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House of Sand and Fog
House of Sand and Fog
House of Sand and Fog
Audiobook13 hours

House of Sand and Fog

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

In this riveting novel of almost unbearable suspense, three fragile yet determined people become dangerously entangled in a relentlessly escalating crisis. Colonel Behrani, once a wealthy man in Iran, is now a struggling immigrant willing to bet everything he has to restore his family's dignity. Kathy Nicolo is a troubled young woman whose house is all she has left, and who refuses to let her hard-won stability slip away from her. Sheriff Lester Burdon, a married man who finds himself falling in love with Kathy, becomes obsessed with helping her fight for justice.

Drawn by their competing desires to the same small house in the California hills and doomed by their tragic inability to understand one another, the three converge in an explosive collision course. Combining unadorned realism with profound empathy, House of Sand and Fog marks the arrival of a major new voice in American fiction.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperAudio
Release dateNov 11, 2003
ISBN9780060735616
House of Sand and Fog
Author

Andre Dubus

  Award-winning author Andre Dubus (1936–1999) has been hailed as one of the best American short story writers of the twentieth century. Dubus’s collections of short fiction include Separate Flights (1975), Adultery & Other Choices (1977), and Dancing After Hours (1996), which was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. Another collection, Finding a Girl in America, features the story “Killings,” which was adapted into the critically acclaimed film In the Bedroom (2001), starring Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, and Marisa Tomei.   

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Reviews for House of Sand and Fog

Rating: 3.9583333333333335 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Hard to pinpoint what made this the best book in a long time. The main character, an Iranian was immediately fascinating, and you were on his side within a couple of pages. The atmosphere seemed ordinary--modern-day California, but the author's descriptions made it dreamy for me. Tried to be sympathetic to the irritating woman who loses her house, but I was rooting for the Iranian already. The ending was hard to accept, and I wished for a different outcome.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great book that keeps you wanting more! Everytime you think the worse has happened, it hasn't! Fabulous book and great movie also

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I haven’t typically read much fiction, this is my attempt to get into it more. The story was really good. It kept me interested all the way through. It gets very intense and very dark toward the end. I thought both the character development and the narration were excellent.

