-
I Cheerfully Refuse
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $21.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
So Brave, Young, and Handsome
- By: Leif Enger
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1915 Minnesota, Monte Becket has lost his sense of purpose. His only success long behind him, Monte lives a simple life with his loving wife and whipsmart son. But when he befriends outlaw Glendon Hale, a new world of opportunity and experience presents itself.
-
-
Good, Enjoyable
- By spencerm on 12-14-08
By: Leif Enger
-
Peace Like a River
- By: Leif Enger
- Narrated by: Chad Lowe
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The quiet 1960s midwestern life of the Land family is upended when son Davy kills two marauders who have come to harm the family. The morning of his sentencing, Davy (a hero to some, a cold-blooded murderer to others) escapes from his cell, and the Lands set out in search of him. Their journey is touched by serendipity and the kindness of strangers, and they cover territory even more extraordinary than the Badlands, where they search for Davy from their Airstream trailer.
-
-
Poetic Coming Of Age Story
- By Menno on 06-11-08
By: Leif Enger
-
The Morningside
- A Novel
- By: Téa Obreht
- Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After being expelled from their ancestral home in a not-so-distant future, Silvia and her mother finally settle at the Morningside, a crumbling luxury tower in a place called Island City where Silvia’s aunt Ena serves as the superintendent. Silvia feels unmoored in her new life because her mother has been so diligently secretive about their family’s past, and because the once-vibrant city where she lives is now half-underwater. Silvia knows almost nothing about the place where she was born and spent her early years, nor does she fully understand why she and her mother had to leave.
-
-
Another Beautiful Tale
- By Francis on 04-20-24
By: Téa Obreht
-
The Ministry of Time
- A Novel
- By: Kaliane Bradley
- Narrated by: George Weightman, Katie Leung
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.
-
-
More than the sum of its parts but…
- By L. Williams on 05-17-24
By: Kaliane Bradley
-
The Alternatives
- A Novel
- By: Caoilinn Hughes
- Narrated by: Sarah Bolger, Aisling Franciosi, Caoilinn Hughes, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Flattery sisters were plunged prematurely into adulthood when their parents died in tragic circumstances. Now in their thirties—all single, all with PhDs—they are each attempting to do meaningful work in a rapidly foundering world. The four lead disparate, distanced lives, from classrooms in Connecticut to ritzy catering gigs in London’s Notting Hill, until one day their oldest sister, a geologist haunted by a terrible awareness of the earth’s future, abruptly vanishes from her work and home.
-
-
Great character development.
- By CJW on 04-24-24
By: Caoilinn Hughes
-
Real Americans
- A Novel
- By: Rachel Khong
- Narrated by: Louisa Zhu, Eric Yang, Eunice Wong
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn't be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love.
-
-
STELLAR STORYTELLING
- By Brenda C. on 05-02-24
By: Rachel Khong
-
So Brave, Young, and Handsome
- By: Leif Enger
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1915 Minnesota, Monte Becket has lost his sense of purpose. His only success long behind him, Monte lives a simple life with his loving wife and whipsmart son. But when he befriends outlaw Glendon Hale, a new world of opportunity and experience presents itself.
-
-
Good, Enjoyable
- By spencerm on 12-14-08
By: Leif Enger
-
Peace Like a River
- By: Leif Enger
- Narrated by: Chad Lowe
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The quiet 1960s midwestern life of the Land family is upended when son Davy kills two marauders who have come to harm the family. The morning of his sentencing, Davy (a hero to some, a cold-blooded murderer to others) escapes from his cell, and the Lands set out in search of him. Their journey is touched by serendipity and the kindness of strangers, and they cover territory even more extraordinary than the Badlands, where they search for Davy from their Airstream trailer.
-
-
Poetic Coming Of Age Story
- By Menno on 06-11-08
By: Leif Enger
-
The Morningside
- A Novel
- By: Téa Obreht
- Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After being expelled from their ancestral home in a not-so-distant future, Silvia and her mother finally settle at the Morningside, a crumbling luxury tower in a place called Island City where Silvia’s aunt Ena serves as the superintendent. Silvia feels unmoored in her new life because her mother has been so diligently secretive about their family’s past, and because the once-vibrant city where she lives is now half-underwater. Silvia knows almost nothing about the place where she was born and spent her early years, nor does she fully understand why she and her mother had to leave.
