-
Outer Dark
- Narrated by: Ed Sala
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Release date: 03-13-13
- Language: English
- Publisher: Recorded Books
- Whispersync for Voice-ready
Regular price: $20.99
People who bought this also bought...
-
The Orchard Keeper
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Ed Sala
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 87
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 82
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 81
One of America’s most celebrated novelists, Cormac McCarthy announced his towering presence on the literary stage with his first novel, The Orchard Keeper. Within the pages of this classic work, John Wesley Rattner, his uncle Ather, and bootlegger Marion Sylder find their lives dangerously entwined in pre-World War II Tennessee. There, the men’s tragedies and struggles are mirrored by the looming specter of industrialization.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Contains the embryo of McCarthy's future greatness
- By Darwin8u on 06-12-13
-
Suttree
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 20 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 953
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 856
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 858
No discussion of great modern authors is complete without mention of Cormac McCarthy, whose rare and blazing talent makes his every work a true literary event. A grand addition to the American literary canon, Suttree introduces readers to Cornelius Suttree, a man who abandons his affluent family to live among a dissolute array of vagabonds along the Tennessee river.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Challenging Read/Listen, Narrator Outstanding
- By Riley A. Vann on 03-07-13
-
Child of God
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 3 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 596
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 550
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 551
In this taut, chilling audiobook, Lester Ballard - a violent, dispossessed man falsely accused of rape - haunts the hill country of East Tennessee when he is released from jail. While telling his story, Cormac McCarthy depicts the most sordid aspects of life with dignity, humor, and characteristic lyrical brilliance.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Soaring description of base depravity
- By Aunt Crabby on 10-31-13
-
The Sunset Limited
- A Novel in Dramatic Form
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Austin Pendleton, Ezra Knight, Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 1 hr and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 259
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 212
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 210
In a small apartment, Black and White, as the two men are known, begin a conversation that leads each back through his own history, mining the origins of two fundamentally opposing world views. White is a professor whose seemingly enviable existence of relative ease has left him nonetheless in despair. Black, an ex-con and ex-addict, is the more hopeful of the menthough he is just as desperate to convince White of the power of faith as White is desperate to deny it.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Wow
- By Wilfredo on 02-28-11
-
Blood Meridian
- Or the Evening Redness in the West
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 4,189
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,426
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 3,413
Author of the National Book Award-winning All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy is one of the most provocative American stylists to emerge in the last century. The striking novel Blood Meridian offers an unflinching narrative of the brutality that accompanied the push west on the 1850s Texas frontier.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Existential leavings
- By Colin on 03-22-08
-
No Country for Old Men
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,453
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,878
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,897
Cormac McCarthy, best-selling author of National Book Award winner All the Pretty Horses, delivers his first new novel in seven years. Written in muscular prose, No Country for Old Men is a powerful tale of the West that moves at a blistering pace.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Typical McCarthy: SUPERB
- By David on 02-21-08
-
The Orchard Keeper
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Ed Sala
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 87
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 82
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 81
One of America’s most celebrated novelists, Cormac McCarthy announced his towering presence on the literary stage with his first novel, The Orchard Keeper. Within the pages of this classic work, John Wesley Rattner, his uncle Ather, and bootlegger Marion Sylder find their lives dangerously entwined in pre-World War II Tennessee. There, the men’s tragedies and struggles are mirrored by the looming specter of industrialization.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Contains the embryo of McCarthy's future greatness
- By Darwin8u on 06-12-13
-
Suttree
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 20 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 953
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 856
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 858
No discussion of great modern authors is complete without mention of Cormac McCarthy, whose rare and blazing talent makes his every work a true literary event. A grand addition to the American literary canon, Suttree introduces readers to Cornelius Suttree, a man who abandons his affluent family to live among a dissolute array of vagabonds along the Tennessee river.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Challenging Read/Listen, Narrator Outstanding
- By Riley A. Vann on 03-07-13
-
Child of God
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 3 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 596
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 550
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 551
In this taut, chilling audiobook, Lester Ballard - a violent, dispossessed man falsely accused of rape - haunts the hill country of East Tennessee when he is released from jail. While telling his story, Cormac McCarthy depicts the most sordid aspects of life with dignity, humor, and characteristic lyrical brilliance.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Soaring description of base depravity
- By Aunt Crabby on 10-31-13
-
The Sunset Limited
- A Novel in Dramatic Form
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Austin Pendleton, Ezra Knight, Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 1 hr and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 259
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 212
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 210
In a small apartment, Black and White, as the two men are known, begin a conversation that leads each back through his own history, mining the origins of two fundamentally opposing world views. White is a professor whose seemingly enviable existence of relative ease has left him nonetheless in despair. Black, an ex-con and ex-addict, is the more hopeful of the menthough he is just as desperate to convince White of the power of faith as White is desperate to deny it.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Wow
