-
Improbable Fortunes
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
In Improbable Fortunes, Jeffrey Price takes us on a wild ride into Vanadium, a dusty, down-on-its-heels mining town in Southwest Colorado where it would be fair to assume that nothing has ever happened. But you'd be wrong. As it turns out, quite a lot has happened, starting with a suspicious mudslide that destroys the town's Main Street and a cowboy, Buster McCaffrey, arrested for the death of one of the richest men in America, Marvin Mallomar.
As the soon-to-retire sheriff, Shep Dudival, investigates the circumstances surrounding the murder, it comes to light that Buster and Mallomar's young wife were having a Cowboy Always Rings Twice affair. From there Price takes this familiar story plot and turns it on its head - folding a rococo cast of Vanadium's characters into a time line that begins with Vanadium's post-WWII labor strife and ends with the Kulturkampf of present day.
While it may all seem humorous and surreal at first blush, one gets the feeling by Improbable Fortunes' unguessable conclusion that Price has used the fictitious town of Vanadium - a place without a recognizable gas station, a decent restaurant, or a clean bathroom - as the Rosetta Stone for something larger.
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
Hot White Heist 2
- By: Adam Goldman
- Narrated by: Bowen Yang, Jane Lynch, Cynthia Nixon, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 38 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two years after successfully melting down the top secret sperm bank under the Space Needle, the CLITO collective (Community of Lesbians Inclusive To Others) is thriving on their newly acquired private island, Lesbos 2. All is well in their queer utopia. Or is it? Investigative reporter Sarah Keebler (Sarah Steele) is piecing together the crew's previous heist for her bombshell true-crime podcast–and getting dangerously close to the truth.
-
-
AS FUN AS SEASON1
- By Robert on 03-07-24
By: Adam Goldman
-
Born a Crime
- Stories from a South African Childhood
- By: Trevor Noah
- Narrated by: Trevor Noah
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this award-winning Audible Studios production, Trevor Noah tells his wild coming-of-age tale during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa. It’s a story that begins with his mother throwing him from a moving van to save him from a potentially fatal dispute with gangsters, then follows the budding comedian’s path to self-discovery through episodes both poignant and comical.
-
-
Great book and perfect narration
- By MarilynArms on 12-15-16
By: Trevor Noah
-
Napoleon's Hemorrhoids…And Other Small Events That Changed History
- By: Phil Mason
- Narrated by: LJ Ganser
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hilarious, fascinating, and a roller coaster of dizzying, historical what-ifs, Napoleon's Hemorrhoids is a potpourri for serious historians and casual history buffs. In one of Phil Mason's many revelations, you'll learn that Communist jets were two minutes away from opening fire on American planes during the Cuban missile crisis, when they had to turn back as they were running out of fuel. You'll discover that before the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon's painful hemorrhoids prevented him from mounting his horse to survey the battlefield.
-
-
They just throw the facts too fast
- By Concerned_llama on 12-11-20
By: Phil Mason
-
Slaughterhouse-Five
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: James Franco
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Traumatized by the bombing of Dresden at the time he had been imprisoned, Pilgrim drifts through all events and history, sometimes deeply implicated, sometimes a witness. He is surrounded by Vonnegut's usual large cast of continuing characters (notably here the hack science fiction writer Kilgore Trout and the alien Tralfamadorians, who oversee his life and remind him constantly that there is no causation, no order, no motive to existence).
-
-
Don't Quit Your Daytime Job, James
- By Keith on 11-20-15
By: Kurt Vonnegut
-
Heads Will Roll
- By: Kate McKinnon, Emily Lynne
- Narrated by: Kate McKinnon, Emily Lynne, Tim Gunn, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 6 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Heads Will Roll is an Audible Original from Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon and her cocreator/costar (and real-life sister) Emily Lynne. Produced by Broadway Video, this is not an audiobook - it’s a 10-episode, star-studded audio comedy that features performances from Meryl Streep, Tim Gunn, Peter Dinklage, Queer Eye’s Fab Five, and so many more. Please note: This content is not for kids.
-
-
More like this please
- By Anon893 on 05-03-19
By: Kate McKinnon, and others
-
Center of the YOUniverse
- By: Tituss Burgess, Jane Krakowski
- Narrated by: Tituss Burgess, Jane Krakowski
- Length: 1 hr and 24 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Center of the YOUniverse is an out-of-this-world spectacle starring Tituss Burgess and Jane Krakowski with music, laughter, and (probably) the salvation of humanity from its self-inflicted doom. Unaware of just how brightly the other one shines, Tituss and Jane will attempt the impossible: a double-booking. In a unique blend of song and storytelling, they’ll stop at nothing to upstage each other and steal the spotlight…until they realize the true purpose of being ridiculously attractive and having immeasureble talent: to unite and heal the world.
