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Gilead (Oprah's Book Club)
- Narrated by: Tim Jerome
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
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Publisher's summary
Pulitzer Prize, Fiction, 2005
National Book Critics Circle Award, Fiction, 2005
In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears. Ames is the son of an Iowan preacher and the grandson of a minister who, as a young man in Maine, saw a vision of Christ bound in chains and came west to Kansas to fight for abolition: He "preached men into the Civil War", then, at age 50, became a chaplain in the Union Army, losing his right eye in battle. Reverend Ames writes to his son about the tension between his father, an ardent pacifist, and his grandfather, whose pistol and bloody shirts, concealed in an army blanket, may be relics from the fight between the abolitionists and those settlers who wanted to vote Kansas into the union as a slave state. And he tells a story of the sacred bonds between fathers and sons, which are tested in his tender and strained relationship with his namesake, John Ames Boughton, his best friend's wayward son.This is also the tale of another remarkable vision, not a corporeal vision of God but the vision of life as a wondrously strange creation. It tells how wisdom was forged in Ames's soul during his solitary life, and how history lives through generations, pervasively present even when betrayed and forgotten.
Gilead is the long-hoped-for second novel by one of our finest writers, a hymn of praise and lamentation to the God-haunted existence that Reverend Ames loves passionately, and from which he will soon part.
Critic reviews
"The long wait has been worth it....Robinson's prose is beautiful, shimmering, and precise....Destined to become her second classic." ( Publishers Weekly)
"[ Gilead] is so serenely beautiful, and written in a prose so gravely measured and thoughtful, that one feels touched with grace just to read it." ( The Washington Post Book World)
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What makes a good audiobook series? There are as many answers to this question as there are listeners. For some, it might be epic battles. For others, it might be ongoing romantic twists and tensions. For still others, it might be elongated character studies or an in-depth analysis of a particular time and place. But the universal element of a truly great series is that it sticks with you long after the last word. These are our favorites from every major genre.
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- By José de Ribera on 12-17-20
By: King James Bible
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He Who Fights with Monsters 2
- A LitRPG Adventure (He Who Fights with Monsters, Book 2)
- By: Shirtaloon, Travis Deverell
- Narrated by: Heath Miller
- Length: 22 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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But Jason Asano is settling into his new life. Now, a contest draws young elites to the city of Greenstone to compete for a grand prize. Jason must gather a band of companions if he is to stand a chance against the best the world has to offer. While the young adventurers are caught up in competition, the city leaders deal with revelations of betrayal as a vast and terrible enemy is revealed. Although Jason seems uninvolved, he has unknowingly crossed the enemy’s path before.
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Contrary to common reviews
- By Karen on 05-21-21
By: Shirtaloon, and others
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Find Her
- By: Sarah A. Denzil
- Narrated by: Catrin Walker-Booth
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s Christmas Day at Wilder House, and three magical winter weddings are set to begin. But as the tables are arranged, and the food is prepared, a perfect storm hits, cutting every guest from the rest of the world. Most little girls dream of the perfect wedding. But this bride stumbles alone into the snow, her silk train dragging through dirt, her hands bloody from the murder she just committed. Now there is at least one killer roaming the unforgiving landscape surrounding Wilder House. Who else will die on Christmas Day?
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a little bit of wicked fun
- By A. Bohn on 01-25-24
By: Sarah A. Denzil
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The Bedroom Window
- By: K. L. Slater
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
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My darling little boy Albie adores playing at our new neighbours’ house. And after the terrible year we’ve had, I feel so lucky that we can start over in this perfect place, with new friends who treat Albie like the son they never had. He can’t stop talking about the tree house they’re building him, and the cookies they bake together. But as time passes, something starts to feel wrong. Why don’t they ever open the front door more than a crack? They told me they had no children so who does the small pink tricycle I saw in their hall belong to?
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Miss Lucy-price Lewis
- By Angie on 06-07-23
By: K. L. Slater
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The Jane Austen Collection
- An Audible Original Drama
- By: Jane Austen
- Narrated by: Claire Foy, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Billie Piper, and others
- Length: 45 hrs
- Unabridged
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Renowned as much for her wit and satirical social commentary as for her stories of love and romance, Jane Austen remains unfailingly relevant and one of Britain’s best loved authors. In this Audible Original collection, an all-star list of narrators (Billie Piper, Claire Foy, Emma Thompson, Florence Pugh and Gugu Mbatha-Raw) capture Austen’s pin-sharp humour and tone in these dramatisations of her six beloved novels accompanied by a full cast.
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Not a faithful rendition
- By Anne McClain on 12-13-20
By: Jane Austen
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Fingerprints of the Gods
- The Quest Continues
- By: Graham Hancock
- Narrated by: Graham Hancock
- Length: 18 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Fingerprints of the Gods is the revolutionary rewrite of history that has persuaded millions of listeners throughout the world to change their preconceptions about the history behind modern society. An intellectual detective story, this unique history audiobook directs probing questions at orthodox history, presenting disturbing new evidence that historians have tried - but failed - to explain.
