? Just when Charlie thinks he's solved the puzzle, a new scandal erupts, and he disappears.
-
-
Frustratingly Uneven Due to Clumsy Plot Structure
- By Adam on 06-15-17
By: Paul La Farge
-
Light Years
- By: James Salter
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This exquisite, resonant novel by PEN/Faulkner winner James Salter is a brilliant portrait of a marriage by a contemporary American master. It is the story of Nedra and Viri, whose favored life is centered around dinners, ingenious games with their children, enviable friends, and near-perfect days passed skating on a frozen river or sunning on the beach.
-
-
Unfathomable Font of Blue: Life's Serial Goodbyes
- By W Perry Hall on 04-18-19
By: James Salter
-
Two Crosses
- Secrets of the Cross, Book 1
- By: Elizabeth Musser
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The glimmering Huguenot cross she so innocently wears leads her deep into the shadows. When Gabriella Madison arrives in the French village of Castelnau in 1961 to continue her university studies, she doesn’t anticipate being drawn into the secretive world behind the Algerian war for independence from France. And the further she delves into the war efforts, the more her faith is challenged. The people who surround her bring a whirlwind of transforming forces.
-
-
Faith, Romance, Spies, and Fascinating History
- By Amazon Customer on 05-02-19
By: Elizabeth Musser
-
Lady Oracle
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Lorelei King
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From fat girl to thin, from red hair to mud brown, from London to Toronto, from Polish count to radical husband - Joan Foster is utterly confused by her life of multiple identities. She decides to escape to an Italian hill town to take stock of her life. But first, she must organize her own death.
-
-
A Feminist Romp
- By annkpowers on 07-02-22
By: Margaret Atwood
-
Before You Knew My Name
- A Novel
- By: Jacqueline Bublitz
- Narrated by: Penelope Rawlins
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When she arrived in New York on her eighteenth birthday carrying nothing but $600 cash and a stolen camera, Alice Lee was looking for a fresh start. Now, just one month later, she is the city’s latest Jane Doe. She may be dead but that doesn’t mean her story is over. Meanwhile, Ruby Jones is also trying to reinvent herself. After travelling halfway around the world, she’s lonelier than ever in the Big Apple. Until she stumbles upon a woman’s body by the Hudson River, and suddenly finds herself unbreakably tied to the unknown dead woman.
-
-
Excellent
- By cristina on 11-11-22
-
Tender Is the Night
- By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Narrated by: Therese Plummer
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set on the French Riviera in the late 1920s, Tender Is the Night is the tragic romance of the young actress Rosemary Hoyt and the stylish American couple Dick and Nicole Diver. A brilliant young psychiatrist at the time of his marriage, Dick is both husband and doctor to Nicole, whose wealth goads him into a lifestyle not his own, and whose growing strength highlights Dick's harrowing demise. A profound study of the romantic concept of character - lyrical, expansive, and hauntingly evocative.
-
-
Subtle yet grand
- By jb on 10-12-15
-
The Night Ocean
- By: Paul La Farge
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marina Willett, MD, has a problem. Her husband, Charlie, has become obsessed with H. P. Lovecraft, in particular with one episode in the legendary horror writer's life: In the summer of 1934, the "old gent" lived for two months with a gay teenage fan named Robert Barlow, at Barlow's family home in central Florida. What were the two of them up to? Were they friends - or something more? Just when Charlie thinks he's solved the puzzle, a new scandal erupts, and he disappears.
-
-
Frustratingly Uneven Due to Clumsy Plot Structure
- By Adam on 06-15-17
By: Paul La Farge
-
Light Years
- By: James Salter
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This exquisite, resonant novel by PEN/Faulkner winner James Salter is a brilliant portrait of a marriage by a contemporary American master. It is the story of Nedra and Viri, whose favored life is centered around dinners, ingenious games with their children, enviable friends, and near-perfect days passed skating on a frozen river or sunning on the beach.
