Audiobooks by John Sayles

Crucible: A Novel

"Already the gateway for illegal Canadian liquor during Prohibition, the Motor City becomes a crucible for American class conflict during the Great Depression, with an army of laid off Ford workers drifting into the ranks of the burgeoning union movement—Henry Ford's worst nightmare. To keep the hundreds of thousands still employed by him in thrall, the man who was formerly 'America's favorite tycoon' recruits black laborers migrating from the deep South to serve as 'strike insurance', and gives Harry Bennett free reign over the legion of brawlers and ex-cons who make up the company's 'Security Department'. The Model T mogul has also bought a chunk of Brazil's Amazonian rainforest, vowing to grow his own rubber for tires, but refusing to include a botanist in his troop of would-be jungle tamers. As a series of biological plagues descend on the Fordlandia plantation, the racial melting pot he has created in Detroit begins to boil over, and not even the Sage of Dearborn can control the forces that have been unleashed. The novel's cast—Ford workers black and white and their families, young radicals, cynical newsmen, gangsters, Brazilian rubber tappers, cameos from boxer Joe Louis and muralist Diego Rivera—create the tapestry of differing points of view that John Sayles has become famous for, the events portrayed fundamental to the country we live in today."

John Sayles (Author), Christopher Douyard (Narrator)

Audiobook

Play Sample Listen For Free

Jamie MacGillivray: The Renegade's Journey

"It begins in the highlands of Scotland in 1746, at the Battle of Culloden, the last desperate stand of the Stuart 'pretender' to the throne of the Three Kingdoms, Bonnie Prince Charlie, and his rabidly loyal supporters. Vanquished with his comrades by the forces of the Hanoverian (and Protestant) British crown, the novel's eponymous hero, Jamie MacGillivray, narrowly escapes a roadside execution only to be recaptured by the victors and shipped to Marshalsea Prison (central to Charles Dickens's Hard Times) where he cheats the hangman a second time before being sentenced to transportation and indentured servitude in colonial America 'for the term of his natural life.' His travels are paralleled by those of Jenny Ferguson, a poor, village girl swept up on false charges by the English and also sent in chains to the New World. The novel follows Jamie and Jenny through servitude, revolt, escape, and romantic entanglements—pawns in a deadly game. The two continue to cross paths with each other and with some of the leading figures of the era—the devious Lord Lovat, future novelist Henry Fielding, the artist William Hogarth, a young and ambitious George Washington, the doomed General James Wolfe, and the Lenape chief feared throughout the Ohio Valley as Shingas the Terrible."

John Sayles (Author), Peter Noble (Narrator)

Audiobook

Play Sample Listen For Free

Yellow Earth

"On the banks of the Missouri River, the town of Yellow Earth and the Three Nations reservation prepare for an invasion—the ground beneath their feet is loaded with readily frackable shale oil and the minions of corporate energy are rushing to extract it. Tribal Chairman Harleigh Kildeer welcomes Big Oil with open arms, while county sheriff Will Crowder has to deal with the overnight influx of roughnecks, truckers, drug dealers, and sex workers."

John Sayles (Author), Gary Tiedemann (Narrator)

Audiobook

Play Sample Listen For Free

American Classics

"A compilation of classic tales by great American writers performed by terrific actors, with a lineup including Pulitzer Prize winners, National Book Award winners, and PEN Award winners."

Alice Walker, Amy Tan, Donald Barthelme, Edgar Allan Poe, Eudora Welty, John Cheever, John Sayles, Joyce Carol Oates (Author), Carmen De Lavallade, Christine Baranski, David Strathairn, Freda Foh Shen, Jerry Stiller, Malachy Mccourt, Rene Aubergenois, Stockard Channing (Narrator)

Audiobook

Play Sample Listen For Free