Cherry

A Novel

By: Nico Walker

Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb

Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

National Best Seller

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Tom Holland and directed by the Russo Brothers. A young medic returns from deployment in Iraq to two things: the woman he loves, and the opioid crisis sweeping across the Midwest.

In this “miracle of literary serendipity” (The Washington Post), after finding himself deep in the thrall of heroin addiction, the soldier arrives at what seems like the only logical solution: robbing banks.

Written by a singularly talented, wildly imaginative debut novelist, Cherry is a bracingly funny and unexpectedly tender work of fiction straight from the dark heart of America.

A PEN/Hemingway Award Finalist
A New York Times Notable Book
One of the Best Books of the Year: The New Yorker • Entertainment Weekly • Vulture • Vogue • Lit Hub

©2018 Nico Walker (P)2018 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Cherry is a miracle of literary serendipity, a triumph.... [Walker’s] language, relentlessly profane but never angry, simmers at the level of morose disappointment, something like Holden Caulfield Goes to War.... His prose echoes Ernest Hemingway’s cadences to powerful effect.... Cherry is written without an ounce of self-pity by an author allergic to the meretricious poetry of despair. In these propulsive pages, Walker draws us right into the mind of an ordinary young man beset by his own and his country’s demons. In the end, his only weapon against disintegration is his own devastating candor.” (The Washington Post)

“The rare work of literary fiction by a young American that carries with it nothing of the scent of an MFA program.... The voice Walker has fashioned has a lot in common with the one Denis Johnson conjured for his masterpiece Jesus’ Son..... A novel of searing beauty.” (Vulture)

“[An] unforgettable mix of doomed and dazzling.... There’s a vivid, repulsive truth in the way Walker renders his subjects - a sort of social truth, stripped of morality, which is rare and riveting when it comes to the subjects of opioid addiction, intimate everyday cruelty, and endless, meaningless war.” (The New Yorker)

“A singular portrait of the opioid epidemic.... [Walker] writes dialogue so musical and realistic you’ll hear it in the air around you.” (The New York Times Book Review)

Cherry - Amazing First Effort

I first learned about Nico Walker in the NYT Review of Books. This young man's personal story was so compelling that I jotted the title of his book down on my reading list right away. I'm glad I saw that audible had already recorded it before I purchased it in hard copy because Jeremy Bobb absolutely blew my mind reading this book to me. Between Nico's brutal rendering of what he assures us are events that never happened and people who never existed and Jeremy's tough but tender portrayal of the narrator and main protagonist in this story of a lost soul gone to war and then to hell and back was moving and heartbreaking and funny all at the same time. This book will make you think and feel differently about the costs that our young men and women are paying for the rest of us to turn our faces away from the endless conflicts we send them into.

amazing!

Like a good friend telling you his story. So glad I took a chance on this barely-reviewed book.

Loved it

Not sure that this is a fiction, but it was so great. Thank you for telling this story.

Life in vein

The story opens by emphasizing that the characters & the story were not based on true events. However, I find it hard to believe, in this gritty story of war, love & addiction, that the author hadn't actually lived the part of the protagonist. Jeremy Bobb's excellent performance makes the fictional novel come across as a autobiography!

excellent!

I loved this book. It was fast paced well written and fun to listen to. I highly recommend it.

Crazy good ride!

It's hard to believe that this is a debut novel.you really feel like you know these characters.I'm in recovery and he got it exactly right.The chase for drugs and the anticipation and finally the relief of the score.Great debut!

Reads like a junkie'a journal

The story of this guy 's life is rather depressing, but I was prepared for the content. I just wasn't expecting it to basically be one long account of a dope fiend' s daily struggles - some dramatic, some mundane - without really going anywhere. The ending could have occurred anywhere because, nothing really changed. Definitively an insight into the horror of addiction.

Waste of time

I kept listening in hopes that it would get better and that only happened when it was finally over!

Way too much music

Read this book and decided to give it a listen a few months later. The narrator is good, the writing is great, but whoever put this together thinks they were putting together a whole production because there’s all this annoying music in the background. That’s annoying. I don’t want the music and should be able to opt out of it.

Loved it!

I have to say the main character was not exactly likable but maybe that's part of the point of this book. The writing is great and the context of the author and how this book came about is insanely remarkable! The narration seemed to fit perfectly!