-
-
Another Beautiful Tale
- By Francis on 04-20-24
By: Téa Obreht
-
The Ministry of Time
- A Novel
- By: Kaliane Bradley
- Narrated by: George Weightman, Katie Leung
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.
-
-
More than the sum of its parts but…
- By L. Williams on 05-17-24
By: Kaliane Bradley
-
The Alternatives
- A Novel
- By: Caoilinn Hughes
- Narrated by: Sarah Bolger, Aisling Franciosi, Caoilinn Hughes, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Flattery sisters were plunged prematurely into adulthood when their parents died in tragic circumstances. Now in their thirties—all single, all with PhDs—they are each attempting to do meaningful work in a rapidly foundering world. The four lead disparate, distanced lives, from classrooms in Connecticut to ritzy catering gigs in London’s Notting Hill, until one day their oldest sister, a geologist haunted by a terrible awareness of the earth’s future, abruptly vanishes from her work and home.
-
-
Great character development.
- By CJW on 04-24-24
By: Caoilinn Hughes
-
Real Americans
- A Novel
- By: Rachel Khong
- Narrated by: Louisa Zhu, Eric Yang, Eunice Wong
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn't be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love.
-
-
STELLAR STORYTELLING
- By Brenda C. on 05-02-24
By: Rachel Khong
-
Clear
- A Novel
- By: Carys Davies
- Narrated by: Russ Bain
- Length: 3 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John, an impoverished Scottish minister, has accepted a job evicting the lone remaining occupant of an island north of Scotland—Ivar, who has been living alone for decades, with only the animals and the sea for company. Though his wife, Mary, has serious misgivings about the errand, he decides to go anyway, setting in motion a chain of events that neither he nor Mary could have predicted.
-
-
Exquisite, lovely, moving
- By BenYL on 05-11-24
By: Carys Davies
-
James
- A Novel
- By: Percival Everett
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.
-
-
Justice
- By caprice on 03-24-24
By: Percival Everett
-
After Annie
- A Novel
- By: Anna Quindlen
- Narrated by: Gilli Messer
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Annie Brown dies suddenly, her husband, her children, and her closest friend are left to find a way forward without the woman who has been the lynchpin of all their lives. Bill is overwhelmed without his beloved wife, and Annemarie wrestles with the bad habits her best friend had helped her overcome. And Ali, the eldest of Annie’s children, has to grow up overnight, to care for her younger brothers and even her father and to puzzle out for herself many of the mysteries of adult life. Over the course of the next year what saves them all is Annie.
-
-
Quindlen’s latest
- By Anonymous User on 03-03-24
By: Anna Quindlen
-
Table for Two
- Fictions
- By: Amor Towles
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, J. Smith-Cameron
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millions of Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood. The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages.
-
-
I adore Amor Towles!!
- By Deb Mitchell on 04-20-24
By: Amor Towles
-
Mania
- A Novel
- By: Lionel Shriver
- Narrated by: Abby Craden
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In an alternative 2011, the Mental Parity movement takes hold. Americans now embrace the sacred, universal truth that there is no such thing as variable human intelligence. Because everyone is equally smart, discrimination against purportedly dumb people is "the last great civil rights fight." Tests, grades, and employment qualifications are all discarded. Children are expelled for saying the S-word (“stupid”) and encouraged to report parents who use it at home.
-
-
Fiction for non-fiction lovers
- By Chris Esse on 04-17-24
By: Lionel Shriver
-
The Husbands
- A Novel
- By: Holly Gramazio
- Narrated by: Miranda Raison
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem—she’s not married. She’s never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years.
-
-
All the husbands!
- By Cheri on 04-08-24
By: Holly Gramazio
-
North Woods
- A Novel
- By: Daniel Mason
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall, Michael Crouch, Jason Culp, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When two young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become the home of an extraordinary succession of human and nonhuman characters alike. An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to growing apples. A pair of spinster twins navigate war and famine, envy and desire. A crime reporter unearths an ancient mass grave—only to discover that the earth refuse to give up their secrets.
