Listen free for 30 days
-
Like People in History
- A Gay American Epic
- Narrated by: Ethan Sawyer
- Length: 20 hrs and 11 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
People who bought this also bought...
-
Gay Bar
- By: Jeremy Atherton Lin
- Narrated by: Jeremy Atherton Lin
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set between Los Angeles, San Francisco and London, Gay Bar takes us on a time-traveling, transatlantic bar hop through pulsing nightclubs, after-work dives, hardcore leather bars, gay cafes and saunas, asking what these places meant to their original clientele, what they meant to the author as a younger man and what they mean now.
-
Lie with Me
- By: Philippe Besson, Molly Ringwald
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just outside a hotel in Bordeaux, Philippe, a famous writer, chances upon a young man who bears a striking resemblance to his first love. What follows is a look back to Philippe's teenage years, to a winter morning in 1984, a small French high school, and a carefully timed encounter between two 17-year-olds. It's the start of a secret, intensely passionate, world-altering love affair between Philippe and his classmate, Thomas.
-
-
Lovely book, poor narration
- By ahumph292 on 11-10-20
-
Call Me by Your Name
- A Novel
- By: André Aciman
- Narrated by: Armie Hammer
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Call Me by Your Name first swept across the world in 2007. It is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents' cliffside mansion on the Italian Riviera. During the restless summer weeks, unrelenting but buried currents of obsession, fascination, and desire intensify their passion as they test the charged ground between them and verge toward the one thing both already fear they may never truly find again: total intimacy.
-
-
Beautiful and bittersweet
- By Vicky on 04-11-17
-
Straight Jacket
- By: Matthew Todd
- Narrated by: Matthew Todd
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Straight Jacket is a revolutionary clarion call for gay men, the wider LGBT community, their friends and family. Part memoir, part groundbreaking polemic, it looks beneath the shiny facade of contemporary gay culture and asks if gay people are as happy as they could be - and if not, why not? Meticulously researched, courageous and life-affirming, Straight Jacket offers invaluable practical advice on how to overcome a range of difficult issues.
-
-
Insightful and inspiring
- By Amazon Customer on 03-02-21
-
The Meaning of Mariah Carey
- By: Mariah Carey
- Narrated by: Mariah Carey
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It took me a lifetime to have the courage and the clarity to write my memoir. I want to tell the story of the moments - the ups and downs, the triumphs and traumas, the debacles and the dreams - that contributed to the person I am today. This book is composed of my memories, my mishaps, my struggles, my survival, and my songs. Unfiltered. I went deep into my childhood and gave the scared little girl inside of me a big voice. I let the abandoned and ambitious adolescent have her say, and the betrayed and triumphant woman I became tell her side.
-
-
Buy it!
- By MintyCracker on 01-10-20
-
Maurice
- By: E.M. Forster
- Narrated by: Peter Firth
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
'Ah for darkness...not the darkness of a house which coops up a man among furniture, but the darkness where he can be free!' Maurice Hall knows he must choose between living life in the shadows or denying himself a chance at love and fulfilment. Aware of his attraction to the same sex, in a time where it was considered unlawful and immoral to have homosexual desires, Maurice must decide whether to battle or submit to a prejudiced 20th-century English society.
-
-
Forster at his best
- By Petrus on 12-07-15
-
Gay Bar
- By: Jeremy Atherton Lin
- Narrated by: Jeremy Atherton Lin
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set between Los Angeles, San Francisco and London, Gay Bar takes us on a time-traveling, transatlantic bar hop through pulsing nightclubs, after-work dives, hardcore leather bars, gay cafes and saunas, asking what these places meant to their original clientele, what they meant to the author as a younger man and what they mean now.
