A Flag for Sunrise

By: Robert Stone

Narrated by: Stephen Lang

Length: 17 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

Possessed of astonishing dramatic, emotional, and philosophical resonance, A Flag for Sunrise is a novel in the grand tradition about Americans drawn into the maelstrom of a small Central American country on the brink of revolution. From the book's inception, listeners will be seized by the dangers and nightmare suspense of life lived on the rim of a political volcano.

©1977, 1978, 1981 Robert Stone (P)2008 BBC Audiobooks America

A towering achievement

In the Eighties and Nineties, Robert Stone regularly got into the New York Times Best Books of the Year, including Dog Soldiers, A Flag for Sunrise and Outerbrige Reach and although it has been a while since a Stone's book has generated more buzz, his acclaim in those decades as one of the major American writers of his generations is greatly deserved.
A Flag for Sunrise is a triumphant achievement, the Great Central American novel by an American writer, but even calling it that is not doing justice to this dark, riveting work. A Flag for Sunrise is a novel about the shadier, duplicitous nature of modern warfare, and it could well take place in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan or Chechnya.
Stone juggles a dozen of desperate and driven character who are caught in the conflict between idealism and realpolitik: a former CIA agent turned scholar who might or might not be still a spy, an idealistic young nun trying to find meaning in a dangerous quest for social justice, a nearly psychotic Coast Guard deserter entangled in arms smuggling and an assortment of dangerous, double crossing and desperate characters, a half mad alcoholic Canadian Priest trying to finish his magnum opus on the meaning of the universe, and a revolution brewing in one of Central America's hot spots at the height of the Cold War. All of this is brilliantly read by Stephen Lang, in an extraordinary performance.
Stone is clearly a master storyteller, with a suspenseful twist at every turn, penetrating character portraits and prose which conveys this hot, dangerous world with bracing, savage beauty.
A major American novel.

A stunning masterpiece

Once the story takes hold it won’t let you go. And it will stay with you.

My second time

I remember liking this book, but not the details of why. I gave it another listen and it has captivated my attention the entire time through. I needed to take my mind off of 2020 and the world around me. What great writing. Good characters. Dark subjects and bad people. Excellent. Also a phenomenal performance by the reader, Stephen Lang. Just a great listen.

A masterwork by Robert Stone

A cautionary dark tale of do-gooder expats and morally compromised travelers caught within a Central American maelstrom. Robert Stone was a master of the novel form. I had read his classic Dog Soldiers years before and waited far too long to read another. The descriptions are vivid, the actions chilling. You can feel the tropical sweat, the sense of hopeless entrapment in what otherwise should be a heck of a nice place. Somehow, Warren Zevon’s Send Lawyers, Guns and Money comes to mind. Watch your step, mate, in taking this one on. Excellent narration by Stephen Lang.

Well realized on audio

Stone’s a special author. That’s well-established.
But I’m always wary about listening to books that I’ve read and have really enjoyed and especially have loved and how they will translate to audio format. Stephen Lang has done a superb – – superb! – – job rendering this novel to audiobook . So much so I could not imagine it being narrated by anybody else as much as any author but Robert stone writing it. Well done.