The Reason You're Alive
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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R.C. Bray
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By:
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Matthew Quick
About this listen
The New York Times best-selling author of The Silver Linings Playbook offers a timely novel featuring his most fascinating character yet, a Vietnam vet embarking on a quixotic crusade to track down his nemesis from the war.
After 68-year-old David Granger crashes his BMW, medical tests reveal a brain tumor that he readily attributes to his wartime Agent Orange exposure. He wakes up from surgery repeating a name no one in his civilian life has ever heard - that of a Native American soldier whom he was once ordered to discipline. David decides to return something precious he long ago stole from the man he now calls Clayton Fire Bear. It may be the only way to find closure in a world increasingly at odds with the one he served to protect. It may also help him to finally recover from his wife's untimely demise.
As David confronts his past to salvage his present, a poignant portrait emerges: that of an opinionated and good-hearted American patriot fighting like hell to stay true to his red, white, and blue heart, even as the country he loves rapidly changes in ways he doesn't always like or understand. Hanging in the balance are Granger's distant art-dealing son, Hank; his adoring seven-year-old granddaughter, Ella; and his best friend, Sue, a Vietnamese American who respects David's fearless sincerity.
Through the controversial, wrenching, and wildly honest David Granger, Matthew Quick offers a no-nonsense but ultimately hopeful view of America's polarized psyche. By turns irascible and hilarious, insightful and inconvenient, David is a complex, wounded, honorable, and loving man. The Reason You're Alive examines how the secrets and debts we carry from our pasts define us; it also challenges us to look beyond our own prejudices and search for the good in us all.
©2017 Matthew Quick (P)2017 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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When high-school teacher Caelum Quirk and his wife, Maureen, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April 1999, while Caelum is away, Maureen finds herself in the library at Columbine, cowering in a cabinet and expecting to be killed. Miraculously, she survives. But when Caelum and Maureen flee to an illusion of safety on the Quirk family's Connecticut farm, they discover that the effects of chaos are not easily put right.
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excellent all around yarn
- By G. on 01-10-09
By: Wally Lamb
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Lucifer’s Tears
- An Inspector Vaara Novel
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- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
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- Unabridged
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The follow-up finds Vaara dealing with personal demons and banishment to the graveyard shift in Helsinki’s homicide unit. Thrust into the investigation of a World War II hero and the murder of a Russian businessman’s wife, Vaara is about to find that the past has a deadly reach indeed.
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where are the rest of his books!
- By serena on 03-03-23
By: James Thompson
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Any Man
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- By: Amber Tamblyn
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- Length: 4 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In this electric and provocative debut novel, Amber Tamblyn blends genres of poetry, prose, and elements of suspense to give shape to the shocking narratives of victims of sexual violence, mapping the destructive ways in which our society perpetuates rape culture, brilliantly brought to life through a multi-voice performance featuring Glenn Davis, Ben Foster, Marc Maron, Jason Ritter, John Roberts, Russ Tamblyn, Amber Tamblyn, January Lavoy, Phoebe Strole, Robin Miles, Thérèse Plummer, Dan Bittner, James Fouhey, and Michael Crouch.
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I've been finished with this for hours
- By Bill on 06-29-18
By: Amber Tamblyn
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Thank You for Your Service
- By: David Finkel
- Narrated by: Arthur Bishop
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No journalist has reckoned with the psychology of war as intimately as David Finkel. In The Good Soldiers, his bestselling account from the front lines of Baghdad, Finkel shadowed the men of the 2-16 Infantry Battalion as they carried out the infamous surge, a grueling fifteen-month tour that changed all of them forever. Now Finkel has followed many of those same men as they’ve returned home and struggled to reintegrate - both into their family lives and into American society at large.
