
Such Kindness
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
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

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
-
Narrated by:
-
Andre Dubus III
-
By:
-
Andre Dubus III
About this listen
A working-class white man takes a terrible fall.
Tom Lowe’s identity and his pride are invested in the work he does with his back and his hands. He designed and built his family’s dream home, working extra hours to pay off the adjustable rate mortgage he took on the property, convinced he is making every sacrifice for the happiness of his wife and son. Until, in a moment of fatigued inattention, shingling a roof in too-bright sunlight, he falls.
In constant pain, addicted to painkillers at the cost of his relationships with his wife and son, Tom slowly comes to realize that he can never work again. If he is not a working man, who is he? He is not, he believes, the kind of person who lives in subsidized housing, though that is where he has ended up. He is not the kind of person who hatches a scheme to commit convenience-check fraud, together with neighbors he considers lowlifes, until he finds himself stealing his banker’s trash.
Who is Tom Lowe, and who will he become? Can he find a way to reunite hands and heart, mind and spirit, to be once again a giver and not just a taker, to forge a self-acceptance deeper than pride?
Andre Dubus III’s soulful cast includes Trina, the struggling mom next door who sells her own plasma to get by; Dawn, the tough-talking owner of the local hairdressing salon; Jamie, a well-meaning pothead college student ready to stick it to “the man”; and a mix of strangers and neighbors who will never know the role they played in changing a life. To one man’s painful moral journey, Dubus brings compassion with an edge of dark absurdity, forging a novel as absorbing as it is profound.
©2023 Andre Dubus III (P)2023 Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
Townie
- A Memoir
- By: Andre Dubus III
- Narrated by: Andre Dubus III
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After their parents divorced in the 1970s, Andre Dubus III and his three siblings grew up with their exhausted working mother in a depressed Massachusetts mill town saturated with drugs and crime. To protect himself and those he loved from street violence, Andre learned to use his fists so well that he was even scared of himself. He was on a fast track to getting killed—or killing someone else—or to beatings-for-pay as a boxer.
-
-
More like a 3.25 star rating
- By Suzn F on 03-15-11
By: Andre Dubus III
-
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
- A Novel
- By: James McBride
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.
-
-
Multiple Stories Obfuscate Narrative
- By Stephnsea on 08-12-23
By: James McBride
-
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
-
Wellness
- A Novel
- By: Nathan Hill
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 18 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the gritty '90s Chicago art scene, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight, each eager to claim a place in the thriving underground scene with an appreciative kindred spirit. Fast-forward twenty years to suburban married life, and alongside the challenges of parenting, they encounter the often-baffling pursuits of health and happiness from polyamorous would-be suitors to home-renovation hysteria.
-
-
you have to believe it'll work
- By Alex halladay on 09-22-23
By: Nathan Hill
-
The Covenant of Water
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
-
-
Story Telling At Its Best
- By Regina on 05-06-23
By: Abraham Verghese
-
The Bee Sting
- A Novel
- By: Paul Murray
- Narrated by: Heather O’Sullivan, Barry Fitzgerald, Beau Holland, and others
- Length: 26 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under—but Dickie is spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife, Imelda, is selling off her jewelry on eBay and half-heartedly dodging the attention of fast-talking cattle farmer Big Mike, while their teenage daughter, Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge drink her way through her final exams. As for twelve-year-old PJ, he’s on the brink of running away.
-
-
Bone Clocks meets Jonathan Franzen
- By Cranson on 10-26-23
By: Paul Murray
-
Townie
- A Memoir
- By: Andre Dubus III
- Narrated by: Andre Dubus III
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After their parents divorced in the 1970s, Andre Dubus III and his three siblings grew up with their exhausted working mother in a depressed Massachusetts mill town saturated with drugs and crime. To protect himself and those he loved from street violence, Andre learned to use his fists so well that he was even scared of himself. He was on a fast track to getting killed—or killing someone else—or to beatings-for-pay as a boxer.