-
-
Unfathomable Font of Blue: Life's Serial Goodbyes
- By W Perry Hall on 04-18-19
By: James Salter
-
Two Crosses
- Secrets of the Cross, Book 1
- By: Elizabeth Musser
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The glimmering Huguenot cross she so innocently wears leads her deep into the shadows. When Gabriella Madison arrives in the French village of Castelnau in 1961 to continue her university studies, she doesn’t anticipate being drawn into the secretive world behind the Algerian war for independence from France. And the further she delves into the war efforts, the more her faith is challenged. The people who surround her bring a whirlwind of transforming forces.
-
-
Faith, Romance, Spies, and Fascinating History
- By Amazon Customer on 05-02-19
By: Elizabeth Musser
-
Lady Oracle
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Lorelei King
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From fat girl to thin, from red hair to mud brown, from London to Toronto, from Polish count to radical husband - Joan Foster is utterly confused by her life of multiple identities. She decides to escape to an Italian hill town to take stock of her life. But first, she must organize her own death.
-
-
A Feminist Romp
- By annkpowers on 07-02-22
By: Margaret Atwood
-
Before You Knew My Name
- A Novel
- By: Jacqueline Bublitz
- Narrated by: Penelope Rawlins
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When she arrived in New York on her eighteenth birthday carrying nothing but $600 cash and a stolen camera, Alice Lee was looking for a fresh start. Now, just one month later, she is the city’s latest Jane Doe. She may be dead but that doesn’t mean her story is over. Meanwhile, Ruby Jones is also trying to reinvent herself. After travelling halfway around the world, she’s lonelier than ever in the Big Apple. Until she stumbles upon a woman’s body by the Hudson River, and suddenly finds herself unbreakably tied to the unknown dead woman.
-
-
Excellent
- By cristina on 11-11-22
-
What Storm, What Thunder
- By: Myriam J.A. Chancy
- Narrated by: Ella Turenne
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Earth had buckled, and, in that movement, all that was not in its place fell upon the Earth’s children, upon the blameless as well as the guilty, without discrimination. At the end of a long sweltering day, as markets and businesses begin to close for the evening, an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude shakes the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince. Award-winning author Myriam J. A. Chancy masterfully charts the inner lives of the characters affected by the disaster
-
-
We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.
- By AuthorAnnaBella on 03-15-22
-
The Museum of Innocence
- By: Orhan Pamuk, Maureen Freely (translator)
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 20 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kemal, scion of one of the city's wealthiest families, is about to become engaged to Sibel, daughter of another prominent family, when he encounters Füsun, a beautiful shopgirl and a distant relation. Once the long-lost cousins violate the code of virginity, a rift begins to open between Kemal and the world of the Westernized Istanbul bourgeosie - a world, as he lovingly describes it, with opulent parties and clubs, society gossip, picnics, and mansions on the Bosphorus, infused with the melancholy of decay.
-
-
one of the very best I've ever heard
- By Rebecca Lindroos on 03-06-10
By: Orhan Pamuk, and others
-
The Recognitions
- By: William Gaddis
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 47 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wyatt Gwyon's desire to forge is not driven by larceny but from love. Exactingly faithful to the spirit and letter of the Flemish masters, he produces uncannily accurate "originals" - pictures the painters themselves might have envied. In an age of counterfeit emotion and taste, the real and fake have become indistinguishable; yet Gwyon's forgeries reflect a truth that others cannot touch - cannot even recognize.
-
-
Breathtaking, Dizzying, Stimulating, Funny
- By andrew on 11-17-10
By: William Gaddis
-
Last Evenings on Earth
- By: Roberto Bolano, Chris Andrews - translator
- Narrated by: David Crommett
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first short-story collection in English by the acclaimed Chilean author Roberto Bolano. Winner of a 2005 PEN Translation Fund Award. "The melancholy folklore of exile", as Roberto Bolano once put it, pervades these 14 haunting stories. Bolano's narrators are usually writers grappling with private (and generally unlucky) quests, who typically speak in the first person, as if giving a deposition, like witnesses to a crime.
