Ari Fliakos has narrated 56 audiobooks on Listento.it by 57 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 3,161 ratings. The most-rated is The Rooster Bar.

From Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, the story of Mr. Penumbra’s first trip to San Francisco - and of how he got entangled with the city’s most unusual always-open enterprise…. It is August 1969. The Summer of Love is a fading memory. The streets of San Francisco pulse to the sounds of Led Zeppelin and Marvin Gaye. And of jackhammers: A futuristic pyramid of a skyscraper is rising a few blocks from City Lights bookstore and an unprecedented subway tunnel is being built under the bay. Meanwhile, south of the city, orchards are quickly giving way to a brand-new industry built on silicon. But young Ajax Penumbra has not arrived in San Francisco looking for free love or a glimpse of the technological future. He is seeking a book: the single surviving copy of the Techne Tycheon, a mysterious volume that has brought and lost great fortune for anyone who has owned it. The last record of the book locates it in the San Francisco of more than a century earlier, and on that scant bit of evidence, Penumbra's university has dispatched him west to acquire it for their library. After a few weeks of rigorous hunting, Penumbra feels no closer to his goal than when he started. But late one night, after another day of dispiriting dead ends, he stumbles across a 24-hour bookstore, and the possibilities before him expand exponentially....
©2013 Robin Sloan (P)2013 Macmillan Audio

Was he New York City’s last pirate...or its first gangster? This is the true story of the bloodthirsty underworld legend who conquered Manhattan, dock by dock - for fans of Gangs of New York and Boardwalk Empire. “History at its best...I highly recommend this remarkable book.” (Douglas Preston, number one New York Times best-selling author of The Lost City of the Monkey God) Handsome and charismatic, Albert Hicks had long been known in the dive bars and gin joints of the Five Points, the most dangerous neighborhood in maritime Manhattan. For years, he operated out of the public eye, rambling from crime to crime, working on the water in ships, sleeping in the nickel-a-night flops, drinking in barrooms where rat-baiting and bear-baiting were great entertainments. His criminal career reached its peak in 1860, when he was hired, under an alias, as a hand on an oyster sloop. His plan was to rob the ship and flee, disappearing into the teeming streets of lower Manhattan, as he’d done numerous times before, eventually finding his way back to his nearsighted Irish immigrant wife (who, like him, had been disowned by her family) and their infant son. But the plan went awry - the ship was found listing and unmanned in the foggy straits of Coney Island - and the voyage that was to enrich him instead led to his last desperate flight. Long fascinated by gangster legends, Rich Cohen tells the story of this notorious underworld figure, from his humble origins to the wild, globe-crossing, bacchanalian crime spree that forged his ruthlessness and his reputation, to his ultimate incarnation as a demon who terrorized lower Manhattan, at a time when pirates anchored off 14th Street. Advance praise for The Last Pirate of New York: “A remarkable work of scholarship about old New York, combined with a skillfully told, edge-of-your-seat adventure story - I could not put it down.” (Ian Frazier, author of Travels in Siberia) “With its wise and erudite storytelling, Rich Cohen’s The Last Pirate of New York takes the reader on an exciting nonfiction narrative journey that transforms a grisly nineteenth-century murder into a shrewd portent of modern life. Totally unique, totally compelling, I enjoyed every page.” (Howard Blum, New York Times best-selling author of Gangland and American Lightning)
©2019 Rich Cohen (P)2019 Random House Audio

A vicious hit. A vengeful enemy. A drug-addled Colombian club owner. A sex-crazed Italian family. And the ever-powerful Lucky Santangelo has to deal with them all, while Max - her teenage daughter - is becoming the "it" girl in Europe's modeling world. And her Kennedyesque son, Bobby, is being set up for a murder he didn't commit. But Lucky can deal. Always strong and unpredictable, with her husband, Lennie, by her side, she lives up to the family motto - never cross a Santangelo. Lucky rules. The Santangelos always come out on top. An epic family saga filled with love, lust, revenge, and passion.
©2015 Chances, Inc. (P)2015 Macmillan Audio