-
-
More like a 3.25 star rating
- By Suzn F on 03-15-11
By: Andre Dubus III
-
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
- A Novel
- By: James McBride
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.
-
-
Multiple Stories Obfuscate Narrative
- By Stephnsea on 08-12-23
By: James McBride
-
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
-
Wellness
- A Novel
- By: Nathan Hill
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 18 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the gritty '90s Chicago art scene, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight, each eager to claim a place in the thriving underground scene with an appreciative kindred spirit. Fast-forward twenty years to suburban married life, and alongside the challenges of parenting, they encounter the often-baffling pursuits of health and happiness from polyamorous would-be suitors to home-renovation hysteria.
-
-
you have to believe it'll work
- By Alex halladay on 09-22-23
By: Nathan Hill
-
The Covenant of Water
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
-
-
Story Telling At Its Best
- By Regina on 05-06-23
By: Abraham Verghese
-
The Bee Sting
- A Novel
- By: Paul Murray
- Narrated by: Heather O’Sullivan, Barry Fitzgerald, Beau Holland, and others
- Length: 26 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under—but Dickie is spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife, Imelda, is selling off her jewelry on eBay and half-heartedly dodging the attention of fast-talking cattle farmer Big Mike, while their teenage daughter, Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge drink her way through her final exams. As for twelve-year-old PJ, he’s on the brink of running away.
-
-
Bone Clocks meets Jonathan Franzen
- By Cranson on 10-26-23
By: Paul Murray
-
Be Mine
- A Frank Bascombe Novel
- By: Richard Ford
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the course of four celebrated works of fiction and almost forty years, Richard Ford has crafted an ambitious, incisive, and singular view of American life as lived. Unconstrained, astute, provocative, often laugh-out-loud funny, Frank Bascombe is once more our guide to the great American midway.
-
-
Frank 4
- By lorraine kennedy on 08-03-23
By: Richard Ford
-
We Don't Live Here Anymore
- The Collected Short Stories and Novellas of Andre Dubus, Volume 1
- By: Andre Dubus, Ann Beattie - introduction
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett, Robert Fass, Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The collection includes the novella We Don't Live Here Anymore, which served as the basis for the 2004 film of the same title; the novella also introduces Dubus' writer-protagonist Hank Allison, a character who continues to appear throughout his work. Two years later, the title story of Dubus' sophomore collection Adultery and Other Choices continued the exploits of Hank Allison. While the collection's opening stories focus on the fragile nature of youth, later stories shift to darker struggles of adulthood.
-
-
Finding Particular Stories
- By Horkstow Grange on 03-29-23
By: Andre Dubus, and others
-
Small Mercies
- A Novel
- By: Dennis Lehane
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1974 a heatwave blankets Boston and Mary Pat Fennessey is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors. Mary Pat has lived her entire life in the projects of “Southie,” the Irish American enclave that stubbornly adheres to tradition and stands proudly apart. One night Mary Pat’s teenage daughter Jules stays out late and doesn’t come home. That same evening, a young Black man is found dead, struck by a subway train under mysterious circumstances. Mary Pat, propelled by a desperate search for her daughter, begins turning over stones best left untouched.
-
-
Sadly these streets are my home…
- By shipyardjay on 05-10-23
By: Dennis Lehane
-
I Can See Clearly Now
- By: Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
- Narrated by: Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For many years, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer’s fans have wondered when he would write a memoir. Well, Wayne has finally done just that! However, he has written it in a way that only he can—with a remarkable take-home message for his longtime followers and new readers alike—and the result is an exciting new twist on the old format. Rather than a plain old memoir, Wayne has gathered together quantum-moment recollections.
-
-
Not seeing so clear
- By char on 03-27-14
-
So Late in the Day
- By: Claire Keegan
- Narrated by: Claire Keegan
- Length: 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After an uneventful Friday at the Dublin office, Cathal faces into the long weekend and takes the bus home. There, his mind agitates over a woman named Sabine with whom he could have spent his life, had he acted differently. All evening, with only the television and a bottle of champagne for company, thoughts of this woman and others intrude - and the true significance of this particular date is revealed.