-
-
An American Masterpiece
- By Psumissyh on 09-21-23
By: Daniel Mason
-
Annie Bot
- A Novel
- By: Sierra Greer
- Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner Doug. Designed to satisfy his emotional and physical needs, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the pert outfits he orders for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his moods. True, she’s not the greatest at keeping Doug’s place spotless, but she’s trying to please him. She’s trying hard.
-
-
Good, but not great
- By Katie Ramey on 03-25-24
By: Sierra Greer
-
Wandering Stars
- A Novel
- By: Tommy Orange
- Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett, MacLeod Andrews, Alma Cuervo, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Colorado, 1864. Star, a young survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre, is brought to the Fort Marion prison castle, where he is forced to learn English and practice Christianity by Richard Henry Pratt, an evangelical prison guard who will go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, an institution dedicated to the eradication of Native history, culture, and identity. A generation later, Star’s son, Charles, is sent to the school, where he is brutalized by the man who was once his father’s jailer.
-
-
Great follow up to There, There
- By Nancy on 03-28-24
By: Tommy Orange
-
Lost Man's Lane
- A Novel
- By: Scott Carson
- Narrated by: Corey Brill
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For a sixteen-year-old, a summer internship working for a private investigator seems like a dream come true—particularly since the PI is investigating the most shocking crime to hit Bloomington, Indiana, in decades. A local woman has vanished, and the last time anyone saw her, she was in the backseat of a police car driven by a man impersonating an officer.
-
-
Two Pack and Nazz
- By Katy Ryan on 04-04-24
By: Scott Carson
-
Mercury
- A Novel
- By: Amy Jo Burns
- Narrated by: Maria Liatis
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1990 and seventeen-year-old Marley West is blazing into the river valley town of Mercury, Pennsylvania. A perpetual loner, she seeks a place at someone’s table and a family of her own. The first thing she sees when she arrives in town is three men standing on a rooftop. Their silhouettes blot out the sun.
-
-
Perhaps for a teenager?
- By Bonnie b. on 01-11-24
By: Amy Jo Burns
-
Prophet Song
- By: Paul Lynch
- Narrated by: Gerry O'Brien
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother of four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist. Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and when her husband disappears, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a society that is quickly unravelling.
-
-
Painfully powerful Tale.
- By Tom on 01-30-24
By: Paul Lynch
Publisher's summary
A storyteller “of great humanity and huge heart” (Minneapolis Star Tribune), Leif Enger debuted in the literary world with Peace Like a River, which sold more than a million copies and captured audiences’ hearts around the globe. Now comes a new milestone in this boldly imaginative author’s body of work.
Set in a not-too-distant America, I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of a bereaved and pursued musician embarking under sail on a sentient Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved, bookselling wife. Rainy, an endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs, and remote islands of the inland sea. Encountering lunatic storms and rising corpses from the warming depths, Rainy finds on land an increasingly desperate and illiterate people, a malignant billionaire ruling class, crumbled infrastructure, and a lawless society. Amid the Gulliver-like challenges of life at sea and no safe landings, Rainy is lifted by physical beauty, surprising humor, generous strangers, and an unexpected companion in a young girl who comes aboard. And as his innate guileless nature begins to make an inadvertent rebel of him, Rainy’s private quest for the love of his life grows into something wider and wilder, sweeping up friends and foes alike in his strengthening wake.
I Cheerfully Refuse epitomizes the “musical, sometimes magical and deeply satisfying kind of storytelling” (Los Angeles Times) for which Leif Enger is cherished. A rollicking narrative in the most evocative of settings, this latest novel is a symphony against despair and a rallying cry for the future.
“A heart-racing ballad of escape, shot-through with villainy and dignity, humor and music. Like Mark Twain, Enger gives us a full accounting of the human soul, scene by scene, wave by wave.”—Josh Ritter, singer and author of The Great Glorious Goddamn of It All
More from the same
Narrator
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Peace Like a River
- By: Leif Enger
- Narrated by: Chad Lowe
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The quiet 1960s midwestern life of the Land family is upended when son Davy kills two marauders who have come to harm the family. The morning of his sentencing, Davy (a hero to some, a cold-blooded murderer to others) escapes from his cell, and the Lands set out in search of him. Their journey is touched by serendipity and the kindness of strangers, and they cover territory even more extraordinary than the Badlands, where they search for Davy from their Airstream trailer.
