Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Telegraph Days  By  cover art

Telegraph Days

By: Larry McMurtry
Narrated by: Annie Potts
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $17.96

Buy for $17.96

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Not since the publication of his own beloved classic Lonesome Dove has there been a novel like this one, another big, brilliant, unputdownable saga of the West from Larry McMurtry. Telegraph Days is at once a major work of literature and a completely absorbing read; not just great fiction, but fiction on a great scale, encompassing many years, many characters, real and fictional, and the whole vast landscape of place, time, life, and heart, which has served for more than 130 years as the background for "the Western" in fiction and on the screen. Nobody writes, or has ever written, better about the West than Larry McMurtry, and nobody has caught better in words its myths, its often brutal reality, its overwhelming size, and the way it captured both the imagination and the hopes of those who settled there, only, as was so often the case, to dash those hopes.

Told in the voice of Nellie Courtright, a spunky, courageous, attractive young woman whose story this is in part, Telegraph Days is the big novel of the Western gunfighters that people have been hoping for years Larry McMurtry would write.

©2006 Larry McMurtry. All rights reserved. (P)2006 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.

Critic reviews

  • Winner of Audio Publishers Association 2007 Audie Award, Solo Narration - Female

  • Audie Award Finalist, Fiction, Unabridged, 2007
  • Audie Award Finalist, Solo Narration - Female, 2007

"McMurtry's latest skips through western lore with a wry smile." (Publishers Weekly)
"In his striving to demythologize the West, McMurtry's vision of the reality is compelling." (Booklist)

More from the same

What listeners say about Telegraph Days

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    242
  • 4 Stars
    135
  • 3 Stars
    96
  • 2 Stars
    27
  • 1 Stars
    19
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    217
  • 4 Stars
    70
  • 3 Stars
    20
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    5
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    166
  • 4 Stars
    76
  • 3 Stars
    44
  • 2 Stars
    15
  • 1 Stars
    11

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable

I wanted to review this book and come here to find that my feelings are similar to the other reviewers. I always return to Larry McMurtry hoping to find another novel with the magic of Lonesome Dove. This is not that novel. But I still felt it was an above average novel. Obviously, Nellie could not have met all the characters she met if this were a true story any more than the character Forrest Gump could have met everyone he did. But that did not change my enjoyment of the novel and a glimpse of what it might have been like to be a woman in those Old West days. Annie Pots was the ideal reader and I found myself wanting to hear more of "Nellie's" story. No there was not a plot per se but it was a story of a life lived in another time. I recommend it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A page turner after a bit.

Gor this book thinking it was a Western and really it was, but not your normal shootem up roundem up. I really don't like to listen to female narrators but after llistening a while she kinda grew on me. It's a story about girl/woman getting by in the west. Turned out I couldn't stop listening and stayed on to the end and am really glad I did. This story is one that grabs you and you don't want to lay it down (so to speak). Anyway give it a try!!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Good McMurtry, not great

I'm a big McMurtry fan, but his last several books have an overtone of tedium to them. This one is one of his better ones in the last few years, but is no comparison to Lonesome Dove or any of his other western-themed novels. Annie Pots is a terrific reader and you may enjoy the story, but this is not a compelling book as many of McMurtry's earlier works have been. The plot is thin and riddled with western legends, not the real men and women in Lonesome Dove that made it such an interesting story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Another great book from McMurtry

I loved this book. McMurty really is the master of tales from the old west. There isn't a better author of the old west. Annie Potts reading a McMurty book is as good as it gets. Wonderful!!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

NOT a Wild West Story

The best thing by far about this book is Annie Pott's rendering. She made it possible to finish. It is not (as advertised) a book about gunfighters, but instead one woman's journey through life. As such, it does give a broad picture of just how short lived the "Wild West" really was. It is tedious in places, as are many of McMurtry's books since Lonesome Dove. Maybe an author only has one truly great book in his heart. I enjoyed it to a point, but my husband got really tired of the plot.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story, great reader

Annie Potts does an outstanding job as the reader for this book. I wish she would do more. Also, a good story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Where's the plot

Annie Potts is a very good reader. I love Lonesome Dove. But i must say this is weak. There is no plot and just ambling around the old west meeting every famous person. Nothing really happens. I suppose it may be enough to have penned Lonesome Dove, one of my all time favorite books but if you're not going to try to wright something close to that PLEASE STOP.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

great listen/read

A fantastic story, that was perfectly read by Annie Potts. The story is told in the first person, and she perfectly captures the voice of Nelly. There are some great characters here, and some very funny scenes as well.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

loved it

I have read most of his books and I really love them all. This one is no exception! I highly recommend this book for it's entertainment value as well as it's nostalgia...you feel like you are Nell's best friend. Excellent narrator.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Annie Potts is the star

This is a very fun book to listen to. Annie Potts is responsible. She reads the story about an independent woman whose life intersects with some famous characters of her time, including, among others, Wild Bill Hickok and Wyatt Earp and his brothers.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful