
The Bullet Swallower
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
3 months free
Buy for $19.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Lee Osorio
About this listen
A “mesmerizing...wildly entertaining” (The Boston Globe) magical realism western in the vein of Cormac McCarthy meets Gabriel García Márquez, The Bullet Swallower follows a Mexican bandido as he sets off for Texas to rob a train, only to encounter a mysterious figure who has come, finally, to collect a cosmic debt generations in the making.
In 1895, Antonio Sonoro is the latest in a long line of ruthless men. He’s good with his gun and drawn to trouble but he’s also out of money and out of options. A drought has ravaged the town of Dorado, Mexico, where he lives with his wife and children, and so when he hears about a train laden with gold and other treasures, he sets off for Houston to rob it—with his younger brother Hugo in tow. But when the heist goes awry and Hugo is killed by the Texas Rangers, Antonio finds himself launched into a quest for revenge that endangers not only his life and his family, but his eternal soul.
In 1964, Jaime Sonoro is Mexico’s most renowned actor and singer. But his comfortable life is disrupted when he discovers a book that purports to tell the entire history of his family beginning with Cain and Abel. In its ancient pages, Jaime learns about the multitude of horrific crimes committed by his ancestors. And when the same mysterious figure from Antonio’s timeline shows up in Mexico City, Jaime realizes that he may be the one who has to pay for his ancestors’ crimes, unless he can discover the true story of his grandfather Antonio, the legendary bandido El Tragabalas, The Bullet Swallower.
A family saga that’s epic in scope and loosely based on the author’s own great-grandfather, The Bullet Swallower is “rich in lyrical language, gripping action, and enchanting magical realism” (Esquire). It tackles border politics, intergenerational trauma, and the legacies of racism and colonialism in a lush setting with stunning prose that asks who pays for the sins of our ancestors and whether it is possible to be better than our forebearers.
Critic reviews
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Man With Two Names: A Novel of Ancient Rome
- The Sertorius Scrolls, Book 1
- By: Vincent B. Davis II
- Narrated by: Joshua Saxon
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rome, 107 BC. Quintus Sertorius just lost his father, and he may lose his home. When his rural village is stripped of its political status, he must leave his family to secure their food and protection from inside Rome's cutthroat government. As he transitions from countryman to politician, he's thrust into the middle of a bitter political war…. As Quintus struggles to gain the aid his village so desperately needs, he approaches Gaius Marius, the uncle of Julius Caesar himself.
-
-
excellent TRUE historical man
- By Suzi Jones on 12-05-23
-
Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?
- A Novel
- By: Nicci French
- Narrated by: Jane Collingwood
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the day of Alec Salter’s fiftieth birthday party, his wife, Charlotte, vanishes. Most of the small English village of Glensted is at the party for hours before anyone realizes she is missing. While Alec brushes off her disappearance, their four children—especially fifteen-year-old Etty—grow increasingly anxious as the cold winter hours become days and she doesn’t return. Then Etty and her friend Morgan find the body of Morgan’s father—and the Salters’ neighbor— Duncan Ackerley, floating in the river.
-
-
Payoff came almost too late
- By A. Kelsey on 07-31-24
By: Nicci French
-
The Square of Sevens
- By: Laura Shepherd-Robinson
- Narrated by: Imogen Wilde
- Length: 20 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cornwall, 1730: A young girl known only as Red travels with her father making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient Cornish method of the Square of Sevens. Shortly before he dies, her father entrusts Red’s care to a gentleman scholar, along with a document containing the secret of the Square of Sevens technique.
-
-
Didn’t work as an Audible for me
- By NTexHiker on 09-27-23
-
The Fox Wife
- A Novel
- By: Yangsze Choo
- Narrated by: Yangsze Choo
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the last years of the dying Qing Empire, a courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men. Bao, a detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach—until, perhaps, now.
-
-
Brilliant storyteller!
- By BAE on 02-16-24
By: Yangsze Choo
-
The Curse of Pietro Houdini
- A Novel
- By: Derek B. Miller
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Heartfelt, powerfully engaging, and in the tradition of Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, this is a work of storytelling bravado: a thrilling action-packed art heist, an imaginative chronicle of forgotten history, and a poignant coming-of-age epic where a child navigates one of the most morally complex fronts of World War II and lives to tell the tale.
-
-
Story
- By Amazon Customer on 03-04-24
By: Derek B. Miller
-
A Short Walk Through a Wide World
- A Novel
- By: Douglas Westerbeke
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aubry Tourvel, a stubborn nine-year-old girl, comes across a wooden puzzle ball on her walk home from school. She tosses it over the fence, only to find it in her backpack that evening. Days later, at the family dinner table, she starts to bleed to death. When medical treatment only makes her worse, she flees to the outskirts of the city, where she realizes that it is this very act of movement that keeps her alive. So begins her lifelong journey on the run from her condition, which won’t allow her to stay anywhere for longer than a few days—nor return to a place where she’s already been.