-
-
Solid Character based Stories
- By Michael on 06-06-24
By: Roberto Bolano, and others
-
Sweet Sorrow
- The Long-Awaited New Novel from the Best-Selling Author of One Day
- By: David Nicholls
- Narrated by: Rory Kinnear
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the best-selling author of One Day comes a bittersweet and brilliantly funny coming-of-age tale about the heart-stopping thrill of first love - and how just one summer can forever change a life.
-
-
A delight in every way!
- By Jennifer on 04-24-22
By: David Nicholls
-
Fault Lines
- A Novel
- By: Emily Itami
- Narrated by: Lydia Wilson
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mizuki is a Japanese housewife. She has a hardworking husband, two adorable children, and a beautiful Tokyo apartment. It’s everything a woman could want, yet sometimes she wonders whether she would rather throw herself off the high-rise balcony than spend another evening not talking to her husband and hanging up laundry.
-
-
Confused by the choice of narrator
- By Bri T. on 02-13-22
By: Emily Itami
-
If I Forget You
- A Novel
- By: Thomas Christopher Greene
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-one years after they were driven apart by circumstances beyond their control, two former lovers have a chance encounter on a Manhattan street. What follows is a tense, suspenseful exploration of the many facets of enduring love. Told from alternating points of view through time, If I Forget You tells the story of Henry Gold, a poet whose rise from poverty embodies the American dream, and Margot Fuller, the daughter of a prominent, wealthy family, and their unlikely, star-crossed love affair.
-
-
Good, but not great.
- By Amazon Customer on 07-01-16
-
All the Way to the Tigers
- By: Mary Morris
- Narrated by: Susan Bennett
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In February 2008 a casual afternoon of ice skating derailed the trip of a lifetime. Mary Morris was on the verge of a well-earned sabbatical, but instead she endured three months in a wheelchair, two surgeries, and extensive rehabilitation. On Easter Sunday, when she was supposed to be in Morocco, Morris was instead lying on the sofa reading Death in Venice, casting her eyes over these words again and again: "He would go on a journey. Not far. Not all the way to the tigers." Disaster shifted to possibility and Morris made a decision.
-
-
Beautiful Memoir
- By Janet G. Zinn on 07-05-21
By: Mary Morris
-
The Golden Hour
- A Novel
- By: Beatriz Williams
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 16 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Bahamas, 1941. Newly widowed Leonora “Lulu” Randolph arrives in Nassau to investigate the governor and his wife for a New York society magazine. After all, American readers have an insatiable appetite for news of the duke and duchess of Windsor, that glamorous couple whose love affair nearly brought the British monarchy to its knees five years earlier. What more intriguing backdrop for their romance than a wartime Caribbean paradise, a colonial playground for kingpins of ill-gotten empires? Or so Lulu imagines.
-
-
Stick with it!
- By Colleen on 07-17-19
By: Beatriz Williams
-
Dropped Names
- Famous Men and Women As I Knew Them
- By: Frank Langella
- Narrated by: Frank Langella
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Captured forever in a unique memoir, Frank Langella's myriad encounters with some of the past century's most famous human beings are profoundly affecting, funny, wicked, sometimes shocking, and utterly irresistible. With sharp wit and a perceptive eye, Mr. Langella takes us with him into the private worlds and privileged lives of movie stars, presidents, royalty, literary lions, the social elite, and the greats of the Broadway stage.
-
-
Delightful
- By Kathy on 04-03-12
By: Frank Langella
-
Some Girls
- My Life in a Harem
- By: Jillian Lauren
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A jaw-dropping story of how a girl from the suburbs ends up in a prince's harem and emerges from the secret Xanadu both richer and wiser. At 18, Jillian Lauren was an NYU theater school dropout with a tip about an upcoming audition. The "casting director" told her that a rich businessman would pay pretty girls $20,000 if they stayed for two weeks to spice up his parties. Soon, Jillian was on a plane to Borneo, where she would spend the next 18 months in the harem of Prince Jefri Bolkiah....
