This audio collection from Chilean novelist Roberto Bolano brings together three novellas with political overtones: the eponymous COWBOY GRAVES, chronicling the protagonist's life leading up to his return to Chile when the coup hits; FRENCH COMEDY OF HORRORS, in which a poet answers a ringing pay phone and learns of a secret society called the Clandestine Surrealist Group in Paris; and FATHERLAND, in which the protagonist faces a coup in his country while recalling a lost love. Narrator Anthony Rey Perez has a quietly husky delivery, conveying Bolano's enigmatic writing style and summoning a muted air of suspense. His well-paced narration is thoughtful and understated, allowing the listener to explore the possibilities of the author's stories.
Pub Date: 2021
Duration: 4 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9780593289211
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
American colleges are favorable locales for ghastly event and hair-tearing circumstance. There is, for instance, a good deal of pleasure to be had out of professor and past-prodigy Grady Tripp's awful life, as portrayed by Michael Chabon in WONDER BOYS. There is a certain amount of slapstick here, but it's balanced by Chabon's superb portrait of a gale-force mid-life crisis, a soul-destroying albatross of an unfinished novel and the mind-numbing inconsequence of writers' conferences. David Colacci sounds a little starved for oxygen in his reading, but that's not exactly out of keeping with Grady Tripp's personal gestalt.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: N/A
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
As a group of men bring their own emotional baggage to their football-obsessed reunion, R.C. Bray delivers his usual solid narration. He shifts his tones slightly but enough to put the listener in the motel with the men, revealing their foibles as the story progresses. The narrator's role in this book is a descriptive one, and Bray is a good guide. His narration becomes extra important because this is a rare instance when there almost isn't a protagonist. The author's well-written story--which alternates between serious and laugh-out-loud funny--uses quarterback Joe Theismann's 1985 injury, a broken leg, as a McGuffin.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 5 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781681680057
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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