Two sensational unsolved crimes - one in the past, another in the present - are linked by one man’s memory and self-deception in this chilling novel of literary suspense from National Book Award finalist Dan Chaon. “We are always telling a story to ourselves, about ourselves.” This is one of the little mantras Dustin Tillman likes to share with his patients, and it’s meant to be reassuring. But what if that story is a lie? A psychologist in suburban Cleveland, Dustin is drifting through his forties when he hears the news: His adopted brother, Rusty, is being released from prison. Thirty years ago, Rusty received a life sentence for the massacre of Dustin’s parents, aunt, and uncle. The trial came to epitomize the 1980s hysteria over Satanic cults; despite the lack of physical evidence, the jury believed the outlandish accusations Dustin and his cousin made against Rusty. Now, after DNA analysis has overturned the conviction, Dustin braces for a reckoning. Meanwhile, one of Dustin’s patients has been plying him with stories of the drowning deaths of a string of drunk college boys. At first, Dustin dismisses his patient's suggestions that a serial killer is at work as paranoid thinking, but as the two embark on an amateur investigation, Dustin starts to believe that there’s more to the deaths than coincidence. Soon, he becomes obsessed, crossing all professional boundaries - and putting his own family in harm’s way. From one of today’s most renowned practitioners of literary suspense, Ill Will is an intimate thriller about the failures of memory and the perils of self-deception. In Dan Chaon’s nimble, chilling prose, the past looms over the present, turning each into a haunted place. Cast of Narrators: Ari Fliakos as the Narrator Edoardo Ballerini as Dustin Michael Crouch as Aaron Alex McKenna as Wave and Kate Scott Aiello as Rusty PRAISE FOR DAN CHAON Among the Missing “Unforgettable...hums with life and wry humor.... The stories sneak resolutely up on you, like new weather that hits before you know it.” (The New York Times Book Review) “One of those writers who possess an uncanny and seemingly otherwordly understanding of the human condition...Chaon [is] a remarkable chronicler of a very American kind of sadness, much in the tradition of Richard Yates, Raymond Carver, and Denis Johnson.” (San Francisco Chronicle) You Remind Me of Me “Remarkable...weaves the threads into a whole that is not only satisfying but devastating.” (Entertainment Weekly (Editor’s Choice) “Extraordinary...renews my faith in the unique capacity of literature to help us understand and ultimately respect ourselves and the strange, baffling, complex figures we all can be.” (Houston Chronicle)
©2017 Dan Chaon (P)2017 Random House Audio

“The ultimate truffle true crime tale” (Bianca Bosker, New York Times best-selling author of Cork Dork) - a thrilling journey through the hidden underworld of the world's most prized luxury ingredient. Beneath the gloss of star chefs and crystal-laden tables, the truffle supply chain is touched by theft, secrecy, sabotage, and fraud. Farmers patrol their fields with rifles and fear losing trade secrets to spies. Hunters plant poisoned meatballs to eliminate rival truffle-hunting dogs. Naive buyers and even knowledgeable experts are duped by liars and counterfeits. Deeply reported and elegantly written, this addictive exposé documents the dark, sometimes deadly crimes at each level of the truffle’s path from ground to plate, making sense of an industry that traffics in scarcity, seduction, and cash. Through it all, a question lingers: What, other than money, draws people to these dirt-covered jewels? Praise for The Truffle Underground “Investigative journalist and first-time author Jacobs does a remarkable job reporting from the front lines of the truffle industry, bringing to vivid life French black-truffle farmers, Italian white-truffle foragers, and their marvelously well-trained dogs.” (Booklist, starred review) “In The Truffle Underground, Ryan Jacobs presents a lively exposé of the truffle industry, reporting on the crimes that ‘haunt the whole supply chain.’ . . . Even if truffles are beyond your pay grade, there is plenty of enjoyment to be had in the sheer devilment portrayed in this informative and appetizing book.” (The Wall Street Journal) “In elegant, mesmerizing prose, Ryan Jacobs has delivered a forest-to-table page-turner from the outer limits of our foodie culture, a place where colorful farmers, serial dog murderers and famous chefs grapple over a crudely foraged fungus that's traded in parking lots and bars, like heroin. The Truffle Underground is an eye-opener for anyone who's picked up a fork.” (Steve Fainaru, New York Times best-selling author of League of Denial and Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter)
©2019 Ryan Jacobs (P)2019 Random House Audio

