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  • Hearts in Atlantis

  • By: Stephen King
  • Narrated by: William Hurt
  • Length: 20 hrs and 10 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (536 ratings)
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Hearts in Atlantis cover art

Hearts in Atlantis

By: Stephen King
Narrated by: William Hurt
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Summary

Hearts in Atlantis is composed of five interconnected, sequential narratives, set in the years from 1960 to 1999. Each story is deeply rooted in the sixties, and each is haunted by the Vietnam War.

In Part One, "Low Men in Yellow Coats", 11-year-old Bobby Garfield discovers a world of predatory malice in his own neighbourhood. He also discovers that adults are sometimes not rescuers, but at the heart of the terror.

In the title story, a group of college students get hooked on a card game, discover the possibility of protest...and confront their own collective heart of darkness, where laughter may be no more than the thinly disguised cry of the beast.

In "Blind Willie" and "Why We're in Vietnam", two men who grew up with Bobby in suburban Connecticut try to fill the emptiness of the post-Vietnam era in an America which sometimes seems as hollow -- and as haunted -- as their own lives.

And in "Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling", this remarkable book's denouement, Bobby returns to his hometown where one final secret, the hope of redemption, and his heart's desire may await him.

Full of danger and suspense, most of all full of heart, Hearts in Atlantis will take some listeners to a place they have never been, and others to a place they have never been able to completely leave.

©1999 Stephen King (P)1999 Simon and Schuster Inc.

Critic reviews

"An incredibly gifted writer, whose writing, like Truman Capote's, is so fluid that you often forget that you're reading." ( Guardian)

What listeners say about Hearts in Atlantis

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Remarkable story telling - NOT HORROR

What made the experience of listening to Hearts in Atlantis the most enjoyable?

Stephen King is an amazing story teller. I enjoyed the characters and the drama. I'm not saying I wouldn't have enjoyed more mystery but it could have taken over the book for the harm of the literary enjoyment, which I'm afraid happened for me in Shining. (I'm not bashing Shining it was good but the last few chapters veered off into so much horror there was little room left for literature.)
This is not only not horror, or supernatural thriller, there is very little of the supernatural in it. And that too only in the first story, the other ones have none.
It is made up of five stories, which could be read independently of each other but they are inter-connected by the characters. The first story is read by William Hurt, the next two by Stephen King and the last two by William Hurt again.

What other book might you compare Hearts in Atlantis to, and why?

Stephen King has published another collection of short stores called Different Seasons where among some others he published a novella called "The Body" (the original of the brilliant movie called Stand By Me) and Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (the original of the brilliant movie called Shawshank Redemption). I'm sure anyone that liked Hearts in Atlantis would enjoy that one too.

What does William Hurt bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

As I said, the book is made up of five stories, which could be read independently of each other but they are related in the characters. The first story is read by William Hurt, the next two by Stephen King and the last two by William Hurt again. This has caused some frustration for some people as I have seen in several reviews because the title information only mentions William Hurt and some were very disappointed. One of them even called one of the narrators "irksome", which to me sound like a very bold exaggeration.
The two narrators could not sound any more different from each other. In style, in pace, in voice, in atmosphere, they communicate very differently. Hurt, melancholic, contemplative, slow, sometimes very VERY slooow, King cool, very relaxed, (an excellent impersonator too), I had to get used to both. At the very beginning of the first story where Hurt starts to narrate and then at the beginning of the second story where King takes over, there was a lot of rewinding because I found it difficult at first to even pay attention and hear the story. But once I got used to them I started enjoying the listening and realised that they were both excellent narrators.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

If not all in one sitting, I found myself very motivated to keep listening. I found it helpful to know that the stories are connected because I wanted to know who will turn up in the next one and what I'll get to know about them.

Any additional comments?

If you're looking for a supernatural thriller or horror, this is not it! Don't buy it because you will be disappointed. But if you enjoy good story telling, very well developed and detailed characters and drama, you will probably like this audiobook.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic

An outstanding book made into an equally outstanding audiobook. Whether a Stephen King fan or not this book is a must. Despite reading this a few years ago I could hardly turn it off once I started listening. The magic I remembered from reading it was still there. Cannot recommend it enough.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Just fabulous narration

William Hurt narrates this strange and intriguing story so well that I just wanted to listen to him just as much as this typically odd story written by Stephen King. I haven't heard him narrate anything else but I will keep in eye out. Stephen King also narrates but nowhere near as enthralling as Hurt.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

William Hurt. Oh Dear Oh Dear.

Wonderful story. In my opinion it's Stephen King's best, and he's produced some very good books over the years. But dear oh dear. What possessed Audible to have William Hurt as the narrator? The man seems barely able to read. I thought he was an actor but his delivery is all wrong. He gets all the inflections and stresses in the wrong places and punctuation seems to be a bit of a mystery to him.

