The Back of the Turtle Audiobook By Thomas King cover art

The Back of the Turtle

A Novel

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The Back of the Turtle

By: Thomas King
Narrated by: Doug Phillip
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About this listen

Winner of the 2014 Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction!

This is Thomas King's first literary novel in 15 years and follows on the success of the award-winning and best-selling The Inconvenient Indian and his beloved Green Grass, Running Water and Truth and Bright Water, both of which continue to be taught in Canadian schools and universities. Green Grass, Running Water is widely considered a contemporary Canadian classic.

In The Back of the Turtle, Gabriel returns to Smoke River, the reserve where his mother grew up and to which she returned with Gabriel's sister. The reserve is deserted after an environmental disaster killed the population, including Gabriel's family, and the wildlife. Gabriel, a brilliant scientist working for Domidion, created GreenSweep, and indirectly led to the crisis. Now he has come to see the damage and to kill himself in the sea. But as he prepares to let the water take him, he sees a young girl in the waves. Plunging in, he saves her, and soon is saving others. Who are these people with their long black hair and almond eyes who have fallen from the sky?

Filled with brilliant characters, trademark wit, wordplay, and a thorough knowledge of native myth and story-telling, this novel is a masterpiece by one of our most important writers.

©2013 Thomas King (P)2017 Audible, Inc.
Literary Fiction Fiction
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What listeners say about The Back of the Turtle

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Wonderful story and narration!

The Back of the Turtle is a geat story of how corporate greed leads to environmental disaster and destruction of family and community, but also how people and nature find a way to return to harmony.

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Another triumph for King, mauled by an awful reader

Thomas King is a national treasure, and this novel follows closely after Green Grass, Running Water and Truth and Bright Water in quality. I don’t know why or how anyone chose this reader, though. It’s like listening to a book read by Casey Kasem. Every phrase is read as if it were some potential prize on a television game show. I pushed through and got used to him, and he does do a great job rendering Crisp, but I can’t think King would approve. But the material surpasses the performance.

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Such a brilliant story!

There's so much to love here.
This is a fun, twisted, grief-filled ride through so many levels of environmental disaster. By the end, you'll want to buy a hammer.
Wham! Wham!

The performance isn't the best. I was a little put off at first, but he kind of grows on you.

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Excellent novel, excellent performance!

This is one of my favorite books! Doug Philip does an incredible job with the voices of the characters, particularly with Nichols Crisp’s!

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