The Water Dancer (Oprah’s Book Club)
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $26.22
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Joe Morton
-
Written by:
-
Ta-Nehisi Coates
About this listen
Number one New York Times best seller
Oprah’s Book Club Pick
From the National Book Award-winning author of Between the World and Me, a boldly conjured debut novel about a magical gift, a devastating loss, and an underground war for freedom.
“This potent book about America’s most disgraceful sin establishes [Ta-Nehisi Coates] as a first-rate novelist.” (San Francisco Chronicle)
In development as a major motion picture
Adapted by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Kamilah Forbes, produced by MGM, Plan B, and Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films
Nominated for the NAACP Image Award
Named One of Paste’s Best Novels of the Decade
Named One of the Best Books of the Year by:
- Time
- The Washington Post
- Chicago Tribune
- Vanity Fair
- Esquire
- Good Housekeeping
- Paste
- Town & Country
- The New York Public Library
- The Dallas Morning News
- Kirkus Reviews
- Library Journal
“Nearly every paragraph is laced through with dense, gorgeously evocative descriptions of a vanished world and steeped in its own vivid vocabulary.” (Entertainment Weekly)
Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her - but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known.
So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the Deep South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North. Even as he’s enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, Hiram’s resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures.
This is the dramatic story of an atrocity inflicted on generations of women, men, and children - the violent and capricious separation of families - and the war they waged to simply make lives with the people they loved. Written by one of today’s most exciting thinkers and writers, The Water Dancer is a propulsive, transcendent work that restores the humanity of those from whom everything was stolen.
Praise for The Water Dancer
"Ta-Nehisi Coates is the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race with his 2015 memoir, Between the World and Me. So naturally his debut novel comes with slightly unrealistic expectations - and then proceeds to exceed them. The Water Dancer...is a work of both staggering imagination and rich historical significance.... What’s most powerful is the way Coates enlists his notions of the fantastic, as well as his fluid prose, to probe a wound that never seems to heal.... Timeless and instantly canon-worthy." (Rolling Stone)
©2019 Ta-Nehisi Coates (P)2019 Random House AudioYou may also enjoy...
-
The Woman with the Blue Star
- Written by: Pam Jenoff
- Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya, Emily Lawrence, Nancy Peterson
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of The Lost Girls of Paris comes a riveting tale of courage and unlikely friendship during World War II - now a New York Times best seller.
-
-
Absolutely fabulous, fabulous book?!
- By Marion C. on 2023-02-25
Written by: Pam Jenoff
-
The Stone Diaries
- Written by: Carol Shields, Penelope Lively - introduction
- Narrated by: Deborah Drakeford
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born in 1905, Daisy Goodwill Flett drifts through the chapters of childhood, marriage, widowhood, remarriage, motherhood, and old age, bewildered by her inability to understand her own role in the unsettled decades of the twentieth century. At last, reflecting on her unobserved and unconventional life, Daisy attempts to find a way to tell her story within a novel that is itself about the limitations of autobiography.
Written by: Carol Shields, and others
-
Between the World and Me
- Written by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race”, a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of Black women and men - bodies exploited through slavery and segregation and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a Black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’ attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son.
-
-
what a book that was
- By t on 2017-11-08
Written by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
-
Four Hundred Souls
- A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
- Written by: Ibram X. Kendi - editor, Keisha N. Blain - editor
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A chorus of extraordinary voices comes together to tell one of history’s great epics: the 400-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present - edited by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on Fire.
-
-
Stunning; epic; necessary
- By Amazon Customer on 2021-12-26
Written by: Ibram X. Kendi - editor, and others
-
Snow Road Station
- A Novel
- Written by: Elizabeth Hay
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Hay
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the winter of 2008, as snow falls without interruption, an actor in a Beckett play blanks on her lines. Fleeing the theatre, she beats a retreat into her past and arrives at Snow Road Station, a barely discernible dot on the map of Ontario. The actor is Lulu Blake, in her sixties now, a sexy, seemingly unfooled woman well-versed in taking risks. Out of work, humiliated, she enters the last act of her life wondering what she can make of her diminished self.
-
-
FABULOUS!!!
- By PWL on 2024-11-29
Written by: Elizabeth Hay
-
The Dutch House
- A Novel
- Written by: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Tom Hanks
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves. The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother.
