A Lesson Before Dying cover art

A Lesson Before Dying

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

A Lesson Before Dying

By: Ernest J. Gaines
Narrated by: Lionel Mark Smith, Roger Guenveur Smith
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £7.99

Buy Now for £7.99

About this listen

 This Pulitzer Prize winning book follows the real-life story of the friendship formed between a disheartened schoolteacher and a Black man falsely accused of murder in Jim Crow era Louisiana.

Based on Ernest J. Gaines' National Book Critics Circle Award-winning novel, A Lesson Before Dying is set in a small Louisiana Cajun community in the late 1940s. Jefferson, a young illiterate black man, is falsely convicted of murder and is sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins, the plantation schoolteacher, agrees to talk with the condemned man. The disheartened Wiggins had once harbored dreams of escaping from his impoverished youth, yet he returned to his hometown after university, to teach children whose lives seemed as unpromising as Jefferson's. The two men forge a bond as they come to understand what it means to resist and defy one's fate.©1995 Ernest J. Gaines, All Rights Reserved, Abridgment Approved by the Author; (P) and ©1995 Time Warner AudioBooks and Juneteenth Audio Books, Time Warner AudioBooks Is a Joint Venture of The Atlantic Group and Time Warner Trade Publishing Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literary History & Criticism

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Miracles and Massacres cover art
The Kite Runner cover art
Killing England cover art
In Cold Blood cover art
Vanishing Acts cover art
George Washington's Secret Six cover art
A Prayer for Owen Meany cover art
Heft cover art
The Girl Who Wrote in Silk cover art
The Storyteller cover art
Edgar Allan Poe - The Complete Short Stories cover art
The Sound and the Fury cover art
The Poisonwood Bible cover art
The Power of One cover art
Invisible Man cover art
The Giver cover art
All stars
Most relevant
Very heart felt story beautifully told. Such a sad narrative. I find it difficult to accept that people can judge so unfairly, with devastating consequences. How many innocent people were murdered by the law this way? The journey of the incident right through to the very end is about Jefferson, how his family Nan Nan and everyone is impacted. The defence were right, the murder and robbery was not Jefferson. Not a thing, or a hog but a strong, innocent man with the support of the teacher. Some seriously thought provoking story, told brilliantly. Saddening, true and disgusted by the attitudes and inequalities which should be told to allow anyone to see what happened, what one mans support for another and to prepare him to stand strong and be a man is a difficult journey to hear. The impact and difference one teacher has on Jefferson, provided him with strength and courage with new experiences which helped him.

This should be listened to by everyone, after all no money for the book, or the couple of hours you spare to listen are priceless. The lessons you learn, with your perspective and thoughts challenged and understand why change was needed to allow equality for all. Every one has rights and a voice. Be grateful for this.

Already listening to this again. Beautifully written and narrated and heartbreakingly honest like the book the colour purple.

A Lesson Before Dying

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.