Audiobooks narrated by Willy Vlautin

A Deep & Gorgeous Thirst: Unabridged Audio

In the footsteps of Charles Bukowski comes Hosho McCreesh's magnum opus of drunk poetry. Mammoth in size and scope, DrunkSkull books is pleased to release the audiobook version of A Deep & Gorgeous Thirst, a drunken, epic collection about death and love that is unlike any of McCreesh's previous work.'Because writing and drinking go hand in hand, it may seem an impossible challenge for a poet to offer new perspective of this well-worn, symbiotic relationship. But Hosho McCreesh does, and in his brilliant collection “A Deep and Gorgeous Thirst” he uses subject matter that might feel old and tired in the hands of a less capable poet and turns out poem after poem as exciting and irresistible as the first flush of new desire.' — Tony O’Neill, author of Black Neon and Sick City “A Deep & Gorgeous Thirst” is a sweeping collection that is, on the surface, about booze and bars and drinking a lot, something the speakers in Hosho’s poems know something about. But what’s beneath the surface is what counts. The people in these sly, funny, often heartbreaking poems know that a bar is never just a bar, a drink is never just a drink. These are poems about being human, the heartbreak and joy and horror of all that. McCreesh – like Joseph Mitchell (see McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon), John Fante (Brotherhood of the Grape), and of course Charles Bukowski – knows that the truth comes up when illusions of control come down. — Lori Jakiela, Portrait of the Artist as a Bingo Worker 'A Deep & Gorgeous Thirst is a beautiful book about something we too often see portrayed as the source of all bad luck and trouble. It’s goddamn uplifting. Now, fuck it, I’m going to the bar and I’m bringing these poems with me and I’m letting them sing straight to my drunken heart.' — William Boyle, City of Margins and A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself

Hosho Mccreesh (Author), Abbie Foxton, Bastien Chiarini, Ben Tanzer, Brian Mcgettrick, Brody Lee, Chris Field, Chris Oxley, Christopher Cunningham, Claudia Bierschenk, Craig Mccaskill, Freddie De La Cruz, Hosho Mccreesh, Janet Mccaskill, Joesph Ridgwell, Joshua Mohr, Juliette Beck, Justin.Barrett, King Lutzo, Memes Aka Mema Aka The Proud Mother Of Hosho Mccreesh, Michael D. Blum, Michael Phillips, Nancy Pogue Laturner, One Anonymous Reader, Papa, Rebecca Schumejda, Russ Litten, Ryan W. Bradley, Sakesan, Samuel Snoek-Brown, Sasha Montaigne, Scott Meier, Scott Silsbe, Sean Lynch, Tina Laturner-Mccreesh, Waleska Perez-Herrera, William Boyle, Willy Vlautin (Narrator)

Audiobook

Don't Skip Out on Me: A Novel

Horace Hopper is a half-Paiute, half-Irish ranch hand who wants to be somebody. He's spent most of his life on the ranch of his kindly guardians, Mr. and Mrs. Reese, herding sheep alone in the mountains. But while the Reeses treat him like a son, Horace can't shake the shame he feels from being abandoned by his parents. He decides to leave the only loving home he's known to prove his worth by training to become a boxer. Mr. Reese is holding on to a way of life that is no longer sustainable. He's a seventy-two-year-old rancher with a bad back. He's not sure how he'll keep things going without Horace but he knows the boy must find his own way. Coming down from the mountains of Nevada to the unforgiving desert heat of Tucson, Horace finds a trainer and begins to get fights. His journey to become a champion brings him to boxing rings of Mexico and finally, to the seedy streets of Las Vegas, where Horace learns he can't change who he is or outrun his destiny. Willy Vlautin writes from America's soul, chronicling the lives of those who are downtrodden and forgotten with profound tenderness. Don't Skip Out on Me is a beautiful, wrenching story about one man's search for identity and belonging that will make you consider those around you differently.

Willy Vlautin (Author), Willy Vlautin (Narrator)

Audiobook

Lean on Pete movie tie-in: A Novel

Willy Vlautin's award-winning novel Lean on Pete, a moving and compassionate story about a fifteen-year old-boy's unlikely connection to a failing racehorse as he struggles to find a place to call home now a major motion picture fromA24, the studio behind Moonlight and Lady Bird,starring Charlie Plummer, Steve Buscemi, Chloe Sevigny, and directed by Andrew Haigh (45 Years , Looking ). Fifteen-year-old Charley Thompson wants a home, food on the table, and a high school he can attend for more than part of a year. But as the son of a single father working in warehouses across the Pacific Northwest, Charley's been pretty much on his own. When tragic events leave him homeless weeks after their move to Portland, Oregon, Charley seeks refuge in the tack room of a run-down horse track. Charley's only comforts are his friendship with a failing racehorse named Lean on Pete and a photograph of his only known relative. In an increasingly desperate circumstance, Charley will head east, hoping to find his aunt who had once lived a thousand miles away in Wyoming but the journey to find her will be a perilous one. In Lean on Pete, Willy Vlautin reveals the lives and choices of American youth like Charley Thompson who were failed by those meant to protect them and who were never allowed the chance to just be a kid. 'Lean on Pete riveted me. Reading it, I was heartbroken and moved; enthralled and convinced. This is serious American literature.' Cheryl Strayed, Oregonian

Willy Vlautin (Author), Willy Vlautin (Narrator)

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The Free: A Novel

In his heartbreaking yet hopeful fourth novel, award-winning author Willy Vlautin demonstrates his extraordinary talent for illuminating the disquiet of modern American life, captured in the experiences of three memorable characters looking for meaning in distressing times. Severely wounded in the Iraq war, Leroy Kervin has lived in a group home for eight years. Frustrated by the simplest daily routines, he finds his existence has become unbearable. An act of desperation helps him disappear deep into his mind, into a world of romance and science fiction, danger and adventure where he is whole once again. Freddie McCall, the night man at Leroy's group home, works two jobs yet still can't make ends meet. He's lost his wife and kids, and the house is next. Medical bills have buried him in debt, a situation that propels him to consider a lucrative, and dangerous, proposition. Pauline Hawkins, a nurse, cares for the sick and wounded, including Leroy. She also looks after her mentally ill elderly father. Yet she remains emotionally removed, until she meets a young runaway who touches something deep and unexpected inside her. In crystalline prose, both beautiful and devastating, this ""major realist talent"" (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) considers the issues transforming ordinary people's lives, the cost of health care, the lack of economic opportunity, the devastating scars of war, creating an extraordinary contemporary portrait that is also a testament to the resiliency of the human heart.

Willy Vlautin (Author), Willy Vlautin (Narrator)

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Beyond the Book -- The Free

Willy Vlautin (Author), Willy Vlautin (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Willy Vlautin