-
-
Poetic Coming Of Age Story
- By Menno on 06-11-08
By: Leif Enger
-
So Brave, Young, and Handsome
- By: Leif Enger
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1915 Minnesota, Monte Becket has lost his sense of purpose. His only success long behind him, Monte lives a simple life with his loving wife and whipsmart son. But when he befriends outlaw Glendon Hale, a new world of opportunity and experience presents itself.
-
-
Good, Enjoyable
- By spencerm on 12-14-08
By: Leif Enger
-
Virgil Wander
- By: Leif Enger
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Midwestern movie house owner Virgil Wander is "cruising along at medium altitude" when his car flies off the road into icy Lake Superior. Virgil survives, but his language and memory are altered, and he emerges into a world no longer familiar to him. Awakening in this new life, Virgil begins to piece together his personal history and the lore of his broken town, with the help of a cast of affable and curious locals. Into this community returns a shimmering prodigal son who may hold the key to reviving their town.
-
-
Not a Minnesota Accent
- By Caritas on 10-09-18
By: Leif Enger
-
Comeback
- A Gun Pedersen Novel
- By: Leif Enger, Lin Enger
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
***NOMINATED FOR AN EDGAR AWARD*** In the midst of substantial personal loss and scandal, six-foot-six Gunsten Søren Pedersen, the Detroit Tigers’ worshipped, veteran fence-swinger, walked away from his career and sport that he loved. Retiring to the tranquil solitude of Minnesota’s North Woods, disgraced, Gun left behind disappointed fans and searing press coverage. But a millionaire real estate investor is out to tear up Gun’s new turf. Loon Country Attractions, to be built on Gun’s piece of paradise, comes replete with an amusement park, convention center, and shopping super-...
-
-
ENTIRE SERIES RUINED BY AI
- By lizabeth A Pacosa on 04-27-24
By: Leif Enger, and others
-
High Divide
- By: Lin Enger
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1886, Gretta Pope wakes one morning to discover that her husband is gone. Ulysses Pope has left his family behind on the far edge of Minnesota’s western prairie, with only the briefest of notes and no explanation for why he left or where he’s headed. It doesn’t take long for Gretta’s young sons, Eli and Danny, to set off after him, following the scant clues they can find, jumping trains to get where they need to go, and ending up in the rugged badlands of Montana.
-
-
It's a man's world - not a feminist story
- By Leah McKinney on 01-30-18
By: Lin Enger
-
Clear
- A Novel
- By: Carys Davies
- Narrated by: Russ Bain
- Length: 3 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John, an impoverished Scottish minister, has accepted a job evicting the lone remaining occupant of an island north of Scotland—Ivar, who has been living alone for decades, with only the animals and the sea for company. Though his wife, Mary, has serious misgivings about the errand, he decides to go anyway, setting in motion a chain of events that neither he nor Mary could have predicted.
-
-
Exquisite, lovely, moving
- By BenYL on 05-11-24
By: Carys Davies
-
Peace Like a River
- By: Leif Enger
- Narrated by: Chad Lowe
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The quiet 1960s midwestern life of the Land family is upended when son Davy kills two marauders who have come to harm the family. The morning of his sentencing, Davy (a hero to some, a cold-blooded murderer to others) escapes from his cell, and the Lands set out in search of him. Their journey is touched by serendipity and the kindness of strangers, and they cover territory even more extraordinary than the Badlands, where they search for Davy from their Airstream trailer.
-
-
Poetic Coming Of Age Story
- By Menno on 06-11-08
By: Leif Enger
-
So Brave, Young, and Handsome
- By: Leif Enger
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1915 Minnesota, Monte Becket has lost his sense of purpose. His only success long behind him, Monte lives a simple life with his loving wife and whipsmart son. But when he befriends outlaw Glendon Hale, a new world of opportunity and experience presents itself.
