Judith

I never buy abridges books but A Path Between the Seas by David McCullough wasn't available unabridged.

This is a book of history but so much info is left out. There are gaps in the retelling of the very interesting time of American history. People just appear and disappear abruptly. Incidence and documents are referred to with no explanation or foundation. A careful listen still leaves the reader wondering.

I feel cheated. I listened several times to the book thinking I had missed episodes that were important to the meaning of the flow of history, but I hadn't, things were left out. The reader was left hanging wondering what happened between here and there, and who is this important person and where did he/she come from

The least Audible could do is warn their customers that this book is poorly abridged and that there is no unabridged version. It's a good read as a novel but falls short of McCullough's other high quality unabridged history books. The abridgement degrades Mr. McCullough's fine reputation.

From audible.com:
"What the Critics Say"
"A chunk of history full of giant-sized characters and rich in political skullduggery." (The New York Times)

The Critics must have read the unabridged version.

A disappointment. Simon and Schuster missed the boat here.