Audiobooks by Lee Smith

The China Matrix: The Epic Story of How Donald Trump Shattered a Deadly Pact

"The U.S. ruling class sold out America to China. Can Donald Trump destroy the alliance before it's too late? For half a century, America's establishment has forged an alliance with the Chinese Communist Party-one that enriched elites, hollowed out the middle class, and imperiled U.S. national security. They sold out American workers for cheap labor, Wall Street profits, and political power. But then came Donald Trump. In The China Matrix, New York Times bestselling author and investigative journalist Lee Smith reveals the shocking truth about how U.S. political and corporate elites conspired with Beijing to reshape the global order-at America's expense. From Henry Kissinger's secret dealings with Mao to the tech oligarchs cozying up to Xi Jinping, Smith exposes the web of corruption and betrayal that spans decades. He reveals how globalism, Silicon Valley, and the media worked together to whitewash China's crimes while dismantling American industry and national security. But this is also a story of resistance. Smith chronicles how Trump's presidency shattered the illusion of a benign China, forcing the establishment to confront the consequences of their own greed. From trade wars to TikTok, fentanyl to finance, The China Matrix details the battle between America First and the entrenched pro-China elite-and what's at stake in the next chapter of this global showdown. With stunning new revelations about Elon Musk's growing influence, Joe Biden's China entanglements, and the role of U.S. universities in Beijing's espionage network, The China Matrix is a gripping exposé of the most dangerous alliance in modern history-and the fight to break free before time runs out."

Lee Smith (Author), Chris Abell (Narrator)

Audiobook

Disappearing the President: Trump, Truth Social, and the Fight for the Republic

"From Lee Smith, bestselling author of, The Permanent Coup and The Plot Against the President, comes another riveting exposé of the secret war against President Trump and American democracy. Even before a would-be killer tried to murder President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, a clique of political assassins set about eliminating him from public life entirely. In Disappearing the President, New York Times bestselling author Lee Smith exposes how a shadow network of powerful partisan activists has waged a years-long, scorched-earth war to eradicate President Trump and any vestige of his influence. Resorting to an unprecedented campaign of domestic spying, election rigging, brute-force censorship, and political violence, anti-Trump zealots have undermined the federal government and sabotaged countless other vital institutions in their relentless quest to crush the former president. In this alarming book, Lee Smith reveals: How U.S. intelligence services, trained to sabotage foreign governments and leaders, have turned their expertise against Americans. How the Shadow Network exploited Covid to censor dissidents and rig the 2020 election. Why Big Tech firms hired hundreds of former intelligence officials after 2018. How Barack Obama, widely viewed as a benign elder statesman, created and leads the anti-Trump operation. Finally, Smith shows how censorship of Trump supporters has provoked a free-speech backlash. The hour is late, and the stakes are high. Including exclusive interviews with President Trump, Devin Nunes, Dan Bongino, and many others, Disappearing the President is an unsettling expose of a rogue cabal that will pay any price to annihilate the one man who threatens their agenda."

Lee Smith (Author), John Pruden (Narrator)

Audiobook

Silver Alert

"This funny and endearing novel of family, secrets, and aging follows an elderly man who heads off on a joyride with a new young friend-who may have some secrets of her own. A driving force in literature, the one and only Lee Smith returns with a road trip novel, a story full of hope and humor about not going away quietly-at any age. Aging Herb's charmed life with his dear wife, Susan, in their Key West house is coming undone. Susan now needs constant care, and Herb is in denial about his own ailing health. The one bright spot is the arrival of an endlessly optimistic manicurist calling herself Renee. She sings to Susan during manicures, gets her to paint, and brings her a sense of contentment. But then Herb and Susan's adult children arrive to stage an intervention on their stubborn, independent father, and as a consequence, Renee's gig with Susan-and her grand plans for her own life-start to unravel as well. So much had seemed as if it could change for Renee, who is not the happy, uncomplicated young girl she pretends to be. She is actually named Dee Dee, and she's fleeing a dark past. And Herb can't just let go of all that he has ever had. So, he suggests one last joy ride in his Porsche. And the two take off north out of Key West, soon setting off a Silver Alert. As the unlikely friendship between Herb and Dee Dee deepens, we see how as one life is closing down, another opens up. In this buoyant novel, the masterful Smith asks: What do we deserve? And how do we make it our own? Sometimes, you just have to seize the wheel. Fans of Smith's many books in her storied, bestselling career won't want to miss her newest novel. And readers of novels like Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes will adore Silver Alert. "

Lee Smith (Author), Caitlin Davies (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Permanent Coup: How Enemies Foreign and Domestic Targeted the American President