-
-
Good, Enjoyable
- By spencerm on 12-14-08
By: Leif Enger
-
Virgil Wander
- By: Leif Enger
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Midwestern movie house owner Virgil Wander is "cruising along at medium altitude" when his car flies off the road into icy Lake Superior. Virgil survives, but his language and memory are altered, and he emerges into a world no longer familiar to him. Awakening in this new life, Virgil begins to piece together his personal history and the lore of his broken town, with the help of a cast of affable and curious locals. Into this community returns a shimmering prodigal son who may hold the key to reviving their town.
-
-
Not a Minnesota Accent
- By Caritas on 10-09-18
By: Leif Enger
-
Comeback
- A Gun Pedersen Novel
- By: Leif Enger, Lin Enger
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
***NOMINATED FOR AN EDGAR AWARD*** In the midst of substantial personal loss and scandal, six-foot-six Gunsten Søren Pedersen, the Detroit Tigers’ worshipped, veteran fence-swinger, walked away from his career and sport that he loved. Retiring to the tranquil solitude of Minnesota’s North Woods, disgraced, Gun left behind disappointed fans and searing press coverage. But a millionaire real estate investor is out to tear up Gun’s new turf. Loon Country Attractions, to be built on Gun’s piece of paradise, comes replete with an amusement park, convention center, and shopping super-...
-
-
ENTIRE SERIES RUINED BY AI
- By lizabeth A Pacosa on 04-27-24
By: Leif Enger, and others
-
High Divide
- By: Lin Enger
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1886, Gretta Pope wakes one morning to discover that her husband is gone. Ulysses Pope has left his family behind on the far edge of Minnesota’s western prairie, with only the briefest of notes and no explanation for why he left or where he’s headed. It doesn’t take long for Gretta’s young sons, Eli and Danny, to set off after him, following the scant clues they can find, jumping trains to get where they need to go, and ending up in the rugged badlands of Montana.
-
-
It's a man's world - not a feminist story
- By Leah McKinney on 01-30-18
By: Lin Enger
-
Clear
- A Novel
- By: Carys Davies
- Narrated by: Russ Bain
- Length: 3 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John, an impoverished Scottish minister, has accepted a job evicting the lone remaining occupant of an island north of Scotland—Ivar, who has been living alone for decades, with only the animals and the sea for company. Though his wife, Mary, has serious misgivings about the errand, he decides to go anyway, setting in motion a chain of events that neither he nor Mary could have predicted.
-
-
Exquisite, lovely, moving
- By BenYL on 05-11-24
By: Carys Davies
-
A Short Walk Through a Wide World
- A Novel
- By: Douglas Westerbeke
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paris, 1885: Aubry Tourvel, a spoiled and stubborn nine-year-old girl, comes across a wooden puzzle ball on her walk home from school. She tosses it over the fence, only to find it in her backpack that evening. Days later, at the family dinner table, she starts to bleed to death. When medical treatment only makes her worse, she flees to the outskirts of the city, where she realizes that it is this very act of movement that keeps her alive.
-
-
Bleak, lonely, weary story with no real point
- By Amy on 04-21-24
-
The Cemetery of Untold Stories
- By: Julia Alvarez
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alma Cruz, the celebrated writer at the heart of The Cemetery of Untold Stories, doesn’t want to end up like her friend, a novelist who fought so long and hard to finish a book that it threatened her sanity. So when Alma inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic, her homeland, she has the beautiful idea of turning it into a place to bury her untold stories—literally. She creates a graveyard for the manuscript drafts and revisions, and the characters whose lives she tried and failed to bring to life and who still haunt her.
-
-
stories are meant to be told
- By J.C. on 05-30-24
By: Julia Alvarez
-
First Judgement
- By: Scott R. Frazer
- Narrated by: Guyon Brandt
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a crisp Saturday morning in the year 2034, a spaceship unexpectedly descends onto the lawn of the White House. Four hours later, the world watched as six aliens--as human as we are--descend from their ship. Their leader, Darius, announces that they are a first-contact delegation from the planet Parmithia. They know that Earth is suffering from severe agricultural and environmental crises. Their technology could solve most of these problems. Yet such power can also be used to destroy, something that Darius and his people will not allow.