-
-
This Audible is not the full Kindle/Book version.
- By Mary F. on 11-26-23
By: Claire Keegan
-
The Choice
- Escaping the Past and Embracing the Possible
- By: Dr. Edith Eva Eger
- Narrated by: Tovah Feldshuh
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A powerful, moving memoir - and a practical guide to healing - written by Dr. Edith Eva Eger, an eminent psychologist whose own experiences as a Holocaust survivor help her treat patients and allow them to escape the prisons of their own minds. The Choice weaves Eger's personal story with case studies from her work as a psychologist. Her patients and their stories illustrate different phases of healing and show how people can choose to escape the prisons they construct in their minds and find freedom, regardless of circumstance.
-
-
One Of The Most Powerful Books I Have Read in My Lifetime!
- By R. F. Wood on 05-11-18
-
The Midnight Library
- A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel)
- By: Matt Haig
- Narrated by: Carey Mulligan
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better? In The Midnight Library, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision.
-
-
Exceptional.
- By Richard B. on 10-05-20
By: Matt Haig
-
We Are the Luckiest
- The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life
- By: Laura McKowen
- Narrated by: Laura McKowen
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What could possibly be “lucky” about addiction? Absolutely nothing, thought Laura McKowen when drinking brought her to her knees. As she puts it, she “kicked and screamed . . . wishing for something - anything - else” to be her issue. The people who got to drink normally, she thought, were so damn lucky. But in the midst of early sobriety, when no longer able to anesthetize her pain and anxiety, she realized that she was actually the lucky one. Lucky to feel her feelings, live honestly, really be with her daughter, change her legacy.
-
-
Influencer Recovery, Part One
- By Keith Keller on 01-31-20
By: Laura McKowen
-
Nobody's Fool
- By: Richard Russo
- Narrated by: Ron McLarty
- Length: 24 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Divorced from his own wife and carrying on halfheartedly with another man's, saddled with a bum knee and friends who make enemies redundant, Sully now has one new problem to cope with: a long-estranged son who is in imminent danger of following in his father's footsteps. With its uproarious humor and a heart that embraces humanity's follies as well as its triumphs, Nobody's Fool, from Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Richard Russo, is storytelling at its most generous. Nobody’s Fool was made into a movie starring Paul Newman, Bruce Willis, Jessica Tandy, and Melody Griffith.
-
-
Wonderful Book Fabulous Narrator
- By Marsha on 04-27-05
By: Richard Russo
-
The Gifted Highly Sensitive Introvert
- Wisdom for Emotional Healing and Expressing Your Radiant Authentic Self
- By: Benita A. Esposito
- Narrated by: Benita A. Esposito
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If you struggle with a highly sensitive personality, this memoir and collection of stories will help you heal and flourish. Benita A. Esposito is a licensed professional counselor and best-selling author with four decades of professional experience. Even smart high-achievers have themes on their hero’s journey to the authentic self, and these were hers. What unconsciously drew her to an emotionally distant relationship or an emotionally abusive relationship? Why did she feel so hurt when others judged her? Why was she so tired? What compelled her toward self actualization?
-
-
Yawn
- By Rochelle D on 06-09-20
-
Ellipsis
- By: Kristy McGinnis
- Narrated by: Amy J. Johnson
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Smart, determined, and beautiful; college student and art model Nell seemed to be the girl who had it all. A passionate relationship with one of the art students leads to an unplanned pregnancy that threatens to change everything, though, and she must build a very different life than she envisioned.