"Investigative journalist Lee Smith uncovers what he calls the "permanent coup" - a relentless, orchestrated effort by the left to undermine President Donald J. Trump and American democracy. From the fabricated Russia collusion hoax to the violent riots that swept across American cities, Smith exposes how these events are all part of the same ongoing campaign-not just against President Trump, but against the millions of Americans who cherish their country and its founding ideals. For the first time, he reveals the direct involvement of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and senior military officials in a coordinated operation to take down a sitting president. Beginning in late 2015, political operatives, intelligence officials, and the press pushed a conspiracy theory about Trump-he was a Russian asset and spied on his campaign and his presidency in order to undo an election. Because the ultimate goal of the anti-Trump operation is not simply to topple the president but rather to change the character and constitution of the country, the Deep State's machinations didn't stop even after Trump was cleared of charges of "colluding" with Moscow. Their efforts became even more fierce, more desperate, and more divisive, threatening to scar America permanently. In their zeal to bring down President Trump, Deep State conspirators had unwittingly revealed the origins of the anti-Trump operation and exposed corruption at the very highest levels of the Democratic party-including Joe Biden and his former boss, Barack Obama. Lee Smith brings to this story the same incisive reporting and commentary that distinguished his runaway bestseller, The Plot Against the President. His investigation, identifying crimes and abuses committed by senior US officials, was later confirmed by a major Department of Justice report. For The Permanent Coup, Smith again enjoys unrivaled and exclusive access to the main players defending America and uncovering Deep State crimes-including Congressman Devin Nunes and the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani."

Lee Smith (Author), Les Connery (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Plot Against the President: The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunes Uncovered the Biggest

"In this New York Times bestseller, investigative journalist Lee Smith uses his unprecedented access to expose the deep state operation against President Donald J. Trump -- and the American people. The Plot Against the President tells the story of how Congressman Devin Nunes, while leading the House Intelligence Committee, uncovered the operation to bring down the commander-in-chief. While popular opinion holds that Russia subverted democratic processes during the 2016 elections, the real damage was done not by Moscow or any other foreign actor. Rather, this was a slow-moving coup engineered by a coterie of the American elite, the "deep state," targeting not only the president, but also the rest of the country. The plot officially began July 31, 2016 with the counterintelligence investigation that the FBI opened to probe Russian infiltration of Donald Trump's presidential campaign. But the bureau never followed any Russians. In fact, it was an operation to sabotage Trump, the candidate, then president-elect, and finally the presidency. The conspirators included political operatives, law enforcement and intelligence officials, and the press. The plot was uncovered by Nunes and his investigative team on the House Intelligence Committee. They understood that the target of the operation wasn't just Trump, but rather the institutions that sustain our republic. A country where operatives use the intelligence and security services to protect their privileges by spying on Americans, coordinating with the press, and using extra-constitutional means to undermine an election then undo a presidency is more like the third world than the republic envisioned by the founding fathers. Without Nunes and his team, the plot against the president -- and against the country -- never would have been revealed. Told from the perspective of Nunes and his crack investigators -- men and women who banded together to do the right thing at a crucial moment for our democracy -- the story of the biggest political scandal in a generation reads like a great detective novel, feels like a classic cowboy movie. The congressman from the cattle capital of California really did fight corruption in Washington. Devin Nunes took on the "deep state.""

Lee Smith (Author), John Pruden (Narrator)

Audiobook

Dimestore: A Writer's Life

"In her first work of nonfiction, Lee Smith deploys the wit, wisdom, and graceful prose for which she is beloved to conjure her early days in the small coal town of Grundy, Virginia-and beyond. For the inimitable Lee Smith, place is paramount. For forty-five years, her fiction has lived and breathed with the rhythms and people of the Appalachian South. But never before has she written her own story. Set deep in the rugged Appalachian Mountains, the Grundy of Lee Smith's youth was a place of coal miners, mountain music, and her daddy's dimestore. It was in that dimestore--listening to customers and inventing life histories for the store's dolls--that she began to learn the craft of storytelling. Even though she adored Grundy, Smith's formal education and travels took her far from Virginia, though her Appalachian upbringing never left her. Dimestore's fifteen essays are crushingly honest, always wise, and superbly entertaining. Smith has created both a moving, personal portrait and a broader meditation on embracing one's heritage. Hers is an inspiring story of the birth of a writer and a poignant look at a way of life that has all but vanished. 'You know how in Lee Smith's fiction there's always something so fresh, crazy, and loving? In Dimestore is the essence of Lee.' -Roy Blount Jr., author of Alphabetter Juice: or, The Joy of Text"

Lee Smith (Author), Linda Stephens (Narrator)

Audiobook

Guests on Earth

"When she is thirteen years old, Evalina Toussaint, the orphaned child of an exotic dancer in New Orleans, is admitted as a mental patient to Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. The year is 1936, and the hospital, under the direction of celebrity psychiatrist Robert S. Carroll, is famous for its up-to-the-minute shock therapies and for Dr. Carroll’s revolutionary theory of the benefits of nonintrospection. Evalina finds herself in the midst of a kaleidoscope of characters, including the estranged wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Her role as accompanist for all theatricals and programs at the hospital gives her privileged insight into the events that transpire over the twelve years leading up to a tragic 1948 fire—its mystery unsolved to this day—that killed nine women in a locked ward on the top floor, including Zelda. In Evalina Toussaint, Lee Smith has a created a narrator whose story is one of unstoppable and defiant introspection. At the risk of Dr. Carroll’s ire and at all costs, Evalina listens, observes, delves, pursues, accompanies, remembers—and tells us everything. This is her wildly prescient story about a time and a place where creativity and passion, theory and medicine, fact and fiction are luminously intertwined."

