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The Green Mile
The Green Mile
The Green Mile
Audiobook14 hours

The Green Mile

Written by Stephen King

Narrated by Frank Muller

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

5/5

()

About this audiobook

Masterfully told and as suspenseful as it is haunting, The Green Mile is Stephen King’s classic #1 New York Times bestselling dramatic serial novel and inspiration for the Oscar-nominated film starring Tom Hanks.

Welcome to Cold Mountain Penitentiary, home to the Depression-worn men of E Block. Convicted killers all, each awaits his turn to walk “the Green Mile,” the lime-colored linoleum corridor leading to a final meeting with Old Sparky, Cold Mountain’s electric chair. Prison guard Paul Edgecombe has seen his share of oddities over the years working the Mile, but he’s never seen anything like John Coffey—a man with the body of a giant and the mind of a child, condemned for a crime terrifying in its violence and shocking in its depravity. And in this place of ultimate retribution, Edgecombe is about to discover the terrible, wondrous truth about John Coffey—a truth that will challenge his most cherished beliefs…
LanguageEnglish
Release dateDec 1, 1999
ISBN9780743563345
The Green Mile
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 The Green Mile

Rating: 4.811475409836065 out of 5 stars
5/5

732 ratings72 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The story was good, although the narrator sounded like a cross between Clint Eastwood & Donald Sutherland. It got better as it went along, or I got used to it. There are long pauses between some chapters, and a loud & unexpected noise in between many of them that was very annoying.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The story is great of course.
    I was very satisfied with the narration/production. Great story told correctly:)

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book was deep, emotional, sad, and perhaps most interestingly, not very 'King-like'. Granted, I'm not a King superfan and have only began to get into his books the past year or two (except for Eyes of the Dragon, which I loved as a teen, but that is also distinctly NOT King-like). But this book didn't feel overly eerie or spooky, not gory, not horrific. None of the things I associate with a King book, but then again, maybe I'm learning that my perceptions about him were wrong.

    This book may tug at your heart, from Mr. Jingles to John Coffey, even to Eduard Delacroix. These were real people who I connected with, and the narrator's voices and inflections contributed tremendously to my experience--he did a fabulous job.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Everand - why is this book out of order? I just heard the end and now I’m back before again. ?
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great book, enjoyable to listen to. Love Stephen King's work
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    My first Stephen King novel, unless you count my reading "The Dead Zone" some 25 years ago or more. King certainly keeps things moving, but what surprised me was finding he is a moral writer in the sense that Tolstoy and John Gardner use the word. I am going to read more King stories.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A long time ago, I watched about half of the film, The Green Mile. I think my mum has the DVD, I'll have to get it out when I'm home at Easter, because I've read that the movie was pretty faithful to the book, and I want to see that. I actually read the book, all of it, today, putting it down now and again to eat, wash my hair and do some school work. Very reluctantly, I'll have you know.

    I didn't actually cry at it, but I came pretty close. Ouch. Particularly this part, for me:

    "He kill them with they love," John said. "They love for each other. You see how it was?"
    I nodded, incapable of speech.
    He smiled. The tears were flowing again, but he smiled. "That's how it is every day," he said, "all over the worl'." Then he lay down and turned his face to the wall.


    The Green Mile is really quick to read, but I wouldn't call it easy. The characters are well-written. In fact, Percy, who is one of the most awful characters, is one of the best, because you can imagine him, right down to not wetting the sponge. You've probably known someone a bit like him, a bully, someone who never understands why people think he did something wrong. The other characters were pretty well-written, but Percy was probably the most memorable for me (just like you probably remember the bully from school, but you don't remember the quiet girl who sat in the corner and followed the rules).