-
Lie with Me
- By: Philippe Besson, Molly Ringwald
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just outside a hotel in Bordeaux, Philippe, a famous writer, chances upon a young man who bears a striking resemblance to his first love. What follows is a look back to Philippe's teenage years, to a winter morning in 1984, a small French high school, and a carefully timed encounter between two 17-year-olds. It's the start of a secret, intensely passionate, world-altering love affair between Philippe and his classmate, Thomas.
-
-
Lovely book, poor narration
- By ahumph292 on 11-10-20
-
Call Me by Your Name
- A Novel
- By: André Aciman
- Narrated by: Armie Hammer
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Call Me by Your Name first swept across the world in 2007. It is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents' cliffside mansion on the Italian Riviera. During the restless summer weeks, unrelenting but buried currents of obsession, fascination, and desire intensify their passion as they test the charged ground between them and verge toward the one thing both already fear they may never truly find again: total intimacy.
-
-
Beautiful and bittersweet
- By Vicky on 04-11-17
-
Straight Jacket
- By: Matthew Todd
- Narrated by: Matthew Todd
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Straight Jacket is a revolutionary clarion call for gay men, the wider LGBT community, their friends and family. Part memoir, part groundbreaking polemic, it looks beneath the shiny facade of contemporary gay culture and asks if gay people are as happy as they could be - and if not, why not? Meticulously researched, courageous and life-affirming, Straight Jacket offers invaluable practical advice on how to overcome a range of difficult issues.
-
-
Insightful and inspiring
- By Amazon Customer on 03-02-21
-
The Meaning of Mariah Carey
- By: Mariah Carey
- Narrated by: Mariah Carey
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It took me a lifetime to have the courage and the clarity to write my memoir. I want to tell the story of the moments - the ups and downs, the triumphs and traumas, the debacles and the dreams - that contributed to the person I am today. This book is composed of my memories, my mishaps, my struggles, my survival, and my songs. Unfiltered. I went deep into my childhood and gave the scared little girl inside of me a big voice. I let the abandoned and ambitious adolescent have her say, and the betrayed and triumphant woman I became tell her side.
-
-
Buy it!
- By MintyCracker on 01-10-20
-
Maurice
- By: E.M. Forster
- Narrated by: Peter Firth
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
'Ah for darkness...not the darkness of a house which coops up a man among furniture, but the darkness where he can be free!' Maurice Hall knows he must choose between living life in the shadows or denying himself a chance at love and fulfilment. Aware of his attraction to the same sex, in a time where it was considered unlawful and immoral to have homosexual desires, Maurice must decide whether to battle or submit to a prejudiced 20th-century English society.
-
-
Forster at his best
- By Petrus on 12-07-15
-
Modern Nature
- Journals, 1989 - 1990
- By: Derek Jarman
- Narrated by: Julian Sands
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A meditative and inspiring diary of Derek Jarman's famous garden at Dungeness. In 1986 Derek Jarman discovered he was HIV positive and decided to make a garden at his cottage on the barren coast of Dungeness. Facing an uncertain future, he nevertheless found solace in nature, growing all manner of plants. While some perished beneath wind and sea-spray, others flourished, creating brilliant, unexpected beauty in the wilderness. Modern Nature is both a diary of the garden and a meditation by Jarman on his own life.
-
The Chiffon Trenches
- By: André Leon Talley
- Narrated by: André Leon Talley
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A candid look at the who's who of the last 50 years of fashion and proof that fact is always devilishly more fascinating than fiction. André Leon Talley's engaging and detailed memoir is his story of surviving and thriving in the notoriously cutthroat fashion industry amidst racism, homophobia and other challenges to become one of the most legendary voices and faces in fashion journalism.
-
-
Thank goodness Mr Leon Talley narrated this excellent book, as it truly brings the stories to life.
- By M on 20-07-20
-
To Be a Gay Man
- By: Will Young
- Narrated by: Will Young
- Length: 4 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We know Will as a multi-platinum recording artist, Olivier-nominee and the first winner of the Idol franchise. But his story began long before his first audition. Looking back on a world where growing up being called gay was the ultimate insult and coming out after a lifetime of hiding his sexuality, Will explores the long-lasting impact repressing his true self has had. Here you will find a friend, champion and mentor, breaking taboos with frank honesty and offering invaluable practical advice on overcoming the difficult issues too often faced within the LGBTQ+ community.
-
-
Just wonderful.
- By Mr. Yes on 04-09-20
-
What Belongs to You
- By: Garth Greenwell
- Narrated by: Garth Greenwell
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On an unseasonably warm autumn day, an American teacher enters a public bathroom beneath Sofia's National Palace of Culture. There he meets Mitko, a charismatic young hustler, and pays him for sex. He returns to Mitko again and again over the next few months, their relationship growing increasingly intimate and unnerving. As he struggles to reconcile his longing with the anguish it creates, he's forced to grapple with his own fraught history.
-
-
This is good!
- By Amazon Customer on 29-06-17
-
Kid Gloves
- A Voyage Round My Father
- By: Adam Mars-Jones
- Narrated by: Adam Mars-Jones
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Kid Gloves, written and read by Adam Mars-Jones. When his widowed father - once a High Court judge and always a formidable figure - drifted into vagueness if not dementia, the writer Adam Mars-Jones took responsibility for his care. Intimately trapped in the London flat where the family had always lived, the two men entered an oblique new stage in their relationship.
-
-
best book<br />
- By Christine on 26-08-16
-
Tin Man
- By: Sarah Winman
- Narrated by: Sarah Winman
- Length: 4 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It begins with a painting won in a raffle: 15 sunflowers, hung on the wall by a woman who believes that men and boys are capable of beautiful things. And then there are two boys, Ellis and Michael, who couldn't be closer. And the boys become men, and then they meet Annie, and it changes nothing and everything. Tin Man sees Sarah Winman follow the acclaimed success of When God Was a Rabbit and A Year of Marvellous Ways with a love letter to human kindness and friendship, loss and living.
-
-
Delightful!
- By C. Long on 02-08-17
Editor reviews
Narrator Ethan Sawyer's heartfelt performance complements the dramatic events of 20th-century gay history as experienced by Roger Sansarc and his cousin Alistair Dodge. Like People in History opens with AIDS-stricken Alistair's birthday celebration, and Sawyer immediately holds listeners' attention with his nervy tone as Roger brings pills to help Alistair end his suffering. The story moves back and forth from the cousins' first encounters as fourth graders and their subsequent experiences to the present day, detailing Alistair's fate amidst the fallout from the AIDS crisis. Sawyer voices Roger as a wry and self-aware narrator whose conservatism is tempered by his complicated empathy for his theatrical cousin.
Summary
Stonewall Cousins, Roger and Alistair, become lifelong friends when they meet as boys in 1954. After both discovering their homosexuality, their lives intersect against the backdrop of 20th Century gay culture, from the beachboy surfer days of the 1960's, to the Greenwich Village AIDS activism in the 1990's.
More from the same
Author
What listeners say about Like People in History
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mr. J. A. Ball
- 21-08-16
An enjoyable epic that I'd wanted to revisit
I've read a number of Felice Picano novels over the years and have generally enjoyed them. This epic tale spans several decades and allows the reader to experience gay life in America through the dawn of gay lib to the height of the aids epidemic. A great listen and very well performed.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Soraki
- 25-07-19
To whom it may concern - youth experiences
of course another time & social environment - major biographical stories but a lot of boring talks and reflections about 'not really good ole' times, then the first Aids experience together with the ongoing aging process in the former "beach boys community" - but we knew already, when the Music's over turn off the lights
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sunshine Superman
- 09-03-15
horribly written
trash dressed up as a classic,it's not it's simply awful, dull,confusing and vile characters. avoid
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Jeffrey
- 17-12-14
It's All About Roger And Alistair
Whatever else this book is, it's at the least an accounting of the odd but intimate lifelong friendship between two gay men from adolescence in the 50's until Alistair's untimely demise in the 90's. Picano uses historical facts and pop culture along the way to bring the story forward in a very entertaining fashion, especially using their time on Fire Island to highlight the 70's. One might easily suggest that he uses the two men and their many friends and acquaintances to illustrate gay history through five decades. That's fine, but in the end, for me, it was indeed all about Roger and Alistair. By the way, the narration was superb and spot on.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- James
- 26-04-15
Stupendous
What did you love best about Like People in History?
