Butcher’s Crossing
Audio only

Butcher’s Crossing

By John WilliamsNarrated by Anthony Heald
Length10h 22m

About this audiobook

In his National Book Award–winning novel Augustus, John Williams uncovered the secrets of ancient Rome. With Butcher's Crossing, his fiercely intelligent, beautifully written western, Williams dismantles the myths of modern America. It is the 1870s, and Will Andrews, fired up by Emerson to seek "an original relation to nature," drops out of Harvard and heads west. He washes up in Butcher's Crossing, a small Kansas town on the outskirts of nowhere. Butcher's Crossing is full of restless men looking for ways to make money and ways to waste it. Before long Andrews strikes up a friendship with one of them, a man who regales Andrews with tales of immense herds of buffalo, ready for the taking, hidden away in a beautiful valley deep in the Colorado Rockies. He convinces Andrews to join in an expedition to track the animals down. The journey out is grueling, but at the end is a place of paradisiacal richness. Once there, however, the three men abandon themselves to an orgy of slaughter, so caught up in killing buffalo that they lose all sense of time. Winter soon overtakes them: they are snowed in. Next spring, half-insane with cabin fever, cold, and hunger, they stagger back to Butcher's Crossing to find a world as irremediably changed as they have been.

Audiobook details

Rating★★★★ 4.2 (50.7K)
Includes Goodreads, StoryGraph, Amazon, LibraryThing
GenreLiterary Classics, Action and Adventure
Length10 hrs 22 mins
Narrated byAnthony Heald
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateJun 6, 2008
LanguageEnglish

More from John Williams

To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
These Precious Days
These Precious DaysAnn Patchett11h 14m4.5 (45.2K)$29 · $0.00
Braving the Truth
Braving the TruthRachel Held Evans11h 31m4.7 (359)$29 · $0.00
The Old Man and the Sea (Annotated)
The Old Man and the Sea (Annotated)Ernest Hemingway4h 27m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
Twelfth Night (The Unabridged Play) + The Classic Biography (Annotated)
Twelfth Night (The Unabridged Play) + The Classic Biography (Annotated)William Shakespeare, Sidney Lee16h 38m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
Henry V (The Play, Historical Background and Analysis of the Character in the Play)
Henry V (The Play, Historical Background and Analysis of the Character in the Play)William Shakespeare, William Hazlitt8h 40m4.6 (1.3K)$1 · $0.00
H. P. LOVECRAFT Ultimate Collection: Novellas, Short Stories, Poetry & Essays (Annotated)
H. P. LOVECRAFT Ultimate Collection: Novellas, Short Stories, Poetry & Essays (Annotated)H. P. Lovecraft12h 28m4.6 (2.3K)$2 · $0.00
Time Regained
Time RegainedMarcel Proust15h 54m4.5 (10.6K)$2 · $0.00
TORAH - Bilingual Edition: English/Hebrew (Annotated)
TORAH - Bilingual Edition: English/Hebrew (Annotated)Max Margolis, JPS28h 26m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
Betty Crocker picture cooky book
Betty Crocker picture cooky bookBetty Crocker, Inc. General Mills2h 13m4.5 (6.5K)$1 · $0.00
The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter
The Complete Tales of Beatrix PotterBeatrix Potter3h 36m4.5 (75K)$3 · $0.00
Crime and Punishment (The Unabridged Garnett Translation) (Annotated)
Crime and Punishment (The Unabridged Garnett Translation) (Annotated)Fyodor Dostoevsky24h 25m4.5 (15.4K)$1.99 · $0.00
The North American Indian
The North American IndianEdward S. Curtis, Frederick Webb Hodge6h4.5 (1.2K)$2 · $0.00
The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Uncensored 13 Chapter Version + The Revised 20 Chapter Version (Annotated)
The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Uncensored 13 Chapter Version + The Revised 20 Chapter Version (Annotated)Oscar Wilde16h 12m4.5 (2.8K)$1.99 · $0.00
Grimoire Of The Everyday Witch
Grimoire Of The Everyday WitchIsadora Lys / Virginia Santos5h 35m4.5 (3.9K)$9 · $0.00
Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-PoohAlan Alexander Milne2h 52m4.5 (401.1K)$3 · $0.00
Sitting Pretty
Sitting PrettyRebekah Taussig7h 33m4.5 (18.9K)$26 · $0.00
The Poetic Edda & The Prose Edda
The Poetic Edda & The Prose EddaSnorri Sturluson, Saemund Sigfusson9h 34m4.5 (4K)$1 · $0.00
The Complete Satires & Essays of Mark Twain (Annotated)
The Complete Satires & Essays of Mark Twain (Annotated)Mark Twain23h 21m4.5 (1.1K)$2 · $0.00
Rilla of Ingleside
Rilla of InglesideLucy Maud Montgomery10h 58m4.5 (46.7K)$1 · $0.00
Ship of the Line (Annotated)
Ship of the Line (Annotated)Cecil Louis Troughton Smith11h 13m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
The Road to Gundagai (The Matilda Saga, #3)
The Road to Gundagai (The Matilda Saga, #3)Jackie French12h 31m4.6 (1.2K)$33 · $0.00
Timeless
TimelessR. A. Salvatore12h 30m4.5 (8K)$33 · $0.00
An Inside Job
An Inside JobDaniel Silva9h 28m4.4 (26.3K)$29 · $0.00
The Commodore
The CommodoreP. T. Deutermann11h 53m4.5 (2.4K)$20 · $0.00
A Closed and Common Orbit
A Closed and Common OrbitBecky Chambers11h 30m4.4 (140.7K)$29 · $0.00
Thud!
Thud!Terry Pratchett10h 31m4.4 (112.6K)$8 · $0.00
All Quiet on the Western Front (Annotated)
All Quiet on the Western Front (Annotated)Erich Maria Remarque8h 34m4.4 (12.9K)$1.99 · $0.00
Exit Fee
Exit FeeBrad Taylor3h 16m4.5 (1.9K)$18 · $0.00
The Alice Network
The Alice NetworkKate Quinn15h 7m4.4 (887.1K)$33 · $0.00
The Ohio River Trilogy: Betty Zane, The Spirit of the Border & The Last Trail
The Ohio River Trilogy: Betty Zane, The Spirit of the Border & The Last TrailZane Grey29h 8m4.4 (1.8K)$1 · $0.00
A Darkness Returns
A Darkness ReturnsRaymond E. Feist19h 29m4.4 (1.9K)$40 · $0.00
THE VALLEY OF SILENT MEN (Annotated)
THE VALLEY OF SILENT MEN (Annotated)James Oliver Curwood8h 25m4.5 (420)$2 · $0.00
The Emperor's Fist
The Emperor's FistJay Allan8h 37m4.5 (272)$26 · $0.00
West of the Tularosa
West of the TularosaLouis L’Amour5h 53m4.4 (3.6K)$20 · $0.00
The Amazing Interlude (Annotated)
The Amazing Interlude (Annotated)Mary Roberts Rinehart8h 42m4.5 (365)$1.99 · $0.00
Hornblower and the Hotspur (Annotated)
Hornblower and the Hotspur (Annotated)C. S. Forester14h 7m4.4 (17.3K)$2 · $0.00
Shades of Wicked
Shades of WickedJeaniene Frost8h 51m4.4 (19.5K)$29 · $0.00
The Log of a Cowboy (Annotated)
The Log of a Cowboy (Annotated)Andy Adams9h 47m4.4 (1.1K)$2 · $0.00
Everything She Wanted
Everything She WantedJennifer Ryan9h 9m4.4 (1.3K)$29 · $0.00

