David James Poissant has 2 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 6 narrators. The most-rated is Lake Life.
The Heaven of Animals
Summary
In this masterful debut, an award-winning writer and first-rate storyteller explores the tenuous bonds of family - fathers and sons, husbands and wives - as they are tested by the sometimes brutal power of love. In each of the stories in this remarkable collection, David James Poissant delivers a moving portrayal of a relationship in turmoil. His strikingly true-to-life characters have reached a precipice, chased there by troubles of their own making. Some stand frightened, some ready to fight. Some seek atonement, others the atonement that is owed them. But, brought to the brink, each must make a choice: Leap, or look away? Lee Martin writes that Poissant forces us " to face the people we are when we're alone in the dark", and, from the two men racing to save the life of a sick alligator in "Lizard Man" to the girl helping her boyfriend face his greatest fears in "The End of Aaron", from a son grieving his father in " 100% Cotton" as he stalks death on an Atlanta street corner to a brother' s surprise at the surreal, improbable beauty of a late night encounter with a wolf, Poissant's invented worlds shine with honesty and dark complexity, but also with a profound compassion. These are stories hell-bent on hope. Fresh, smart, lively - and often wickedly funny - The Heaven of Animals is breathtakingly original and compulsively readable. As best-selling author Kevin Wilson puts it, "Poissant is a writer who knows us with such clarity that we wonder how he found his way so easily into our hearts and souls."
©2014 David James Poissant (P)2014 Recorded Books
Lake Life
Summary
From the award-winning author of the acclaimed story collection The Heaven of Animals, called “a wise debut...beautiful [stories] with a rogue touch” (The New York Times Book Review), comes a sweeping, domestic novel about a family that reunites at their North Carolina lake house for one last vacation before the home is sold - and the long-buried secrets that are finally revealed. The Starling family is scattered across the country. Parents Richard and Lisa live in Ithaca, New York, and work at Cornell University. Their son Michael, a salesperson, lives in Dallas with his elementary school teacher wife, Diane. Michael’s brother, Thad, an aspiring poet, makes his home in New York City with his famous painter boyfriend, Jake. For years they’ve traveled to North Carolina to share a summer vacation at the family lake house. That tradition is coming to an end, as Richard and Lisa have decided to sell the treasured summer home and retire to Florida. Before they do, the family will spend one last weekend at the lake. But what should to be a joyous farewell takes a nightmarish turn when the family witnesses a tragedy that triggers a series of dramatic revelations among the Starlings - alcoholism, infidelity, pregnancy, and a secret the parents have kept from their sons for over thirty years. As the weekend unfolds, relationships fray, bonds are tested, and the Starlings are forced to reckon with who they are and what they want from this life. Set in today’s America, Lake Life is a beautifully rendered, emotionally compelling novel in the tradition of Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections, Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, and Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth.
©2020 David James Poissant. All rights reserved. (P)2020 Simon & Schuster, Inc.