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Outer Dark

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Outer Dark

By: Cormac McCarthy
Narrated by: Ed Sala
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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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All stars
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Cormac McCarthy writes about the human condition. He doesn't shy away from or deny, any of its aspects.

perfectly narrated

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A gripping tale told with McCormack’s usual brilliance. Highly recommend but be warned - it’s a dark tale to hear.

Great narration of a great story

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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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love Cormac Mccarthy, and this was no exception if you like unrelenting, grinding poverty, misery and awfulness.

really well read and atmospheric, I did enjoy it but don't expect any rays of sunshine.

christ that was bleak

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Classic Mcarthy, worth a listen and a read. brilliant work by the narrator as well.

Quietly horrific

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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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Nobody does southern gothic like Cormac McCarthy. Abundant with allegory and coruscating imagery this book left its imprint long after the final words faded. Darkly humorous, violent, bleak, beautiful and laced with McCarthys stunning prose. There are demons in the woods that look like men.

Desolate masterpiece

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Well it’s Cormac’s second novel. More hellscape, more human kindness and that damn fine prose. Very much the set up to what comes later.

We need to talk about Cormac

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Nobody writes quite like Cormac McCarthy.

A dark Southern Gothic tale of an incestuously conceived baby abandoned in the woods, and the mother's subsequent search for her child.

If that sounds like a very dark story to you, then you would be correct; this is, after all, Cormac McCarthy. Yes, it is bleak, but at the same time it is written in the most lyrical, beautiful style that I have encountered.

It is perfectly read by Ed Sala, his voice and manner completely in sync with McCarthy's writing.

Given the subject matter, this is not for everyone, but my goodness it is writing so near perfect that it takes the breath away.

Bleak subject matter but sublime writing.

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