This is a must listen! I never lose interest in this beautiful story!
Which character – as performed by Ethan Sawyer – was your favorite?
Alister and George
If you could rename Like People in History, what would you call it?
A history of gay culture in the U.S.
Any additional comments?
This is one of those books that makes books worthwhile. It is a story I'll never forget. I love all the characters. It is truly and epic
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall

- ThatGuy
- 15-04-15
Excellent book, superb narration
This book is not for everyone. Kudos for a great, sprawling epic of LGBT life across the decades, with dignity and wit. While written in the times, many might not now appreciate the gravitas of the AIDS epidemic, nor be willing to relive it in such hypnotically despairing detail. If you are, you'll be rewarded with a rich love story and commentary about the necessity of a logical family.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Susie
- 21-10-13
A Queer Classic—Gay Culture Behind the Curtain
"Like People in History" is a look at gay culture behind the curtain.
With the sweep of late Twentieth Century as a backdrop, it’s the story of two men, cousins, as they grow from boyhood in the straight-laced closeted Fifties, to the underground Greenwich Village scene and Stonewall, through the glittery, coke-fueled Seventies, the AIDS crisis of the Eighties and finally landing in the Nineties, bruised and battered.
This book is non-stop—intense and heartbreaking scenes. The end will have you in tears.
Read by the amazing Ethan Sawyer. Sawyer follows the story’s hairpin turns, gives each character a unique voice and never misses a beat.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Paul
- 08-05-20
Intriguing story marred by narration
Those of us of a certain age will identify with each section of this intriguing story, well told.. The constant distraction of mispronounced words, both French and English, leads me to wonder why there are "producer" credits for these productions. There needs to be the expectation that no matter how mellifluous the narrator's voice may be, there is an inviolable rule that he look up the pronunciation of any word not in his daily vocabulary. Come on, guys!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Roger Tolle
- 21-03-21
Extraordinary writing, deeply moving, and way, way too long
This book had me at times laughing aloud with glee, stunned with insight into the complexity of these relationships, amazed at the brilliance of the author’s and the characters’ use of language, spacing out and sometimes drifting off to sleep to the monotony of arcane lists of unknown operas, performers, productions, and other unnecessary minutia, and in the end, sobbing, no, wailing with the exquisite, beautiful agony of slowly revealed, undying love.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- MB
- 25-01-21
Great, wonderful book
I couldn't put it away. The narration, as others pointed out, was superb. Written by a guy author about gay men, the book deals with universal subjects of love, family, friendship and finding meaning and purpose in life. Absolutely epic! I would gladly listen to the narrator for twenty more hours.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Patrick Gallanger
- 29-10-19
Excellent Story dealing with a very difficult time
Being a gay man who is about 7 years younger than Roger, (the lead character) I lived through the period of burying friends, lovers and relatives in the 80s and 90s. I do not normally enjoy stories of that period as it brings back too many very painful memories. However, this book handled telling a story for the period very well expressing the joy and pain of the era.
Very well done.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- TLD
- 05-05-19
Intelligent but too tedious to keep me listening.
This may be good literature but I found I too slow and boring. Excellent writing technique, incremental character definition but still didn’t keep me interested.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- curtis haase
- 07-12-18
Fun story through the history of the two men
Easy listening, keeps your interest. I like the way the story weaved the history of the cousins with the present.