From Peter Blauner, the writer Dennis Lehane calls "one of the most consistently bracing and interesting voices in American crime literature", comes a new thriller about a lone young cop on the trail of a powerful killer determined not just to stop her but to make her pay. In the summer of Star Wars and Son of Sam, a Long Island schoolgirl is found gruesomely murdered. A local prosecutor turns a troubled teenager known as JT from a suspect to a star witness in the case, putting away a high school football star who claimed to be innocent. Forty years later, JT has risen to chief of police, but there's a trail of a dozen dead women that reaches from Brooklyn across Long Island, along the Sunrise Highway, and it's possible that his actions actually enabled a killer. That's when Lourdes Robles, a relentless young Latina detective for the NYPD, steps in to track the serial killer. She discovers a deep and sinister web of connections between the victims and some of the most powerful political figures in the region, including JT himself. Now Lourdes has to not only catch a killer but maybe dismantle an entire system that's protected him, possibly at the cost of her own life.
©2018 Slow Motion Riot Inc. (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

From the creator of the TV show Bones comes a smart and funny debut thriller. “Everything a great thriller should be - always smart, often funny, and relentlessly exciting. I loved every page.” (Scott Turow) Michael Skellig is a limo driver waiting for his client in the alley behind an upscale hotel. He’s spent the past 28 hours ferrying around Bismarck Avila, a celebrity skateboard mogul who isn’t going home any time soon. Suddenly the wind begins to speak to Skellig in the guttural accent of the Chechen torturer he shot through the eye in Yemen a decade ago: Troubletroubletrouble. Skellig has heard these warnings before - he’s an Army Special Forces sergeant whose limo company is staffed by a ragtag band of wounded veterans, including his Afghan interpreter - and he knows to listen carefully. Skellig runs inside just in time to save Avila from two gunmen but too late for one of Avila’s bodyguards - and wakes up hours later in the hospital, the only person of interest in custody for the murder. Complicating matters further is the appearance of Detective Delilah Groopman of the LAPD, gorgeous and brash, for whom Skellig has always held a candle. As for Avila? He’s willing to help clear Skellig’s name under one peculiar condition: that Skellig become Avila’s personal chauffeur. A cushy gig for any driver, except for the fact that someone is clearly trying to kill Avila, and Skellig is literally the only person sitting between Avila and a bullet to the head.
©2017 Hart Hanson (P)2017 Penguin Audio

A total of 27 hours of lessons and conversations on MCAT biochemistry from a full panel of Kaplan's MCAT experts, with a 150-page downloadable workbook to follow along as you listen. From the makers of the number-one MCAT course, Kaplan's MCAT Biochemistry Audio Review is designed to fit into times when you couldn't otherwise study - whether on the road, at the gym, or just looking for a change of pace from reading a textbook. Each of the 12 chapters, which, combined, cover the full scope of MCAT biochemistry, is a multihour conversation with some of Kaplan's best biochemistry minds, where they share their deep knowledge of the content, their experience with students, and all their most effective learning techniques as they go along. Their conversations, hosted by Jeffrey Koetje, MD, are structured and informative but also open and casual, almost as if they're reviewing the material themselves and you've joined their study group. By the end of this audio course, you'll hear their take on the best ways to learn and remember all the biochemistry (and much of the molecular biology) you need to know for the MCAT, including amino acids, plasma membranes, cell metabolism, and much more. You can listen to it on the go, follow along, and take notes with the MCAT Biochemistry Audio Workbook (included as digital download, but also available in print), or even integrate this into a larger course of study with Kaplan's MCAT Complete 7-Book Subject Review - however you study, you'll enjoy the fresh and memorable perspective on this important material that you'll use on the MCAT, in medical school, and beyond. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2017 Kaplan Publishing (P)2017 Kaplan Publishing

Brought to life by Academy Award®-winning actor F. Murray Abraham and an ensemble cast of narrators, and featuring original music by Michael Bacon, this collection contains Hans Christian Andersen’s most beloved fairy tales, as well as a selection of lesser-known favorites. Unlike the Brothers Grimm, who collected and retold folklore and fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen adopted the most ancient literary forms and distilled them into a genre that was uniquely his own. His fairy tales are remarkable for their sense of fantasy, power of description, and vivid imagination. They are like no others written before or since. Recognizing the literary merit of Andersen's own simple colloquial language, Erik Haugaard has remained faithful to the original text in the translation from Danish to English. Listeners will rediscover Hans Christian Andersen's best-known fairy tales, and find new favorites. Stories: The Princess and the Pea Thumbelina The Little Mermaid The Emperor's New Clothes The Steadfast Tin Soldier The Wild Swans The Nightingale The Ugly Duckling The Snow Queen The Little Match Girl "The Will-o'-the-Wisps Are in Town," said the Bog Witch The Rags The Adventures of a Thistle Luck Can Be Found in a Stick The Days of the Week Cast: F. Murray Abraham Edoardo Ballerini Marisa Calin Cynthia Darlow Ari Fliakos Dion Graham January LaVoy Jennifer Lim Euan Morton Robert Petkoff Rebecca Soler Marc Thompson
Public Domain (P)2018 Listening Library

