Gone So Long

By: Andre Dubus III

Narrated by: Andre Dubus III

Length: 16 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's Summary

Andre Dubus III’s first novel in a decade is a masterpiece of thrilling tension and heartrending empathy. Few writers can enter their characters so completely or evoke their lives as viscerally as Andre Dubus III. In this deeply compelling new novel, a father, estranged for the worst of reasons, is driven to seek out the daughter he has not seen in decades.  

Daniel Ahearn lives a quiet, solitary existence in a seaside New England town. Forty years ago, following a shocking act of impulsive violence on his part, his daughter, Susan, was ripped from his arms by police. 

Now in her 40s, Susan still suffers from the trauma of a night she doesn’t remember, as she struggles to feel settled, to love a man, and create something that lasts. Lois, her maternal grandmother who raised her, tries to find peace in her antique shop in a quaint Florida town but cannot escape her own anger, bitterness, and fear. 

Cathartic, affirming, and steeped in the empathy and precise observations of character for which Dubus is celebrated, Gone so Long explores how the wounds of the past afflict the people we become and probes the limits of recovery and absolution.

©2018 Andre Dubus III (P)2018 Recorded Books

Authors are not readers

Andre Dubus is one of my favorite authors. “House of Sand and Fog” was wonderful. This audiobook would have been so much better if a professional had read it. My attention wandered and I found myself rewinding to listen to key parts again because Andre’s voice is very monotonous. This was also the case for the book “4321” by Paul Auster. That was also a very interesting book which put me to sleep because the author read it in a flat monotone. Are these authors trying to save money? They would sell many more audiobooks if they let a pro do the reading.
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Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves

The last time I was this involved with characters I was reading Bleak House or A Tale of Two Cities. It's a simple story but as Lois tells her grand daughter, "just because it's simple doesn't mean it's easy." Danial Ahearn killed the thing he loved as Oscar Wilde warned he would. This act of murder did not just ruin Danial's life, it ruined the lives of many people, most specifically his own mother's, his mother-in-law Lois's and his baby daughter Susan's. In the hands of a Nabokov all of these characters would be hateful but we'd be carried on by the strength of his prose. In the hands of Andre Dubus III we learn to love these deeply flawed and conflicted characters... and are drawn on by the strength of his prose.

I cannot remember the last time I read a book by a living author that moved me this powerfully. I came to identify so deeply with Danial Ahearn but at the same time understand the anger and frustration of Lois Dube and the conflicted depression of Susan Dunn. The suspense created as Danial finds Susan on the internet, writes his letter to his estranged daughter and slowly moves down the east coast from New England to Florida, is tremendous. But there is no evil person here. Danial made a horrible mistake which he's paid for over and over and now his life is coming to a close. How will this guilt ridden tradesman justify himself to the 43-year-old daughter whose life he has so profoundly altered?

Very tedious

I found the repetitive descriptions of illness to be very tedious. This would be a decent novella with some serious editing.

This production would have benefitted greatly from a professional narrator.

Monotone narrator

I just started listening but I wish I’d listen to the sample. The book sounds interesting but the narrator has the most boring, inflection free manner that I may not be able to stick it out.

Horrible narration

The narration was so bad That i could never get into the book! Returned it. Wanted to give it zero stars!

Slow, overwritten, terrible narration by author

I struggled to finish this for a book discussion. The author reads it, and his delivery is very slow and monotonous. I'm amazed Recorded Books lets him read. The book is also very slow and repetitious. So much masculine angst. If I'd heard once more about the wife and daughter's "tiny faces" I would have screamed. Every female character is defined by repeated references to her breast size. This is very comparable to Phillip Roth, and that's not a compliment. I did think the plot had value, a worthy examination of grief and forgiveness and lack of communication by people locked up in their own solitude.

I couldn’t finish it. Disappointed.

This book may have been better if Andre Dubus wasn’t narrating it. Often it sounded like he wasn’t breathing when he was reading and then would breathe at the end of the paragraph. Also, he sniffled through out the book.
It was so irritating!
I have read many of Andre’s books and this was the first audible one. I got half way through.. skipped to the end and called it a day.
Over all the book that I did listen to was dry. Andre goes on descriptive tangents that I would often get lost in what the original point was.

Human and empathetic.

I thought the narrator was perfect for this story. It set the right tone and feeling. I cannot imagine a narrator that would have tried to “act” the parts out. I loved this book, so well written!

A tale of often hidden emotion

Hearing the author narrarate this book makes the situation all more believable.The book touches many emotions of a family going through turmoil.Andre captures it beautifully.This is my favorite book he has written.

great emotions and inner dialogue

troubled characters, but so well developed. long story, but I was drawn in by the internal struggle of each