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House of Sand and Fog  By  cover art

House of Sand and Fog

By: Andre Dubus III
Narrated by: Andre Dubus III,Fontaine Dollas Dubus
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Publisher's summary

In this riveting novel of almost unbearable suspense, three fragile yet determined people become dangerously entangled in a relentlessly escalating crisis. Colonel Behrani, once a wealthy man in Iran, is now a struggling immigrant willing to bet everything he has to restore his family's dignity. Kathy Nicolo is a troubled young woman whose house is all she has left, and who refuses to let her hard-won stability slip away from her. Sheriff Lester Burdon, a married man who finds himself falling in love with Kathy, becomes obsessed with helping her fight for justice.

Drawn by their competing desires to the same small house in the California hills and doomed by their tragic inability to understand one another, the three converge in an explosive collision course. Combining unadorned realism with profound empathy, House of Sand and Fog marks the arrival of a major new voice in American fiction.

©2001 Andre Dubus III (P)2001 HarperCollinsPublishers Inc. All rights reserved.

Critic reviews

  • Book Sense Book of the Year Award Finalist, Adult Fiction, 2001

"We've got all the ingredients for an old-fashioned tragedy. Brilliantly written, and presented with feeling, this is one of the saddest stories ever told." (AudioFile)
"Dubus has created a novel that is nearly perfectly suited to the audio format....The reading by the author and his wife is sublime." (Publishers Weekly)
"Dubus sets out the growing confrontation with chilly ingenuity and a remarkably observant compassion....[A] fine and prophetic novel." (Los Angeles Times)
"Dubus writes gorgeous prose with a noirish edge." (Booklist)
"An enthralling tragedy." (Kirkus)
"Dubus...is clearly a talent to be reckoned with....House of Sand and Fog is a page-turner with a beating heart." (Boston Golobe)

What listeners say about House of Sand and Fog

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

I suspect I am going to be in the minority . . .

I suspect I am going to be in the minority, but I did not like this book. As the one other (so far) reviewer has said, no one in the book is likeable. I found that to be a bit disconcerting, but I do have to admit that the real world is not densely populated by all wonderful people. I never met a dog I didn't like.

To keep this very brief, my problems with this book revolve around several concerns:

[1] The complete ineptness of everyone in resolving the property tax problem early on and the string of negative coincidences creating the situation made for a less than believable basic premise for the book. Has something like this every happened? I suppose so, but . . .

[2] Is anyone in this book ever capable of making just one reasonably sensible judgement, one which does not inevitably lead to disaster?

[3] One positive. I want to hire those builders who built that roof deck so incredibly quickly. Those guys are not in business in my area.

Over-all, a book which seems highly over-rated to me. I enjoy Ben Kingsley's acting and I am sure he handles the Colonel's character very well but I will have to reserve seeing the film until some day when I am so overwhelmingly sunny and happy that I need to be brought down a few notches.

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53 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Tremendous!

I believe the relatively low customer rating of this book is misleading. Just because the story is a TRAGEDY, doesn't make it any less of a wonderful literary effort. Just because a reader doesn't like the morality the characters, the story is nonetheless brilliant! I am a longtime Audible member. I have never been compelled to review a book before online. I feel that House of Sand and Fog is one of the best works I have had the pleasure to listen to. The back-and-forth voices of the male and female combatants work wonderfully. The reader is steered into the lives of two completely opposite characters to look through their eyes from conflicting points of view. Each adversary contributes to the deterioration of the problem that leads to a shocking crescendo. After listening to this book, I went to see the "critically acclaimed" movie. The film cannot hold a candle to the depth of this book. The characters lives are developed methodically and perfectly to the extent to where the reader can clearly feel their pain. Perhaps, this is why some find it hard to take.