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Wrenching
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By: David Finkel
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Tiger, Tiger
- A Memoir
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- Narrated by: Susan Bennett
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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One summer day, Margaux Fragoso meets Peter Curran at the neighborhood swimming pool, and they begin to play. She is seven; he is 51. When Peter invites her and her mother to his house, the little girl finds a child’s paradise of exotic pets and an elaborate backyard garden. Her mother, beset by mental illness and overwhelmed by caring for Margaux, is grateful for the attention Peter lavishes on her, and he creates an imaginative universe for her, much as Lewis Carroll did for his real-life Alice.
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a weirdly loving diatribe against pervs.
- By Dane Flakeman on 05-21-11
By: Margaux Fragoso
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The Power of the Dog
- By: Don Winslow
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 20 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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This explosive novel of the drug trade takes you deep inside a world riddled with corruption, betrayal, and bloody revenge. From the streets of New York City to Mexico City and Tijuana to the jungles of Central America, this is the war on drugs like you've never seen it.
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Gripping Drama
- By Deborah on 01-06-11
By: Don Winslow
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Miss Fortune
- Fresh Perspectives on Having It All from Someone Who Is Not Okay
- By: Lauren Weedman
- Narrated by: Lauren Weedman
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Lauren Weedman is not okay. She's living what should be the good life in sunny Los Angeles. After a gig as a correspondent with The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, she scored parts in blockbuster movies, which led to memorable recurring roles on HBO's Hung and Looking. She had a loving husband and an adorable baby boy. In these comedic essays, she turns a piercingly observant, darkly funny lens on the ways her life is actually not okay.
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Good
- By Ajules29 on 04-02-16
By: Lauren Weedman
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God-Shaped Hole
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- By: Tiffanie DeBartolo
- Narrated by: Rachael Warren
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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When Beatrice Trixie Jordan replies to a personal ad, she meets Jacob Grace, a charming, effervescent 30-something free-spirit writer passionately seeking life. He possesses his own turns of phrase and ways of thinking and feeling that dissonantly harmonize with Trixie's off-center vision. As they rollercoaster through the joys and furies of their wrenching romance, they try to come to terms with the hurt brought about by both of their distant fathers who, in different ways, forsook them.
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To see a fortune teller or not to see one...
- By Renee on 08-08-18
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The Death of Cool
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This is his story, or, rather, stories - lots of them, and all gut-punchingly hilarious, from that first far reach into a girl's tight jeans to turning forty with a cataclysmic party. In between you’ll hear about acid trips, threesomes, Nazi skinheads, his band Anal Chinook (Inuit for “warm wind”), Martians in northern Canada, throwing pedophiles in jail, dinner with the Clash, what happens when you crash Bill Maher's show wasted, and the true story of Vice magazine.
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if you don't buy this book, the terrorists win
- By Kelsey Gholi on 04-03-17
By: Gavin McInnes
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Because I Come from a Crazy Family
- The Making of a Psychiatrist
- By: Edward M. Hallowell
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
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When Edward M. Hallowell was 11, a voice out of nowhere told him he should become a psychiatrist. A mental health professional of the time would have called this psychosis. But young Edward (Ned) took it in stride, despite not quite knowing what "psychiatrist" meant. With a psychotic father, an alcoholic mother, an abusive stepfather, and two so-called learning disabilities of his own, Ned was accustomed to unpredictable behaviour from those around him and to a mind he felt he couldn't always control.
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Love and connection permeates through this book!
- By Steve Steinmetz on 06-29-18
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The World's Largest Man
- A Memoir
- By: Harrison Scott Key
- Narrated by: Harrison Scott Key
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Harrison Scott Key was born in Memphis, but he grew up in Mississippi, among pious, Bible-reading women and men who either shot things or got women pregnant. At the center of his world was his larger-than-life father - a hunter, a fighter, and a football coach. Harrison, with his love of books and excessive interest in hugging, couldn't have been less like Pop, and when it became clear that he was not able to kill anything very well or otherwise make his father happy, he resolved to become everything his father was not.
