Oliver Loving
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Michael Crouch
About this listen
"An expert performance by Michael Crouch highlights life-changing moments in a family.... He transforms what has become a tragically familiar story into an intricate, nuanced puzzle about real people and real consequences." (AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner)
From Stefan Merrill Block, celebrated literary talent and author of The Story of Forgetting, comes a brilliant, propulsive audiobook about family, the traumas and secrets that test our deepest bonds, and the stories that hold us together.
One warm, West Texas November night, a shy boy named Oliver Loving joins his classmates at Bliss County Day School's annual dance, hoping for a glimpse of the object of his unrequited affections, an enigmatic junior named Rebekkah Sterling. But as the music plays, a troubled young man sneaks in through the school's back door. The dire choices this man makes that evening - and the unspoken story he carries - will tear the town of Bliss, Texas, apart.
Nearly 10 years later, Oliver Loving still lies wordless and paralyzed at Crockett State Assisted Care Facility, the fate of his mind unclear. Orbiting the still point of Oliver's hospital bed is a family transformed: Oliver's mother, Eve, who keeps desperate vigil; Oliver's brother, Charlie, who has fled for New York City only to discover he cannot escape the gravity of his shattered family; Oliver's father, Jed, who tries to erase his memories with bourbon. And then there is Rebekkah Sterling, Oliver's teenage love, who left Texas long ago and still refuses to speak about her own part in that tragic night. When a new medical test promises a key to unlock Oliver's trapped mind, the town's unanswered questions resurface with new urgency, as Oliver's doctors and his family fight for a way for Oliver to finally communicate - and so also to tell the truth of what really happened that fateful night.
A moving meditation on the transformative power of grief and love, a slyly affectionate look at the idiosyncrasies of family, and an emotionally charged pause resister, Oliver Loving is an extraordinarily original audiobook that ventures into the unknowable and returns with the most fundamental truths.
More praise for Oliver Loving:
"A breathtaking tale of tragedy and redemption...A triumph." (People magazine)
"The book poses big questions about what constitutes a life worth living." (Publishers Weekly)
"Powerful, ambitious...a beautifully rendered meditation on the nature of forgiveness, mercy, and healing." (Library Journal)
©2018 Stefan Merrill Block (P)2018 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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- An Orphan Boy, a Mysterious Past, and How He Found a Place Called Home
- By: Steve Pemberton
- Narrated by: Steve Pemberton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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A Chance in the World is the unbelievably true story of a wounded and broken boy destined to become a man of resilience, determination, and vision. Through it all, Steve's story teaches us that no matter how broken our past, no matter how great our misfortunes, we have it in us to create a new beginning and to build a place where love awaits.
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Good Book
- By Amazon Customer on 08-19-20
By: Steve Pemberton
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My Soul to Keep
- By: Tananarive Due
- Narrated by: Peter Francis James
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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When Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is just out of reach. Soon, as people close to Jessica begin to meet violent, mysterious deaths, David makes an unimaginable confession: More than 400 years ago, he and other members of an Ethiopian sect traded their humanity so they would never die, a secret he must protect at any cost.
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A Book I Can't Keep
- By Mistsofjade on 07-19-20
By: Tananarive Due
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Finding Jake
- A Novel
- By: Bryan Reardon
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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While his successful wife goes off to her law office each day, Simon Connolly takes care of their kids, Jake and Laney. Now that they are in high school, the angst-ridden father should feel more relaxed, but he doesn't. He's seen the statistics, read the headlines. And now, his darkest fear is coming true. There has been a shooting at school.
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Great Book
- By Cassandra on 04-19-16
By: Bryan Reardon
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The Silent History
- By: Eli Horowitz, Matthew Derby, Kevin Moffett
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman, LJ Ganser
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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It begins as a statistical oddity: a spike in children born with acute speech delays. Physically normal in every way, these children never speak and do not respond to speech; they don't learn to read, don't learn to write. As the number of cases grows to an epidemic level, theories spread. Maybe it's related to a popular antidepressant; maybe it's environmental. Or maybe these children have special skills all their own.
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A Thought-Provoking Premise
- By Doug - Audible on 03-31-15
By: Eli Horowitz, and others
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Vivian Apple at the End of the World
- By: Katie Coyle
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Seventeen-year-old Vivian Apple never believed in the evangelical Church of America, unlike her recently devout parents. But when Vivian returns home the night after the supposed 'Rapture,' all that's left of her parents are two holes in the roof. Suddenly, she doesn't know who or what to believe. With her best friend Harp and a mysterious ally, Peter, Vivian embarks on a desperate cross-country road trip through a paranoid and panic-stricken America to find answers.