Tap Duvarney lost his innocence in the War Between the States and then put his skills to the test as a soldier in the frontier army. Now, leaving behind a devoted fiancée, he is trying to make his fortune on the Texas coast, working a ranch as the partner of his old friend Tom Kittery - and finding himself in the middle of a feud between Kittery and the neighboring Munson family. Around Matagorda Island, most people are either backing the Munsons or remaining silent. But the danger from outside Kittery’s camp is nothing compared to the threat within, as Tap begins to suspect that Kittery’s woman, a Texas-born beauty who misses the glitz and glamour of city life, isn’t everything she appears to be. Tap is quickly discovering that he must go to war again. But will it be with the Munsons - or with his closest friend?
©2017 Louis L'Amour (P)2017 Random House Audio

Tony Stark is known throughout the world as many things: billionaire, inventor, Avenger. But mainly for being the invincible Iron Man.
Just when Tony is about to add his pizzazz to an international eco-summit in Ireland, someone close to him forces him to question his role in making the world a more dangerous place with his high-tech weaponry. But Stark doesn't have much time to reflect before an old enemy presents him with an even greater challenge: the assassination of all the eco-ministers, and Iron Man himself. Just how invincible Iron Man is when he is stripped of everything remains to be seen in this breathless adventure by the best-selling author of Artemis Fowl.
©2016 Eoin Colfer (P)2016 Listening Library

Sam Dryden lives quietly in a small coastal town in Southern California, buying and fixing up old houses. It's good physical work that he's come to love. But his peaceful life is shattered when he gets a phone call from an old friend in trouble. A phone call that pulls Dryden into the middle of a situation that's as violent as it is baffling. For FBI agent Marnie Calvert, it all begins at a secluded trailer in the Mojave Desert - the scene of a horrifying crime but also of an impossible and mysterious act of heroism. At least it should have been impossible. Determined to learn the truth, what Calvert discovers leads her to Sam Dryden - an ex-Special Forces operative whose ordinary life has suddenly become anything but. Through their actions, Dryden and Calvert have unknowingly placed themselves in the crosshairs of a frightening and dangerous enemy, the result of a generations-long conspiracy finally coming to fruition. What these people have is a technology that allows them to affect events before they even happen. How they are planning to use it, however, will result in the death of millions. To defeat them, Dryden will need to do more than think fast - he'll need to think around corners and face down an enemy that can seize on his mistakes before he even makes them. Following the national best seller Runner, Sam Dryden, Patrick Lee's most indelible creation, returns in one of the most compelling, breathless thrillers yet - -Signal.
©2015 Patrick Lee (P)2015 Macmillan Audio

The Whites is the electrifying debut of a new master of American crime fiction, Harry Brandt--the pen name of novelist Richard Price. Back in the run-and-gun days of the mid-'90s, when Billy Graves worked in the South Bronx as part of an anticrime unit known as the Wild Geese, he made headlines by accidentally shooting a 10-year-old boy while stopping an angel-dusted berserker in the street. Branded as a cowboy by his higher-ups, for the next 18 years Billy endured one dead-end posting after another. Now in his early 40s, he has somehow survived and become a sergeant on the Manhattan Night Watch, a small team of detectives charged with responding to all nighttime felonies from Wall Street to Harlem. Night Watch usually acts as a setup crew for the day shift, but when Billy is called to a 4:00 a.m. fatal slashing of a man in Penn Station, his investigation of the crime moves beyond the usual handoff. And when he discovers that the victim was once a suspect in the unsolved murder of a 12-year-old boy--a brutal case with connections to the former members of the Wild Geese--the bad old days are back in Billy's life with a vengeance, tearing apart enduring friendships forged in the urban trenches and even threatening the safety of his family. Richard Price, one of America's most gifted novelists, has always written brilliantly about cops, criminals, and New York City. Now, writing as Harry Brandt, he is poised to win a huge following among all those who hunger for first-rate crime fiction.
©2015 Richard Price (P)2015 Macmillan Audio

The provocative novel about sex in suburbia, striking in its complete sexual frankness and rightly praised as an artful, seductive, savagely graphic portrayal of love, marriage, and adultery in America.
©2012 John Updike (P)2020 Random House Audio