You may also like

Redburn. His First Voyage
Redburn. His First VoyageHerman Melville13h 25m3.8 (6.9K)$3 · $0.00
Two Years Before the Mast
Two Years Before the MastRichard Henry Dana16h 55m4.1 (24.5K)Free
The Twenty-Ninth Day
The Twenty-Ninth DayAlex Messenger7h 43m4.0 (9.3K)$17
The Tent Dwellers
The Tent DwellersAlbert Bigelow Paine5h 41m4.2 (303)$1 · $0.00
The Cruise of the Snark
The Cruise of the SnarkJack London8h 22m3.9 (2.4K)$2.30
A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf (With Original Drawings & Photographs) (Annotated)
A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf (With Original Drawings & Photographs) (Annotated)John Muir5h 55m4.6 (1.1K)$2 · $0.00
Baree, Son of Kazan
Baree, Son of KazanJames Oliver Curwood6h 54m4.2 (1.2K)$2.30
The Path to Rome
The Path to RomeHilaire Belloc9h 59m4.2 (1.2K)$2.30
The Light It Follows
The Light It FollowsRowan Cassidy51m4.3 (1.8K)$2.99 · $0.00
The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
The Life and Adventures of Robinson CrusoeDaniel Defoe11h 39m3.8 (390.3K)$2 · $0.00
Northbound
NorthboundNaomi Arnold7h 21m4.3 (669)$24 · $0.00
The Autobiography of Charles Darwin
The Autobiography of Charles DarwinCharles Darwin2h 24m4.1 (6.4K)$3.50 · $0.00
Youth, a Narrative
Youth, a NarrativeJoseph Conrad1h 21m3.9 (6.2K)$2.30
Old Glory
Old GloryJonathan Raban18h 47m4.1 (1.9K)$30 · $0.00
Racing the Clock
Racing the ClockBernd Heinrich6h 49m4.0 (721)$24 · $0.00
A Tramp's Notebook
A Tramp's NotebookMorley Roberts6h 36m$2.30
Harper's Outdoor Book for Boys
Harper's Outdoor Book for BoysJoseph H. Adams8h 44m4.1 (26)$2 · $0.00
THE GOLDEN DREAM (Adventures in the Far West) (Annotated)
THE GOLDEN DREAM (Adventures in the Far West) (Annotated)R.M. Ballantyne11h 47m3.8 (44)$2 · $0.00
The Climber's Collection: 6 Classic Books on Mountaineering
The Climber's Collection: 6 Classic Books on MountaineeringGeorge Ingle Finch, Norman Collie, Arnold Lunn, Michael T. H. Sadler, Julian S. Huxley, Norman Egerton Young, Hugh Kingsmill Lunn, H. E. G. Tyndale, N. T. Huxley, H. R. Pope, Arnold H. M. Lunn, C. G. Bruce, W. H. Le Mesurier39h 25m$1.99 · $0.00
Prentice Mulford: Life by Land and Sea, The Californian's Return - Twenty Years From Home (Annotated)
Prentice Mulford: Life by Land and Sea, The Californian's Return - Twenty Years From Home (Annotated)Prentice Mulford10h 11m$1.99 · $0.00