Winter's Bone

A Novel

By: Daniel Woodrell

Narrated by: Emma Galvin

Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

The sheriff's deputy at the front door brings hard news to Ree Dolly. Her father has skipped bail on charges that he ran a crystal meth lab, and the Dollys will lose their house if he doesn't show up for his next court date.

Ree's father has disappeared before. The Dolly clan has worked the shadowy side of the law for generations, and arrests (and attempts to avoid them) are part of life in Rathlin Valley. With two young brothers depending on her and a mother who's entered a kind of second childhood, 16-year-old Ree knows she has to bring her father back, dead or alive. She has grown up in the harsh poverty of the Ozarks and learns quickly that asking questions of the rough Dolly clan can be a fatal mistake. But along the way to a shocking revelation, Ree discovers unforeseen depths in herself and in a family network that protects its own at any cost.

©2006 Daniel Woodrell (P)2010 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Like his characters, and especially his teen characters, Woodrell's prose mixes tough and tender so thoroughly yet so delicately that we never taste even a hint of false bravado, on the one hand, or sentimentality, on the other. And Ree is one of those heroines whose courage and vulnerability are both irresistible and completely believable - think of not just Mattie Ross in True Grit but also Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird or even Eliza Naumann in Bee Season. One runs out of superlatives to describe Woodrell's fiction. ( Booklist)

“At its best, the novel captures the near-religious criminal mania pervasive in rural communities steeped in drug culture. Woodrell's prose, lyrical as often as dialogic, creates an unwieldy but alluring narrative that allows him to draw moments of unexpected tenderness from predictable scripts.” ( Publisher’s Weekly)

“In spare but evocative prose, Woodrell depicts a harsh world in which the responsibilities for survival ultimately give Rees meaning and direction. He depicts the landscape, people, and dialects with stunning realism. A compelling testament to how people survive in the worst of circumstances.” ( School Library Journal)

Good book, bad narrator

The narrator’s tone is awfully bland and monotone. Story is short, and a decent read.

Sadly Realistic

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes and it was easy to accomplish on a Saturday morning. PLUS: The narrator was absolutely perfect in every way!

Any additional comments?

If you are at all familiar with the setting of this book, you will know that the author's fictional account has very real undertones. The poverty, self-preservation and family loyalties are all too real. This is a short book but is packed with meaty, gritty realities that are sad but true. The author masterfully captured the setting and gut-wrenching reality of a young girl's desperate search for truths that hinge on her very survival. If you've ever traveled the roads in this area, Woodrell's descriptions are spot on! It is a treacherous adventure. I didn't even know this was a movie, but now I'm going to look for it.

Fantastic country noir

This was awesome. The writing is wonderful, and the story is compelling and emotional. I highly recommend listening to this, then seeing the movie, in that order.

Kinda disappointed

Maybe because I’m a huge fan of the movie having seen it over fifty times I didn’t enjoy the performance of the narrator I just couldn’t bring myself to become a fan of her as Ree or as any of the other characters , I really enjoyed the audiobook a lot minus the narrator. I got a lot more inside scoop on who’s who and family lineage. I was hoping to find out what made Uncle teardrop so notoriously bad ass and why they all were so scared of him. Maybe I’ll write some fan fiction.

Impressive story and narration.

I wasn’t sure at first if I would like this book. The cadence and the poetic language was difficult to get into. It is incredibly beautifully written as well as narrated. Definitely worth the time to adjust to it!

Superb. Intense. Spare & Fierce.

A superb book, intense with powerful language. In the beginning, the author paints a world with recognizable elements - headphones, school snow days, a visit from the sheriff - and strange new elements - archaic words, a narrative that starts in the middle of things, extended clan backstory, allusions to mystical histories and exaggerated gender roles. I wasn't sure at first if this was a story set in a parallel universe, but it turned out to be a remote and isolated part of the Ozarks. This gives the story a strange and fascinating interest that draws the reader in.

The main character, 16-year old Ree, has a strong voice and point of view, part child, part woman. She has several times when she drifts into dreams which are as vivid and visceral as her real life.

In a short, evocative work, the author draws a community of closed clans and ancient rules that are alien to us. The plot moves quickly, and Ree's relationships with her friend and family are intense and clearly drawn.

Narrator much better than most - she sounds exactly how you would expect Ree to sound, and does a beautiful job with the beautiful language and local idiom.

Great Writing

A story of poverty and drugs in the Ozarks thru the eyes of a young almost woman. The authors prose is stunning as he describes the intertwined lives of this mountain community.

Great Audio Book

This is such a well written book, and the reader is fantastic! My husband and I listen to this on a road trip, and we both thought it was great!

Not my normal listen

The story was a portrayal of Americana that few experience. If you can get through the bad language, you can hear a good story of a girl struggling with her burdens.

I was unsure at first

then the language and story unfolded and bent, then unfolded again. must be 15 words