Lee Smith (Author), Emily Woo Zeller (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Christmas Letters

"Lee Smith is the New York Times best-selling author of The Last Girls and the recipient of a Lyndhurst Grant and a Reader's Digest Writer's Award. Library Journal calls her 'one of our most accomplished authors.' Here she delivers the heartwarming tale of three generations of women who record their lives in Christmas letters to the family."

Lee Smith (Author), Christina Moore, Cynthia Darlow, Julia Gibson (Narrator)

Audiobook

Me and My Baby View the Eclipse

"A storyteller in the very best southern tradition, Lee Smith pens unexpected plots vibrant with luminous prose. Her powerful short stories in Me and My Baby View the Eclipse capture those extraordinary moments in everyday life when greatness and tragedy shimmer through the surface. This collection was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Richly satisfying, each tale portrays ordinary people meeting trouble head on with courage and compassion: a teenaged girl coping with her father's nervous breakdown, a housewife filling her humdrum days with an eccentric lover, and a single mother struggling to hang onto her wayward son. With narrators Linda Stephens' and Tom Stechschulte's brilliant performances, these lyrical stories-made to be read aloud-will linger long in your memory. The collection includes: Bob, a Dog; Mom; Life on the Moon; Tongues of Fire; Dreamers; The Interpretation of Dreams; Desire on Domino Island; Intensive Care; and Me and My Baby View the Eclipse."

Lee Smith (Author), Linda Stephens, Tom Stechschulte (Narrator)

Audiobook

Saving Grace

"Having justly earned her reputation as a master storyteller, Lee Smith's name evokes images of authentic country folk struggling through some of life's most arduous tests. Saving Grace adds a stunning spiritual dimension. The daughter of a snake-handling preacher who ignores the needs of his destitute family, Florida Grace doesn't think much of Jesus. He's the reason she's lived in squalor most of her life. He certainly doesn't keep her womanizing zealot of a father on the straight and narrow. In fact, Jesus hasn't been there for her through her failed marriage, or the death of her son. But in one shining moment everything changes when He calls out to her, and she returns to her roots to heed His call. Narrator Christina Moore gives perfect voice to the vulnerability and wisdom of a young woman on a turbulent spiritual journey. The endearing heroine and the poetic language present a quandary: you want to savor this book a chapter at a time, but you can't put it down."

Lee Smith (Author), Christina Moore (Narrator)

Audiobook

On Agate Hill

"A dusty box discovered in the wreckage of a once prosperous plantation on Agate Hill in North Carolina contains the remnants of an extraordinary life: diaries, letters, poems, songs, newspaper clippings, court records, marbles, rocks, dolls, and bones. It's through these treasured mementos that we meet Molly Petree. Raised in those ruins and orphaned by the Civil War, Molly is a refugee who has no interest in self-pity. When a mysterious benefactor appears out her father's past to rescue her, she never looks back. Spanning half a century, On Agate Hill follows Molly's passionate, picaresque journey through love, betrayal, motherhood, a murder trial-and back home to Agate Hill under circumstances she never could have imagined."

Lee Smith (Author), Danielle Ferland, Ed Sala, Kate Forbes, Katie Firth, Linda Stephens, Tom Stechschulte (Narrator)

Audiobook

Oral History

"Oral History, the lyrical saga of a Virginia mountain family, follows four generations of Cantrells over more than a century. With each chapter, Lee Smith, a master of regional voices, adds another branch to a family tree that sings with secrets and sadness, beauty and joy. Researching an assignment for an Oral History course, Jennifer drives to the Virginia hills where her mother and father grew up. Raised by a stepmother, the young college student wonders why her father never talks of her real mother or relatives. So from the moment she steps out of the car, Jennifer is intrigued by the mystery of her heritage. One by one, the Cantrells tell of lives filled with vitality, colored by the land and family history. Through the voices of a full cast of narrators, Lee Smith's remarkable novel becomes a truly extraordinary listening experience."

Lee Smith (Author), C.J. Critt, Christine Mcmurdo-Wallis, Jeff Woodman, Ruth Ann Phimister, Sally Darling, Tom Stechschulte (Narrator)

Audiobook