Start gifting
Libro.fm for Business
Start a membership, get two free audiobooks
Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create account
Shop the sale
In celebration of Independent Bookstore Day, shop our limited-time sale on bestselling audiobooks from April 22nd-28th. Don’t miss out—purchases support your local bookstore!
Shop nowThe Lobster Kings
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreThe Kings family has lived on Loosewood Island for three hundred years, and they've been blessed with the bounty of the sea. But for the Kingses, every blessing comes with a curse. Woody Kings, the leader of the island's lobster fishing community and the family patriarch, teeters on the throne. Cordelia, the oldest of Woody's three daughters, stands to inherit the crown after the death of her brother. To do so, however, she has to fend off meth dealers from the mainland while navigating sibling rivalry and the vulnerable nature of her own heart when she falls in love with her sternman.
A love story and a modern epic in the grand Shakespearean vein that introduces a fiery and unforgettable heroine, The Lobster Kings is the story of Cordelia's struggle to maintain her island's way of life in the face of danger from offshore and the rich, looming, mythic legacy of her family's namesake.
Alexi Zentner is the author of Touch, which was published in a dozen countries. His fiction has been featured in the Atlantic and Tin House, among other publications. He lives in Ithaca, New York, with his family.
Cassandra Campbell is a prolific audiobook narrator with more than 700 titles to date. Winner of four Audie Awards and nominated for a dozen more, she was a 2018 inductee in Audible’s inaugural Narrator Hall of Fame. She has consistently been an AudioFile Magazine Best Narrator as well as a Publisher’s Weekly Best Narrator of the Year. As an acting teacher, she spent five years as a faculty member of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and has performed in and directed dozens of plays at theaters across the country.
Reviews
“Confirms what Touch already prophesied: Alexi Zentner is one of the greatest literary architects and mythmakers working today.”
“The Lobster Kings is a powerhouse of a novel. Alexi Zentner proves himself to be a writer of the first rank with this story of one woman’s determination to carry on her family’s legacy in the face of the encroaching pressures of modernity and the strictures of a patriarchal culture. The bold and endearingly stubborn Cordelia Kings is a protagonist we can root for, flaws and all, as she struggles to reconcile the past with the present.”
“Just as compelling as the dragons, mermaids, and selkies that may inhabit the waters of Loosewood Island are its year-round residents, besieged by tourists, art historians, and drug smugglers. With a knowing nod to Lear, The Lobster Kings follows a patriarch’s fading powers and a dynasty’s uncertain future in the face of a changing world. As in his wonderful debut, Touch, Alexi Zentner gives us a family saga that contains the origin story of a magical, once-timeless place where the past and present must inevitably collide.”
“An overridingly strong novel.”
“Award-winning Zentner’s literary tour de force takes hold of the reader’s imagination and doesn’t let go. Extraordinary storytelling not to be missed.”
“Brutal and beautiful…[The] fusion of myth and mission, fury and beauty, as well as the palpable sense of place in this unique corner of the world add up to a memorable tale.”
“With its strong female lead and its evocative setting, this could well be Zentner’s breakout book.”
“Campbell’s versatility is on display as she deals with the wide range of characters of many ages and personalities. She’s particularly adept at portraying the aging of the father and Cordelia’s corresponding growth as she becomes the leader of the family. Campbell conveys the strong emotions the characters have for each other and for their way of life.”
Expand reviews