-
-
Boring, Pretentious Book
- By Marcos on 04-23-11
By: Jillian Lauren
-
The Complete Stories
- By: Clarice Lispector, Katrina Dodson, Benjamin Moser
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 22 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here, gathered in one volume, are the stories that made Clarice a Brazilian legend. Originally a cloth edition of 86 stories, now we have 89 in all, covering her whole amazing career, from her teenage years to her deathbed. In these pages, we meet teenagers becoming aware of their sexual and artistic powers, humdrum housewives whose lives are shattered by unexpected epiphanies, old people who don't know what to do with themselves - and in their stories, Clarice takes us through their lives - and hers - and ours.
-
-
Wonderful Collection
- By XX on 04-25-20
By: Clarice Lispector, and others
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
When We Were Young
- By: Richard Roper
- Narrated by: Huw Parmenter, Anthony Mark Barrow
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of Something to Live For, a nostalgic, heartwarming story of two long-lost friends who embark on a 184-mile walk of the Thames Path in order to find their way back to the truth and to their friendship.
-
-
Good book
- By Faith on 02-16-22
By: Richard Roper
-
The Old Place
- By: Bobby Finger
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Billington, Texas, is a place where nothing changes. Well, almost nothing. For the first time in nearly four decades, Mary Alice Roth is not getting ready for the first day of school at Billington High. A few months into her retirement—or, district mandated exile as she calls it—Mary Alice does not know how to fill her days.
-
-
I heard the author on a podcast and...
- By Brenda on 10-01-22
By: Bobby Finger
-
The Blue Hour
- A Novel
- By: Laura Pritchett
- Narrated by: Robert Fass, Nicol Zanzarella, Carol Monda, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The tight-knit residents of Blue Moon Mountain, nestled high in the Colorado Mountains, form an interconnected community of those living off the land, stunned by the beauty and isolation all around them. So when, at the onset of winter, the town veterinarian commits a violent act, the repercussions of that tragedy will be felt all across the mountainside, upending their lives and causing their paths to twist and collide in unexpected ways.
-
-
Beautiful Stories
- By Tanya E on 02-25-17
By: Laura Pritchett
-
Parallel Worlds
- Beyond All Boundaries Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Lyn Willmott
- Narrated by: Moe Egan
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Although set in the remote Kimberley ranges of northern Australia, this story centers on an ancient kingdom, slightly offset from Earth’s frequency, struggling to deal with a prophecy that predicts the coming of a young earthling whose mission is to realign the two realities before the coming planetary upheavals. Rod Oaken is the teenager who accidently stumbles into this hidden realm, and, through a series of adventures, he learns how to communicate telepathically with nature.
By: Lyn Willmott
-
We Play Ourselves
- A Novel
- By: Jen Silverman
- Narrated by: Renata Friedman
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Not too long ago, Cass was a promising young playwright in New York, hailed as “a fierce new voice” and “queer, feminist, and ready to spill the tea.” But at the height of all this attention, Cass finds herself at the center of a searing public shaming, and flees to Los Angeles to escape—and reinvent herself. There she meets her next-door neighbor Caroline, a magnetic filmmaker on the rise, as well as the pack of teenage girls who hang around her house. They are the subjects of Caroline’s next semidocumentary movie, which follows the girls’ clandestine activity.
-
-
Brilliant Satire
- By T on 08-28-24
By: Jen Silverman
-
Such Big Dreams
- A Novel
- By: Reema Patel
- Narrated by: Lavanya Gandhi
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With a sharp wit and sharper tongue, twenty-three-year old Rakhi Kumar is nobody’s fool. Sure, she lives alone in a slum and works as a lowly office assistant for the renowned lawyer, Gauri Verma, who gave her a fresh start. But she’s come a long way from her childhood on the streets of Mumbai. Most important, she’s busy enough to distract herself from the nightmares of a grisly childhood incident that led to the disappearance of her best friend.
-
-
Pretty Good!