    Definitely worth reading. It's not horror, by a long shot, and I don't know why people dismiss Stephen King as "just a horror writer", or "not a writer", when he writes stuff like this.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This gripping tale of good against evil is impossible to put down. Set in a prison for those awaiting death by electric chair or 'Old Sparky' we see the best of humanity in prison officer Paul Edgecombe and his colleagues. One inmate in particular stands out as being pure evil - and it is not the giant black man guilty of the brutal murder of two little girls.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wonderful book. One of my favorite by Stephen King. In ways, it’s a very sad story, but it also gives you hope. A definite must read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    King was in his gladiator period when he wrote this. It came out as seven (I believe) little books before published as a complete novel. The movie was faithful to the book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Overlong, but good story. Really repetitive, partly because originally published in serial form. Still it carries you along with great characterization and a cool set of outcomes. I had to skip one chapter because too much suspense about something quite horrible. The reader did a nice job with varied voices.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    very entertaining I would recommend it to my friends and family
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I read this in installments when it first came out. I remember waiting with eager anticipation.
    That was mqny years ago and i wanted to hear the audio.
    Oddly enough, i loved the long waits between parts. They were just long enough to remember my first trip to the green mile.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a powerful book! The narrator brought Paul Edgecomb to life and described the events of his life in powerfully descriptive terms. I think I saw the movie. I remember parts of it, especially the character of John Coffey. When I listened to this book it was Michael Clarke Duncan's character I saw. There is a lot of symbolism in this book. You can read many articles about it. Good versus evil of course is present everywhere in the book. The Green Mile itself is symbolic of not just the march to the death chamber but of our march through life with all it's suffering to our inevitable deaths. I always thought of Stephen King just as a horror writer based on his earlier works. But many of his works I have read or listened to recently shows me another side of him. His way with words is astounding. Listen to this book. It is definitely not a waste of your time.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I've read the book which I assume was just a print version of the movie not long after actually watching the movie. The latter being one of my favorites of all time. This is the first time I have read what must be the original manuscript from which the movie was taken and if not for having to sleep last night, would have finished it in one day. Absolutely outstanding and in mu humble opinion, one of King's best. 5 ? +
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Ruby's review of The Green Mile by Stephen KingLike everyone, I've seen the film of The Green Mile. Unlike everyone, I've not heard the film as I was in denial about my hearing loss for the past two decades. All the films I've watched have been looked at and not heard, so my attention wandered. I remember the mouse resurrection and that's about it. My recollections of other King stories in film are similar - Carrie and the burning sports hall, The Shining and Jack with the axe. There was an inertia I needed to overcome in even buying a Stephen King novel. I hate to walk with the crowd, Contrary Mary that I am. Eventually I picked up The Green Mile to complete a 3 for €10 offer in a shop in Dingle, Kerry. The title didn't even register with me at the time.Then I opened the book, began to read, recognised the premise of large, unnatural John Coffey on death row and was hooked.King uses Paul Edgecombe as first person narrator to great effect. The full horror of the death penalty is the overriding theme throughout. This is Death Row and execution is by electric chair so there are necessarily graphic scenes but they're gratifying without being gratuitous.Most of the book takes place within E Block at the Cold Mountain State Penitentiary. It's claustrophobic. The sweat and tears of prisoners and guards alike flows before the reader's face and sometimes on the reader's face. Each character comes to life, and some to death, in full 3D technicolor and the story is all about their interaction. The plot is bare bones, the reader wishing that the characters would catch up with what the reader has already divined, praying for the salvation that comes for some and not for others.Coffey's character is truly supernatural and would bring anyone close to Believing. I was simultaneously relieved and disappointed that Coffey let the gang off the hook in the end.The wrap up in the retirement home was very moving - to find love again at the end of the road, an absolution for wrongdoing and acknowledgement of human frailty in the face of death.Once or twice I was perplexed by the repetition at the start of new chapters but the author's afterword explains that the story was originally issued in instalments, so that's why recaps were built in.This is the kind of book that I could read again immediately, but my wife has already swiped it out of my hand!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Excellent. Really a fantastic book. Something that really makes you think about life and death, crime and punishment.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A classic story well worth the time to get into.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Easily the best book (s) you'll ever read. I enjoyed it as much this time as I did when I last read it 20 years ago.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Green Mile was not a good book at all. I hated it.. i only did read caz i had to read it for my english class.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Green Mile is about a man on death row for raping and killing two little girls. However, his guards notice something different about him. He is not violent, nor is he intelligent. He also has strange healing powers. This is a very powerful, sad book. It is very well written and I recommend it to anyone and everyone.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Even though I loved the film very very much I didn't manage to finish the book. After some chapters I gave up, it didn't take hold of me as strong as the film did. Pity great story though. (Maybe because I read it in French)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Not only is this one of my favorite Stephen King books, it is one of my favorite novels of any author or genre. And Frank Muller's narration makes this even better than the text version I've read years ago. It was a very enjoyable read all those years ago, and now it's a great listen too!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Listening to this book made you feel like you was right there
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Absolutely loved it!! Never seen the movie. Books are always better
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    So well done love love this well written masterpiece thank you
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This might be my new favorite King book. Outstanding. Actor reading equally outstanding.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Have always loved this story. Movie and book. GREAT book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I read a Stephen King book every October. Not sure how the Green Mile didn't make my list sooner but I feel like it's a classic and should be read by everyone. Just enough gruesomeness for me (did have one nightmare) but not so bad I was afraid to be alone in the house...I'm a bit of baby when it comes to horror. Anyways, if you haven't read this one you should. And unlike some of Stephen King's books it won't take you months to get through :)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It's a awesome story can't put in to words dude.