From New York Times best-selling author and Edgar Award winner Peter Blauner comes a gritty new audiobook. "Ari Fliakos enhances an exciting story with his expert narration. He gives everyone a unique identity, differentiating them through varying tones, voices, and accents." (AudioFile magazine) Nathaniel Dresden never really got along with his father, an infamous civil rights lawyer who defended criminals and spearheaded protest movements. As an act of rebellion, Natty joined the US Army and served in Iraq, coming back with a chest full of commendations and a head full of disturbing memories. But when his father is found murdered near the peaceful confines of Brooklyn's Prospect Park, Natty is forced to deal with the troubled legacy of their unresolved relationship. He also has to fend off the growing suspicions of NYPD Detective Lourdes Robles, a brash Latina cop with something to prove, who thinks Natty might bear some responsibility for his father's death. Though truth be told, the list of people - cops and criminals - who wanted David Dresden out of the way is long. The search for answers leads Natty and Lourdes into an urban labyrinth where they must confront each other - and the brutal truths that could destroy them both. Proving Ground is Peter Blauner's first audiobook in more than a decade. It is at once a sweeping crime narrative, an intricate story about the quest for redemption, and a vibrant portrait of contemporary New York City, all told in Blauner's singular voice. "Ari Fliakos gives a splendid performance. His versatile voice and energy enliven the many characters in this thriller." - Library Journal
©2017 Slow Motion Riot Inc. (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

A teacher at a New England prep school ignites a gender war - with deadly consequences - in this dark and provocative novel by the best-selling author of The Passenger “Suspenseful and utterly riveting!” (Tess Gerritsen) When Alexandra Witt joins the faculty at Stonebridge Academy, she’s hoping to put a painful past behind her. Then one of her creative writing assignments generates some disturbing responses from students. Before long, Alex is immersed in an investigation of the students atop the school’s social hierarchy - and their connection to something called the Darkroom. She soon inspires the girls who’ve started to question the school’s “boys will be boys” attitude and incites a resistance. But just as the movement is gaining momentum, Alex attracts the attention of an unknown enemy who knows a little too much about her - and what brought her to Stonebridge in the first place. Meanwhile, Gemma, a defiant senior, has been plotting her attack for years, waiting for the right moment. Shy loner Norman hates his role in the Darkroom, but can’t find the courage to fight back until he makes an unlikely alliance. And then there’s Finn Ford, an English teacher with a shady reputation, who keeps one eye on his literary ambitions and one on Ms. Witt. As the school’s secrets begin to trickle out, a boys-versus-girls skirmish turns into an all-out war, with deeply personal - and potentially fatal - consequences for everyone involved. Lisa Lutz’s blistering, timely tale of revenge and disruption shows us what can happen when silence wins out over decency for too long - and why the scariest threat of all might be the idea that sooner or later, girls will be girls. Cast of Narrators: Abby Elliot as Gemma Russo Lisa Flanagan as Ms. Witt Ari Fliakos as Mr. Ford Michael Crouch as Norman Crowley and with Johnny Heller reading The Announcements Advance praise for The Swallows “Wes Anderson meets Muriel Spark in this delicious and vicious battle of the sexes set within a private school. Wickedly fun and wildly subversive but packing an emotional punch, The Swallows is as powerful as it is timely.” (Nationally best-selling author Megan Abbott) “Sharpen your axes, ladies, and get ready for this fierce, fun, unsparing novel of female rage, power, and friendship.” (Camille Perri, author of The Assistants and When Katie Met Cassidy)
©2019 Lisa Lutz (P)2019 Random House Audio

The first collection of short fiction from Pulitzer Prize-winner Jeffrey Eugenides, author of The Virgin Suicides, Middlesex, and The Marriage Plot. Jeffrey Eugenides's best selling novels have shown him to be an astute observer of the crises of adolescence, self-discovery, family love, and what it means to be American in our times. The stories in Fresh Complaint explore equally rich and intriguing territory. Ranging from the bitingly reproductive antics of "Baster" to the dreamy, moving account of a young traveler's search for enlightenment in "Air Mail" (selected by Annie Proulx for Best American Short Stories), this collection presents characters in the midst of personal and national emergencies. We meet a failed poet who, envious of other people's wealth during the real-estate bubble, becomes an embezzler; a clavichordist whose dreams of art founder under the obligations of marriage and fatherhood; and, in "Fresh Complaint," a high school student whose wish to escape the strictures of her immigrant family lead her to a drastic decision that upends the life of a middle-aged British physicist. Narratively compelling, beautifully worded, and packed with a density of ideas despite their fluid grace, these stories chart the development and maturation of a major American author.
©2017 Jeffrey Eugenides (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

