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Outer Dark

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About this listen

Outer Dark is a novel at once fabular and starkly evocative, set is an unspecified place in Appalachia, sometime around the turn of the century. A woman bears her brother's child, a boy; he leaves the baby in the woods and tells her he died of natural causes. Discovering her brother's lie, she sets forth alone to find her son. Both brother and sister wander separately through a countryside being scourged by three terrifying and elusive strangers, headlong toward an eerie, apocalyptic resolution.

©1968 Cormac McCarthy (P)2013 Recorded Books Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Emotionally Gripping
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Only McCarthys second ever book and it’s word perfect. Sustains an incredible suspense and dread for the whole story, in his inimitable style he’d already developed back in the 1960s

This book feels fresh and timeless. A precursor to Blood Meridian (the great American novel of our time)

The narration on this is incredible, the actor paces the impactful prose with deft skill to bring out every bit of horror. After I finished the audiobook I went back and listened to parts again because they’re just so well done. This is my favourite of the audiobook versions of the books

Perfect. An odyssey that stays with you forever

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not an easy listen, casual violence lyrically written and performed brilliantly. The words are lean and the talented narrator delivers them vividly. Only an American actor could do this because he captures the nuances of the language and the rhythm of McCarthy's prose which immerses the listener in the bleak but brilliant novel from one the world's greatest writers.

pay attention

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McCarthy has a way with words and prose unlike many who have come before or since. The bleak nihilism of the story itself made beautiful and captivating with his language. With a new pair of noise-cancelling headphones I was able to lose myself in the narrator's diction and flow. This book was a wonderful journey, for the reader (listener) at least.

A wonderful journey, for the reader at least.

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An extremely bleak story but so well written as to be entirely absorbing. The dialogue is so good I cannot think of any novelist who surpasses it. The reading is perfect for the book, so gritty you feel you are right there among these wiry people, tough as worn out boots. Ed Sala is a true performer, bringing out the dialogue perfectly. I will look for more books he has done..

Bleak but riveting

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A powerful and harrowing story beautifully and evocatively written and brilliantly narrated in a style absolutely appropriate to the voice of the author.

An atmospheric literary classic

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