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The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

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The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

By: Carson McCullers
Narrated by: Cherry Jones
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About this listen

 Carson McCullers was all of 23 when she published her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. She became an overnight literary sensation, and soon such authors as Tennessee Williams were calling her "the greatest prose writer that the South [has] produced." The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter tells an unforgettable tale of moral isolation in a small southern mill town in the 1930s.

Richard Wright was astonished by McCullers's ability "to rise above the pressures of her environment and embrace white and black humanity in one sweep of apprehension and tenderness." Hers is a humanity that touches all who come to her work, whether for the first time or, as so many do, time and time again. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is Carson McCullers at her most compassionate, most enduring best.

Check out more selections from Oprah's Book Club.©1940, 1967 Carson Smith McCullers (P)2004 HarperCollins Publishers African American Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Classics

Critic Reviews

  • Audie Award Finalist, Classics, 2005

"A remarkable book...[McCullers writes] with a sweep and certainty that are overwhelming." (The New York Times)
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I loved this and will listen again. A story about the human condition, class, race, politics wrapped in a perfect tale of individual lives.

Brilliant story, brilliantly told

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McCullers' captivating and curious novel is read by Cherry Jones with a brilliant sense of Southern melancholy.

Splendid all round

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what can I tell anyone about this book that hasent already been said a thousand times.
I can only tell you what it made me fell and think .it made me sad and joyful, horrafied and elated. the truly sad fact is this could be written about today's America nothing has seemed to have changed ,everyone's connected but everybody feels alone....

what do you say about a masterpiece?

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I can't say I enjoyed this audio and at times it just became my background noise without feeling I was missing much.

long and boring

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