"A single spy - in the right place and at the right moment - may change the course of history." Aleksi Ivanovich Smirnov, an orphan and a thief, has been living by his wits and surviving below the ever-watchful eye of the Soviet system until his luck finally runs out. In 1936, at the age of 16, Aleksi is caught by the NKVD and transported to Moscow. There, in the notorious headquarters of the secret police, he is given a choice: be trained and inserted as a spy into Nazi Germany under the identity of his best friend, the long-lost nephew of a high-ranking Nazi official, or disappear forever in the basement of the Lubyanka. For Aleksi it's no choice at all. Over the course of the next seven years, Aleksi has to live his role, that of the devoted nephew of a high Nazi official, and ultimately works for the legendary German spymaster Wilhelm Canaris as an intelligence agent in the Abwehr. All the while acting as a double agent - reporting back to the NKVD and avoiding detection by the Gestapo. Trapped between the implacable forces of two of the most notorious dictatorships in history and truly loyal to no one but himself, Aleksi's goal remains the same - survival. In 1943 Aleksi is chosen by the Gestapo to spearhead one of the most desperate operations of the war - to infiltrate the site of the upcoming Tehran conference between Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin and set them up to be assassinated. For Aleksi it's the moment of truth; for the rest of the world, the future is at stake.
©2017 William Christie (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

How Stella Saved the Farm is a simple parable about making innovation happen. Written by the authors of the New York Times best-selling Reverse Innovation: Create Far from Home, Win Everywhere, Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble. This story resonates in organizations of all types - public sector, private sector, and social sector, from mammoth corporations to small organizations employing just a few dozen people. The parable is about a farm in trouble. Bankruptcy, or the grim prospect of being acquired by a hostile competitor, threaten. The farm succeeds only if the team pulls together and innovates. The main characters in the story - Stella, Deirdre, Bull, Mav, Einstein, Rambo, Maisie, and Andrea - are all like people you know, maybe even yourself. The tale includes an unexpected leadership challenge, an ambitious call to action, a bold idea, countless internal obstacles and conflicts, fears, joys, triumphs, and even a love interest. It’s a story that can be enjoyed by anyone. How Stella Saved the Farm delivers eight simple lessons to guide innovation initiatives to success. It prepares business leaders to avoid some of innovation’s most toxic myths, teaches how to build the right kind of team, and shows how to learn quickly from experience.
©2013 Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble (P)2013 Macmillan Audio

“In Fernanda Santos’ expert hands, the story of 19 men and a raging wildfire unfolds as a riveting, pulse-pounding account of an American tragedy; and also as a meditation on manhood, brotherhood and family love. The Fire Line is a great and deeply moving book about courageous men and women.” (Héctor Tobar, author of Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine and the Miracle that Set Them Free) When a bolt of lightning ignited a hilltop in the sleepy town of Yarnell, Arizona, in June of 2013, setting off a blaze that would grow into one of the deadliest fires in American history, the 20 men who made up the Granite Mountain Hotshots sprang into action. An elite crew trained to combat the most challenging wildfires, the Granite Mountain Hotshots were a ragtag family, crisscrossing the American West and wherever else the fires took them. The Hotshots were loyal to one another and dedicated to the tough job they had. There's Eric Marsh, their devoted and demanding superintendent who turned his own personal demons into lessons he used to mold, train and guide his crew; Jesse Steed, their captain, a former Marine, a beast on the fire line and a family man who wasn’t afraid to say “I love you” to the firemen he led; Andrew Ashcraft, a team leader still in his 20s who struggled to balance his love for his beautiful wife and four children and his passion for fighting wildfires. We see this band of brothers at work, at play and at home, until a fire that burned in their own backyards leads to a national tragedy. Impeccably researched, drawing upon more than a hundred hours of interviews with the firefighters’ families, colleagues, state and federal officials, and fire historians and researchers, New York Times Phoenix Bureau Chief Fernanda Santos has written a riveting, pulse-pounding narrative of an unthinkable disaster, a remarkable group of men and the raging wildfires that threaten our country’s treasured wild lands. The Fire Line is the winner of the 2017 Spur Award for Best First Nonfiction Book, and Spur Award Finalist for Best Western Contemporary Nonfiction.
©2016 Fernanda Santos (P)2016 Macmillan Audio