-
-
Bleak, lonely, weary story with no real point
- By Amy on 04-21-24
-
The Man With Two Names: A Novel of Ancient Rome
- The Sertorius Scrolls, Book 1
- By: Vincent B. Davis II
- Narrated by: Joshua Saxon
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rome, 107 BC. Quintus Sertorius just lost his father, and he may lose his home. When his rural village is stripped of its political status, he must leave his family to secure their food and protection from inside Rome's cutthroat government. As he transitions from countryman to politician, he's thrust into the middle of a bitter political war…. As Quintus struggles to gain the aid his village so desperately needs, he approaches Gaius Marius, the uncle of Julius Caesar himself.
-
-
excellent TRUE historical man
- By Suzi Jones on 12-05-23
-
Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?
- A Novel
- By: Nicci French
- Narrated by: Jane Collingwood
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the day of Alec Salter’s fiftieth birthday party, his wife, Charlotte, vanishes. Most of the small English village of Glensted is at the party for hours before anyone realizes she is missing. While Alec brushes off her disappearance, their four children—especially fifteen-year-old Etty—grow increasingly anxious as the cold winter hours become days and she doesn’t return. Then Etty and her friend Morgan find the body of Morgan’s father—and the Salters’ neighbor— Duncan Ackerley, floating in the river.
-
-
Payoff came almost too late
- By A. Kelsey on 07-31-24
By: Nicci French
-
The Square of Sevens
- By: Laura Shepherd-Robinson
- Narrated by: Imogen Wilde
- Length: 20 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cornwall, 1730: A young girl known only as Red travels with her father making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient Cornish method of the Square of Sevens. Shortly before he dies, her father entrusts Red’s care to a gentleman scholar, along with a document containing the secret of the Square of Sevens technique.
-
-
Didn’t work as an Audible for me
- By NTexHiker on 09-27-23
-
The Fox Wife
- A Novel
- By: Yangsze Choo
- Narrated by: Yangsze Choo
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the last years of the dying Qing Empire, a courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men. Bao, a detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach—until, perhaps, now.
-
-
Brilliant storyteller!
- By BAE on 02-16-24
By: Yangsze Choo
-
The Curse of Pietro Houdini
- A Novel
- By: Derek B. Miller
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Heartfelt, powerfully engaging, and in the tradition of Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, this is a work of storytelling bravado: a thrilling action-packed art heist, an imaginative chronicle of forgotten history, and a poignant coming-of-age epic where a child navigates one of the most morally complex fronts of World War II and lives to tell the tale.
-
-
Story
- By Amazon Customer on 03-04-24
By: Derek B. Miller
-
A Short Walk Through a Wide World
- A Novel
- By: Douglas Westerbeke
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aubry Tourvel, a stubborn nine-year-old girl, comes across a wooden puzzle ball on her walk home from school. She tosses it over the fence, only to find it in her backpack that evening. Days later, at the family dinner table, she starts to bleed to death. When medical treatment only makes her worse, she flees to the outskirts of the city, where she realizes that it is this very act of movement that keeps her alive. So begins her lifelong journey on the run from her condition, which won’t allow her to stay anywhere for longer than a few days—nor return to a place where she’s already been.
-
-
Bleak, lonely, weary story with no real point
- By Amy on 04-21-24
-
The Storm We Made
- A Novel
- By: Vanessa Chan
- Narrated by: Samantha Tan
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Malaya, 1945. Cecily Alcantara’s family is in terrible danger: her fifteen-year-old son, Abel, has disappeared, and her youngest daughter, Jasmin, is confined in a basement to prevent being pressed into service at the comfort stations. Her eldest daughter Jujube, who works at a tea house frequented by drunk Japanese soldiers, becomes angrier by the day.
-
-
Confusing
- By Brev on 04-25-24
By: Vanessa Chan
-
Anita de Monte Laughs Last
- A Novel
- By: Xochitl Gonzalez
- Narrated by: Jessica Pimentel, Jonathan Gregg, Stacy Gonzalez
- Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1985. Anita de Monte, a rising star in the art world, is found dead in New York City; her tragic death is the talk of the town. Until it isn’t. By 1998 Anita’s name has been all but forgotten—certainly by the time Raquel, a third-year art history student is preparing her final thesis. On College Hill, surrounded by privileged students whose futures are already paved out for them, Raquel feels like an outsider. Students of color, like her, are the minority there, and the pressure to work twice as hard for the same opportunities is no secret.
-
-
Thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this book.