- By Wilfredo on 02-28-11
-
Blood Meridian
- Or the Evening Redness in the West
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 4,189
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,426
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 3,413
Author of the National Book Award-winning All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy is one of the most provocative American stylists to emerge in the last century. The striking novel Blood Meridian offers an unflinching narrative of the brutality that accompanied the push west on the 1850s Texas frontier.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Existential leavings
- By Colin on 03-22-08
-
No Country for Old Men
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,453
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,878
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,897
Cormac McCarthy, best-selling author of National Book Award winner All the Pretty Horses, delivers his first new novel in seven years. Written in muscular prose, No Country for Old Men is a powerful tale of the West that moves at a blistering pace.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Typical McCarthy: SUPERB
- By David on 02-21-08
-
The Counselor
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 3 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 56
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 55
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 55
Along the gritty terrain of the Texas- Mexico border, a respected and recently engaged lawyer throws his stakes into a cocaine trade worth millions. His hope is that it will be a one-time deal and that, afterward, he can settle into life with his beloved fiancée. But instead, the Counselor finds himself mired in a brutal and dangerous game - one that threatens to destroy everything and everyone he loves.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A Screenplay Not a Novel Better than the Movie !!
- By harry on 07-01-14
-
The Wayward Bus
- By: John Steinbeck, Gary Schamhorst - introduction
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 312
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 286
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 283
In his first novel to follow the publication of his enormous success, The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck's vision comes wonderfully to life in this imaginative and unsentimental chronicle of a bus traveling California's back roads, transporting the lost and the lonely, the good and the greedy, the stupid and the scheming, the beautiful and the vicious away from their shattered dreams and, possibly, toward the promise of the future. This edition features an introduction by Gary Scharnhorst.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Steinbeck always touches the heart, makes you feel
- By Kelly on 05-08-17
-
The Road
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 12,637
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 8,711
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 8,739
America is a barren landscape of smoldering ashes, devoid of life except for those people still struggling to scratch out some type of existence. Amidst this destruction, a father and his young son walk, always toward the coast, but with no real understanding that circumstances will improve once they arrive. Still, they persevere, and their relationship comes to represent goodness in a world of utter devastation.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Least Favorite Audiobook
- By R. Jones on 12-17-17
-
Wise Blood
- By: Flannery O’Connor
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 487
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 408
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 408
Flannery O’Connor’s astonishing and haunting first novel is a classic of 20th-century literature. It is the story of Hazel Motes, a 22-year-old caught in an unending struggle against his innate, desperate faith. He falls under the spell of a “blind” street preacher named Asa Hawks and his degenerate fifteen-year-old daughter. In an ironic, malicious gesture of his own non-faith, and to prove himself a greater cynic than Hawks, Hazel founds The Church of God Without Christ but is still thwarted in his efforts to lose God.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Grotesque Southern Gothic Masterpiece
- By Darwin8u on 10-18-12
-
JR
- By: William Gaddis
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 37 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 159
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 136
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 137
Absurdly logical, mercilessly real, gathering it's own tumultuous momentum for the ultimate brush with commodity training, JR captures the listener in the cacophony of voices that revolves around this young captive of his own myths. The disturbing clarity with which this finished writer captures the ways in which we deal, dissemble, and stumble through our words - through our lives - while the real plans are being made elsewhere makes JR the extraordinary novel that it is.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Possibly superior as an audio book
- By Peregrine on 12-12-10
-
East of Eden
- By: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 25 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7,103
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 6,411
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6,428
This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families - the Trasks and the Hamiltons - whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
This Drama Prepares You for Life
- By J.B. on 04-13-16
-
Light in August
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,523
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,900
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,902
An Oprah's Book Club Selection regarded as one of Faulkner's greatest and most accessible novels, Light in August is a timeless and riveting story of determination, tragedy, and hope. In Faulkner's iconic Yoknapatawpha County, race, sex, and religion collide around three memorable characters searching desperately for human connection and their own identities.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
so large, so powerful, so conflicted
- By Darwin8u on 09-17-17
-
The Martian Chronicles
- By: Ray Bradbury
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,067
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 998
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 994
Bradbury's Mars is a place of hope, dreams, and metaphor - of crystal pillars and fossil seas - where a fine dust settles on the great, empty cities of a silently destroyed civilization. It is here the invaders have come to despoil and commercialize, to grow and to learn - first a trickle, then a torrent, rushing from a world with no future toward a promise of tomorrow. The Earthman conquers Mars...and then is conquered by it, lulled by dangerous lies of comfort and familiarity, and enchanted by the lingering glamour of an ancient, mysterious native race.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The Original. Great Stories, Great Narrator.