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juvenile
- By emily on 12-16-19
By: Katie Coyle
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Burn
- By: Ted Dekker, Erin Healy
- Narrated by: Ann Harrison
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Years ago, the Gypsy Kumpania where Janeal Mikkado lived was attacked by outsiders. With her best friend about to be consumed by a fire, Janeal had two options: try to save her friend—at serious risk to her own life—or disappear with the million dollars that she had just discovered. But the past is quickly coming back to haunt her. Both the best friend and the boyfriend that she was sure were dead have reappeared in her life, as has someone who knows about the money. There's a debt to be paid for the money she found, but there's an even greater debt she must face.
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Riveting
- By Jen on 03-21-18
By: Ted Dekker, and others
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The Fragile World
- A Novel
- By: Paula Treick DeBoard
- Narrated by: Jessica Almasy, Will Damron
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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The Kaufmans have always considered themselves a normal, happy family. Curtis is a physics teacher at a local high school. His wife, Kathleen, restores furniture for upscale boutiques. Daniel is away at college on a prestigious music scholarship, and 12-year-old Olivia is a happy-go-lucky kid whose biggest concern is passing her next math test. And then comes the middle-of-the-night phone call that changes everything.
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Inaccurate
- By CCB on 03-10-15
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Joplin's Ghost
- By: Tananarive Due
- Narrated by: Lizan Mitchell
- Length: 21 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Bram Stoker Award finalist Tananarive Due crafts chilling tales of suspense.
In Joplin's Ghost, 24-year-old R&B phenomenon Phoenix Smalls is on the cusp of fame and fortune. But she is haunted by the spirit of Jazz legend Scott Joplin. After a series of sultry, erotic encounters with the ghost, and with the pressures of stardom closing in on her, Phoenix begins to fear for her life and career.
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Sweeping--a fabulous read
- By Dinisle on 12-24-06
By: Tananarive Due
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Everybody's Son
- A Novel
- By: Thrity Umrigar
- Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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During a terrible heat wave in 1991 - the worst in a decade - 10-year-old Anton has been locked in an apartment in the projects, alone, for seven days, without air conditioning or a fan. With no electricity, the refrigerator and lights do not work. Hot, hungry, and desperate, Anton shatters a window and climbs out. Cutting his leg on the broken glass, he is covered in blood when the police find him. Juanita, his mother, is discovered in a crack house less than three blocks away, nearly unconscious and half-naked.
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Engaging and insightful
- By Amazon Customer on 07-12-17
By: Thrity Umrigar
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True Biz
- A Novel
- By: Sara Novic
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan, Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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True biz? The students at the River Valley School for the Deaf just want to hook up, pass their history finals, and have politicians, doctors, and their parents stop telling them what to do with their bodies. This revelatory novel plunges listeners into the halls of a residential school for the deaf, where they’ll meet Charlie, a rebellious transfer student who’s never met another deaf person before; Austin, the school’s golden boy, whose world is rocked when his baby sister is born hearing; and February, the hearing headmistress.
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A good story with added features both intriguing and informational
- By A Signing Mom on 05-15-22
By: Sara Novic
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Fire and Rain
- By: Diane Chamberlain
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Into the drought-weary California town of Valle Rosa comes a stranger who promises he can make it rain. All he asks for is a place to stay and complete privacy. But he is too charismatic to maintain a low profile, and the adobe cottage he's given to live in is owned by an investigative TV reporter struggling to revive her career.
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Siri from my Iphone would be a warmer narrator
- By Gwen on 05-30-16
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Lost Boy, Lost Girl
- By: Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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A woman commits suicide for no apparent reason. A week later, her son- fifteen-year-old Mark Underhill - vanishes. His uncle, novelist Timothy Underhill, searches his hometown of Millhaven for clues that might help unravel this horrible dual mystery. He soon learns that a pedophilic murderer is on the loose in the vicinity, and that shortly before his mother's suicide, Mark had become obsessed with an abandoned house where he imagined the killer might have taken refuge.
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ALAN ALDA WITHOUT THE SMIRK
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-11-15
By: Peter Straub
What listeners say about Oliver Loving
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- DedeB!
- 01-24-18
If you wonder how people survive these things.
