• Island Nation

  • By: Peter Heller
  • Narrated by: Suzy Jackson
  • Length: 1 hr and 23 mins
  • 3.8 out of 5 stars (1,223 ratings)

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Island Nation  By  cover art

Island Nation

By: Peter Heller
Narrated by: Suzy Jackson
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Publisher's summary

A chilling and heartbreaking story of a young girl’s loss and resilience by Peter Heller, the best-selling author of The Dog Stars, The Painter, and The River

In this riveting tale of looming apocalypse, Pup is living off the grid for the summer with her parents on an island off the coast of Maine, when all three of them face the hardest decisions of their lives. Across the water one night they can see homes burning and hear gunfire. Pup and her parents, with their goat and chickens and garden and their dog, Opey, have no contact with the mainland, except for boat runs into town. When their friends, two women biologists living on a tiny island two miles away, bring them news of the civil unrest up and down the coast and talk of secession, Pup’s father agrees to go into town with the women in their boat to check on things. It’s a fateful decision that will force Pup to make choices she could never have imagined, and that will alter the world for everyone.

©2020 Peter Heller (P)2020 Audible Originals, LLC.

About the Creator

Peter Heller is the author of the best-selling novels The Dog Stars, The Painter, Celine, and The River from Vintage and Knopf. He holds an MFA in poetry and fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, is a longtime contributor to NPR, and has been a contributing editor at Outside Magazine, Men’s Journal, and National Geographic Adventure. He is an award-winning adventure writer who has traveled the world as an expedition kayaker. Heller is the author of four books of literary nonfiction. He lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife.
Photo Credit: John Burcham

About the Performer

Suzy Jackson is an actress and voice-over artist whose voice has been heard on numerous audio books, commercials, video games, and cartoons. Jackson won the AudioFile Earphones Award for Young Adult audiobooks in 2019. She is an Audie Award winner and SOVAS Voice Arts Award nominee. Her books have been recognized on the American Library Association’s Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults list. Jackson is the proud executive director of Opening Act, a nonprofit organization that brings free theater programs to NYC’s most underserved public high schools.

What listeners say about Island Nation

Average customer ratings
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

WHAT?

What?
What happens? They story was really good and I was enjoying it, but it stopped in the middle.

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

Truncated

I was captivated by this story but where is the rest? This story stops too soon.

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

gripping story line, no solution

this story has a good story line, but I need the story line to finish.
left out to sea, no ending....captures your attention.

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

unfinished

No ending. What happens? Story was good but seems like the author just quit. ugh!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Uh... how does it end???

Easy book to get drawn into with great character building, intertwining of place and time, descriptions that show skill of good writer... involved in story and then... ended. No!!! I realize short story but at such a point of interest in what is going to happen.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great short story!

This was an intriguing and interesting short story. The narration was excellent! I will have to look for more stories by this author.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Where’s the sequel?

Loved this cliff hanging novella but really would like to know what happens next?? Left me adrift

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

I hate abrupt non-endings!! Spoiler-alert... there is no spoiler

You really get into a story and want to hear how the character survives and... “I hope you enjoyed your audible original.” If it had an ending, I could write a review about how I enjoyed it but NO. I’m still sitting here worried about what happened to Fray!!

I just hate a book that abruptly ends in the middle of the story. I have a very good imagination, which is why I still love books. However if I wanted to just dream up my own stories, I wouldn’t read (or listen) to books. I dislike stories that aren’t finished.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Ditto!

Don’t call it a short story if you’re not gonna finish it. This is more like the opening couple of chapters of a book. What a waste of 83 minutes.

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

good

I need more. will there be another? too many unanswered questions. I loved it but it left to much unsaid to be great. otherwise I'd have given 5 stars on all

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