- By Troy on 04-05-16
-
Cannery Row
- By: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Jerry Farden
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,517
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,332
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,328
Published in 1945, Cannery Row focuses on the acceptance of life as it is: both the exuberance of community and the loneliness of the individual. Drawing on his memories of the real inhabitants of Monterey, California, Steinbeck interweaves the stories of Doc, Henri, Mack and his boys, and the other characters in this world where only the fittest survive, to create a novel that is at once one of his most humorous and most poignant works.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Five stars with a Caveat
- By Bette on 04-23-12
-
In Dubious Battle
- By: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 221
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 192
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 192
This 1936 novel—set in the California apple country—portrays a strike by migrant workers that metamorphoses from principled defiance into blind fanaticism.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The best story - ever ! Awesome narrator !!!!!!!!!
- By Inventing Mostly on 03-07-15
-
The Big Rock Candy Mountain
- By: Wallace Stegner
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 25 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,129
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 839
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 829
Bo Mason, his wife, and his two boys live a transient life of poverty and despair. Drifting from town to town and from state to state, the violent, ruthless Bo seeks his fortune in the hotel business, in new farmland, and, eventually, in illegal rum-running throughout the treacherous back roads of the American Northwest.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
deeply moving rollercoaster ride
- By Heimo on 05-26-10
-
Butcher’s Crossing
- By: John Williams
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 220
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 198
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 199
In the 1870s, Will Andrews, fired up by Emerson to seek "an original relation to nature," drops out of Harvard and heads west. He washes up in Butcher's Crossing, a small Kansas town full of restless men looking for ways to make money and ways to waste it. One of these men regales Will with tales of the immense buffalo herds hidden away in the Colorado Rockies and convinces him to join an expedition to track them down.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Another prose painting by a master.
- By Ron on 02-12-17
Publisher's Summary
Outer Dark is a novel at once fabular and starkly evocative, set is an unspecified place in Appalachia, sometime around the turn of the century. A woman bears her brother's child, a boy; he leaves the baby in the woods and tells her he died of natural causes. Discovering her brother's lie, she sets forth alone to find her son. Both brother and sister wander separately through a countryside being scourged by three terrifying and elusive strangers, headlong toward an eerie, apocalyptic resolution.
More from the same
What members say
Average Customer Ratings
Overall
-
4.5 out of 5 stars
-
5 Stars123
-
4 Stars99
-
3 Stars29
-
2 Stars9
-
1 Stars3
Performance
-
4.5 out of 5 stars
-
5 Stars153
-
4 Stars66
-
3 Stars19
-
2 Stars5
-
1 Stars0
Story
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
5 Stars114
-
4 Stars79
-
3 Stars36
-
2 Stars11
-
1 Stars2
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- Darwin8u
- Mesa, AZ, United States
- 04-22-13
Throwing chert boulders at the dark center
I keep reading Cormac McCarthy to find a single crack of light in his dark, grotesque lyricism. 'Outer Dark' as a novel is unconventional and amazing. The story was allegorical without being stiff, it was regional without being provincial. Like most all of McCarthy's work, it is Biblical in its power and intensity.
In 'Outer Dark', McCarthy is throwing chert boulders at the dark center of the Universe. He isn't interested in little themes. Even in his small books he is taking on ideas as large and slippery as fate, guilt, agency, and God. Structurally, Outer Dark was drum-tight. The prose and the vernacular/archaic dialogue were both crisp and amazing. 'Outer Dark' is prose art at a high-level and it scared the literary Hell out of me.
37 of 41 people found this review helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- John C Raiss MD
- 04-29-16
Amazing book, no happy ending
I couldn't stop listening : great dialogue , thrilling scenes. Loved it. Cormac really hit his stride with this, his second novel.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- tom
- 05-17-15
The ultimate southern gothic tale.
