
Underground Airlines
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Narrated by:
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William DeMeritt
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By:
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Ben Winters
About this listen
It is the present day, and the world is as we know it: smartphones, social networking, and Happy Meals. Save for one thing: The Civil War never occurred.
A gifted young black man calling himself Victor has struck a bargain with federal law enforcement, working as a bounty hunter for the US Marshal Service. He's got plenty of work. In this version of America, slavery continues in four states called "the Hard Four". On the trail of a runaway known as Jackdaw, Victor arrives in Indianapolis knowing that something isn't right—with the case file, with his work, and with the country itself.
A mystery to himself, Victor suppresses his memories of his childhood on a plantation and works to infiltrate the local cell of an abolitionist movement called the Underground Airlines. Tracking Jackdaw through the back rooms of churches, empty parking garages, hotels, and medical offices, Victor believes he's hot on the trail. But his strange, increasingly uncanny pursuit is complicated by a boss who won't reveal the extraordinary stakes of Jackdaw's case as well as by a heartbreaking young woman and her child, who may be Victor's salvation. Victor himself may be the biggest obstacle of all—though his true self remains buried, it threatens to surface.
Victor believes himself to be a good man doing bad work, unwilling to give up the freedom he has worked so hard to earn. But in pursuing Jackdaw, Victor discovers secrets at the core of the country's arrangement with the Hard Four—secrets the government will preserve at any cost.
Underground Airlines is a groundbreaking novel, a wickedly imaginative thriller, and a story of an America that is more like our own than we'd like to believe.
©2016 Ben Winters (P)2016 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
Campbell Memorial Award, 2017, Third Place
NOMINATED FOR THE BEST HARDCOVER NOVEL ITW THRILLER AWARD
A FINALIST FOR THE CHAUTAUQUA PRIZE
A New York Times Bestseller; a Goodreads Choice finalist; named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, Slate, Publishers Weekly, Hudson Bookseller, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kirkus Reviews, AudioFile Magazine, and Amazon
"This one kept me up at night and changed the way I saw the world once I was finished."—Ann Patchett, Time
"This is one of the most thoughtful and inventive books I've read. Part alternate history and part detective novel, Underground Airlines couldn't be more timely or thrilling. It's a page-turner with a big mission: to warn against placing our history on a dusty shelf. On every page is the spirit of Faulkner's quote—The past is never dead. It's not even past. Here, Winters takes America's legacy as a slaveholding nation all the way to its logical and terrifying conclusion."—Attica Locke, Edgar Award-nominated author of Bluebird, Bluebird
"An extraordinary work of alternate history . . . Indisputably a winner"—Maureen Corrigan, NPR
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Waaaaay too many F bombs!
- By Kindle Customer on 03-07-24
By: Ben H. Winters
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Q&A
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: John Zdrojeski, Robert Creighton, Jay Snyder, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 8 mins
- Original Recording
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An interview recorded on an iPhone. A police interrogation tape. An FBI wire. At the center of them all is a writer researching a legal thriller...or is he? And somewhere within those recordings is the truth about a murder trial and a web of lies stretching back three decades.
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Amazing performance, overworked plot
- By Jason D.R. on 01-18-21
By: Ben H. Winters
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The Bonus Room
- A Novel
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Susan and Alex Wendt have found their dream apartment in a gorgeous Brooklyn brownstone. Sure, the landlady is a little eccentric. And the elderly handyman drops some cryptic remarks about the basement. But the rent is so low, it’s too good to pass up. Big mistake. Susan awakens every morning with fresh bug bites, but neither Alex nor their daughter, Emma, has a single welt. An exterminator searches the property and turns up nothing. The landlady insists her building is clean. Susan fears she’s going mad—until she makes a chilling discovery in the bonus room.
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Meh with a side of an annoying child
- By Gus S. on 08-05-23
By: Ben H. Winters
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Inside Jobs
- Tales from a Time of Quarantine
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello, Kevin T. Collins, Ellen Archer
- Length: 2 hrs and 32 mins
- Original Recording
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Three offbeat stories of crime and conundrum, set in the present moment, from the New York Times best-selling, Edgar Award-winning author of Underground Airlines and The Last Policeman.
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Modern fun.
- By Jesse on 05-02-20
By: Ben H. Winters
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Hitchhikers
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: Therese Plummer
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
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Annie has always had high hopes for her future. But the reality of her life just isn’t measuring up. She loves her fiancé, Greg–doesn’t she? She’s going to get her degree and open her own business–won’t she? Then, a strange old woman shows up outside her house, and she seems to know a lot about Annie. An awful lot. Annie could tell the old woman to get lost. Yet there’s something about her Annie just can’t shake. And what she learns could change her life forever–but is it the life she envisioned?