- By Kamalei on 08-28-24
By: Reema Patel
-
When We Were Young
- By: Richard Roper
- Narrated by: Huw Parmenter, Anthony Mark Barrow
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of Something to Live For, a nostalgic, heartwarming story of two long-lost friends who embark on a 184-mile walk of the Thames Path in order to find their way back to the truth and to their friendship.
-
-
Good book
- By Faith on 02-16-22
By: Richard Roper
-
The Old Place
- By: Bobby Finger
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Billington, Texas, is a place where nothing changes. Well, almost nothing. For the first time in nearly four decades, Mary Alice Roth is not getting ready for the first day of school at Billington High. A few months into her retirement—or, district mandated exile as she calls it—Mary Alice does not know how to fill her days.
-
-
I heard the author on a podcast and...
- By Brenda on 10-01-22
By: Bobby Finger
-
The Blue Hour
- A Novel
- By: Laura Pritchett
- Narrated by: Robert Fass, Nicol Zanzarella, Carol Monda, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The tight-knit residents of Blue Moon Mountain, nestled high in the Colorado Mountains, form an interconnected community of those living off the land, stunned by the beauty and isolation all around them. So when, at the onset of winter, the town veterinarian commits a violent act, the repercussions of that tragedy will be felt all across the mountainside, upending their lives and causing their paths to twist and collide in unexpected ways.
-
-
Beautiful Stories
- By Tanya E on 02-25-17
By: Laura Pritchett
-
Parallel Worlds
- Beyond All Boundaries Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Lyn Willmott
- Narrated by: Moe Egan
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Although set in the remote Kimberley ranges of northern Australia, this story centers on an ancient kingdom, slightly offset from Earth’s frequency, struggling to deal with a prophecy that predicts the coming of a young earthling whose mission is to realign the two realities before the coming planetary upheavals. Rod Oaken is the teenager who accidently stumbles into this hidden realm, and, through a series of adventures, he learns how to communicate telepathically with nature.
By: Lyn Willmott
-
We Play Ourselves
- A Novel
- By: Jen Silverman
- Narrated by: Renata Friedman
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Not too long ago, Cass was a promising young playwright in New York, hailed as “a fierce new voice” and “queer, feminist, and ready to spill the tea.” But at the height of all this attention, Cass finds herself at the center of a searing public shaming, and flees to Los Angeles to escape—and reinvent herself. There she meets her next-door neighbor Caroline, a magnetic filmmaker on the rise, as well as the pack of teenage girls who hang around her house. They are the subjects of Caroline’s next semidocumentary movie, which follows the girls’ clandestine activity.
-
-
Brilliant Satire
- By T on 08-28-24
By: Jen Silverman
-
Such Big Dreams
- A Novel
- By: Reema Patel
- Narrated by: Lavanya Gandhi
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With a sharp wit and sharper tongue, twenty-three-year old Rakhi Kumar is nobody’s fool. Sure, she lives alone in a slum and works as a lowly office assistant for the renowned lawyer, Gauri Verma, who gave her a fresh start. But she’s come a long way from her childhood on the streets of Mumbai. Most important, she’s busy enough to distract herself from the nightmares of a grisly childhood incident that led to the disappearance of her best friend.
-
-
Pretty Good!
- By Kamalei on 08-28-24
By: Reema Patel
-
The Skin and Its Girl
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Cypher
- Narrated by: Victoria Nassif, Haneen Arafat Murphy
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a Pacific Northwest hospital far from the Rummani family’s ancestral home in Palestine, the heart of a stillborn baby begins to beat and her skin turns vibrantly, permanently cobalt blue. On the same day, the Rummanis’ centuries-old soap factory in Nablus is destroyed in an air strike. The family matriarch and keeper of their lore, Aunt Nuha, believes that the blue girl embodies their sacred history, harkening back to a time when the Rummanis were among the wealthiest soap-makers and their blue soap was a symbol of a legendary love.