Fantastic storytelling. This mythical tale of lost wandering wayfarers, dark and darker leads the reader down paths intertwined and alone of lost souls to a dantean finale.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Eli Luoma
- 05-05-16
Excellent, but...
I felt like I needed to shower while listening to get the grime of the words off of me. It was as though I was face down in the decaying mud of a bog listening.
I say that as a good thing. This is a vivid story, excellently voiced.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Aaron Zimmerman
- 09-14-18
Shit from Apple Butter
Finally catching up to Outer Dark (1968) by Cormac McCarthy. It contains my new favorite quote in the whole of the Great Southern literary tradition (that I have read): “He don’t know shit from apple butter!” Of course, it’s incredible for so many other reasons: Descriptive passages so beautiful and haunting they make you cry (particularly the descriptions of the settings and landscapes in which the characters dwell). Dialect so purely authentically southern you know practically which county that voice is coming from. Quirky, weird, funny, delicate, brutal characters that make you giggle with their peculiarity and profundity. Plots that lumber along then snap to and drive you to places of utter awe or terror or grandeur sometimes all at once. And it’s tied together with prose is so stripped down to the essentials its practically poetry. It’s all here in Outer Dark and it fucking rules.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Talmadge
- 02-18-18
Phenomenal read.
The wizardry of Cormac McCarthy and his prose are beyond excellence. A master of his craft creating a reality that seems all to grim yet so human. Is the world as cold as it seems? According to outer dark it just might be.
-
Overall2 out of 5 stars
-
Performance3 out of 5 stars
-
Story2 out of 5 stars
- jacques
- otterburn park, QC, Canada
- 06-07-15
very, very disappointed
Any additional comments?
I can scarcely believe thet this is the same author who wrote no country for old men.
This guy gets so lost in detail, he seems to forget he's telling a story. so while he's busy waxing lyrical on the shape of a puff of road dust, or a faraway raven's lonely call, the reader wonders just when someting is going to FINALLY HAPPEN!?
the entire story could have been summed up in about half the time it took to slog through this horrible book. The first paragraph sets the tone and the pace. It sounds like that through the whole book. Listen to the sample. If you can stand it for five minutes, maybe you'll like it.
What little story was included in this depressing seven hour poem was not worth the time.
Also it ends badly, sorry but i hated it.
7 of 14 people found this review helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Molly
- 04-07-15
Great Book
I thoroughly enjoyed this McCarthy book. Great flowing story with lots of mystery and interesting characters.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story2 out of 5 stars
- Dude_Lebowski
- Atlanta
- 08-06-15
Why is McCarthy so damn pretentious?
Just like in Blood Meridian, we get countless descriptions of every minute trivial detail, except for when it matters. I know what the dirt on Rinthy's feet looked like, but I have no idea what happened to her. Just like The Kid in Blood Meridian, we're left with really no clue what happened to our main character. To me, that's pretentious, and a big middle finger to the reader, who stuck with the the author all this time, only to be let down. I've tried to like McCarthy, but damn if this book doesn't spoil him for me.
5 of 15 people found this review helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- JoJo Blanco
- 03-23-16
Brilliant use of language
Presumably set in northern Tennesee, this story of a brother and sister who are separated and his seach for her and her her search for her "chap", a baby who she was told had died b
0 of 1 people found this review helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- hfffoman
- 11-13-13
Bleak but riveting
Any additional comments?
An extremely bleak story but so well written as to be entirely absorbing. The dialogue is so good I cannot think of any novelist who surpasses it. The reading is perfect for the book, so gritty you feel you are right there among these wiry people, tough as worn out boots. Ed Sala is a true performer, bringing out the dialogue perfectly. I will look for more books he has done..
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
-
Overall2 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story2 out of 5 stars
- Blind Girl
- 05-31-14
A Bad Mens' World
Don't read this one if you haven't already read latest books from the author. 'Outer Dark' is a tipical wrong second novel after a tolerable first book: loads of material with no tangible concept. Incongruent simbolism, exhausting poetry,confused picaresque narration. However you can see traces of the future genius: endless erration on a road to nowhere, hostile landscape, evil locals and dead, dead, dead all along the story. (God will certainly punish Mr. McCarthy for all the babies and young people massacred in his novels) But locks of humour and a minimum of benevolent thinking. Adolescent blood hunger and uncomfortable storytelling. Quite forgettable.
Ed Sala is like a fat country cat, slow and jovial. Very enjoyable!
3 of 6 people found this review helpful