By: Scott R. Frazer
-
Ildri & the Echoes of Trees
- By: Krystal Bailey
- Narrated by: Clémence Legrand
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A full-moon night always leads to mischief, yet one night changes everything—the fateful night the Raven Queen invades the elvish kingdom of Treelock, leaving none alive. Only Ildri, the secret heir born of an elvish king and a human mother, survives. Saved by her mother's ingenuity, Ildri is hidden among her mother's kin in her home village. Her mother's parting gift: a shroud of secrecy, concealing her true identity, even from herself.
-
-
Fantastic read!!!
- By Amazon Customer on 06-01-24
By: Krystal Bailey
-
What’s Not Mine
- A Novel
- By: Nora Decter
- Narrated by: Billie Baird
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since her drug-dealing father disappeared and his girlfriend overdosed, Bria has lived with her aunt Tash and best friend/cousin Ains. By day, Bria and Ains babysit Ains’s younger siblings and sling fast food at Burger Shack. But at night, Bria has her own secret world, sneaking out to see Someboy, an older guy who captivates her sometimes. Other times, he angers-insults-upends her, and that has a certain charm too. But trouble comes for Beauchamp and for Bria.
By: Nora Decter
-
The Devil's Grip
- By: Lina Wolff, Saskia Vogel - Translator
- Narrated by: Daniela Acitelli
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A woman arrives in Florence, overwhelmed by the strange, warm city so different from her home. Amidst the Renaissance architecture and amorous couples, she finds an unexpected love of her own. With his dark, ugly looks, people might stop and stare, wondering what someone like her was doing with someone like him. But he's the Mickey to her Minnie, and she can fix him—they can fix each other. She feels bound to him, body and soul.
By: Lina Wolff, and others
-
Table for Two
- Fictions
- By: Amor Towles
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, J. Smith-Cameron
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millions of Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood. The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages.
-
-
I adore Amor Towles!!
- By Deb Mitchell on 04-20-24
By: Amor Towles
-
The Limits
- A Novel
- By: Nell Freudenberger
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The most thrilling work yet from the best-selling, prize-winning author of The Newlyweds and Lost and Wanted, a stunning new novel set in French Polynesia and New York City about three characters who undergo massive transformations over the course of a single year.
-
-
Did not finish
- By Rebecca on 04-23-24
-
Swing
- A Gun Pedersen Novel
- By: Leif Enger, Lin Enger
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gunsten Søren Pedersen knew about baseball and death. A tragedy took the former slugger out of the major leagues, and the only diamonds he sees now are the stars shining in the cold night of Minnesota's North Woods. That is, until Miles Gates—an old friend in big trouble—calls him down to the Sunshine State. What Gun finds there is a trail of brutal killings, some aging ballplayers, shady characters, and the beautiful sister of a reporter who died for his story. Gun discovers the truth behind the murder spree, and he strikes at it as hard as he ever hit a fastball in his prime. But in ...
-
-
Narration RUINS story !!!!!!!
- By lizabeth A Pacosa on 04-27-24
By: Leif Enger, and others
-
Lucky
- By: Jane Smiley
- Narrated by: Stina Nielsen
- Length: 14 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before Jodie Rattler became a star, she was a girl growing up in St. Louis. One day in 1955, when she was just six years old, her uncle Drew took her to the racetrack, where she got lucky—and the roll of two-dollar bills she won has never since left her side. Jodie thrived in the warmth of her extended family, and then—through a combination of hard work and serendipity—she started a singing career, which catapulted her from St. Louis to New York City, from the English countryside to the tropical beaches of St. Thomas, from Cleveland to Los Angeles and back again.
-
-
Jane, you can do better.
- By Bryn on 05-29-24
By: Jane Smiley
-
Critical Imbalance
- By: G. Weldon Tucker
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 4 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There will come a time when mankind must seek new homes as Earth is full up. There are two ways to do this: new planets, and huge space stations. Those stations are already on the drawing boards. We will find ways to expand a simple station to hold a half million people, someday, but that is a long way out. And we will need many of them. This is not a warning. It is merely a test that stood for a long time and would have remained forever, had they not met aliens. If they are out there, they are not part of the plan and things can go awry. Enjoy! #TheStoryteller
By: G. Weldon Tucker
-
Echoes of Tomorrow
- Navigating the Brink of a Digital Apocalypse
- By: Jacob McCoy
- Narrated by: Angela Ohlfest
- Length: 1 hr and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year was 2034; the world had transformed into a digital utopia. Once a tool to simplify tasks, technology had become society's very fabric. Artificial intelligence managed everything from climate control to global finance, and virtual reality was the preferred mode of travel. Humanity has achieved unprecedented levels of efficiency and comfort. Yet, beneath this sleek veneer of progress, a digital storm was brewing.
