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    Hearts In Atlantis
    Hearts In Atlantis
    Hearts In Atlantis
    Audiobook20 hours

    Hearts In Atlantis

    Written by Stephen King

    Narrated by Stephen King and William Hurt

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    The classic collection of five deeply resonant and disturbing interconnected stories from #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King.

    Innocence, experience, truth, deceit, loss, and recovery are at the core of these five interconnected, sequential tales—each deeply rooted in the 1960s, and each scarred by the Vietnam War, which continues to cast its shadow over American lives, politics and culture.

    In Part One, “Low Men in Yellow Coats,” eleven-year-old Bobby Garfield discovers a world of predatory malice in his own neighborhood. He also discovers that adults are sometimes not rescuers but at the heart of the terror.

    In the title story, a bunch of college kids get hooked on a card game, discover the possibility of protest, and confront their own collective heart of darkness, where laughter may be no more than the thinly disguised cry of the beast.

    In “Blind Willie” and “Why We’re in Vietnam,” two men who grew up with Bobby in suburban Connecticut try to fill the emptiness of the post-Vietnam era in an America which sometimes seems as hollow—and as haunted—as their own lives.

    And in “Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling,” this remarkable book’s denouement, Bobby returns to his hometown where one final secret, the hope of redemption, and his heart’s desire may await him.

    Full of danger and suspense, full of heart, this spellbinding fiction will take some readers to a place they have never been...and others to a place they have never been able to completely forget. Nearly twenty years after its first publication, Hearts in Atlantis is powerful and astonishingly current.

    “You will see Stephen King in a new light. Read this moving, heartfelt tragedy and weep—weep for our lost conscience.” —BookPage
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateSep 1, 2001
    ISBN9780743563352
    Author

    Stephen King

    Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker, Holly, Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. 

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    Reviews for Hearts In Atlantis

    4.5/5

    318 ratings56 reviews

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    • 3/5
      The plot wasn’t very strong, but the narration was good

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Like so many of Mr. King's books, it's a story about love and human connection, and the harsh reality of life made beautiful by that human connection. The connections between these stories and his other stories like golden threads and buried treasure.
      John Hurt's narration is a work of art.
    • 2/5
      First half thrilling even..... second half seemed a waist.... like a few loose tie ins to characters who never matter as a sci fi story turns udderly normal memoire dragggged out forever..... no thanks....
    • 4/5
      This book rightfully feels like three books. The coming of age story about Bobby, the story about America’s students coming to grips with their feelings about the war in Vietnam and the story of Willie and Sully about the horrors of war.
      The characters are nuanced and interesting. The story is a bit slow, but at the end it feels complete and worth the wait.
      I would recommend, wouldn’t re-read at this point.
    • 5/5
      Amazing read. All the feels. I read half of a physical copy and listened to half, and I must say that the audiobook really captures the spirit of the text quite nicely.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic book, a very emotional read. One of Kings best I’d hazard to say. My favourite story of course is low men in yellow coats, but the others are excellent, and while it is technically a collection, the narratives tie together wonderfully to create a whole picture. There are about two pages that link this story to Kings Dark Tower, which I felt could have been omitted, but it in no way detracts from the story.

      William Hurt and Stephen Kings narration are superb, (he reads his own work wonderfully, there’s nothing quite like it, you definitely get the sense of King as a storyteller) and the production and musical interludes worked very well for me in terms of atmosphere.

      Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      Fhyy66777⁷yyyu788iuuiiii888i uujbuuubbujuu6 and dad ghey were the only thing I
    • 3/5
      Well written but King got dull after Tommyknockers this is no exception.
    • 5/5
      Love, love this man's writing!! Intensely human, true to the bizarre reasoning we use with ourselves.
    • 5/5
      "Low Men in Yellow Coats" was the only reason to read this book, in my opinion. King brilliantly ties it in with DT. PLUS, that might have been one of the creepiest stories I have EVER read
    • 5/5
      I usually do not like King, but this book was simply amazing. An emotional roller coaster.
    • 4/5
      Audiobook version. I loved, loved, loved, William Hurt's performance. Although he doesn't put much effort into creating different voices for all the characters, he reads the story with such passion and... rhythm. That's the only word I can think of to describe it. The only two stories that I really enjoyed were Low Men in Yellow Coats and Why We're In Vietnam. The rest I could do without, but the others were classic King.
    • 1/5
      I love a good Stephen King novel, but this is DEFINITELY NOT one of them!! The only passable story is the first one. The 3 others were awful I’m sorry to say. He did some intertwining of characters between the different stories, each with a different main character, and a different time of life, I can see what he was going for but it just didn’t work for me at all! The second was the worst to me, it was set in a college dorm in the late 60’s, and it went on and on about all these boys getting caught up gambling playing Hearts, i was totally annoyed by all these boys having to drop out because they kept playing and flunked out. Anyway, I would recommend skipping this one
    • 3/5
      Ok, SteveYou wrote this looooonnnnngggg book and I still don't know what happened to the guy who was pretending to be blind; I would have gladly read another 200-300 pages to learn more about these interesting characters. Being a Hippy that was born a bit late, I was moved by memories over and over at the mention of the music that really rocks me*******All those oldies******Still love you, though...SMILE!!!
    • 4/5
      The book is split up into three sections: the first describing Bobby Garfield's encounter with Ted, a Breaker running from the Low Men in Yellow Coats, who are beings from another world.