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Classic in Historical Mysteries
- By Kelly on 09-05-19
By: Graham Hancock
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My Perfect Daughter
- By: Sarah Denzil
- Narrated by: Lucy Paterson
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Zoe didn't meet her daughter the way most mothers do. She finds five-year-old Maddie alone and dirty on a countryside road. Frightened for Maddie's safety, she picks her up and takes her back to her father, not knowing what she's about to step into. Because Maddie wasn't just lost; she was there to lure her serial killer dad's new victim. After escaping from the clutches of Maddie's dangerous father, she bonds with the little girl. Only Maddie knows what it was like to be at that house. And when no family members come forward to claim Maddie, Zoe decides to adopt her.
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Absolutely Ghoulish
- By Selene Rackley on 04-29-22
By: Sarah Denzil
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The Boar's Nest
- Sue Brewer and the Birth of Outlaw Country Music
- By: Rachel Bonds, Holly Gleason, Dub Cornett
- Narrated by: Mandy Moore, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, W. Earl Brown, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 26 mins
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Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson. Before they were household names, these budding legends called Sue’s Nashville apartment—lovingly dubbed the “Boar’s Nest”—home. Sue’s place was an intimate staging ground where a new breed of singer-songwriters—wounded souls, wayward upstarts—would spur each other on to tap into something bigger, realer.
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fantastic
- By Jennifer L. Applebaum on 03-18-24
By: Rachel Bonds, and others
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errancy, abandonment, and madness
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Marilynne Robinson has plumbed the human spirit in her renowned novels, including Lila and Gilead, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In this new essay collection she trains her incisive mind on our modern political climate and the mysteries of faith. Whether she is investigating how the work of great thinkers about America, like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Alexis de Tocqueville, inform our political consciousness or discussing how beauty informs and disciplines daily life, Robinson's peerless prose and boundless humanity are on full display.
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Unpersuasive and a bit repetitive
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When I Was a Child I Read Books
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Marilynne Robinson has built a sterling reputation as a writer of sharp, subtly moving prose, not only as a major American novelist, but also as a rigorous thinker and incisive essayist. In When I Was a Child I Read Books she returns to and expands upon the themes which have preoccupied her work with renewed vigor.
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Auf dem Sterbebett schreibt John Ames einen Brief an seinen siebenjährigen Sohn. Dem Kind will er alles erklären: Die Einsicht, mit der man das eigene Leben auf einen Schlag begreift, den Trost, der in einer einzelnen Berührung liegen kann, und den Ort, der sein Ende beschließt: Gilead, die kleine Stadt unter dem unermesslichen Himmel des Westens, leicht wie Staub und so schwer wie die Welt.
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A small and perfect novel
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Unpersuasive and a bit repetitive
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Mostly thoughts on religious things
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disturbing yet beautiful
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RARE AND WONDERFUL STORIES!
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"Hjemme" udspiller sig i 1956 i Gilead, den lille by i Iowa, hvor også Marilynne Robinsons forrige roman, "Gilead", foregik. Denne gang er vi i hjemmet hos pastor Robert Boughton, John Ames' nærmeste ven. Glory Boughton er i en alder af 38 år modvilligt vendt tilbage til Gilead for at pleje sin døende far. Snart kommer også hendes bror, Jack, hjem - efter at have været bortrejst i tyve år.
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That Bird Has My Wings
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In 1990, while serving a sentence in San Quentin for armed robbery, Jarvis Jay Masters was implicated as an accessory in the murder of a prison guard. A 23-year-old Black man, Jarvis was sentenced to death in the gas chamber. While in the maximum security section of Death Row, using the only instrument available to him—a ball-point pen filler—Masters's astounding memoir is a testament to the tenacity of the human spirit and the talent of a fine writer.
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Amazing books !
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Born in 1905, Daisy Goodwill Flett drifts through the chapters of childhood, marriage, widowhood, remarriage, motherhood, and old age, bewildered by her inability to understand her own role in the unsettled decades of the twentieth century. At last, reflecting on her unobserved and unconventional life, Daisy attempts to find a way to tell her story within a novel that is itself about the limitations of autobiography.
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Excellent Narrative
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An allegorical story of World War I set in the trenches in France and dealing ostensibly with a mutiny in a French regiment.
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Bad Production and Direction
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What listeners say about Gilead (Oprah's Book Club)
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Penelope Wisner
- 04-18-05
A book for dreaming over
Usually, I gobble books. Not this one. Exquisitely written, it begs the reader to pause, to ponder, to wonder, to marvel. So delicate, like leaves rustling in a light breeze. As the narrator ponders his life, so you cannot help but ponder your own. Here is a book full of spirit, a sermon if you like, without the preaching down to the reader. Instead it is an invitation to think with compassion about oneself, one's failings, one's relationships with God and man. Amazing.
