Lisey's Story

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Mare Winningham

The “haunting…tender, intimate book that makes an epic interior journey” (The New York Times), Lisey’s Story is a literary masterpiece—an extraordinarily moving and haunting portrait of a marriage and its aftermath.

*Also an Apple TV+ limited series starring Julianne Moore and Clive Owen*

Lisey lost her husband Scott, after a twenty-five year marriage of profound and sometimes frightening intimacy. Scott was an award-winning, bestselling novelist and a very complicated man. Early in their relationship, Lisey knew there was a place Scott went that both terrified and healed him, could eat him alive or give him the ideas he needed in order to live. Now it’s Lisey’s turn to face Scott’s demons, to go to that terrifying place known as Boo’ya Moon. What begins as a widow’s effort to sort through the papers of her celebrated husband becomes a nearly fatal journey into the darkness he inhabited.

“Intricate...exhilarating” (The New Yorker), perhaps Stephen King’s most personal and powerful novel ever, Lisey’s Story is about the wellsprings of creativity, the temptations of madness, and the secret language of love. It is a beautiful, “rich portrait of a marriage, and the complicated affection that outlives death” (The Washington Post).©2006 Stephen King; (P)2006 Simon and Schuster Audio

Critic reviews

"Stephen King at his finest . . . a dazzling novel." -- Nicholas Sparks

"In Lisey's Story, Stephen King makes bold, brilliant use of his satanic storytelling gift, his angelic ear for language, and above all his incomparable ability to find the epic in the ordinary. . . ." -- Michael Chabon

Lisey's horror Story

Quite the little chiller. A troubled writer's past. And where reality clashes with fiction. Lisey's Story doesn't let you believe for one second that the master writer of horror has gone soft. There's plenty of blood that soaks the walls.

Heartfelt, Gut-wrenching, and Mind-blowing!

I have read many, many books, including several of Stephen King's novels. This is hands down my favorite by King as well as one of my all time favorite modern books. I have read my paperback copy to the point of it splitting in half, my hard cover so much so that I no longer keep the dust jacket on, and I have listened to this audio recording 3 times now. Every time I experience this story I take something new from it and lack the words to explain how deeply it moves me. Mare Winningham does such a fantastic job of narrating that she has now become the voice of Lisa Landon in my mind's ear. Thank You Both Stephen and Mare for bringing this story to life!

Sincerely,
Melissa McGhee

Story was ok...performance was terrible

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Narration

How could the performance have been better?

The accents were terrible. Every accent sounded like a southern accent no matter if the characters were supposed to be from New England or Western Pennsylvania. Having grown up in Western Pennsylvania I can honestly say that this was the worst attempt I have ever heard at duplicating the accent.

Great Story with Fantastic Narration

I enjoy Setphen King's wordplay even when it involves made up words. It might be too much time inside the character's heads and not enough action and horror for some readers, but it was just the right amount of character development for me. I don't have to like any of the characters in a book to enjoy it if they are interesting and thought provoking enough. There was a tender and compelling love story along with all the pain and terror. It was just the right amount of sweet and sour for me and Mare Winningham did an excellent job! At the end I just wanted her to read more stories to me.

Not your normal Stephen King

I really like Stephen King and have read most of his books. This book although very good, was also very long. It is written from the female perspective and I am sure women will enjoy it. For me it was overly descriptive and a little too long. If I were to do it over again this is one of the few books I would get the abridged version of if available.