      Ted's role in some shady, dystopian Universal Plan is never explained: only that he has some power the Low Men need. Bobby's sole encounter with them change both his life and HIM.

      The second section is more Carol Gerber's story, although even she is swept aside in a description of the
      60s and the effects of the Vietnam War, not to mention a semester-long Hearts game that nearly derails the academic career of this section's narrator, Peter. Normally this wouldn't novel material, but this was a time when there was a draft. Getting kicked out of college meant you went to Vietnam, if you were a guy.

      In the third section Bobby is a just-past middle-aged man who must come to terms with his encounter with Ted and how it changed his childhood, and therefore his life.
    • 4/5
      A series of stories that together add up to rather a good novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it. A bitter-sweet meditation on the loss of childhood innocence. The fantasy elements tie in to the Dark Tower series but you don't need to have read that to enjoy this. In fact, it's probably better if you haven't as it adds a sense of mystery.
    • 4/5
      5 stories in this collection, connected by characters and the war in Vietnam. They span from 1960-1999. The first two novellas are terrific, just like the tales in "Different Seasons". The following two short stories are average. And the final one wraps it all up in a satisfying ribbon! And if you are a DT reader, you'll find a Breaker in here!
    • 2/5
      After the first part, I found the book boring and the music throughout is awful and annoying.
    • 3/5
      I loved the writing in this book. Very descriptive. I could also identify deeply with the characters. One of the biggest reasons I liked this book was the crossover sections from the Gun Slinger Series. If you don't love the Gun Slinger Series this book may not be as enjoyed.
    • 3/5
      I really loved the first part of this book and if I stopped reading it at that point I probably would have given it 5 stars.
    • 3/5
      A bit disjointed. It seemed to me that this could be broken into two separate novels. I liked both parts separately, but it never really came together for me.
    • 3/5
      I am not American. Maybe that's why I don't enjoy Stephen King as much as quite a lot of others.Somewhere into the book, I got the feeling that I was missing out on the "aside" -sensing that there was an emotional sweet spot which the Author had zeroed on, but I had on too thick a skin to feel it.I did read somewhere that Stephen King "allows" his novels to write themselves, without figuring out the end until he gets to it. Perhaps that could explain his allure - his loyal readers probably savour the atmosphere of his books , unlike, say, a Golden Age Locked-Room Mystery.There was , after all, a movie made with Anthony Hopkins in the lead.But I'd be interested in seeing how many people outside North America root for this.I give it three stars, not very common in my library.But I guess a lot of people really liked the book.
    • 5/5
      "Low Men in Yellow Coats" boosts this an extra half star. The story is the best in the collection and William Hurt's narration only adds to the value of this collection.
    • 4/5
      The first part of the book is classic Stephen King. Great stuff. But it is really the second part of the book which I liked the most. Excellent social commentary and a lot of wise words. I just can't figure out how all of the sections of the book tie together.
    • 2/5
      I'm only giving it 2 stars because of the horrendously irritating background music. Makes my eye twitch every time the music comes up.
    • 4/5
      There's a lot to like about this collection of long stories. The opener, "Low Men in Yellow Coats," is set firmly in the Dark Tower universe but also a great standalone coming-of-age story. The remaining stories are about the Vietnam generation, both during the war and after it, and aren't necessarily the supernatural horror that King is known for. Of these, the most compelling are the title story and "Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling," the last story, but the entire collection is very good writing and kind of a departure for King.
    • 3/5
      A very masculine book with a hint of the autobiographical.I like Blind Willie best, although I doubt if any of the characters will linger in my mind as much as those from other King novels.
    • 2/5
      This was my first Stephen King book, and unfortunately I can say I?m not that impressed. The book is cut into five parts, the first four being about totally different people and the fifth attempting to tie all four characters together. The first story was a little interesting. The second story was okay, The third and fourth lost me. I ended up scanning those stories. And the fifth just messed with my head. I was so confused by the end of the book and not in a thoughtfully good way. I?ve heard good things about King?s writing, but this is surely not what they were talking about. The writing was solid but the story did not entertain me.
    • 5/5
      ?????Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King

      Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King was a great book, in my opinion. It contains 5 short stories, from different period in Bobby's life.
      The first is Low Men in Yellow Coats. In this one we learn Bobby's dad died young, of a heart attack, and loved to gamble. And he's mom's favorite saying is "your father didn't exactly leave us well off." He see a bike he really wants for his 11th birthday, but she says they can't afford it.
      The second is Hearts in Atlantis. Blind Willie is third. And Why We're in Vietnam is the fourth.
      Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling, ends the book, with Bobby coming back home, grown up. He hopes to find his first love still there. Redemption, might just happen for him after all. And there still is that one secret, but will it come out.
      I would recommend this book, but if you want to watch the movie, I'd say to do that first. I had such high hopes for the movie after reading this book, but was very disappointed, because I felt cheated. I was expecting it to be off the whole book, but was not even close.
    • 2/5
      As a collection I found this quite weak,but Bobby's story did pull at my heart strings