I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive cover art

I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive

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I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive

By: Steve Earle
Narrated by: Steve Earle
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About this listen

Doc Ebersole lives with the ghost of Hank Williams—not just in the figurative sense, not just because he was one of the last people to see him alive, and not just because he is rumored to have given Hank the final morphine dose that killed him.

In 1963, ten years after Hank’s death, Doc himself is wracked by addiction. Since he lost his license to practice medicine, his morphine habit isn’t as easy to support, so Doc lives in a rented room in the red-light district on the south side of San Antonio, performing abortions and patching up the odd knife or gunshot wound.

But when Graciela, a young Mexican immigrant, appears in the neighborhood in search of his services, miraculous things begin to happen. Graciela sustains a wound on her wrist that never heals, yet she heals others with the touch of her hand. Everyone she meets is transformed for the better, except perhaps for Hank’s angry ghost—who isn’t at all pleased to see Doc doing well.

A brilliant excavation of an obscure piece of music history, Steve Earle’s I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive is also a marvelous novel in its own right, a ballad of regret and redemption and of the ways in which we remake ourselves and our world through the smallest of miracles.

©2011 Steve Earle (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Biographical Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Haunted Ghost

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Critic reviews

“This subtle and dramatic book is the work of a brilliant songwriter who has moved from song to orchestral ballad with astonishing ease.” (Michael Ondaatje, New York Times best-selling author)
All stars
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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes because I cannot imagine any better way of accessing the book than having this author read it to you.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Doc was my favourite character because he was so complex but I loved Hank and almost all the others too.

Which character – as performed by Steve Earle – was your favourite?

Doc was my favourite again but I enjoyed the singing Hank very much.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Unfinished business.

Any additional comments?

I have been recommending this to everyone but as an audiobook because I feel this is the superior way of hearing this book with the actual Mr.Earle reading. Phenomenal.

Love that Texas drawl.

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Steve Earle's narration is fantastic - I could listen to him read the phone book - but it's the characters that he creates here and the journey they go on that makes this novel special. Each personality becomes familiar in a short time and you can feel like you understand some of their world.

Great story and narration

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If you could sum up I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive in three words, what would they be?

Give it a try if you like true detective .I am a big Steve Earle fan. Having said that I like the Rolling Stones too. I'm not sure I would rush to buy a novel written by Mick Jagger. Which made me nervous about falling for the unquestioning rock fan approach of buying this novel. I'm surprised and a little bit humbled have to say that all my misgivings were wrong.

Would you recommend I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive to your friends? Why or why not?

It's not the greatest story I've ever come across. Against that it has a totally convincing portrayal of a small impoverished but incredibly spiritual and loving world in an utterly hostile if not dangerous location in a part of Texas none of us would ever want to visit nevermind live in.

What does Steve Earle bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

In one word his "drawl" I assume it's authentic Austin Texas. At any rate its brilliant

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Anyone can be redeemed.

Any additional comments?

You never listened to the music of Hank Williams - you should

Much better than a rock star project

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An indictment of the views against non belivers, drugys & pushers, the poor, & the woes in life for those who are anyone or all of these, set the sixtys but relivent today.
A great listen, that you can't stop.

Present day classic, of its age.

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Loved it. The narration by Steve was perfect.His story telling just like his music is amazing

excellent

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