Usually it is a mistake when an author narrates his/her own book. However, in this case the narration could not be more perfect.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

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23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Astounding characterizations, and wonderfully read

I found this audiobook absolutely riveting -- almost perfectly read, with the important twist of having separate male and female voices, given that the book is mostly a series of interior monologues from the various characters. Yes, you know they are all spiraling down to disaster, but the author has caught the internal voices of the characters very well, sometimes exquisitely. The Irani ex-colonel is particularly finely wrought, but I found the others well done also. The book is a meditation on the many different ways we organize our relationships with others, and how many different ways those relationships can fall apart. Father, mother, husband, wife, child, sibling, lover, immigrant, native, boss, subordinate, trainee, soldier in a strict military hierarchy -- Dubus manages to explore and say something interesting about all of these ties, with a bit of political and economic commentary that is subordinate to the more important themes. An amazing audiobook, one of the most satisfying I have listened to. My only criticism -- the brief interludes of music between sections are jarringly inappropriate. One caveat to this review: I have not seen the movie, so I came to the book without any movie-induced preconceptions.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

gripping

i read this book and could hardly put it down....the characters are perfectly portrayed and it is very hard to like any of them. who is right? who is deserving? how can something so simple turn out so tragic for all concerned. the ending couldn't have been more appropriate.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Eerily fine line between normal and off the rails

This audiobook grabbed me by the ears and wouldn't let me put it down until it was done telling me its story. The characters reflect some of the better traits in all of us - romantic love, determination, familial bonds, responsibility, drive - and what can happen when these become flawed. They're enough like the rest of us that I identified with most of the characters, and cringed as things slowly began to fall apart for them.

I downloaded this one 3 days ago. Now it's all listened to, and I'm wishing I had another credit in the bank to get me through the rest of the month. I could probably use a breather anyway. One of the downsides of a great listen...

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Preposterous Plot; Moronic Characters

One of the worst books I've ever read or heard. I could not get beyond the rediculous premise that the author seems to believe creates some great moral dilemna. Does the author expect readers to believe that an erroneous 6 month old $500 tax delinquency would result in eviction of the owner from a house worth $170K and foreclosure sale of that house for $45K on the same day? What about legal due process requirements? What happened to the sale proceeds and why weren't they given to the evicted homeowner? For those who can get past that, the story proceeds with a series of moronic and irrational actions by virtually every character in the book leading to the predictable ending. A complete waste of time.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Intense

This was one of the most intense books I've ever listened to, and I won't listen to it again because it was just so appallingly sad. As the narrator worked through the story, you just knew that it was all going to end very, very badly. The suspense kept growing, at the same time as you hoped the characters would learn to relate to each other but realized that it was impossible. It disappoints me that people give the book bad reviews because they never learned to "like" the characters. Sorry, folks, but the deep flaws and unlikability of these characters are what built the story. The complete lack of self-awareness, empathy and remorse of the female character, even at the end, was breathtaking. I'm sure there really are people out there similar to these characters and unspeakable tragedies occuring frequently. Keep an open mind and listen. I thought it was great.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Far from a favorite

I don't even know where to start with this book. A finalist for the National Book Award, an Oprah Book Club selection AND turned into a movie? Either there is something I missed here or the world has gone bananas. I did not like this book, however the narrators did a great job and probably caused me to dislike it less than if I had read it in print. The first half of the book was interesting as the author developed the characters and provided back story. As the story progressed chronologically, however, it got more and more bizarre. The actions of the characters were foreseeable yet illogical at the same time, making for a very odd disconnect. The story started out as realistic, then became increasingly outlandish as it continued. I don't demand all fiction to be realistic, but I would like consistency throughout a novel. I also felt the character of Mrs. Behrani was underdeveloped. She was ignored to such an extent in the first half of the novel, I was shocked when she later became a pivotal character and frustrated that her minimal character development was done through her husband's viewpoint. This book's summary sounds quite bizarre: two people fighting over a house. I was hesitant to pick it up based on that, and wish I'd trusted my instinct.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Sandy

I bought this download based on the reviews. The reviewers didn't let me down. I never listen to an audio book at home or in the car because I save them for the train commute but this book is a true " cant put down" book. I listened at work, at home,the car and even in the grocery store. I like the way this book makes you think about the 2 sides to every story. A truly though provoking story, I enjoyed every minute

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Good story, bad train wreck.

I am ambivalent. The vision is a little dark, the characters a little flawed, but I basically still enjoyed the book. The romantic sidebar had its appeal but the emphasis on sex was over the top. The conflict is an interesting premise but I couldn't get past the fact that once the county had admitted its mistake, the Colonel should have been legally required to sell back for the price he paid and consequently all the pain and downward momentum seemed unecessary to me as a reader. Unfortunate that not one of these characters grows spiritually or learns anything from this experience, a theme which would have given the story some balance and perspective, and Part II moves at the speed of drying paint. Still a good read though, if not an uplifting one.

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7 people found this helpful