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Pretty good
- By Anne on 03-18-25
By: Ben H. Winters
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Self Help
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton, Ron Perlman
- Length: 3 hrs and 46 mins
- Original Recording
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Jack Diller is just one more struggling actor on the road to nowhere. He’s got an agent who barely remembers his name, his ex-girlfriend has hooked up with a Silicon Valley dude, and the milk in his fridge is so far past its sell-by date it’s historic. The only way Jack can scrape together a bare existence is by delivering food to exactly the types of successful people he wishes he could be. Then, one day, a very strange audiobook shows up on his phone.
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Entertaining and slightly thought provoking, overall humorous
- By Jaxon on 05-30-22
By: Ben H. Winters
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Jennifer Government
- By: Max Barry
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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The irreverent author of the cult classic Syrup hits his target in this satire on the wages of big capital. In Max Barry's hilarious vision of the near future, the world is run by giant American corporations, and employees take the last names of the companies they work for; The Police and The NRA are publicly traded security firms, and the U.S. government may only investigate crimes if they can bill a citizen directly.
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Fun Allegory
- By Steven F Giovanni on 01-11-10
By: Max Barry
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Small Mercies
- A Novel
- By: Dennis Lehane
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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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.
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Sadly these streets are my home…
- By shipyardjay on 05-10-23
By: Dennis Lehane
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Swallow the Ghost
- A Novel
- By: Eugenie Montague
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey, Dan Bittner, Jennifer Pickens, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Things are going well for Jane Murphy, or so it seems. She’s making it in New York, a sort of wunderkind at the social media marketing startup where she works. She’s put an experimental writer, Jeremy Miller, on the map by helping him concoct a viral internet novel, told in fragments through various fake social media accounts. But privately, Jane feels trapped, ruled by her routines and her compulsions, caught up in an endless cycle of soothing and punishing herself.
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Strange and intriguing book - not your typical murder mystery
- By Lela Ellsworth on 08-31-24
By: Eugenie Montague
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The Plot Against America
- By: Philip Roth
- Narrated by: Ron Silver
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In an astonishing feat of empathy and narrative invention, our most ambitious novelist imagines an alternate version of American history. In 1940 Charles A. Lindbergh, heroic aviator and rabid isolationist, is elected president. Shortly thereafter, he negotiates a cordial "understanding" with Adolf Hitler while the new government embarks on a program of folksy anti-Semitism.
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Life is imitating Roth's art
- By Matthew on 08-04-16
By: Philip Roth
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The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
- By: Claire North
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Harry August is on his deathbed. Again. No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes. Until now. As Harry nears the end of his 11th life, a little girl appears at his bedside. "I nearly missed you, Doctor August", she says. "I need to send a message". This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow.
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Not what I'd feared
- By Isobel on 04-29-16
By: Claire North
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Fatherland
- By: Robert Harris
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Berlin, 1964. The Greater German Reich stretches from the Rhine to the Urals and keeps an uneasy peace with its nuclear rival, the United States. As the Fatherland prepares for a grand celebration honoring Adolf Hitler's 75th birthday and anticipates a conciliatory visit from US president Joseph Kennedy and ambassador Charles Lindbergh, a detective of the Kriminalpolizei is called out to investigate the discovery of a dead body in a lake near Berlin's most prestigious suburb.
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1960's Nazi Germany comes alive
- By Daniel Black on 10-19-17
By: Robert Harris
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When the Moon Hits Your Eye
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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For some it’s an opportunity. For others it’s a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything. Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and uncertainty. And then there are the billions looking to the sky and wondering how a thing that was always just there is now... something absolutely impossible.
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Buyer's Remorse
- By Amy on 03-31-25
By: John Scalzi
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Between Two Fires
- By: Christopher Buehlman
- Narrated by: Steve West
- Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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The year is 1348. Thomas, a disgraced knight, has found a young girl alone in a dead Norman village. An orphan of the Black Death, and an almost unnerving picture of innocence, she tells Thomas that plague is only part of a larger cataclysm - that the fallen angels under Lucifer are rising in a second war on heaven, and that the world of men has fallen behind the lines of conflict. Is it delirium or is it faith? She believes she has seen the angels of God. She believes the righteous dead speak to her in dreams. And now she has convinced the faithless Thomas to shepherd her across a depraved landscape to Avignon.