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84 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Aging Boomer
- 10-05-08
A perfect reading
"Gilead" is one of the most profound, deeply moving novels of our time. Its portrayal of human nature and existence in a universe pervaded by God would perhaps have seemed natural a century and more ago; today, it is a revelation. More than once, this novel made me weep, something that no book has ever before done. How fortunate, then, that this blessed novel has been blessed with a great reader. His voice, intonation and pace are ideal for the character of John Ames, the story's ostensible narrator. A perfect reading of a perfect novel: what more could one ask of an audible.com offering?
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58 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Jim
- 04-22-05
The wonder of retrospect
I feel that I listened to this book two and one half times due to the many rewinds I made in order to hear again the poetic charm of Robinson's use of our marvelous language. Emotions, concerns and recollections are expressed in a manner that I could feel as my own. Perhaps this is in part due to the wonderful narrator whose voice seemed to be perfect for a story cited on the plains of Iowa and Kansas. His voice had a rawness, a lonliness, a solid mid-american character that brought the words alive. I believe that I shall listen to this book again. It felt that good.
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47 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Dave
- 08-10-05
Deeply Personal
This is a beautifully written book, and the narrator's voice is so well suited to this work I forgot I wasn't sitting with John Ames listening to his story. There are countless nuggets of wisdom to be mined in this artuflly crafted memoire.
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22 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Porter
- 06-03-07
Good book, wrong reader
This is a case in which a major book's excellence is rendered all but unlistenable by a dreadfully cast reader. Tim Jerome handles this work in a very old-fashioned format, musty and nostalgic, perfect for Dickens, not for the intelligent stance of a contemporary intellience like Robinson. After a few minutes, the sweetness of this approach goes sickly, the prose starts to sound like Sunday School literature (which is too much in the context of a minister's tale) -- the listener is left trying to search out the smart cadences and ruminative depths that make Robinson's work important. It's too bad. But be sure to note that my ranking here isn't a negative comment about Robinson's literary achievement, but about the audiobook's casting.
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19 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Dennis
- 05-21-05
Gilead Fails to Reach the Heights
Marilynne Robinson is an exquisite writer but her story is dull. It is told as a preacher writing a letter to his young son. In the letter he recounts the history of the family. There is no variation in the narration and after listening to two discs, I forwarded to exerpts of a few others including the end; nothing changed. It gets one star and that only for the language.
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18 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Christopher
- 10-01-06
Better for Oprah's club
I make it a point to read Pulitzer Prize winners, finding them to be consistantly well chosen and aligned well with my tastes. I also tend to enjoy first person narratives which seem to bond me tightly to the main character. For me, neither came true with this novel.
In fairness, I have recently visited the worlds of Roth, Hemmingway and Dostyevski, all of whom create characer who affect your own being. This novel, however, is best described as a folksy sermon in the same vein as the many preachers who like to teach life lessons based on their own life stories. Throughout we get to hear about a quaint small town tale or a Biblical quandary or "ah, shucks, I am such a fool" self-deprications that never seem forthright. It adds up to be cute, charming, and safe.
In short, it seems to be well suited for Oprah's audiences, not for literary awards.
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14 people found this helpful
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Overall
- K. Gregory-Fiala
- 05-27-05
Exquisite, humorous, though-provoking experience
In this collection of letters to his young son, the voice of Rev. John Ames, mesmerizes us. To this boy he leaves his last treasures .. the family story, the story of the town Gilead, his observations of life, friendship, society, history, rural life, the nature of love, jealousy, and friendship, the reconciliation of fears and disappointments.. and his steadfast faith in God, and the role that faith plays in Rev. Ame's life. Woven into all this are several amazing tales of adventure, and quite a bit of subtle humor.
The reason for the letter is Rev.Ames's failing health. He wants to leave an account of himself for this son who will never really know him. He is 76 and dying. His son is almost 7 years old. The boy and his mother have been a blessing in his later years, and his deep love for them both is painted in the gratitude he expresses for this gift from God. His hopes and dreams for the boy's future are the most poignant. Without mushy sentimentality, we feel the ache he feels anticipating his absence from the boy's growing up.
This is a wonderful story, beautifully written. Thought provoking and awe inspiring. I've listened to it once.. read it twice.. given it to several friends as gifts. It is a challenging book to read, rich and full of new discoveries with each new reading.
There is,indeed, a balm in Gilead.
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14 people found this helpful
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Overall
- JWW
- 10-25-06
Extraordinary
I found this to be a novel of great depth and discovery. It is quiet and thoughtful and beautiful. It doesn't stuff anything down your throat...just makes your mind work. It could have gone in many directions but chose the true path. What a pleasure to read a novel so thought provoking and unassuming.
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13 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Mark
- 06-29-05
snoozer
I can't believe how dull and boring this story is. It's as though the author set out to be deliberately boring. I really tried to get into this one but it just never picked up, and finally I just shut it off and cut my losses. Little mundane details of this preacher and his father's life will bore you to tears. Avoid at all costs.
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12 people found this helpful