-
-
Unexpected
- By S. Hall on 11-05-24
By: Kristy McGinnis
-
The Perils of Intimacy
- By: Rick R. Reed
- Narrated by: David Allen Vargo
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mark believes he’s meeting Jimmy for the first time in the diner where he works, but he’s wrong. Mark has no recollection of their original encounter because the wholesome Jimmy of today couldn’t be more different than he was two years ago. Back then, Jimmy sported multiple piercings and facial hair. He was painfully skinny—and a meth addict. The drug transformed him into a lying, conniving thief. Mark doesn’t associate the memory of a hookup gone wrong with this fresh-faced 20-something…but Jimmy knows. Can Mark see Jimmy for the man he is now?
-
-
One Man's Journey of Self-Discovery
- By AudioBookReviewer on 10-08-22
By: Rick R. Reed
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
House of Sand and Fog
- By: Andre Dubus III
- Narrated by: Andre Dubus III, Fontaine Dollas Dubus
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this riveting novel of almost unbearable suspense, three fragile yet determined people become dangerously entangled in a relentlessly escalating crisis. Colonel Behrani, once a wealthy man in Iran, is now a struggling immigrant willing to bet everything he has to restore his family's dignity. Kathy Nicolo is a troubled young woman whose house is all she has left, and who refuses to let her hard-won stability slip away from her. Sheriff Lester Burdon becomes obsessed with helping her fight for justice.
-
-
I suspect I am going to be in the minority . . .
- By BogKid on 01-12-04
By: Andre Dubus III
-
Ghost Dogs
- On Killers and Kin
- By: Andre Dubus III
- Narrated by: Andre Dubus III
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Ghost Dogs, Dubus’s nonfiction prowess is on full display in his retelling of his own successes, failures, triumphs, and pain. In his longest essay, “If I Owned a Gun,” Dubus reflects on the empowerment and shame he felt in keeping a gun, and his decision, ultimately, to give it up. Elsewhere, he writes of a violent youth and of settled domesticity and fatherhood, about the omnipresent expectations and contradictions of masculinity, about the things writers remember and those they forget.
-
-
boring
- By Anthony on 11-16-24
By: Andre Dubus III
-
The Garden of Last Days
- A Novel
- By: Andre Dubus III
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the seamy underside of American life at the moment before the world changed, it juxtaposes lust for domination with hunger for connection, sexual violence with family love. It seizes the listener by the throat with the same psychological tension, depth, and realism that characterized Andre Dubus' #1 bestseller, House of Sand and Fog, and has an even greater sense of the dark and anguished places in the human heart.
-
-
Andre Dubus III Does It Again
- By Suzn F on 06-16-08
By: Andre Dubus III
-
Townie
- A Memoir
- By: Andre Dubus III
- Narrated by: Andre Dubus III
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After their parents divorced in the 1970s, Andre Dubus III and his three siblings grew up with their exhausted working mother in a depressed Massachusetts mill town saturated with drugs and crime. To protect himself and those he loved from street violence, Andre learned to use his fists so well that he was even scared of himself. He was on a fast track to getting killed—or killing someone else—or to beatings-for-pay as a boxer.
-
-
More like a 3.25 star rating
- By Suzn F on 03-15-11
By: Andre Dubus III
-
The Safekeep
- By: Yael van der Wouden
- Narrated by: Stina Nielsen, Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An exhilarating, twisted tale of desire, suspicion, and obsession between two women staying in the same house in the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961—a powerful exploration of the legacy of WWII and the darker parts of our collective past.
-
-
Beautiful. Unexpected.
- By cm on 01-15-25
-
Ordinary Grace
- By: William Kent Krueger
- Narrated by: Rich Orlow
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning author William Kent Krueger has gained an immense fan base for his Cork O’Connor series. In Ordinary Grace, Krueger looks back to 1961 to tell the story of Frank Drum, a boy on the cusp of manhood. A typical 13-year-old with a strong, loving family, Frank is devastated when a tragedy forces him to face the unthinkable - and to take on a maturity beyond his years.
