The Kingdom of Sand
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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David Pittu
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By:
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Andrew Holleran
About this listen
2022 Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2022 Los Angeles Times Holiday Books Guide, Long-listed
This program is read by award-winning actor and two-time Tony Award-nominee David Pittu.
Andrew Holleran’s unique literary voice is on full display in this poignant story of lust, dread, and desire—the first novel in thirteen years from one of the most acclaimed gay authors of our time.
The Kingdom of Sand features a nameless narrator who has survived the death of his friends to AIDS and the loss of his parents to old age and tragedy. Now he must witness the slow demise of a friend just a shade older than he is. Semi-anonymous sexual encounters, gallows humor, and classic films are his tools for staving off the dying of the light. In prose that’s in turn mordantly funny and hauntingly elegiac, Andrew Holleran takes the listener from a video porn shop off Route 301 to the memory of parties in Washington, DC, filled with handsome young men, to the lonely facades of rural Florida.
Holleran’s groundbreaking first novel, Dancer from the Dance, is widely regarded as a classic work of gay literature. His following works have established him as one of the great writers of our time. The Kingdom of Sand is an audiobook that will burnish his considerable reputation: a reverie to sex but also a stunningly honest exploration of loneliness and the endless need for human connection, especially as we count down our days.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
©2022 Andrew Holleran (P)2022 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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To See the Moon Again
- By: Jamie Langston Turner
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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The first step to letting go of the past is forgiving it …Every day of her life Julia Rich lives with the memory of a horrible accident she caused long ago. In the years since, she has tried to hide her guilt in the quiet routine of teaching at a small South Carolina college, avoiding close relationships with family and would-be friends. But one day a phone call from Carmen, a niece she has never met, disrupts her carefully controlled world.
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Beautiful Story of Forgiveness and Selfless Love
- By sharon on 09-20-14
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Saints for All Occasions
- A Novel
- By: J. Courtney Sullivan
- Narrated by: Susan Denaker
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Nora and Theresa Flynn are 21 and 17 when they leave their small village in Ireland and journey to America. Nora is the responsible sister; she's shy and serious and engaged to a man she isn't sure that she loves. Theresa is gregarious; she is thrilled by their new life in Boston and besotted with the fashionable dresses and dance halls on Dudley Street. But when Theresa ends up pregnant, Nora is forced to come up with a plan - a decision with repercussions they are both far too young to understand.
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The narration ruined it
- By Janis Reynolds on 06-12-17
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The Big House
- A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home
- By: George Howe Colt
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 14 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Faced with the sale of the century-old family summer house on Cape Cod where he had spent 42 summers, George Howe Colt returned for one last stay with his wife and children. This poignant tribute to the 11-bedroom jumble of gables, bays, and dormers that watched over weddings, divorces, deaths, anniversaries, birthdays, breakdowns, and love affairs for five generations interweaves Colt's final visit with memories of a lifetime of summers.
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The narrator needs some coaching about Boston!
- By Mcm on 05-10-22
By: George Howe Colt
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Beer Money
- A Memoir of Privilege and Loss
- By: Frances Stroh
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Frances Stroh's earliest memories are ones of great privilege: shopping trips to London and New York, lunches served by black-tied waiters at the Regency Hotel, and a house filled with precious antiques, which she was forbidden to touch. Established in Detroit in 1850, by 1984 the Stroh Brewing Company had become the largest private beer fortune in America and a brand emblematic of the American dream itself; while Stroh was coming of age, the Stroh family fortune was estimated to be worth $700 million.
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Beer boring
- By Richard E. Putt Jr. on 05-22-16
By: Frances Stroh
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They Left Us Everything
- A Memoir
- By: Plum Johnson
- Narrated by: Pilar Witherspoon
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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After almost 20 years of caring for elderly parents - first for their senile father and then for their cantankerous 93-year-old mother - author Plum Johnson and her three younger brothers have finally fallen to their middle-aged knees with conflicted feelings of grief and relief. Now they must empty and sell the beloved family home, 23 rooms bulging with history, antiques, and oxygen tanks. Plum thought, How tough will that be? I know how to buy garbage bags. But the task turns out to be much harder and more rewarding than she ever imagined.
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Thought provoking
- By Margaret on 05-02-17
By: Plum Johnson
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After the Parade
- By: Lori Ostlund
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Sensitive, big-hearted, and achingly self-conscious, 40-year-old Aaron Englund long ago escaped the confines of his Midwestern hometown, but he still feels like an outcast. After 20 years under the Pygmalion-like direction of his older partner, Walter, Aaron at last decides it is time to stop letting life happen to him and to take control of his own fate.
