The Flying Troutmans
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The Flying Troutmans
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Narrated by:
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Amy Rutherford
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Written by:
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Miriam Toews
About this listen
In this completely captivating book, Miriam Toews has created some of the most engaging characters in Canadian literature: Hattie, Logan and Thebes are bewildered, hopeful, angry, and most of all, absolutely alive. Full of richly skewed, richly funny detail, The Flying Troutmans is a uniquely affecting novel.
Days after being dumped by her boyfriend Marc in Paris - "he was heading off to an ashram and said we could communicate telepathically" - Hattie hears her sister Min has been checked into a psychiatric hospital, and finds herself flying back to Winnipeg to take care of Thebes and Logan, her niece and nephew. Not knowing what else to do, she loads the kids, a cooler, and a pile of CDs into their van and they set out on a road trip in search of the children's long-lost father, Cherkis.
In part because no one has any good idea where Cherkis is, the traveling matters more than the destination. On their wayward, eventful journey down to North Dakota and beyond, the Troutmans stay at scary motels, meet helpful hippies, and try to ignore the threatening noises coming from under the hood of their van. Eleven-year-old Thebes spends her time making huge novelty cheques with arts and crafts supplies in the back, and won't wash, no matter how wild and matted her purple hair gets; she forgot to pack any clothes. Four years older, Logan carves phrases like "Fear Yourself" into the dashboard, and repeatedly disappears in the middle of the night to play basketball; he's in love, he says, with New York Times columnist Deborah Solomon. Meanwhile, Min can't be reached at the hospital, and, more than once, Hattie calls Marc in tears.
But though it might seem like an escape from crisis into chaos, this journey is also desperately necessary, a chance for an accidental family to accept, understand or at least find their way through overwhelming times. From interwoven memories and scenes from the past, we learn much more about them: how Min got so sick, why Cherkis left home, why Hattie went to Paris, and what made Thebes and Logan who they are today.
©2008 Miriam Toews (P)2018 Vintage CanadaYou may also enjoy...
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- Written by: Miriam Toews
- Narrated by: Miriam Toews
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 147
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 131
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Story4 out of 5 stars 130
Sixteen-year-old Nomi Nickel longs to hang out with Lou Reed and Marianne Faithfull in New York City's East Village. Instead she's trapped in East Village, Manitoba, a small town whose population is Mennonite: "the most embarrassing sub-sect of people to belong to if you're a teenager." East Village is a town with no train and no bar whose job prospects consist of slaughtering chickens at the Happy Family Farms abattoir or churning butter for tourists at the pioneer village.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A sweet, brutal, & funny but gut- wrenching story
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- Narrated by: Erin Moon
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 94
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 80
Elf and Yoli are sisters. While on the surface Elfrieda's life is enviable (she's a world-renowned pianist, glamorous, wealthy, and happily married,) and Yolandi's a mess (she's divorced and broke, with two teenagers growing up too quickly), they are fiercely close - raised in a Mennonite household and sharing the hardship of Elf's desire to end her life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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What a wonderful writer!
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After the End
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- Narrated by: Louise Brealey, Matt Reeves, Nathalie Armin
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 23
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 22
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 22
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5 out of 5 stars
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Absolutely recommend
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Written by: Clare Mackintosh
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The Change
- A Novel
- Written by: Kirsten Miller
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 85
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 77
Big Little Lies meets The Witches of Eastwick—a gloriously entertaining and knife-sharp revenge fantasy about three women whose midlife crisis brings unexpected new powers—putting them on a collision course with the evil that lurks in their wealthy beach town.
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- By Jana on 2022-12-13
Written by: Kirsten Miller
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The American Queen
- Written by: Vanessa Miller
- Narrated by: Angel Pean
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 4
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4
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Story4 out of 5 stars 4
Transformative and breathtakingly honest, The American Queen is based on actual events that occurred between 1865 - 1889 and shares the unsung history of a Black woman who built a kingdom in Appalachia as a refuge for the courageous people who dared to dream of a different way of life. Over the twenty-four years she was enslaved on the Montgomery Plantation, Louella learned to feel one thing: hate. Hate for the man who sold her mother. Hate for the overseer who left her daddy to hang from a noose. Hate so powerful there's no room in her heart for love.
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3 out of 5 stars
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The vision, tenacity and leadership of the strong female character and the bond between other women and herself
- By Nibor on 2024-05-28
Written by: Vanessa Miller
-
The Bean Trees
- Written by: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: C. J. Critt
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 46
Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she meets the human condition head-on. By the time Taylor arrives in Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired a completely unexpected child, a three-year-old American Indian girl named Turtle, and must somehow come to terms with both motherhood and the necessity of putting down roots.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
oh, Turtle
- By Daniel Garcia-Gonzalez on 2022-06-22
Written by: Barbara Kingsolver
What the critics say
2008, Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, Winner
2009, Orange Prize, Long-listed
“It’s darkly funny, bursting at the seams with quirky characters and off-kilter pop culture references that rival Douglas Coupland’s for their incisive wit.” (The Vancouver Sun)
“Toews may have invented a new genre, the romantic-depressive comedy, at which she excels.” (Toronto Star)
What listeners say about The Flying Troutmans
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- MB
- 2020-03-15
Disappointed in the ending but enjoyed the book
Author did a great job of making a dark situation humorous Was disappointed in the ending but partly because I was enjoying the book so much and wanted more
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- R2D2C3
- 2020-08-29
fantastic!
Moving story of love, grief, and resilience. Great narrator! Worth every moment of listening! Toews did it again
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Marleen
- 2023-07-05
Awesome characters, brilliant humour
I enjoyed every sentence of this book. The witty writing makes all the characters and places and usual and ordinary situations come alive in a vibrant and raw way without any unnecessary detail. Already look forward to discovering other books of this writer and I would totally listen to this book again. Excellent job by the voice artist too.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Naomi
- 2019-11-20
Really liked it
Story was good and narrator was really good..not over dramatic but enough punch! Looking forward to a follow up book!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Michele
- 2023-03-05
Toews is a master
Toes weaves a masterful story of relationships, life, choices, and love. Her characters are rich and complex. Her wordsmithing is smooth as silk, yummy milk chocolate - and paints a delightful, rich picture in the reader's mind. There's no one that tells a tale of humans better than Toews. I adore every minute spent with her musings.
This story was beautifully-read as well. I highly recommend it - as I do her other work.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- HEATHER MACATAGGART
- 2024-07-20
Cute, quirky and very funny!
What a great quick read. Fabulous characters! Toews does an incredible job of speaking in an adolescent voice. And the narration is spot on. Loved every minute of it.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Timothy, Toronto, ON.
- 2023-10-18
Might make a good movie
First of all, I loved the narration of this book. Amy Rutherford really masters the quirky language and phrasing that is so typical of people under 30 or 35. There’s a lot of really funny dialogue that she delivers with beautiful timing and skill. The story deals with complicated and distressing subjects like mental illness and suicide but it skims lightly over those topics and focussed on the trials and tribulations of a family road trip. The characters, especially Thebes, a precocious, artistic 11 year old girl. In spite of the subject matter the book is a bit thin on content. Still, I enjoyed it. I’ve heard Miriam Toews in interviews many times and this book wasn’t what I expected. As I said in my title, I can see someone making a movie based on the Flying Troutmans.
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