- By Ulissa on 03-14-24
By: Xochitl Gonzalez
-
Black Woods, Blue Sky
- A Novel
- By: Eowyn Ivey
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Birdie’s keeping it together; of course she is. So she’s a little hungover, sometimes, and she has to bring her daughter, Emaleen, to her job waiting tables at an Alaskan roadside lodge, but she’s getting by as a single mother in a tough town. Still, Birdie can remember happier times from her youth, when she was free in the wilds of nature. Arthur Neilsen, a soft-spoken and scarred recluse who appears in town only at the change of seasons, brings Emaleen back to safety when she gets lost in the woods. Most people avoid him, but to Birdie, he represents everything she’s ever longed for.
-
-
The mixture of fantasy and reality
- By Amazon Customer on 03-23-25
By: Eowyn Ivey
-
Madwoman
- By: Chelsea Bieker
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Clove has gone to extremes to keep her past a secret. Thanks to her lies, she’s landed the life of her dreams, complete with a safe husband and two adoring children who will never know the terror that was routine in her own childhood. If her buried anxiety threatens to breach the surface, Clove (if that is really her name) focuses on finding the right supplement, the right gratitude meditation. But when she receives a letter from a women’s prison in California, her past comes screeching into the present, entangling her in a dangerous game with memory and the people she thought she had outrun.
-
-
Relevent
- By Medusa on 10-10-24
By: Chelsea Bieker
-
Annie Bot
- A Novel
- By: Sierra Greer
- Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner Doug. Designed to satisfy his emotional and physical needs, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the pert outfits he orders for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his moods. True, she’s not the greatest at keeping Doug’s place spotless, but she’s trying to please him. She’s trying hard.
-
-
Good, but not great
- By Katie Ramey on 03-25-24
By: Sierra Greer
-
Twisted Lives
- By: Tim Tigner
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It happens more than you might think. One second someone’s life is totally typical, the next it’s terribly tragic. Everything they had, everything they planned, everything they were, all of it vanishes in a flash. Shock and sorrow leave the victim staring into tomorrow’s void, wondering: How did it happen? Who did it? And why?
-
-
An intriguing story
- By Todd Wynia on 08-07-24
By: Tim Tigner
-
The Return of Ellie Black
- By: Emiko Jean
- Narrated by: Mizuo Peck, Tessa Albertson, Nicole Lewis, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work. Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State. But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers.
-
-
BUCKLE UP!
- By Maryanne T. on 06-04-24
By: Emiko Jean
-
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
- By: Stephen Graham Jones
- Narrated by: Shane Ghostkeeper, Marin Ireland, Owen Teale
- Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran Pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.
-
-
SGJ blows readers away again again
- By D. Evert on 03-20-25
-
The Heiress
- A Novel
- By: Rachel Hawkins
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner, Patti Murin, Eliza Foss, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge Mountains. But in the aftermath of her death, her adopted son, Camden, wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes.
-
-
Can’t get over the mispronunciation of Appalachia
- By Brandon Pierson on 01-16-24
By: Rachel Hawkins
-
Victorian Psycho
- By: Virginia Feito
- Narrated by: Anna Burnett
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Grim Wolds, England: Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect governess—she’ll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But long, listless days spent within the estate’s dreary confines come with an intimate knowledge of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family—Mr. Pounds can’t keep his eyes off Winifred’s chest, and Mrs. Pounds takes a sickly pleasure in punishing Winifred for her husband’s wandering gaze.
-
-
meh
- By Pamela Y. S. on 02-13-25
By: Virginia Feito
-
The Book of Doors
- A Novel
- By: Gareth Brown
- Narrated by: Miranda Raison
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cassie Andrews works in a New York City bookshop, shelving books, making coffee for customers, and living an unassuming, ordinary life. Until the day one of her favorite customers—a lonely yet charming old man—dies right in front of her. Cassie is devastated. She always loved his stories, and now she has nothing to remember him by. Nothing but the last book he was reading. But this is no ordinary book… It is the Book of Doors. Inscribed with enigmatic words and mysterious drawings, it promises Cassie that any door is every door. You just need to know how to open them.
-
-
So good! I see a series!
- By Smith on 03-11-24
By: Gareth Brown
-
Blood Meridian
- Or the Evening Redness in the West
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author of the National Book Award-winning All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy is one of the most provocative American stylists to emerge in the last century. The striking novel Blood Meridian offers an unflinching narrative of the brutality that accompanied the push west on the 1850s Texas frontier.
-
-
A beautiful nightmare
- By Ryan on 07-11-11
By: Cormac McCarthy
A great start to 2024
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Good read! Recommended by my daughter.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Amazing!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Mystical Mexican Caballero’s Cuento.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Incredible Story!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautiful prose!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Fantasy-infused Western page turner!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Good story and characters.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The story reminds me a lot of Gabriel Garcia‘s work where it’s whimsical fantastical in parts. The story goes on and on in this weavy windy way that makes it just more interesting. It’s nice to see another author pick up that style. I can picture of the old Texas old Mexican showdowns in my head. This is great keep up the amazing work!
Fun and interesting tale
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Get this book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.