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Angela's Ashes

Author:
Frank McCourt
Read by:
Frank McCourt
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Unabridged Audiobook

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Ratings
Book
132
Narrator
40
Release Date
October 1, 1997
Duration
15 hours 9 minutes
Summary
A Pulitzer Prize–winning, #1 New York Times bestseller, Angela’s Ashes is Frank McCourt’s masterful memoir of his childhood in Ireland—now with a new introduction by Patrick Radden Keefe.

“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”

So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank’s mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank’s father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy—exasperating, irresponsible, and beguiling—does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father’s tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies.

Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank’s survival. Wearing rags for diapers, begging a pig’s head for Christmas dinner and gathering coal from the roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors—yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance, and remarkable forgiveness.

Angela’s Ashes, imbued on every page with Frank McCourt’s astounding humor and compassion, is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic.
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Reviews
Profile Avatar JUDY H. Oct 2023

Heartfelt with vivid descriptions

Profile Avatar Patrick M. Aug 2023

Really enjoyed this book although it probably meant more to me being of Irish heritage.

Profile Avatar Smileykat Jul 2023

Great story. I wonder how much is actually 100% true after researching a bit. But as with all “history”, it is someone’s perspective. Thos is the author’s perceptions from childhood up.

Profile Avatar Anonymous Mar 2021

Sad and true story of Franc McCourt, narrated by the author himself. Exquisite.

Profile Avatar Karl H. Dec 2020

Very Good Narration

Profile Avatar Janet F. Jun 2020

A humorously sad book. The remarks about the Presbyterians really tickled me as I was raised Presbyterian in a small and very Catholic town in south Louisiana.

Profile Avatar CelticCutie Nov 2019

While this book's content was wonderful and thorough, as a recovering Catholic, it was very difficult for me to hear how the church bullied people and threaten them. Frank was an excellent narrator and I wondered through it all how he survived and became a successful human being. Many people would have become bitter and dependent on alcohol or drugs to deal with the trauma they endured.

Profile Avatar Amy C. Sep 2018

This is one of those books that makes you choke because you start dying laughing in the middle of a good cry, great book and narrated perfectly

Profile Avatar Mariana Toro Mar 2017

One of the best, saddest, most engaging books I've read.

Profile Avatar Bill Anderson Feb 2016

I went through a variety of emotions from laughter to anger to sadness. This has been the best read of my life thus far.

Profile Avatar regina ryan Feb 2015

A terrible life, redeemed by human tenacity. His reading makes it unforgettable.

Profile Avatar Jim Seymour Jun 2014

This is the third time I've listened to this memoir and I have read it twice. 'Nuff said.

Angela's Ashes

Angela's Ashes

Author: Frank McCourt
Read by: Frank McCourt
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