-
-
My heart could just burst!!!!
- By Anonymous User on 2019-10-14
Written by: Ann Patchett
-
The Woman with the Blue Star
- Written by: Pam Jenoff
- Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya, Emily Lawrence, Nancy Peterson
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of The Lost Girls of Paris comes a riveting tale of courage and unlikely friendship during World War II - now a New York Times best seller.
-
-
Absolutely fabulous, fabulous book?!
- By Marion C. on 2023-02-25
Written by: Pam Jenoff
-
The Stone Diaries
- Written by: Carol Shields, Penelope Lively - introduction
- Narrated by: Deborah Drakeford
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born in 1905, Daisy Goodwill Flett drifts through the chapters of childhood, marriage, widowhood, remarriage, motherhood, and old age, bewildered by her inability to understand her own role in the unsettled decades of the twentieth century. At last, reflecting on her unobserved and unconventional life, Daisy attempts to find a way to tell her story within a novel that is itself about the limitations of autobiography.
Written by: Carol Shields, and others
-
Between the World and Me
- Written by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race”, a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of Black women and men - bodies exploited through slavery and segregation and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a Black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’ attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son.
-
-
what a book that was
- By t on 2017-11-08
Written by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
-
Four Hundred Souls
- A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
- Written by: Ibram X. Kendi - editor, Keisha N. Blain - editor
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A chorus of extraordinary voices comes together to tell one of history’s great epics: the 400-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present - edited by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on Fire.
-
-
Stunning; epic; necessary
- By Amazon Customer on 2021-12-26
Written by: Ibram X. Kendi - editor, and others
-
Snow Road Station
- A Novel
- Written by: Elizabeth Hay
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Hay
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the winter of 2008, as snow falls without interruption, an actor in a Beckett play blanks on her lines. Fleeing the theatre, she beats a retreat into her past and arrives at Snow Road Station, a barely discernible dot on the map of Ontario. The actor is Lulu Blake, in her sixties now, a sexy, seemingly unfooled woman well-versed in taking risks. Out of work, humiliated, she enters the last act of her life wondering what she can make of her diminished self.
-
-
FABULOUS!!!
- By PWL on 2024-11-29
Written by: Elizabeth Hay
-
The Dutch House
- A Novel
- Written by: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Tom Hanks
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves. The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother.
-
-
My heart could just burst!!!!
- By Anonymous User on 2019-10-14
Written by: Ann Patchett
-
A Town Called Solace
- Written by: Mary Lawson
- Narrated by: Maggie Huculak, Tajja Isen, Ian Lake
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Town Called Solace, the brilliant and emotionally radiant new novel from Mary Lawson, her first in nearly a decade, opens on a family in crisis. Sixteen-year-old Rose is missing. Angry and rebellious, she had a row with her mother, stormed out of the house and simply disappeared. Left behind is seven-year-old Clara, Rose’s adoring little sister. Isolated by her parents’ efforts to protect her from the truth, Clara is bewildered and distraught.
-
-
What a lovely story
- By Beth Toly on 2021-02-24
Written by: Mary Lawson
-
Great Expectations
- Written by: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 22 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Great Expectations follows Pip's life from a plucky but poor and put-upon child in the Kent marshes, to a young man with "great expectations" in London and the choices he must make as a result of his winding journey. On the way, we meet some of Dickens' most memorable and unique characters - the mysterious and brutal Magwtich; eternally heartbroken Miss Havisham; and her cold-hearted child Estella.
-
-
A marvelous performance
- By Anonymous User on 2024-02-29
Written by: Charles Dickens
-
The Message
- Written by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ta-Nehisi Coates originally set out to write a book about writing, in the tradition of Orwell’s classic “Politics and the English Language,” but found himself grappling with deeper questions about how our stories—our reporting and imaginative narratives and mythmaking—expose and distort our realities. In the first of the book’s three intertwining essays, Coates, on his first trip to Africa, finds himself in two places at once: in Dakar, a modern city in Senegal, and in a mythic kingdom in his mind.
-
-
Thought-provoking and stirring
- By Ekta on 2024-10-27
Written by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
-
Deacon King Kong
- A Novel
- Written by: James McBride
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and, in front of everybody, shoots the project's drug dealer at point-blank range. The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride's funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird.