-
-
Beautiful
- By Hope on 08-29-24
By: Sarah Cypher
-
The Knockout Queen
- A Novel
- By: Rufi Thorpe
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bunny Lampert is the princess of North Shore - beautiful, tall, blond, with a rich real-estate-developer father and a swimming pool in her backyard. Michael - with a ponytail down his back and a septum piercing - lives with his aunt in the cramped stucco cottage next door. When Bunny catches Michael smoking in her yard, he discovers that her life is not as perfect as it seems. At six foot three, Bunny towers over their classmates.
-
-
Loved this book!
- By Vernice Favor on 05-17-20
By: Rufi Thorpe
-
The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land
- Stories
- By: Omer Friedlander
- Narrated by: Assaf Cohen, Gilli Messer
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land announces the arrival of a natural-born storyteller of immense talent. Warm, poignant, delightfully whimsical, Omer Friedlander’s gorgeously immersive and imaginative stories take you to the narrow limestone alleyways of Jerusalem, the desolate beauty of the Negev Desert, and the sprawling orange groves of Jaffa, with characters that spring to vivid life.
-
-
Do not touch the Holocaust
- By Chana Messer on 05-05-22
By: Omer Friedlander
-
City of Flickering Light
- By: Juliette Fay
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's July 1921, "flickers" are all the rage, and Irene Van Beck has just declared her own independence by jumping off a moving train to escape her fate in a traveling burlesque show. When her friends, fellow dancer Millie Martin and comedian Henry Weiss, leap after her, the trio finds their way to the bright lights of Hollywood with hopes of making it big in the burgeoning silent film industry. But despite the glamour and seduction of Tinseltown, success doesn't come easy, and nothing can prepare Irene, Millie, and Henry for the poverty, temptation, and heartbreak that lie ahead.
-
-
Good listen!
- By Amazon Customer on 11-28-21
By: Juliette Fay
-
Disruptions
- Stories
- By: Steven Millhauser
- Narrated by: Gisela Chípe, Vas Eli, Arthur Morey
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An exquisite new collection from a Pulitzer Prize-winning master of the short story, the culmination of a five-decade career: work that takes us beneath the placid surface of suburban life into the elusive strangeness of the everyday.
-
-
My entire book group disliked this book book
- By Amazon Customer on 07-18-24
-
Life Without Children
- Stories
- By: Roddy Doyle
- Narrated by: Roddy Doyle
- Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Love and marriage. Children and family. Death and grief. Life touches everyone the same. But living under lockdown, it changes us alone. In these ten beautifully moving short stories written mostly over the last year, Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle paints a collective portrait of our strange times.
-
-
not my style
- By J. Czap on 11-01-24
By: Roddy Doyle
-
The Prospectors
- A Novel
- By: Ariel Djanikian
- Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie, Samara Naeymi
- Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The middle daughter of struggling California fruit farmers, Alice Bush is accustomed to feeling inferior and destitute. But when her elder sister’s husband strikes a vein of gold in the Yukon Territory, Alice finally seizes control of her destiny by joining a wave of white settlers making the dangerous trek to the Klondike. What follows is an awakening of ambition for the quietly opportunistic Alice.
-
-
Review
- By Teresa Lee Baker on 10-09-23
By: Ariel Djanikian
-
An Island
- A Novel
- By: Karen Jennings
- Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe
- Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Samuel has lived alone on an island off the coast of an unnamed African country for more than two decades. He tends to his garden, his lighthouse, and his chickens, content with a solitary life. Routinely, the nameless bodies of refugees wash ashore, but Samuel—who understands that the government only values certain lives, certain deaths—always buries them himself. One day, though, he finds that one of these bodies is still breathing.
-
-
Effects of Colonialism on the Lives of Innocents
- By Kate Juliff on 06-04-22
By: Karen Jennings
-
Tremor
- A Novel
- By: Teju Cole
- Narrated by: Atta Otigba, Yetide Badaki
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A weekend spent antiquing is shadowed by the colonial atrocities that occurred on that land. A walk at dusk is interrupted by casual racism. A loving marriage is riven by mysterious tensions. And a remarkable cascade of voices speaks out from a pulsing metropolis. We’re invited to experience these events and others through the eyes and ears of Tunde, a West African man working as a teacher of photography on a renowned New England campus.