    It contains quite a bit of very frank talk about sex, but I didn’t think it was dirty or anything. In fact, given what’s happening with the plot, I think to not treat that realistically would have been a huge oversight, since it gives us a look into how much of the central relationship really is sex and fantasy.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Dark with no redeeming characters or messages.
    A journey of futility
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a haunting story. The characters will linger in your mind long after you leave the book behind.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book was one of the best I have read! Suspenseful and sad. The movie wasn't as good.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was a gripping tale, though tragic. I read it a few years ago and then saw the movie. Liked the book better altho Ben Kingsley did a great job.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    First two thirds was a snooze fest. Last third was good.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The slow build of of tragic circumstance, as well as the incredibly deep and visceral characters, kept me reading well into the night. This book is so sad and so provoking. Understanding how small differences in perspective and culture can lead to such a tragic outcome is very powerful in this day and age.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The plot has been summarized very well by others, so I'll just give my opinion. I thought on the whole it was too maudlin and way too sentimental. The author's drawing us into the lives of these people was often manipulative of him and he would play with our emotions. He would make us feel sympathy for or, towards the end absolute loathing for certain characters. I liked the way he would treat the same incident from the POV of different figures in the story. I should beware of a work's receiving too many awards; that should be a red flag.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    A genuinely interesting premise--the American Dream, as represented by this humble bungalow--is botched in execution. The plot is hackneyed and melodramatic, and things happen in a spurt without any seeming reason. The writing is okay but not amazing. I'm still wondering how this was a National Book Award finalist.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Colonel Behrani served in the Iranian Shah’s Imperial Air Force, until he and his wife, son, and daughter were forced to flee the country. After her husband left her, Kathy Nicolo found herself alone in the house her father used to own in California, on the opposite shore from where her family lived. Dubus does a wonderful job of telling the tale of how these two unlikely protagonists find themselves thrown together, and the tragic end to which they are brought.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I went to hear Andre Dubus III in the little meeting house on the Lynnfield Square, Lynnfield, Massachusetts, with Millie McMahon and James Harper. We thought he was going to speak about this book; instead, he read from new, unpublished work that will be part of an anthology about food. He actually wrote his life story as it revolved around food. Afterwards, the three of us waited in line for a long time to have our books signed. It was worth the wait. He spoke to us as though there was no one else in the room.Fabulous book about two individuals who believe they have ownership of a home in California. Dubus spends equal time convincing the reader that each of these individuals should get the house. The ending is incredibly dramatic and I did not see it coming.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Unbearable. Iranian immigrant purchases a house that has been put up for sale because the owner failed to make all the payments. The conflict between the new homeowner and the disorganized woman who wants, needs, her house back runs forward on meshed gears. Implacable detail. I couldn't finish it. The horrible ending was obvious from a long way off.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I believe I've found a new (to me) author who writes VERY good fiction. Thank you, Julie Cowles, for lending me this dark book in which various characters try to do the next right thing but everything gets totally messed up
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a roller coaster book, not emotionally but in its level of success. There are moments of sheer perfection followed by moments of flatness. Overall it's good, unique plot line and interesting characters.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. I started it months before I finally picked it up and finished it. Tragic and compelling. I was angry at the main female character from the beginning, and felt compassion for the family who came to occupy her house, although there was fault on their side as well. The ending was terrible.The author certainly knew how to command the reader's attention. He did a good job of showing two opposing sides of an argument. The writing was very good, it was the story itself that bothered me.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    ordinary people (is anybody really "normal"?) that end up meeting in a dark, dark place. This is a chilling story but one that is frighteningly very believable...What i found interesting was that, while none of the characters were perfect, I could side with them all for the feelings that they had.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Another book that failed to live up to the hype. This is another really sad, depressing book that leaves you empty. I never really connected with the characters. I could see the sadness coming a long way off. Perhaps, because I could feel that sadness coming, I chose not to connect with the characters.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Ticks up the tension like a precision-engineered timepiece. Character is destiny. Or character plus circumstances equals destiny.Found the POV of the immigrant colonel more convincing than Kathy's. Could be that I don't know much about the nature of addiction and falling off a speeding wagon.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    It`s hard to read a book with no hero at all, not even a leader, and it didn`t got better at the end. Left me with a very frustrating feeling.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Pretty much the worst book I've ever read. Not one of the characters deserves any sympathy from the reader.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Oh wow! I just finished the book (having spent the entire day reading it because I just couldn't put it down) and I'm still reeling from it. It has all the drama and pathos of a Shakesperian tragedy. Pride and hubris are the destroyers of dreams for all the characters involved. Add to it the reality of places I know and have lived--Corona is so clearly Pacifica that there is no point in changing the city's name--and the book is one of the most power stories I've read in a long time.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An Iranian flees for his life with his family to America, taking menial jobs to support them and hiding this from his family, who are living beyond their means in the hopes that this will enable their daughter to marry well. He buys a house at auction for less than it’s worth, hoping that he can sell it for a profit, and sees his wife finally start smiling and blossoming in these new surroundings.A woman is evicted from her house, after ignoring several letters from the tax office, due to a bureaucratic error.One of the officers responsible for her eviction becomes concerned with her plight.These three protagonists are realistically and sympathetically drawn. I found myself empathising with all three (as distinct, perhaps, from liking them). They make one stupid decision after the other, as their paths bring them into conflict with one another, but you can understand why they’re doing the things they do, even as things spiral more and more out of control.The stream-of-consciousness style could be perceived as drawn-out and excessively detailed, but I actually found it very readable, and a good entree into the minds of each of the characters.I realised while reading this book that one of the joys of reading, for me, is the way in which it allows me to get into the heads of people quite unlike me. This book was a success for me for this reason.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    A very tormenting story.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    OK, but not as good as hyped up to be. Kinda of a dark beach read.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I didn't enjoy this at all. It's a simple plot but not simply told. The characters are interesting but do nothing interesting.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A very engrossing novel. The characters and their clashing cultures and mindsets are very detailed and almost spellbinding. I read this in a two day binge. The story concerns a dispute over a house that was seized for non-payment and then bought by an Irani family with the last of their money for an investment. The original owner inherited the house from her family but she loses it to the county after her husband abandons her. The third main character is the sheriff's deputy who falls in love with the owner and tries to help her get the house back. The tension is high throughout the story; you are never quite sure what to expect. Great read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III; (3 1/2*)Before coming to America, Genob Sarhang Massoud Amir Behrani was a colonel in the Iranian Air Force. Forced to flee when the Shah fell, he escaped with his wife and two children and a couple hundred thousand dollars. Now resettled in the San Francisco area, but thus far unable to find work in the aerospace industry, Behrani works two full time jobs, on a road crew and as a convenience store clerk. This labor is necessary because the family's money is dwindling quickly, thanks to his wife's insistence on maintaining their old standard of living and the need to put on a sufficiently opulent facade to get his daughter safely married off--for instance, their apartment costs $3000 per month. Then one day, noticing an announcement of a tax auction in the newspaper, he decides to use their remaining savings to buy a house and then try to turn it around quickly for a profit.Meanwhile, the house had previously belonged to Kathy Niccolo, a recovering alcoholic whose addict husband has run out on her. She works as an independent house cleaner, barely making ends meet and has ignored the county tax bill because it should not have been assessed against her house. But now she has been evicted and though Legal Aid lawyers help her to win a judgment from the county they can not make Behrani give up the house but only compensate her. She also receives help from Sheriff Lester Burdon, whose marriage has lost it's passion and the two become lovers. Together and separately they begin to take steps to force the Behranis out of their new home. This is when things get ugly.The book is a page turner which enveloped me in such a cloud of dread that I just kept reading faster and faster because I couldn't stand the thought of what was to come.Colonel Behrani is a perfect example of why anti-immigration policies are insane. He works very hard to provide a better life for his family and wants nothing from anyone except to be left alone to pursue the American Dream. He resembles a tragic hero whose stubborn pride and unshakable faith in his dreams collude to help destroy him.Kathy on the other hand even setting aside her addiction problems has irresponsibly allowed legal events to get out of hand and now burns with a sense of false entitlement. Her benign approach to her job stands in stark contrast to Behrani's willingness to humble himself to take virtually any job. Her relationship with Lester results in his leaving a wife and two young children. His wife whose only failure is that Lester feels for her as he would towards a sister which is hardly a reason to destroy a family. And this step is merely Lester's first in a chain which becomes increasingly dubious. Eventually his behavior can only be defined as pathological.Andre Dubus III is the son of one of America's greatest short story writers. As his father has passed on I find it heartening that he has picked up the reigns.I found this to be a very intense and taut tale.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Beautiful read- loved it!