-
-
good choice
- By Troy Townsend on 2020-05-07
Written by: James McBride
-
The Birth House
- Written by: Ami McKay
- Narrated by: Geneviève Steele
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Birth House is the story of Dora Rare, the first daughter to be born in five generations of Rares. As a child in an isolated village in Nova Scotia, she is drawn to Miss Babineau, an outspoken Acadian midwife with a gift for healing. Dora becomes Miss B.’s apprentice, and together they help the women of Scots Bay through infertility, difficult labours, breech births, unwanted pregnancies and even unfulfilling sex lives.
-
-
A must read/listen
- By Amazon Customer on 2023-05-31
Written by: Ami McKay
-
Life in the City of Dirty Water
- A Memoir of Healing
- Written by: Clayton Thomas-Muller
- Narrated by: Clayton Thomas-Muller
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There have been many Clayton Thomas-Mullers: The child who played with toy planes as an escape from domestic and sexual abuse, enduring the intergenerational trauma of Canada's residential school system; the angry youngster who defended himself with fists and sharp wit against racism and violence, at school and on the streets of Winnipeg and small-town British Columbia; the tough teenager who, at 17, managed a drug house run by members of his family, and slipped in and out of juvie, operating in a world of violence and pain.
-
-
Both insightful snd hopeful
- By Debra Ransom on 2024-10-09
Written by: Clayton Thomas-Muller
-
The Lake House
- Written by: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 21 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Living on her family’s gorgeous lakeside estate in Cornwall, England, Alice Edevane is a bright, clever, inquisitive, innocent, and precociously talented fourteen-year-old who loves to write stories. But the mysteries she pens are no match for the one her family is about to endure ...One midsummer’s eve, after a beautiful party drawing hundreds of guests to the estate has ended, the Edevanes discover that their youngest son, Theo, has vanished without a trace.
-
-
First listen after reading 2 others
- By Heather A. Rundle on 2017-12-18
Written by: Kate Morton
-
The Truth About Melody Browne
- Written by: Lisa Jewell
- Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When she was 9 years old, Melody Browne's house burned down, and it took all of her childhood memories with it. Now she's a single mother of a teenage boy living in Central London. She hasn't seen her parents since she left home at 15, but she doesn't mind. She's better off on her own. She works as a dinner lady at her son's school and has no idea where her humdrum life is heading. But one summer's night, a hypnotist inadvertently unlocks memories of her childhood, and her whole life is turned upside down.
-
-
A page turner
- By Cheryl Benoit on 2020-12-06
Written by: Lisa Jewell
-
The Ambassador's Daughter
- Written by: Pam Jenoff
- Narrated by: Joanna Daniel
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Brought to the peace conference by her father, a German diplomat, Margot Rosenthal initially resents being trapped in the congested French capital, where she is still looked upon as the enemy. But as she contemplates returning to Berlin and a life with Stefan, the wounded fiancé she hardly knows anymore, she decides that being in Paris is not so bad after all. Bored and torn between duty and the desire to be free, Margot strikes up unlikely alliances: with Krysia, an accomplished musician with radical acquaintances and a secret to protect; and with Georg, the handsome, damaged naval officer who gives Margot a job.
Written by: Pam Jenoff
-
Olive Kitteridge
- Fiction
- Written by: Elizabeth Strout
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.
-
-
Boring
- By KF on 2020-01-29
Written by: Elizabeth Strout
-
The Girl They Left Behind
- Written by: Roxanne Veletzos
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a freezing night in January 1941, a little Jewish girl is found on the steps of an apartment building in Bucharest. With Romania recently allied with the Nazis, the Jewish population is in grave danger, undergoing increasingly violent persecution. The girl is placed in an orphanage and eventually adopted by a wealthy, childless couple who name her Natalia. As she assimilates into her new life, she all but forgets the parents who were forced to leave her behind. They are even further from her mind when Romania falls under Soviet occupation.
-
-
Interesting book
- By M.S. on 2021-11-01
Written by: Roxanne Veletzos
-
The Lost English Girl
- Written by: Julia Kelly
- Narrated by: Danielle Cohen, Raphael Corkhill
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Liverpool, 1935: Raised in a strict Catholic family, Viv Byrne knows what’s expected of her: marry a Catholic man from her working-class neighborhood and have his children. However, when she finds herself pregnant after a fling with Joshua Levinson, a Jewish man with dreams of becoming a famous jazz musician, Viv knows that a swift wedding is the only answer. Her only solace is that marrying Joshua will mean escaping her strict mother’s scrutiny. But when Joshua makes a life-changing choice on their wedding day, Viv is forced once again into the arms of her disapproving family.
