House of Sand and Fog Audiobook By Andre Dubus cover art

House of Sand and Fog

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House of Sand and Fog

By: Andre Dubus
Narrated by: Andre Dubus, Fontaine Dollas Dubus
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In this riveting novel of almost unbearable suspense, three fragile yet determined people become dangerously entangled in a relentlessly escalating crisis. Colonel Behrani, once a wealthy man in Iran, is now a struggling immigrant willing to bet everything he has to restore his family's dignity. Kathy Nicolo is a troubled young woman whose house is all she has left, and who refuses to let her hard-won stability slip away from her. Sheriff Lester Burdon, a married man who finds himself falling in love with Kathy, becomes obsessed with helping her fight for justice.

Drawn by their competing desires to the same small house in the California hills and doomed by their tragic inability to understand one another, the three converge in an explosive collision course. Combining unadorned realism with profound empathy, House of Sand and Fog marks the arrival of a major new voice in American fiction.

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Enjoyed this book and didn't want to interupt my listening time.

Great Listening

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At the beginning of the book I was raptured. The plot took a while to kick off but the characters were fascinating and kept me interested. After the climax-ish of the book it just dragged along. The falling action hardly played on these complicated and deep characters at all and then it was just kind of... over. Overall a really good book but don't expect much past the climax.

Riveting... Until it wasn't

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Though a dark and at times depressing tale, it was a different kind of thoughtful story. Bleak as it was, the characters were unusual and unique. Definitely a clash of cultures so stark it was a learning experience. The reading was well done...but I did tire of Cathy's whiny voice!

Dark

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overall seeing the movie first and book second is a good idea for an series because you are typically disappointed by the movie. but now reading the book, I can say the screen adaption is fantastic. of course there are more details but really both are well done.

Like the movie with more detail

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Very odd book. I almost quit 4 hours in. But because I was knitting while listening, I just let the audiobook continue. I'm glad I did.
The narration is lousy (the book version may be a better choice), BUT, that may be the way the author wanted it, since he was one of the narrators. Both female and male narrators were very monotone which added to this depressing story. Yes, be prepared, this is not a happy story in any way.
The book starts by describing the day to day lives of 2 totally different families. One is a military family escaped from Iran (naturalized US citizens). The other "family" is a recovering drug and alcohol addict, who's husband has left and she begins an affair with a married man.
We explore the lives, attitudes of all the characters and how they eventually merge together.
I found it interesting to listen to the lifestyle of the Iranians. Their thought process, the eating habits. (According to the book, when they drink tea, they put a sugar cube in their mouth, sip the tea and slurp is through the sugar cube. I'll have to try that.)
Trouble begins with a mistake on the city tax office's part. From their is a whirlwind of errors, misunderstanding, stubbornness that all escalates and merges these two families together forever. Unfortunately, the merge is by way of a totally downward spiral. One action leads to another, etc.
It reminds me of the movie "Falling Down", starring Michael Douglas, or a darker type of "Thelma and Louise".
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Depressing

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