-
-
Fractured narrative line but little gained from splicing of stories
- By Kirsten Scheid on 03-14-24
By: Teju Cole
-
Little Boy
- A Novel
- By: Lawrence Ferlinghetti
- Narrated by: Peter Coyote
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this unapologetically unclassifiable work, Lawrence Ferlinghetti lets loose an exhilarating rush of language to craft what might be termed a closing statement about his highly significant and productive 99 years on this planet.
-
-
Centenarian Sentinels His Century
- By W Perry Hall on 04-18-19
-
In the Valley
- Stories and a Novella Based on Serena
- By: Ron Rash
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ron Rash has long been a revered presence in the landscape of American letters. A virtuosic novelist, poet, and story writer, he evokes the beauty and brutality of the land, the relentless tension between past and present, and the unquenchable human desire to be a little bit better than circumstances would seem to allow. In these 10 stories, Rash spins a haunting allegory of the times we live in - rampant capitalism, the severing of ties to the natural world in the relentless hunt for profit, the destruction of body and soul with pills meant to mute our pain.
-
-
AWESOME
- By josie exner on 06-03-21
By: Ron Rash
-
Watch Us Shine
- A Novel
- By: Marisa de los Santos
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett, Nan McNamara
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cornelia Brown is reeling from a terrifying act of violence when she gets word that her mother has been badly injured in an accident. Cornelia returns to Virginia, to the house she grew up in, and in the weeks that follow, she watches her mother Ellie struggle to recover, fluctuating between her usual crisp, can-do clarity and periods of delirium during which she seems haunted by a devastating loss from her past. In grief-stricken tones, Ellie begs Cornelia to bring her the Northern Lights, and despite her confusion at this mysterious plea, Cornelia vows to do so.
-
-
Great story
- By KAT-AQ on 09-23-24
What listeners say about Leading Men
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Krilaffi
- 01-26-23
Beautiful and heartbreaking
As I finish listening to this exquisite book, I feel like I’m in a kind of dream - or a spell cast by Mr. Castellani, in which the lives of others are somehow being lived within me. The detail, tenderness and compassion with which he gives voice to his leading characters made me love them all. And many more beyond he scope of the book. Mr. Ballerini is thoroughly impressive.
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
-
Performance
-
Story
- Helene Atwan
- 03-05-19
Wonderful book, masterful reading!
This novel would shine in any format, a beautifully written and elegantly constructed historical fiction with memorable characters both real and imagined. But in Edoardo Ballerini's reading, it really comes to life. Ballerini just won another Audie award last night.... richly deserved. His voicing of Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, and all of the remarkable men and women in that literary circle is expert and fluent. Read the book in any format, but if you love audiobooks, you'll especially value this one.
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
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tom
- 11-18-22
A’bravura’ story of Tenn and Frank
This semi-imagined story of the world around Tennessee Williams and his lover is both ingenious and well-paced. The narration is terrific.
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
-
Performance
-
Story
- Glenda Sanders
- 03-03-19
Terrible book
I want a refund.
Badly written and badly read. Overly dramatic in delivery. Shallow observation of the human condition.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Pgparks
- 04-20-24
Sad and Mean People
Leading Men by Christopher Castellani
This a very difficult attempt to make something of magnitude of the relationship between Frank Merlo and his lover Tennessee Williams that lasted from 1947 to Merlo's death in 1963. But aren’t all love stories “of magnitude” …at least to someone. That’s what I thought until I read this book. The book opens in July of 1953 when Truman Capote throws a party in Portofino, Italy. It was off to a promising start… but alas.
The people in this book are mean and sad and not very likable - but really I just don’t feel anything for Williams or Merlo. For me I have to feel something to care - even if it’s anger or pity.
I won’t go on about it and I don’t like writing a bad review but I was very disappointed with the book - it never lived up to its potential. I strongly recommend you stay away from this book if you are prone to the blues. It will envelope you in the tragedy and waste and superficiality of these people.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!