-
-
Fantastic
- By Rhonda G on 2023-10-05
Written by: Julia Kelly
What the critics say
"Joe Morton doesn't just give a stellar performance of Coates's audiobook. He embodies its characters completely, making the listening experience cinematic.... Coates's first novel is steeped in magical realism, yet the parallels to America's past are clear, making this a not-to-miss listening experience. Morton's narration is equally powerful - among the year's best." (AudioFile Magazine)
"Coates balances the horrors of slavery against the fantastical. He extends the idea of the gifts of the disenfranchised to include a kind of superpower. But The Water Dancer is very much its own book, and its gestures toward otherworldliness remain grounded. In the end, it is a novel interested in the psychological effects of slavery, a grief that Coates is especially adept at parsing.... In Coates’s world, an embrace can be a revelation, rare and astonishing." (Esi Edugyan, The New York Times Book Review)
"The most surprising thing about The Water Dancer may be its unambiguous narrative ambition. This isn’t a typical first novel.... The Water Dancer is a jeroboam of a book, a crowd-pleasing exercise in breakneck and often occult storytelling that tonally resembles the work of Stephen King as much as it does the work of Toni Morrison, Colson Whitehead and the touchstone African-American science-fiction writer Octavia Butler.... It is flecked with forms of wonder-working that push at the boundaries of what we still seem to be calling magical realism." (Dwight Garner, The New York Times)
"Coates isn’t dropping supernatural garnish onto The Water Dancer any more than Toni Morrison sends a ghost whooshing through Beloved for cheap thrills. Instead, Coates’s fantastical elements are deeply integral to his novel, a way of representing something larger and more profound than the confines of realism could contain." (The Washington Post)
What listeners say about The Water Dancer (Oprah’s Book Club)
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lamoureux-LM
- 2020-04-06
Wonderful Listen
A wonderful story and amazing narrator! It didn’t take long to fall into this book and the story. It took me away and I was sad when it was over. I could have kept listening for hours.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sherri
- 2020-02-06
Magical and beautiful
This story is magical and beautiful. The narration is so powerful in its ability to place you in every circumstance that you feel like you can not only experience but touch.
Beautiful.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Robyn
- 2024-07-10
So deeply evocative
Very much enjoyed this deep journey through what slavery was like in Virginia, and getting a better sense of how twisted and tangled it became.
My only complaint is that I found the mysticism aspect ultimately didn’t feel real and I simply didn’t know what to do with it. But that may simply be my shortcomings.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- david jones
- 2021-02-10
Enticing and heart wrenching
It was a most heart wrenching story told brilliantly! I could not stop listening and sad when it finished.. We all heard stories of slavery before but Ta-Nehisi managed to convey even more meaning to the suffering in this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- lorraine
- 2021-02-22
wonderful
this is my favourite book in a long time. fabulous story with some history. great characters and wonderful writing.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- LK
- 2019-10-29
Truly remarkable tale
This unique novel is narrated by the most talented man who breaks out into song intermittently. What an unusual addition to a most enchanting novel.
This is the number 1 for the year in my opinion!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- poppies4me
- 2019-10-12
Fabulous Story
This is not normally the type of book I would read but it was well worth every moment. Although the story is fiction the it felt very real. To be enslaved with no control over any aspect of your life is uncomprehendable and what would you do to escape? There is so much more to this. Very well written and told beautifully by Joe Morton the perfect voice for the telling.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Renee Bonas
- 2023-07-04
Want to learn more
OMG I thought I knew about the underground railway but I need more information. amazing story and I love it all
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nyasha
- 2019-11-18
Great narrator
What an amazing read, narrator was brilliantly chosen. I did not want to stop listening to eat. What a remarkable depiction of the era of the Underground Railroad, the lack of racist words or the depiction of physical abuse. It made the book definitely more tolerable to read, yet my heart still pained at times listening to the many injustice that happened.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cathy
- 2021-08-18
Great listen!
Took me through Hiram’s life reflection and made me walk in his shoes. Great narration with character distinction! Recommend a listen
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!