By: Jacob McCoy
Love Books? You'll Love Audible.
Transform your day
Replace endless scrolling with endless listening. Chores can be fun.
Listen everywhere
Download titles to listen offline, wherever you are in the world.
Carry your entire Library
Your stories go where you go. Audiobooks don’t weigh a thing.
Listen and learn
Discover stories that can change your mind, your well-being, and your life.
Reach your reading goals
You can’t turn pages while you drive—but you can press play.
Find your niche
WIth thousands of titles to explore, there’s something for everyone.
What listeners say about I Cheerfully Refuse
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Happy
- 05-05-24
Dystopian Beauty
Enger’s unique take on the dystopian genre is distinctly his own. The language is lush, the main character warm and authentic,
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Karen J
- 04-20-24
Hope amidst despair. Loved it.
I was drawn in by the characters and story line. Despair and chaos but still love, hope and staying true to oneself prevail. It gave me a sense of hope as well. Loved it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Emily W
- 04-19-24
Dystopia rust belt odyssey
This story felt like a take on The Odyssey with all the strange characters along the way of a sea journey. It is grim and dark for sure- as some readers have noted, but this is dystopic fiction, although in this case it was more dystopian literature which made it a winner to me.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Paul
- 05-17-24
Delight unfurling
I’ve listened twice through already. Another gem from one of the best. Long may he write.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Robert
- 05-06-24
Maybe I would dance...
A beautiful and sort of innocent story. His writing always leaves me wondering if he's flirting a little.☺️
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Buybyreviews
- 04-10-24
On the Sea and Through the Straits
Enger plies the storied waters of open seas and narrow straits, from the sad realities of Lenin and Mao to the dystopias of Huxley and Orwell—just fictional enough to be entertaining and just real enough to be frightening. Though his production, in numbers, is sparse, his dealings in all his novels are vast. Leif Enger is easily my favorite author.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Beer Lady
- 05-10-24
Most excellent story, one of my very best favorites ever.
I LOVED the story telling style of this book, the knock-out poetry of the prose. Why did this book have to end?
A dystopian story - maybe sent into 20 years in our future, set in northern Minnesota and into Canada. A beautiful novel mostly set on the mysterious Lake Superior in a sailboat. The protagonist is a musician who plays a beautiful bass guitar that seems to mesmerize everyone who hears his major, minor, and pentatonic scales. We follow him searching for his loved one, who he has lost, through a mystical, supernatural story.
The lake becomes a sea with its weather patterns that would send a meteorologist into a tailspin. This becomes a nautical adventure with characters so well drawn that you feel that you are right next to them as the story progresses.
This is one whale tale of a story adventure that will resonate in my bones for a very long time. Words written so well that I could actually hear the chord and rhythm patterns inside my head.
I listened to the Audible version as I read along in my book. The narrator is David Aaron Baker who is SUPERB and as soon as I finish this review I will be searching for anything else he has narrated. Wow.
This book will be loved by anyone who loves atmospheric novels like The Starless Sea, The Night Circus, The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue, Ten Thousand Doors of January, any book by the poetic V. E. Schwab, you get the drift. Now run out, buy or borrow the book from your library and read it now. Then thank me.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Brianna Smith
- 04-11-24
I Cheerfully Refuse this book.
No bueno …the book may not meet the expectations of readers seeking a compelling literary experience.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Christy M
- 04-19-24
Boring!
I’m halfway through and can’t make myself finish it. He just wanders from one depressing place to another. I wish him well but I won’t go with him.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Joel
- 04-15-24
Story grows jarringly dark and aimless
Aside from a meandering plot, there are too many profanities of all things religious or Christian. References to church, God, the Bible, crosses, etc, are darkly negative and joined to horrifically evil characters. A shock after cherishing Enger’s Peace Like a River for decades.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!