-
-
Yikes, it had potential but…
- By Chantal Noordeloos on 12-27-23
By: Tituss Burgess, and others
-
Hot White Heist 2
- By: Adam Goldman
- Narrated by: Bowen Yang, Jane Lynch, Cynthia Nixon, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 38 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two years after successfully melting down the top secret sperm bank under the Space Needle, the CLITO collective (Community of Lesbians Inclusive To Others) is thriving on their newly acquired private island, Lesbos 2. All is well in their queer utopia. Or is it? Investigative reporter Sarah Keebler (Sarah Steele) is piecing together the crew's previous heist for her bombshell true-crime podcast–and getting dangerously close to the truth.
-
-
AS FUN AS SEASON1
- By Robert on 03-07-24
By: Adam Goldman
-
Born a Crime
- Stories from a South African Childhood
- By: Trevor Noah
- Narrated by: Trevor Noah
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this award-winning Audible Studios production, Trevor Noah tells his wild coming-of-age tale during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa. It’s a story that begins with his mother throwing him from a moving van to save him from a potentially fatal dispute with gangsters, then follows the budding comedian’s path to self-discovery through episodes both poignant and comical.
-
-
Great book and perfect narration
- By MarilynArms on 12-15-16
By: Trevor Noah
-
Napoleon's Hemorrhoids…And Other Small Events That Changed History
- By: Phil Mason
- Narrated by: LJ Ganser
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hilarious, fascinating, and a roller coaster of dizzying, historical what-ifs, Napoleon's Hemorrhoids is a potpourri for serious historians and casual history buffs. In one of Phil Mason's many revelations, you'll learn that Communist jets were two minutes away from opening fire on American planes during the Cuban missile crisis, when they had to turn back as they were running out of fuel. You'll discover that before the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon's painful hemorrhoids prevented him from mounting his horse to survey the battlefield.
-
-
They just throw the facts too fast
- By Concerned_llama on 12-11-20
By: Phil Mason
-
Slaughterhouse-Five
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: James Franco
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Traumatized by the bombing of Dresden at the time he had been imprisoned, Pilgrim drifts through all events and history, sometimes deeply implicated, sometimes a witness. He is surrounded by Vonnegut's usual large cast of continuing characters (notably here the hack science fiction writer Kilgore Trout and the alien Tralfamadorians, who oversee his life and remind him constantly that there is no causation, no order, no motive to existence).
-
-
Don't Quit Your Daytime Job, James
- By Keith on 11-20-15
By: Kurt Vonnegut
-
Heads Will Roll
- By: Kate McKinnon, Emily Lynne
- Narrated by: Kate McKinnon, Emily Lynne, Tim Gunn, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 6 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Heads Will Roll is an Audible Original from Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon and her cocreator/costar (and real-life sister) Emily Lynne. Produced by Broadway Video, this is not an audiobook - it’s a 10-episode, star-studded audio comedy that features performances from Meryl Streep, Tim Gunn, Peter Dinklage, Queer Eye’s Fab Five, and so many more. Please note: This content is not for kids.
-
-
More like this please
- By Anon893 on 05-03-19
By: Kate McKinnon, and others
-
Center of the YOUniverse
- By: Tituss Burgess, Jane Krakowski
- Narrated by: Tituss Burgess, Jane Krakowski
- Length: 1 hr and 24 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Center of the YOUniverse is an out-of-this-world spectacle starring Tituss Burgess and Jane Krakowski with music, laughter, and (probably) the salvation of humanity from its self-inflicted doom. Unaware of just how brightly the other one shines, Tituss and Jane will attempt the impossible: a double-booking. In a unique blend of song and storytelling, they’ll stop at nothing to upstage each other and steal the spotlight…until they realize the true purpose of being ridiculously attractive and having immeasureble talent: to unite and heal the world.
-
-
Yikes, it had potential but…
- By Chantal Noordeloos on 12-27-23
By: Tituss Burgess, and others
-
I Can't Make This Up
- Life Lessons
- By: Neil Strauss - contributor, Kevin Hart
- Narrated by: Kevin Hart
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Superstar comedian and Hollywood box-office star Kevin Hart turns his immense talent to the written word by writing some words. Some of those words include: the, a, for, above, and even even. Put them together and you have the funniest, most heartfelt, and most inspirational memoir on survival, success, and the importance of believing in yourself since Old Yeller.
-
-
Best Audiobook I Ever Listened To
- By Sam Clear on 07-13-17
By: Neil Strauss - contributor, and others
-
Brackish Waters
- By: Matt Boren
- Narrated by: Christina Applegate
- Length: 1 hr and 55 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Kate wins an item at her children’s elementary school auction - an all-inclusive trip to SeaView at Sandpiper Bay - she thinks it’s just what her family needs after a decade of career disappointments and a marriage on its last legs. She has no reason to believe that said trip is a Fyre Festival-level fraud and, in fact, the catalyst to her unraveling. But it is. Oh, but it is.
-
-
Christina Applegate is everything
- By Julie on 03-21-21
By: Matt Boren
-
American Psycho
- By: Bret Easton Ellis
- Narrated by: Pablo Schreiber
- Length: 16 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Patrick Bateman moves among the young and trendy in 1980s Manhattan. Young, handsome, and well educated, Bateman earns his fortune on Wall Street by day while spending his nights in ways we cannot begin to fathom. Expressing his true self through torture and murder, Bateman prefigures an apocalyptic horror that no society could bear to confront.