Ok, I accept that not everybody can be as good as Stephen Fry for example but this bloke just hasn't got it at all. Such a disappointment.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Hurt works wonders with the text

William Hurt is the master craftsman when it comes to breathing life into words. There's no other narrator like him. In this book, he narrates part 1 and part 3. King, for some reason, has decided to have a crack at part 2. Top marks for trying, Stephen - but not many people can survive being bookended by Hurt. King's narration sounds rushed and clumsy. Almost a blurt in comparison. I'm not saying he's bad - it's just like someone trying to do a bit of karaoke after Mick Jagger has just finished a number. It's a pointless attempt. I've listened to some other books narrated by King when he goes solo (his On Writing, for example) and they are perfectly 'okay'. To put this into perspective: I've listened to a stack load of audiobooks - but I'd genuinely struggle to mention anyone that comes even close to delivering the kind of vocal impact of Hurt does. The story is good. King's text, as always, seems to just roll off the page, like he's not even trying.

A great story, but an even better reading. This review is a long time coming. I listened to the book about 3 years ago, but it still ranks as my No1 audiobook. After this, you should try Under the Dome. Again, the narrator sprinkles the magic over the text.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Lest they depart from thy heart

all the days of thy life.



“Sometimes when you're young, you have moments of such happiness, you think you're living on someplace magical, like Atlantis must have been. Then we grow up and our hearts break into two.”
― Stephen King, Hearts in Atlantis


“It was the kiss by which all the others of his life would be judged and found wanting.”
― Stephen King, Hearts in Atlantis




A glimpse of the Tower seeping into our world, a remembrance of a war lost in all fronts, the unifying line of love a woman can build even when she was not a woman; one of King’s best books but also perhaps his least commercial. That is why I love it most.


This is not horror but the best north american magical reality, four stories unified by one character and the magic of being young, Stephen King is not respected like literary authors but here he shows that he has a message that will extend into the future and overtake all the pedantic disregard with an understanding and a creation of america few have achieved. Like Spielberg he is at his best when letting us see the world through a child's eye, he makes all that wander sparkle with life.


The first story is without a doubt the easiest to like and most authors would have sold it as a single book, but he had more to say so we get three other stories that round up the message and takes us to uncomfortable realities of a time of war a time that changed all that stood in that period; in ways the young of today can not understand, it was the first revision of a culture the first questioning of a nation by its youth and a rebellion that changed the world order, music, dress, drugs, and how we love. It was a revolution that still divides the hawks and doves of this world, it is that guilt the West fills when it exercises it strength.


“Come to a book as you would come to an unexplored land. Come without a map. Explore it, and draw your own map.... A book is like a pump. It gives nothing unless first you give to it. ”
― Stephen King, Hearts in Atlantis


“It was how wars really ended, Dieffenbaker supposed -- not at truce tables but in cancer wards and office cafeterias and traffic jams. Wars died one tiny piece at a time, each piece something that fell like a memory, each lost like an echo that fades in winding hills. In the end even war ran up the white flag. Or so he hoped. He hoped that in the end even war surrendered.”
― Stephen King, Hearts in Atlantis


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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Narrator

William Hurt only narrates the first and last stories, this should be made more obvious before purchase.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A great SK novel, let down by William Hurt!

I'll start by saying this is one of my best-loved all time SK books. Of the 5 stories it contains, my favourite is the second from which the collection gets its name (Hearts in Atlantis). Even though I'm far too young to remember that period, there's something spellbinding about SK's description of college life and the addiction to the card game Hearts that really make the story resonate.

All the other stories are good too so it's well worth a read. However I'll admit to being disappointed with the Audiobook version - which I bought to enjoy the book in a new format - for two main reasons:

1) William Hurt. Some reviewers seem to applaud his work, but of all the audio books I own (over 30), his narration is the worst I've experienced. He has a very odd rhythm to his speech and seems to...pause at odd...places in sentences where...there's no punctuation. You get used to it eventually but it's really jarring at first. I also find his voice rather dull, and as I often listen to the books in bed, have fallen asleep to his voice far more than is usual!

Luckily SK himself narrates the second, third and fourth stories. While he's perhaps not the greatest narrator, he does a good job here (certainly compared to Hurt), and I find an author reading their own work adds a certain authenticity to the delivery, since he knows exactly what emphasis to put on everything he says.

2) The music. Don't ask me why but for some reason Audible (or whoever commissioned the work) thought it would be a good idea to add random music between chapters, but the music starts while the narrator is still speaking and continues well into the next chapter. This is both distracting and completely unnecessary. I've never had this with any other book and it does spoil the experience quite a bit.

Overall I've given the audiobook 4 stars, but mainly on the strength of the stories themselves. If you've not read the book, then actually I would advise against listening to it first - get a print copy and read it yourself - then if you want to try the audiobook, it's certainly not terrible, but honestly it could have been so much better given the source material.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

An excellent listen! I thoroughly enjoyed the book

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and thought both William Hurt and Stephen King brought it to life in the way they told the story.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing performance

William Hurt's narration is brilliant, more of a performance than a narration. Really really great!

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