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Start giftingMy Abandonment
Narrator
Tai Sammons
This audiobook uses AI narration.
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Length
6 hours 2 minutes
Language
English
Leave No Trace, a film adaptation of My Abandonment, directed by Debra Granik (Winter’s Bone) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim.
A thirteen-year-old girl and her father live in Forest Park, an enormous nature preserve in Portland, Oregon. They inhabit an elaborate cave shelter, wash in a nearby creek, store perishables at the water’s edge, use a makeshift septic system, tend a garden, even keep a library of sorts. Once a week they go to the city to buy groceries and otherwise merge with the civilized world. But one small mistake allows a backcountry jogger to discover them, which derails their entire existence, ultimately provoking a deeper flight.
Inspired by a true story and told through the startlingly sincere voice of its young narrator, Caroline, My Abandonment is a riveting journey into life at the margins and a mesmerizing tale of survival and hope.
Peter Rock is the author of eight novels and one short story collection. He has received a Guggenheim fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and an Alex Award, among other honors. He lives in Portland, Oregon. Visit his website: PeterRockProject.com
Tai Sammons earned her degree in theater from Southern Oregon University in Ashland, where she worked at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. This award-winning actress currently resides upstate in Portland, with her beloved black pug, Oscar.
Reviews
“This is a tale of survival, of love and attachment, of mystery and alienation. It is an utterly entrancing book, a bow to Thoreau and a nod to the detective story. Every step of this narrative…rings true.”
“The novel has many uneasy moments and allusions to stories left untold in Caroline’s life, but Rock’s insight into his characters’ worries and hopes propels the story to its emotional conclusion. A compelling read; recommended for all fiction collections.”
“Tai Sammons’ narration commands attention. Her matter-of-fact recounting of daily events deepens the mystery surrounding the two. In a straightforward, unemotional delivery, Sammons imparts Father’s paranoia, Caroline’s ability to calm him from his helicopter dreams, and her frequently lyrical observations concerning her education, her occasional bouts of loneliness, and their day-to-day survival. Definitely a worthwhile listen.”
“An electrically charged, bone-deep, and tender tale of loss and partial redemption.”
“Takes us into the foreign country where those called homeless are at home, the city is wilderness, and the greater wilderness lies beyond. Fascinating and moving.”
“My Abandonment lingers in the mind, leaving you as haunted as its mesmerizing characters.”
“Riveting…an immediate story in all ways…Dead-on, entrancing…Rock so expertly puts us inside this child’s head that it becomes, as good books do, quite memorable.”
“Does Father know best? His teenage daughter is forced to wonder…Rock has found just the right voice: forthright, with a singular purity. As a result, we care enormously about [Carolina’s] fate…A moving evocation of life on the fringes, sparking many questions about our regulated society.”
“[A] spare, haunting tale…inspiring us to ponder large questions—what it means to be a responsible parent, and whether, in the modern world, the tension between the urge to live a solitary existence of rugged integrity can be reconciled with the implacable demands of civilization.”
“[A] deeply unsettling and finely wrought tale…Rock deftly ratchets up the uncertainties, and the idyllic edges past the unusual toward the unthinkable and the tragic…A haunting story, masterfully told.”
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