-
-
Wonderful Wonderful - In Every Way
- By tooonce72 on 03-29-13
-
House of Sand and Fog
- By: Andre Dubus III
- Narrated by: Andre Dubus III, Fontaine Dollas Dubus
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this riveting novel of almost unbearable suspense, three fragile yet determined people become dangerously entangled in a relentlessly escalating crisis. Colonel Behrani, once a wealthy man in Iran, is now a struggling immigrant willing to bet everything he has to restore his family's dignity. Kathy Nicolo is a troubled young woman whose house is all she has left, and who refuses to let her hard-won stability slip away from her. Sheriff Lester Burdon becomes obsessed with helping her fight for justice.
-
-
I suspect I am going to be in the minority . . .
- By BogKid on 01-12-04
By: Andre Dubus III
-
Ghost Dogs
- On Killers and Kin
- By: Andre Dubus III
- Narrated by: Andre Dubus III
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Ghost Dogs, Dubus’s nonfiction prowess is on full display in his retelling of his own successes, failures, triumphs, and pain. In his longest essay, “If I Owned a Gun,” Dubus reflects on the empowerment and shame he felt in keeping a gun, and his decision, ultimately, to give it up. Elsewhere, he writes of a violent youth and of settled domesticity and fatherhood, about the omnipresent expectations and contradictions of masculinity, about the things writers remember and those they forget.
-
-
boring
- By Anthony on 11-16-24
By: Andre Dubus III
-
The Garden of Last Days
- A Novel
- By: Andre Dubus III
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the seamy underside of American life at the moment before the world changed, it juxtaposes lust for domination with hunger for connection, sexual violence with family love. It seizes the listener by the throat with the same psychological tension, depth, and realism that characterized Andre Dubus' #1 bestseller, House of Sand and Fog, and has an even greater sense of the dark and anguished places in the human heart.
-
-
Andre Dubus III Does It Again
- By Suzn F on 06-16-08
By: Andre Dubus III
-
Townie
- A Memoir
- By: Andre Dubus III
- Narrated by: Andre Dubus III
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After their parents divorced in the 1970s, Andre Dubus III and his three siblings grew up with their exhausted working mother in a depressed Massachusetts mill town saturated with drugs and crime. To protect himself and those he loved from street violence, Andre learned to use his fists so well that he was even scared of himself. He was on a fast track to getting killed—or killing someone else—or to beatings-for-pay as a boxer.
-
-
More like a 3.25 star rating
- By Suzn F on 03-15-11
By: Andre Dubus III
-
The Safekeep
- By: Yael van der Wouden
- Narrated by: Stina Nielsen, Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An exhilarating, twisted tale of desire, suspicion, and obsession between two women staying in the same house in the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961—a powerful exploration of the legacy of WWII and the darker parts of our collective past.
-
-
Beautiful. Unexpected.
- By cm on 01-15-25
-
Ordinary Grace
- By: William Kent Krueger
- Narrated by: Rich Orlow
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning author William Kent Krueger has gained an immense fan base for his Cork O’Connor series. In Ordinary Grace, Krueger looks back to 1961 to tell the story of Frank Drum, a boy on the cusp of manhood. A typical 13-year-old with a strong, loving family, Frank is devastated when a tragedy forces him to face the unthinkable - and to take on a maturity beyond his years.
-
-
Wonderful Wonderful - In Every Way
- By tooonce72 on 03-29-13
What listeners say about Such Kindness
Highly rated for:
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- DC Reader
- 02-07-24
Satisfying on every level
The audio version of this novel is narrated by the author, whose clear voice hits all the emotional notes with authenticity. The characters are deeply and beautifully drawn. This story of a man broken by the forces of desire to prove that he has ascended from a difficult, poor childhood, and becomes a victim of subprime adjustable rate mortgages (and his willingness to buy into a banker's slick marketing). His body is broken by a fall in a roofing accident, which spirals into every kind of loss after addiction to pain pills sets in. From a handsome home, where he and his wife can take in sunset over a salt marsh, he lands in grim and grimy public housing, with no financial safety net. Before the fall, he'd considered himself a self-made man. In his Section 8 public housing, he strives to be invisible. He is embittered. All this would be depressing if it weren't for the the character's quest to understand his new life, which leads to sparks of gratitude for the simple gestures of kindness by the characters around him, and for moments of clarity that are post script to some tragic, violent events. This is a deeply reflective work that is transformative.
