Audiobooks by Charles Portis

"Charles Portis’s quintessential comic masterpiece centers on Lamar Jimmerson, leader of the Gnomon Society, the international fraternal order dedicated to preserving the arcane wisdom of the lost city of Atlantis. Stationed in France in 1917, Jimmerson comes across a little book crammed with Atlantean puzzles, Egyptian riddles, and extended alchemical metaphors. It’s the Codex Pappus—the sacred Gnomon text. Soon he is basking in its lore, convinced that his mission on Earth is to extend the ranks of this noble brotherhood. Taking us through the publication of Jimmerson’s own Gnomic texts, to the schism that rocks the Gnomic community, to Jimmerson’s disastrous bid to become the governor of Indiana, and finally to the fateful gathering of the Gnomons in a mobile-home park in East Texas, Masters of Atlantis is a cockeyed journey into an America of misfits, con men, and innocents."

Charles Portis (Author), Jefferson Mays (Narrator)

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Gringos

"With an uncommonly astute eye for the absurd details that comprise your average American, Charles Portis brings to life Jimmy Burns, an expatriate American living in Mexico. For a time, Jimmy spent his days unearthing preColumbian artifacts. Now he makes a living doing small trucking jobs and helping out with the occasional missing-person situation—whatever it takes to remain “the very picture of an American idler in Mexico, right down to the grass-green golfing trousers.” But Jimmy’s laid-back lifestyle is being seriously imposed upon by a ninety-pound stalker named Louise, whose particular fascination with Jimmy is a mystery to him. Add to this a sudden wave of hippies led by a murderous excon guru in search of psychic happenings, archaeologists unearthing (illegally) the Mayan tombs, and Louise and her weirdo husband’s quest for UFO landing sites, and Jimmy’s simple south-of-the-border existence is facing clear and present danger."

Charles Portis (Author), David Aaron Baker (Narrator)

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Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany

"Best known for his glorious comic novels—including the American classic True Grit—Charles Portis was also a prolific essayist, travel writer, and newspaper reporter. Now, for the first time, these writings—journalism, short fiction, memoir, travel stories, and even a play—have been brought together in Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany. The collection encompasses the breadth of Portis’s fifty-year writing career, covering topics as varied as road tripping in Baja, Elvis’s visits to his aging mother, and his own boyhood in Arkansas. Also included in Escape Velocity are Portis’s three-act play Delray’s New Moon, “Damn!” a rare short story from 1957, and tributes by Donna Tartt, Wells Tower, Ron Rosenbaum, Ed Park, and Roy Blount Jr. While fans of Charles Portis’s sly and distinctive humor, quirky characters, and keen ear for detail will be thrilled at this new addition to their libraries, Escape Velocity will also serve as an essential introduction to those not yet familiar with his work."

Charles Portis (Author), Susan Bennett, T. Ryder Smith (Narrator)

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Norwood

"Norwood, Charles Portis’s first novel, displayed right out of the gate the wit, style, and singular voice that made him one of our great American writers. Out of the Neon Desert of Roller Dromes, chili parlors, the Grand Ole Opry, and girls who want “to live in a trailer and play records all night” comes ex-marine and troubadour Norwood Pratt. Sent on a mission to New York by Grady Fring, the Kredit King, Norwood has visions of “speeding across the country in a late model car, seeing all the sights.” By the time he returns home to Ralph, Texas, Norwood has met his true love, Rita Lee, on a Trailway bus; befriended Edmund B. Ratner, the self-described “world’s smallest perfect man”; and helped Joann, “the chicken with a college education,” realize her true potential in life. As with all of Portis’s fiction, the tone is cool, sympathetic, funny, and undeniably American."

Charles Portis (Author), David Aaron Baker (Narrator)

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The Dog of the South

"From Charles Portis, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of True Grit, The Dog of the South is a novel about a husband on a crazy road trip pursuing his runaway wife. Ray Midge is waiting for his credit card bill to arrive. His wife, Norma, has run off with her ex-husband, taking Ray’s cards, shotgun, and car. But from the receipts, Ray can track where they’ve gone. He takes off after them, as does an irritatingly tenacious bail bondsman, both following the romantic couple’s spending as far as Mexico. There Ray meets Dr. Reo Symes, the seemingly down-on-his-luck and rather eccentric owner of a beaten-up and broken-down bus, who needs a ride to Belize. The farther they drive, in a car held together by coat hangers and excesses of oil, the wilder their journey gets. But they’re not going to give up easily. “[Charles Portis] understood, and conveyed, the grain of America, in ways that may prove valuable in future to historians trying to understand what was decent about us as a nation.”—Donna Tartt, New York Times Book Review"

Charles Portis (Author), David Aaron Baker (Narrator)

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True Grit

"There is no knowing what lies in a man's heart. On a trip to buy ponies, Frank Ross is killed by one of his own workers. Torn Chancy shoots him down in the street for a horse, $150 cash, and two Californian gold pieces. Ross's unusually mature and single-minded fourteen-year-old daughter Mattie travels to claim his body, and finds that the authorities are doing nothing to find Chaney.Then she hears of Rooster - a man, she's told, who has grit - and convinces him to join her in a quest into dark, dangerous Indian territory to hunt Chancy down and avenge her father's murder."

Charles Portis (Author), Donna Tartt (Narrator)

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True Grit

"Mattie Ross, a fourteen-year-old girl from Dardanelle, Arkansas, sets out to avenge her Daddy who was shot to death by a no-good outlaw. Mattie convinces one-eyed 'Rooster' Cogburn, the meanest U.S. marshal in the land, to ride along with her. In True Grit, we have a true American classic, as young Mattie -- as vital as she is innocent -- outdickers and outmaneuvers the hard-bitten men of the trail in a legend that will last through the ages."

Charles Portis (Author), Donna Tartt (Narrator)

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