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Mesmerizing Knight Errant Tale
- By Tango on 05-01-13
What listeners say about Underground Airlines
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- Kathy
- 01-29-18
Kept me under my headphones without pause
Stunningly good. Frighteningly relevant. Superb narration. This novel, in its clear-eyed descriptions of race relations in the United States, will profoundly affect you. #tagsgiving #sweepstakes
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2 people found this helpful
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- Tony M
- 01-14-17
Better than expected
I love the idea of this book and hope that it becomes a series. There are so many different type of scenarios and stories that could be told under this premise. I really enjoyed the performance of the narrator too.
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2 people found this helpful
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- priggs7
- 02-27-17
3.5 stars
Book Club read. Interesting premise. Some time flaws. Would make a suspenseful film. Narrator does a good job interpreting the main character.
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1 person found this helpful
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- R. Freeman
- 12-02-18
Not sure why it's been well received.
Really struggled to get to the end on this one. So much drama, for a Deus Ex Machina ending that almost seemed to have been tacked on to let the thing stop.
Also, and perhaps worst, is that while there is significant AWARENESS of the "white savior" mentality (they even call it Mockingbird mentality - a nod to an altered version of Harper Lee's classic) it is so thickly layered in to the story it's almost it's own character. For a book that presumes to allow for oppressed people to speak for themselves, that's a serious failing.
Skip it unless you just HAVE to read for some reason.
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- bookworm002
- 11-11-18
Is it a Movie Yet?
Yo. Is this a Movie Yet?! I haven't finished the book (halfway) and I feel the urge to review it. I absolutely love the author's writing; it's poetry. I find myself rereading chapter because they are written to beautiful. I can see everything he is saying in great detail. The story is like nothing else. The creepy and heartbreak part is that it feels really especially with the climate of our country. Well, I gotta go because I need to finish this book tonight. Ok, bye!
#SelfDiscovery #Scary #Suspenseful #Tearjerker #Mindbending #AmericanRevolution #CivilWar #tagsgiving #sweepstakes
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-03-19
Twist
The storyline was interesting. Could not tell who was playing a part and who was real. It seemed people were changing identities and reasons for what they were doing. I definitely enjoyed it.
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- Brian_Miami
- 11-13-18
Chillingly realistic.
It makes you realize how easily such a dystopia could rise. It makes you take a long look at the world we live in now.
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- Keenan
- 06-05-17
This should be taught in high schools and colleges
Would you listen to Underground Airlines again? Why?
No. It's too emotionally draining. It's like having broken glass forced through your brain. I almost quit but I was nearly done so I finished it.
What other book might you compare Underground Airlines to and why?
Farhenheit 451. It's been so long since I read that book that I can't compare structure or voice but it had the same impact upon me.
What does William DeMeritt bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
I would not have imagined the voices the way he did.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
What would have happened if there was no Civil War.
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- D. Fyler
- 06-13-17
Dystopian x 1000
If you thought 1984 was disturbing, then this book may make you squirm. Although it is a fantasy , many parts are uncomfortably similar to the world that we live in. This is a very original story , with an unforeseen twist in the plot. And the narrator was superb
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- Dubi
- 06-24-20
The Big Mix
Imagine America if the Civil War had been averted and slavery preserved. An America much like our own technologically, politically, even pop culturally. But still based on brutal slavery in the deep south. In this world, a freed black slave now works for the U.S. Marshall Service tracking down runaway slaves and thwarting the network that facilitates their escape which, in the technologically advanced present day, is the Underground Airline rather than Railroad.
Ben Winters throws genre after genre into the mix -- on the sci-fi side, alternate history, obviously, and a dystopian near future, tagging several Philip K. Dick classics, and on the mystery side, the hard boiled detective, film noir, espionage. And what really makes this unique, add to the mix the conventions of literary fiction, with a spare plot but lots of scene setting, character development, political and philosophical subtext and metaphor,
And it all works, mostly. Winters took a huge risk as a white writer utilizing a first person narrator who is African American winding his way through the horror of a world of American slavery. Whether he is successful will be a personal matter, but in no way does he fail. I liked it, I think it works -- but only because literary convention gets him there, the rules of the game keeping him focused on character development ad world building.
William DeMerritt's narration is the real star here, bringing grit and authenticity to the voice of the protagonist that would not be there in print. The plot on the other hand, even bare bones as it is, does not hold up well -- there's not much there there. And I for one did not find the handling of racial issues to be any more or less engaging and effective as the current conversation. All in all, though, a very good genre bending story, well written and well narrated, with the potential to get your thoughts provoked.
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