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
- Robert
- 06-04-24
Images
Andre Dubus III is as brilliant a writer as America has today. His stories are unique and powerful. The characters finally drawn. The images unforgettable in their nearly magical originality and deftness. Underlying it all is personal salvation, hard earned from forgiveness, humility and surrender of self.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- JOYCE RODGERS
- 10-13-24
Exquisitely Authentic
Dubos’ writing is so descriptive, emotive, and authentic, I nearly put the book down because I didn’t think I could take any more tragedy. One author described the character as Job-like, and it sure did feel like that was going to be the vibe of the story. I am so glad I was stubborn and kept listening. The story offers perspective and hope for even those of us in the worst circumstances. Dubus avoided a fairytale ending or a heavy handed fable-like lesson. It was perfect. Some have criticized the narration, for me, Dubus’ own voice is what helped lend credibility to the character and deepen the emotive quality. The story was real and the voice that tells it should be real too. So very happy I decided to listen to it all the way through.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Happy Camper
- 08-02-23
A moving though flawed novel
Dubus is a powerful writer and excellent storyteller, though there are flaws that occasionally make this book drag. One to mention immediately is the narration by Dubus himself. He isn’t a terrible reader, and since the novel is in first person it works better than it might have, but it was a mistake for the author to use his amateurish voice instead of hiring a professional. The story of Tom Lowe is moving and expertly crafted. Ultimately, the author slides into sentimentality and repetition in his desire to convey an uplifting message about a benighted life. Yet, Such Kindness has many shining moments, and feels like a critical counterweight to the negativity we see around us. Most people are good, and are redeemable, says Dubus, and we must focus more on such goodness…on “such kindness.”
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
- Nancy Jo Laurence
- 06-14-23
Needed More
Although this story has stayed with me , I wanted more. The main character is in a subsidized apartment that is very dreary. There’s just a little bit too much of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps. The author is the narrator and sets the tone for this Job like character. I wanted a bit more passion-both anger and joy rather than just acceptance.
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
- Mama
- 07-06-23
You Won’t Be Able to Put This Book Down
Andre Dubus III is a polished master of describing how we can all fall, fail and the ensuing despair. Tremendous character development, I felt as if I knew them. An astonishing story that’s tight, extremely well written, and narrated with the level of emotion that the story elicits. Further, this book will help me get out of ten years’ ennui, depression, lethargy. I’ll listen to it again because I know this book is a sacred gift that will propel me to begin living again. I see it as somewhat like a Bible. Thank you, Mr. Dubus. A professor emerita from Dallas. You may have saved, or at the very least have assisted in the saving of my life.
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
- Doreen
- 07-01-23
Compelling!
The author takes you on wild ride with a storyline that draws you in slowly. What unfolds is the road from despair to hope! Took a while to get used to the narrator’s style of speaking, but once I did, I was fine.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Constance
- 07-21-23
The Heroism of Acceptance
It's an extraordinary story of defeat and acceptance. You follow this man's fortunes as he learns, drop by drop the wisdom of humility and compassion. Painful, beautiful, hopeful, heartbreaking. It's a good story that is not a waste of your time or spirit.
The author is so gifted at writing, but sadly, not at narration. As bad as the narration is, the story is good enough that I would still recommend you get it. THAT is how good this book is! But please, audible, get a re-do on this with a professional narrator. Please.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Terry
- 07-13-23
Such kindness
Believable story; situations are intertwined with raw emotions. The theme of ‘gratitude’ emerges giving perspective to Tom’s lived experiences…this works surprising well. Would have preferred a polished reader.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kitty
- 08-19-23
Lessons learned in a difficult situation
Wonderful reading and story that is created in cold winter scenes in low income housing . The characters reach into us and teach us humility and compassion. Loved it all .
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!