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Narrator
- By Barbara on 11-10-24
By: Lori Ostlund
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Confessions of a Crap Artist
- By: Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Jack Isidore doesn’t see the world like most people. According to his brother-in-law, Charley, he’s a crap artist, obsessed with his own bizarre theories and ideas, which he fanatically records in his many notebooks. He is so grossly unequipped for real life that his sister and brother-in-law feel compelled to rescue him from it. But while Fay and Charley Hume put on a happy face for the world, they prove to be just as sealed off from reality, in thrall to obsessions that are slightly more acceptable than Jack’s but a great deal uglier.
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The moods of the mass can't be fathomed...
- By Darwin8u on 05-21-18
By: Philip K. Dick
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The UnAmericans
- Stories
- By: Molly Antopol
- Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Again and again, Molly Antopol’s deeply sympathetic characters struggle for footing in an uncertain world, hounded by forces beyond their control. Their voices are intimate and powerful and they resonate with searing beauty. Antopol is a superb young talent, and The UnAmericans will long be remembered for its wit, humanity, and heart.
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Sensational stories! Brilliant new author.
- By MidwestGeek on 05-04-14
By: Molly Antopol
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A Fatal Inversion
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: William Gaminara
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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In the long, hot summer of 1976, a group of young people is camping in Wyvis Hall. Adam, Rufus, Shiva, Vivien and Zosie hardly ask why they are there or how they are to live; they scavenge, steal and sell the family heirlooms. Ten years later, the bodies of a woman and child are discovered in the Hall’s animal cemetery. Which woman? And whose child?
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Oh my!
- By Jill on 06-15-14
By: Barbara Vine
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This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Ann Patchett
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Blending literature and memoir, Ann Patchett, author of State of Wonder and Bel Canto examines her deepest commitments: to writing, family, friends, dogs, books, and her husband in This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage. Together, these essays, previously published in The Atlantic, Harper, Vogue, and The Washington Post, form a resonant portrait of a life lived with loyalty and with love.
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Entertaining, engrossing, and elucidative essays
- By Bonny on 01-07-14
By: Ann Patchett
What listeners say about The Kingdom of Sand
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- M. Mead
- 06-14-23
Bold, hilarious & profound
Having just listened for the second time to Holleran's memoir-ish novel I've ordered several more of his books from the library. His story of a 60-something gay man living alone in the North Florida home of his deceased parents is so specific, droll & poignant that I was swept along. The story is a quiet one but Holleran's voice is compelling, profound & often hilarious.
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- Harry Kelley
- 09-29-22
Sorrow and Happiness in Tiny Moments
Community, or rather the lack of it, is ever present in this heart felt novel which keeps a compassionate distance from grief and joy. At once entertaining and reflective, The book tells a story that I have not heard before and found remarkable and compelling.
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- Anil
- 02-12-23
Classic Holleran...if you're into his writing
Hardly any author writes about old, gay men as principal characters so, bravo and thank you, Mr. Holleran. I have read most of Holleran's novels and this is classic Holleran in that the reader (or listener, in this case) becomes a voyeur into the narrator's and characters' interiority, their deepest, most personal thoughts and opinions. I have enjoyed being taken on such a journey and valued the author's wisdom and incisive take on human behavior. Others may find it difficult to keep up with a story in which not much action is happening. I disagree with reviews that characterize this novel as sad. There is plenty of sardonic wit that made me laugh out loud. Holleran has a preference for long sentences, each one packed with sensory details. I found this inspiring when I was young but now, not so much. And I am the generation of old, gay men that this novel is about. I'm afraid I found myself losing patience for these stylistic flourishes. Narrating Holleran's novels can't be easy for this reason and David Pittu's narration has a certain drone that I don't think served this novel well.
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- David R. Vachon
- 12-19-22
Old man rambling
This story felt like a long rambling of an old man about his thoughts on death, aging, and old people he knows. There’s no direction nor sense of time. I would have liked to know the narrator’s story more. It’s a quite depressing book but it can be interesting if you’re interested in the philosophy surrounding aging and dying.
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- Steven W. Mccoy
- 03-13-23
Compelling and true to life
Andrew Holleran has brilliantly articulated life of aging in our gay world. Living alone after the deaths of family in a rural community with few resources can be immensely challenging One can empathize with a life of sacrifice to the care of dying parents.. This tragedy is one that many of us face, particularly for those who have left a community of gay supportive friends. David Pittu’s reading is beautifully performed.I felt as if the author was speaking to me directly. Great performance!
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- John Hunter
- 08-02-22
Late in Life
I loved this book for its capacity to describe life for older gay men and people in general. I relate to the narrator and his experiences very much. The book isn't perfect. The story wanders a bit and the ending felt abrupt. But it was an experience worth having.
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