A Children's Bible

By: Lydia Millet

Narrated by: Xe Sands

Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Pulitzer Prize finalist Lydia Millet's sublime new novel - her first since the National Book Award long-listed Sweet Lamb of Heaven - follows a group of 12 eerily mature children on a forced vacation with their families at a sprawling lakeside mansion.

Contemptuous of their parents, who pass their days in a stupor of liquor, drugs, and sex, the children feel neglected and suffocated at the same time. When a destructive storm descends on the summer estate, the group's ringleaders - including Eve, who narrates the story - decide to run away, leading the younger ones on a dangerous foray into the apocalyptic chaos outside.

As the scenes of devastation begin to mimic events in the dog-eared picture Bible carried around by her beloved little brother, Eve devotes herself to keeping him safe from harm.

A Children's Bible is a prophetic, heartbreaking story of generational divide - and a haunting vision of what awaits us on the far side of Revelation.

©2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Hard to describe but brilliant

Everything about this book is close to perfect, but I find it difficult to say why, exactly. It weaves together so many different strands seemingly effortlessly, and while it’s hardly cheery, it’s often funny and always whip smart. One of my favorites from the last several years.

Synchronicity

This production is the rare occasion when the reader and what is read are perfectly in sync. And it is true. Xe Sands is the only American voice I’ve listened to that isn’t a self conscious exercise in elocution. Rather, it is true to the novel’s characters, plot and spirit. Thank you both for giving us a glimpse into a future that truly is hard to comprehend for our grandchildren. But we must.

Meh Boring and pretentious but well written

Characters were underdeveloped and parents in all groups were stereotyped. Maybe this was how kids would write their version of things. Seemed too whiny even for a YA book, which I thought this might be. The biblical analogy was hit and miss and too much a dystopia without solutions. I really wanted to like someone in the book.

crazy journey, but an fabulous read.

I loved this story, partly because it was a delightful adventure, but also because the narrator was so good.

Hard to follow

struggled with the narrator's voice here. the story has its moments but eventually very fleeting at best.

Save for an easier time

This is a great book , read by my favorite narrator, but in these crazy times it strikes a little too close to home - def worth reading - but maybe wait till easier days are with us

Better than Tartt

Precocious and world-weary kids, post-Apocalypse, Zombie free-love parents, all set against a Bible parable backdrop -- what's not to like? This is what The Goldfinch or Secret History could have been.

Beautiful, bleak

Reads like a long poem, dreamy, and dark. The performance is compelling, if a bit monotone and a bit too quiet at times.

seems more like a YA book

Although I listened through to the end, I was a little disappointed overall. The performance and story we're bad, but both lacked excitement and enthusiasm.

Not sure what to make of this

Wow, this was all over the place. On the one hand, the writing was good. The story was - eh. It was overbaked & got to read like a bad episode of The Walking Dead. I couldn't really care for the characters & by the time this short book ended I was glad. The narrator did as good a job as can be expected with such removed writing. I'm shocked it's so well regarded. Not sure I'd have wasted a credit on it. It was uncomfortable, but not new. These topics have been covered better by other writers.