Walking Across Egypt

By: Clyde Edgerton

Narrated by: Norman Dietz

Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Best-selling author Clyde Edgerton blends a comfy Southern setting and quirky characters into an unforgettable journey through a spirited senior citizen's world. Filled with the details of everyday life, this novel evokes the homespun wisdom and offbeat humor that have become Edgerton's trademark.

Meet Mattie Rigsby, 78, who keeps a clean house and bakes the best pound cake in Listre, North Carolina. Her children grown, she lives a comfortable and independent life. Her orderly days are about to be disrupted, however, by a stray. Unkempt and unloved, teenaged and delinquent, Wesley Benfield just might need a piece of her apple pie and a verse or two of "Walking Across Egypt", her favorite hymn. As Mattie and Wesley come together, she will fill your heart with appreciation for a generation who still remembers that life is a lot better when it's filled with good food and good manners.

©1987 Clyde Edgerton (P)1997 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"An unpretentious, finely crafted novel that will linger with the readers like the last strains of a favorite hymn. It is more enjoyable than a pitcher full of sweet tea and one of Mattie's home-cooked dinners." ( The Atlanta Journal)
"A winner, a homespun romp that I suspect Mark Twain would have loved." ( The Columbia State)

Must read

So slow. No big punch lines or chase scenes. Just a beautiful story of love and family

rating for novel

I haven't listened to the audiobook yet, so I will return and either edit this or add another posting about the audio version.

THIS IS A FABULOUS NOVEL. There is no one (I know, there will be someone, a mean person, for instance) who will not enjoy this book.

A close friend of mine who was prevented, by her *own father* to continue school after the 6th-grade (in the 1940s, in a dirt-poor, rural, black community), because she had to go to work and bring in money, LOVED THIS NOVEL (past tense only because she's deceased).

I have a Master's in English, and I LOVE THIS NOVEL. And everyone in-between will love this novel, too. You will laugh so hard that you will be embarrassed if you're out in public. You will find yourself laughing at the memory of some of the priceless scenes, when you're sitting on the bus, and you'll have to cover your face, if you don't want everyone looking at you as if you're an outright crazy person.

And it will touch your heart deeply and restore, if this is needed, your faith in the human race.

Marian Cates

2nd Best Thing to Sitting at Grandma's House

I'm not sure how I stumbled upon this author but I'm totally in love with his work. Mix a tad "old time religion" humor with the comfort of the daily sameness at your favorite aunts house when you were growing up and top it all off with the perfect amount of nostalgia and southern charm and you have "walking across Egypt." This is the first in over 300 audio books I've listened to twice and I have a feeling everyone that urge to fly back home for a visit comes over me but can't be quenched...ill be playing this book again.

Worth the read!

This is my favorite book & film. So heartfelt and family oriented. It’s just about giving someone a second chance even though no one else thinks they deserve it.

A Perfect Summer Listen

This was just the thing to get me through a cleaning project. Better than movie.

Walking across Egypt is great

This is one of the best books I have heard in a long, long time. Narration and story were great. Left me smiling.

Challenge the LIVING of Truth

I love this book and the movie. Challenges the living of the truth for Believers. Loved the narration.

Such an interesting story

This was such an amazing story. From start to finish. the characters could have easily been folks I grew up around. Related family members.
Humorous- caught myself laughing out loud.
On a serious note it speaks true about our seniors and how they desire so much for their grown children.

Rip off

This is not a book; it’s part 1. I do not want to buy two books when I only wanted one. Trilogies and series have a beginning, middle, and end for Wack BOOK in the collection. This felt like the author got tired or was under a publisher’s deadline. It was half a book. I wish I could get half of my money back.

Suddenly nothing happened

Possibly the most boring novel I have read. I continued reading because I Thought that the pace was so slow, the prose so wooden, and the details so multitudinous, that surely it all must be leading to something unexpected and spectacular. I was wrong. The only unexpected thing in this novel was that it ended without anything ever happening.