-
-
Fanntastic book but maybe not for everyone....
- By So Fain on 03-27-11
-
Breakfast of Champions
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: John Malkovich
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Breakfast of Champions (1973) provides frantic, scattershot satire and a collage of Vonnegut's obsessions. His recurring cast of characters and American landscape was perhaps the most controversial of his canon; it was felt by many at the time to be a disappointing successor to Slaughterhouse-Five, which had made Vonnegut's literary reputation.
-
-
Kurt Was Right to Grade This a C
- By Dubi on 01-10-16
By: Kurt Vonnegut
-
Escape from Virtual Island
- An Audio Comedy
- By: John Lutz
- Narrated by: Paul Rudd, Jack McBrayer, Sue Galloway, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the year 2038, there’s only one destination that can play host to the world’s wealthiest adventure seekers: the Pengalaman Island Resort and Virtual Reality Theme Park. Located on a private South Pacific island, guests here live out their wildest fantasies in custom-made virtual reality simulations while also enjoying the usual amenities of an exclusive five-star getaway. All is relatively breezy until famed billionaire and avid guest, Mr. Wagner, goes missing within a virtual simulation. His only hope? A daring rescue led by Derek Ambrose and his ragtag search party.
-
-
Story is a Bit Stupid
- By Jeffrey veals on 04-03-20
By: John Lutz
-
Benefits with Friends
- Starring Mae Martin and Sabrina Jalees
- By: Mae Martin, Sabrina Jalees
- Narrated by: Mae Martin, Sabrina Jalees
- Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sex, money, religion...all topics that we’re told to avoid in polite company. But exactly the kind of conversations you should be having with your bestie, according to best friends of more than 20 years, Mae Martin (Feel Good) and Sabrina Jalees (Roast Battle). Romantic couples are often guided through the conversations they should be having before committing to each other–but what are the topics that best friends should be covering to truly get to know each other?
-
-
This was amazing - season 2 please?!
- By friday on 03-18-24
By: Mae Martin, and others
What listeners say about Improbable Fortunes
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- TwoInchTammy
- 11-20-16
Freaking Fantastic
This book should be a movie. Such a great story with tons of humor. Loved it!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- David
- 10-10-16
Not a bad listen,
I sort of view this as Carl Hiaasen meets the west!
I think that this is a very good listen if you are looking for a tongue-in-cheek western. Not quite as entertaining as most of Carl's works, but better than some of his. The story line was okay, not great, but good enough. I thought that Jeffrey Price did an excellent job with the narration, great vocals for each character. This is my first book for both the author and the reader. Worth a credit ....not the best but far from the worst that I have heard. I will probably try others by this author, hoping for a bit better. If you are looking for a new author, give it a try!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- A. Outlaw
- 05-29-17
Fantastic story line
I can't wait to start it all over again. What a great book. I had a hard time focusing on work since starting it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tammy
- 02-18-17
Must Listen for anyone ...
Where does Improbable Fortunes rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
... who has admired Tom Robbins or Tom McGuane or is aware of the complex and colorful collisions that inform the changing American West. Jonathan Davis stands on his head as he bring's one after another of Price's singular characters to life - often several in a single high rev interchange. Probably more laugh out loud moments listening this one than I've experienced in long while. The economic renaissance section is one of the smartest takes on capitalists going cowboy ever. Listen up.
Who was your favorite character and why?
The thrill of the listen is that new best characters continue to pour forth as the tale moves forward and their juxtaposition - old school law man to meth head to Wall Street master of the universe to cowboys and kinda-cowboys.
Which character – as performed by Jonathan Davis – was your favorite?
Jimmy and Sheriff Dutiful are tied.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Veronica Nun
- 09-28-16
Improbable
Yes, this book's storyline was full of improbabilities that sometimes bordered on the absurd or ridiculous. The narrator did a great job imitating all the different voices but there is a lot of vulgarity, so be prepared.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Empress Karen
- 12-23-16
Not For Me, But Give it A Try
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
this is a new and not for me author. I wanted to like it, but I kept changing to another audio book every time I tried to listen to this book by chapter 3.
note: I do use the new 1.25x speed, which helped
What was most disappointing about Jeffrey Price’s story?
Well the reviews were great, and of course I purchased due to Mr. Davis, the reader, but the humor is just a bit too constant, which for me, lost it's value. There is a story, but I kept missing it in the 3 chapters I attempted a few times.
What does Jonathan Davis bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
I love J.D. as a reader. Unfortunately he reads lots of Sci Fi, so I purchase what I can that he reads. See Sandra Brown's Mean Streak. He does such a fab job!!
Was Improbable Fortunes worth the listening time?
No stopped at chapter 3 too many times.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jack
- 09-27-16
B.A.D.
Boring and Dumb! I kept waiting for this book to become enjoyable based on reviews - didn't happen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!