Zora Neale Hurston has 8 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 7 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 87 ratings. The most-rated is Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Summary
Their Eyes Were Watching God, an American classic, is the luminous and haunting novel about Janie Crawford, a Southern Black woman in the 1930s, whose journey from a free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance has inspired writers and readers for close to 70 years. This poetic, graceful love story, rooted in Black folk traditions and steeped in mythic realism, celebrates boldly and brilliantly African-American culture and heritage. And in a powerful, mesmerizing narrative, it pays quiet tribute to a Black woman who, though constricted by the times, still demanded to be heard. Originally published in 1937 and long out of print, the book was reissued in 1975 and nearly three decades later Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered a seminal novel in American fiction.
©1937 Zora Neale Hurston, Renewed 1965 John C. Hurston and Joel Hurston (P)1997, 2000, 2004 HarperCollins Publishers
Barracoon
Summary
A major literary event: a never-before-published work from the author of the American classic Their Eyes Were Watching God that brilliantly illuminates the horror and injustices of slavery as it tells the true story of one of the last known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade - abducted from Africa on the last "Black Cargo" ship to arrive in the United States. In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview 86-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation's history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo's firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage 50 years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States. In 1931, Hurston returned to Plateau, the African-centric community three miles from Mobile founded by Cudjo and other former slaves from his ship. Spending more than three months there, she talked in depth with Cudjo about the details of his life. During those weeks, the young writer and the elderly formerly enslaved man ate peaches and watermelon that grew in the backyard and talked about Cudjo's past - memories from his childhood in Africa, the horrors of being captured and held in a barracoon for selection by American slavers, the harrowing experience of the Middle Passage packed with more than 100 other souls aboard the Clotilda, and the years he spent in slavery until the end of the Civil War. Based on those interviews, featuring Cudjo's unique vernacular, and written from Hurston's perspective with the compassion and singular style that have made her one of the preeminent American authors of the 20th-century, Barracoon brilliantly illuminates the tragedy of slavery and of one life forever defined by it. Offering insight into the pernicious legacy that continues to haunt us all, Black and White, this poignant and powerful work is an invaluable contribution to our shared history and culture.
©2018 The Zora Neale Hurston Trust (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers
Dust Tracks on a Road
Summary
"Warm, witty, imaginative... This is a rich and winning book." (The New Yorker) Dust Tracks on a Road is the bold, poignant, and funny autobiography of novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, one of American literature's most compelling and influential authors. Hurston's powerful novels of the South - including Jonah's Gourd Vine and, most famously, Their Eyes Were Watching God - continue to enthrall readers with their lyrical grace, sharp detail, and captivating emotionality. First published in 1942, Dust Tracks on a Road is Hurston's personal story, told in her own words. The Perennial Modern Classics Deluxe edition includes an all-new foreword by Maya Angelou, an extended biography by Valerie Boyd, and a special section featuring the contemporary reviews that greeted the book's original publication.
©1942 Zora Neale Hurston (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Summary
Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) was a novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist, the author of four novels, two books of folklore, an autobiography, and over 50 short stories, essays, and plays. Her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered a classic of the Harlem Renaissance. An inspiring Southern love story, it is the narrative of Janie Crawford, a strong and independent woman, and her growth through a life marked by various challenges. The novel has been adapted for the stage, radio, and TV, and Time magazine included it in its 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923.
Public Domain (P)2021 Museum Audiobooks
Every Tongue Got to Confess
Summary
Every Tongue Got to Confess is an extensive volume of African American folklore that Zora Neale Hurston collected on her travels through the Gulf States in the late 1920s. The bittersweet and often hilarious tales, which range from longer narratives about God, the Devil, white folk, and mistaken identity to witty one-liners, reveal attitudes about faith, love, family, slavery, race, and community. Together, this collection of nearly 500 folktales weaves a vibrant tapestry that celebrates African American life in the rural South and represents a major part of Zora Neale Hurston's literary legacy.
©2001 Vivian Hurston Bowden, Clifford J. Hurston, Jr., Edgar Hurston, Sr., Winifred Hurston Clark, Lois Hurston Gaston, Lucy Anne Hurston, Barbara Hurston Lewis. John Edgar Wideman (Foreword) Carla Kaplan (Introduction) (P)2001 Harper Audio
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick
Summary
From "one of the greatest writers of our time" (Toni Morrison) - the author of Barracoon and Their Eyes Were Watching God - a collection of remarkable stories, including eight "lost" Harlem Renaissance tales now available to a wide audience for the first time. New York Times’ Books to Watch For BuzzFeed’s Most Anticipated Books of 2020 Newsweek’s Most Anticipated Books Forbes.com’s Most Anticipated Books of 2020 E!’s Top 2020 Books to Read Glamour’s Best Books In 1925, Barnard student Zora Neale Hurston - the sole black student at the college - was living in New York, "desperately striving for a toe-hold on the world." During this period, she began writing short works that captured the zeitgeist of African-American life and transformed her into one of the central figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Nearly a century later, this singular talent is recognized as one of the most influential and revered American artists of the modern period. Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick is an outstanding collection of stories about love and migration, gender and class, racism and sexism that proudly reflect African-American folk culture. Brought together for the first time in one volume, they include eight of Hurston’s "lost" Harlem stories, which were found in forgotten periodicals and archives. These stories challenge conceptions of Hurston as an author of rural fiction and include gems that flash with her biting, satiric humor, as well as more serious tales reflective of the cultural currents of Hurston’s world. All are timeless classics that enrich our understanding and appreciation of this exceptional writer’s voice and her contributions to America’s literary traditions.
©2020 Zora Neale Hurston (P)2020 HarperAudio
Mules and Men
Summary
In Mules and Men, some of the rich cultural heritage of black America is revealed and preserved. In the 1930s, Zora Neale Hurston returned to her home town of Eatonville, Florida, to collect and record the oral histories, songs, and sermons, many dating back to slavery times, that she remembered hearing as a child. These highly metaphorical folktales, "big old lies", and powerful songs helped her to recover her history, and preserve an important part of American culture. The unique heritage of African-Americans, presented here with imagination, humor, and wisdom, has tremendous value for students of cultural history, as well as to anyone who loves a good story well told. This recording features Ruby Dee, a member of the Theatre Hall of Fame and actress in A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway and Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing.
(P) and ©1992 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., All Rights Reserved, Caedmon, An Imprint of Harper Audio, A Division of HarperCollins Publishers
Inside the Echo
Summary
For fans of Nevada Barr, John Connolly, and dogs of all shapes and sizes, a K-9 series with a touch of the supernatural, spine-tingling suspense, and characters who'll stay with you long after the story is done. K-9 search and rescue handler Jamie Flint and her team - both human and canine - are called in when a group vanishes during a dogsledding expedition for battered women in the Mahoosuc Mountains of Maine. When it's learned a rogue gunman was involved in the disappearance, authorities look to the abusive partners of the women now lost for answers. Meanwhile, a voice from Jamie's past begins to haunt her, echoing the words of the shooter now in pursuit of a target Jamie alone can save. With her K-9 partners Phantom and Casper at her side, Jamie must confront the demons of her own past as her team fights the elements and the clock in order to find the missing women and bring them home.
©2018 Jen Blood (P)2018 Tantor