House of Sand and Fog

By: Andre Dubus III

Narrated by: Andre Dubus III, Fontaine Dollas Dubus

Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins

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.

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©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)

Narrator sounds like Native American.

Every time the male narrator spoke, he sounded like Native American rather than Persian. It was very distracting.

5 Stars???? NO WAY

I don’t completely understand those who raved about this. Yes the story was interesting and unique but in my opinion had one fatal flaw: the female narrator was terrible! Her voice was dull and made me want to stick a fork in my eye. She droned on and on and rarely changed her lackluster tone. Even when describing her spicy sexual encounters she sounded depressed. Now I’m by no means a prude, but the details of her sex life were a bit too detailed for me. It felt like the author was randomly throwing them into the story just to liven things up a bit.
Sorry, but I honestly couldn’t wait for it to be over.

Ended abruptly

Story was great, held me entire book , but ended with all loose ends everywhere...ended up annoying. Me! Needed 2 more chapters

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!

Characters that get inside your head, by word and by voices.

Dubus III is fascinating in his purchase upon the landscape of the psyche. Having recently really dug his autobiography, Townie, I was eager to see the powers of invention that describes when he talks about finding his calling as a writer. And it's all there immediately. His characters leap to life out of lives and cultures that are far, and near, flung from his the annals of his upbringing. And he reads the male character so damned well. Knowing all the cadences of Persian pride from his years with his Persian girlfriend. He pulls it all out from under his skin, the hallmark of his writerly prowess. And the way the gears of character shift with the story's angular turns and the narration in two readers works amazingly well. You are gripped and succumb to what begins as a simple story and devolves into so much confusion, and an almost Dostoyevsky-like read on the compulsion that enables the criminal instinct. Wheels that simply come off; and then these people who you've become so intimate with drag you down into their abysmal instincts. Like any good tale, you are sent, simply and directly, on one hell of a ride.

Tension from start to finish

Felt the tension from beginning to end. Wanted to yell STOP to the bad behavior resulting in worse behavior resulting in ......you have to read the book... Good.

listened again

I listened to this book years ago, on a series of cassette tapes and found it so tragically sad, but so well-written, with a fantastic plot, amazing characters and symbolism and an ending like no other book I've ever read or to which I have listened .. AND, I bet I will listen to it again in the future. The fact that it's mostly read by the author makes it even better because he sets the tone, knows how he wants it to be read, like it's meant to be read. I have recommended the book to many and will keep on recommending it!! it's a truly captivating book!!

This book with stay with me forever.

What did you love best about House of Sand and Fog?

The twists and turns kept me listening, the characters were real and relatable even though deeply flawed. I try to never read the synopsis of a book before I read it, and in this case it was well worth it.

Heartbreaking story

The only reason I put 3 stars on the performance was because of the female narrator. I know that her character in the book requires this melancholic, sad tone but it was too monotone to listen to for that many hours.. Other than this the book is excellent.

I wanted to like this

I liked the Persian story most of the time and was sad at its end. I found myself embarrassed by the American story almost from the beginning on through. The end of the book felt like someone had pushed me off a cliff and laughed as I fell.