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Start giftingHeyday
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreDuring one monumental month in 1848, gold is discovered in California, the United States wins its first foreign war, rebellion erupts throughout Europe, and an eager English gentleman named Benjamin Knowles plunges into love with the strong-minded New York actress and part-time prostitute Polly Lucking. He also meets her brother Duff, a dangerously damaged veteran of the Mexican War, and befriends the unforgettable Timothy Skaggs—journalist, daguerrotypist, mischief maker, stargazer.
As they set out on a wild, extraordinary transcontinental race west, lured by the prospect of easy wealth and new beginnings, they are unaware that a stranger bent on revenge shadows their every move.
Kurt Andersen is the New York Times bestselling author of Fantasyland, Evil Geniuses, and, with Alec Baldwin,You Can’t Spell America without Me, as well as several novels and other works. He has also written for film, television, and the stage and contributes regularly to the New York Times. He is host and co-creator of Studio 360, the Peabody Award-winning cultural magazine show. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, where he was an editor of the Lampoon. In 2003, New York named him one of the 100 People Who Changed New York, and Forbes named him one of The 25 Most Influential Liberals in the US Media.
Charles Leggett, AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator, is based in Seattle where he works onstage at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, ACT, and Seattle Shakespeare Company, among many others. His voice work is also featured in the first two Dungeon Siege video games as well as in Hoyle’s Casino Empire.
Reviews
“A true novel of ideas…A tale of bright, rambunctious, aspiring young people.”
“Narrator Charles Leggett becomes a one-man band. He sings. He speaks English and French. He does accents: British, Irish, French, German, as well as American regionals from Brooklyn to California. He portrays men, women, and children. And he does it all well.”
“Andersen’s satirical wit is well evident, but he plays fair, offering scenarios to offend nearly everyone. In the tradition of the old-fashioned epic, Heyday presents amazing coincidences, lengthy digressions, and myriad descriptions of mores and vices.”
“[Andersen] celebrates the tumultuous energy and the careless optimism of an America on the move.”
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