I thought a book about brain injury would be a good transition after being immersed in a lengthy trilogy. There weren’t any reader reviews for Oliver Loving: A Novel, but the description intrigued me. I was expecting a story about the struggle to reconnect with a once lost son but it was so much deeper than that. If you’ve ever wondered how a family remains so strong, how people manage to keep going when bad things happen to them? Stefan Merrill Black knows that they don’t stay strong, and how they manage to keep going is just barely, and at best, quite poorly. The baggage we carry doesn’t conveniently disappear. This story is about the Loving Family struggles to fill the rolls forced upon them while trying to figure out who they really are. The story’s end is poetry.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-25-18
Good story, but rambling.
If the plot wasn't as good, I would have stopped listening. Block rambles. What could be said in 2 sentences went on for 22. It felt like being pommelled.
As far as the narrator, he repeatedly emphasizes the first syllable in a word which made it melodramatic, and sing songy.
The story is good. I just wanted to get to it.
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2 people found this helpful
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- JACK
- 02-05-18
Lives that take a wrong turn
I just kept waiting for the story to take a redeeming turn. But I never really felt it did. All the characters were just too sad and depressing for me.
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1 person found this helpful
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- barry
- 08-09-18
Powerful Meditation on topical issues
The book has a lot to offer about the nature of consciousness, the metaphysics of it, the state of Texas, small town life, the secrets we keep, the mixed blessing and poison of hope, mass gun violence and so on. The narrator delivers the narrative in such a woebegone monotone, however, that in doing so he calls attention to his performance away from the story and characters. This is a book that would probably be better read than listened to with this particular narrator. The one exception to this is the narrator's voice for the small town, Jesus believing speech therapist. If only he inhabited the other characters with such vim.
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- ZippyBippy
- 03-29-18
An incredible story
Would you listen to Oliver Loving again? Why?
No. It was very well written and intimate and detailed and very, very deep. But, it is heart-wrenching and takes an incredible toll on you, leading up to the jaw-dropping ending. I was emotionally spent. I can't experience that again.
What about Michael Crouch’s performance did you like?
The most fascinating thing about Mr. Crouch is that he is never reading..he's not even narrating, necessarily. He is inhabiting. Like a snake, he discards his own skin and amazingly becomes someone, something, else. And like a chameleon, he turns into someone else..Over and over and over again. He makes every character unique, thought-provoking, independent. Each has its own personality. He breathes life into each one--his masterful pauses, intonations and character idiosyncrasies are second to none. These are not characters in a book--they are human beings who, like Oliver Loving, are in search of a voice, waiting to be brought to life. In short order, you forget that one MAN is doing dozens of voices and you begin to identify them within seconds of Mr Couch assuming their identities. He exposes this family's innermost, torturous existence, like peeling an onion, layer after layer. In painstaking detail. Yes, it's a tough book to sit through--its sad and exhausting and gut-wrenching. Is my most-enjoyed Michael Crouch read? No. But, man oh man, he is masterful here. Awe-inspiring, even. He does a lot of YA but this is real real real adult fare. Buy it to experience his skill set alone! 10/10
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No. It needed to be taken in in stages. It's heavy and you need a break every now and then.
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2 people found this helpful
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- GC
- 01-27-18
Beautiful performance, Poignant family saga
Characters and family dynamics brought to life with stunning poignancy and beauty. Crouch delivers a raw, detailed, emotional performance.
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- C. A. Rogai
- 09-20-18
Could not get through this book.
I thought the story had promise but I lost interest after a few hours. Fast forwarded to the final hour to see if I should stick with it but the ending was not redeeming. The narrator did not help. Actually he sounded as dull as the story. My bookclub selected this title for this month’s read. 5 out of 6 women did not enjoy and could not finish it. Would not recommend this book.
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- Trapra
- 10-18-18
I would say spoiler alert but that would imply there was something to spoil
I read the reviews for this book and thought it would be about Oliver waking up and going through recovery. Nope. Bubble burst. Chapter after chapter the exact same events happened- Mom believes he will come out of it and steals or sleeps with her ex, Dad gets drunk and stays moody, brother is worthless, etc etc. The last two minutes we find out what we’ve been waiting for and then it’s over. And to think, I spent hours of my life and that’s it?
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- Danielle Skolnick
- 04-05-19
Sad and bad
This book was depressing, never hit a climax and and made me fall asleep. I do not recommend.
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