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I laughed every day to and from work. Loved it!
- By KufRN on 06-06-18
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Lifted by the Great Nothing
- By: Karim Dimechkie
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Max doesn't remember his mother, who was murdered by burglars before they emigrated from Beirut to New Jersey. He lives with his father, Rasheed, who is enamored of his concept of American culture - baseball and barbeques - and tries to shed his Lebanese heritage completely.
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Excellent
- By Cheyenne on 06-13-15
By: Karim Dimechkie
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The Forgery of Venus
- By: Michael Gruber
- Narrated by: Eric Conger
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Chaz Wilmot makes his living cranking out old-master parodies for ads and magazine covers. When he's offered a job restoring a Venetian palace fresco, he is at first, skeptical - he immediately sees it is more a forgery than a restoration. But he is soon seduced by the challenge and throws himself into the work, doing the job brilliantly.
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art sci fi psychological thriller
- By Susan on 11-06-11
By: Michael Gruber
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A Necessary End: A Novel
- By: Holly Brown
- Narrated by: Khristine Hvam, James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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At nineteen Leah bears a remarkable resemblance to the young woman Adrienne once was. Which is why Adrienne knows the baby Leah is carrying is meant to be hers. But Leah's got ideas of her own: Her baby's going to get a life in California; why shouldn't she? All she wants is to live in Adrienne's house for a year after the baby's born and get a fresh start. It seems like a small price for Adrienne to pay to get their baby. And with Gabe suddenly onboard, what could possibly go wrong?
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Long time audible listener.
- By Cherith DuBois on 07-11-15
By: Holly Brown
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What listeners say about The Reason You're Alive
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 06-21-18
Great book as any other book from Matthew Quick!
Matthew never let me down with his books. Great story! I really connected with the character's relationship with his son and it moved me so much. I even "girly cried" at the end. It's really a great piece of art!
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- Cheryl
- 05-19-24
Started out so opinionated- ended up the opinions were more even
Helped me follow up in another Vietnam themed book I d just read- The Women.
Validated how atrocious the V war was . For so many reasons. And how this f- up veteran struggled everyday to survive the liberal wrong ideas around him.
However he grew and was helped by his friends and family that he could barely stand, and he struggled to change himself and right a lot of wrongs he had created over his life.
So people can work and accept many other diverse groups and ideals if there’s even a little opening afforded them.
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- Jocey
- 11-05-17
Quick delivers!!
I love Matthew Quick and he has never disappointed me. He tells a great story with great narrators!
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- Shantanu Sharma
- 02-07-19
Lovely story, excellent narration, worth the time
This is my first Matthew Quick book and it certainly will not be the last. I think the narrator makes or breaks an audiobook, often times regardless of the material. R. C. Bray is top notch. He captures the mood brilliantly and really elevates an already fantastic novel to a whole new level. I couldn't stop listening and had tears in my eyes more than once.
Highly recommended.
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- Auvgrl
- 09-16-17
yaaaaas
read this... amazing book. it makes you think before judging someone, puts you in the mind of an opposing views. renews your love for humanity. fantastic peice of writing.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Iris
- 09-26-17
Fabulous
This book is awesome in every category. I will surely listen to it over and over.
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- Logan Jones
- 09-14-24
Story
LOVED this book. The story was amazing I would read it again and again. It’s funny, sad and opens your eyes.
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- Robert J
- 07-07-17
Reasons Why You read
A solid story of A veteran adjusting to life 50 years after the Vietnam war. A story about tolerance and racial profiling. Matthew quick never fails to amaze me.
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3 people found this helpful
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- John
- 06-24-21
Loved This Book
Perfect narrator for this touching story. Cut to the quick. Deeply felt. Commands your attention. Give this book a shot.
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- Anonymous User
- 06-21-22
Wow!
A few sentences in, I thought oh no and now, I loved it!! Cried/laughed!
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1 person found this helpful