Audio only
Length9h 2m
About this audiobook
“A beautiful book. . . . There are phrases in here that will make you laugh out loud, and others that will stop your heart. A definite triumph.” — David Rakoff, author of Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish
From Heather O'Neill, the Giller-shortlisted author of Daydreams of Angels and The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, a heartbreaking and wholly original novel about a young girl fighting to preserve a bruised innocence on the feral streets of a big city
Baby, all of thirteen years old, is lost in the gangly, coltish moment between childhood and the strange pulls and temptations of the adult world. Her mother is dead; her father Jules is always on the lookout for his next score. Baby knows that “chocolate milk” is Jules’ slang for heroin and sees a lot more of that in her house than the real article. But she takes vivid delight in the scrappy bits of happiness and beauty that find their way to her, and moves through the threat of the streets as if she’s been choreographed in a dance.
Soon, though, a hazard emerges that is bigger than even her hard-won survival skills can handle. Alphonse, the local pimp, has his eye on her for his new girl; he wants her body and soul—and what the johns don’t take he covets for himself. At the same time, a tender and naively passionate friendship unfolds with a boy from her class at school, who has no notion of the dark claims on her—which even her father, lost on the nod, cannot totally ignore. Jules consigns her to a stint in juvie hall, and for the moment this perceived betrayal preserves Baby from terrible harm—but after that, her salvation has to be her own invention.
Channeling the artlessly affecting voice of her thirteen-year-old heroine with extraordinary accuracy and power, O’Neill’s dazzles with a novel of extraordinary prescience and power, a subtly understated yet searingly effective story of a young life on the streets—and the strength, wits, and luck necessary for survival.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.1 (37.7K)
Includes Goodreads, StoryGraph, LibraryThing, Amazon
GenreFantasy, General Fiction
Length9 hrs 2 mins
Narrated byMiriam McDonald, Heather O'Neill
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateApr 26, 2016
LanguageEnglish
More from Heather O'Neill
When We Lost Our HeadsHeather O'Neill14h 22m3.9 (20.8K)$33 · $0.00
The Lonely Hearts HotelHeather O'Neill12h 2m4.0 (24.8K)$29 · $0.00
The Capital of DreamsHeather O'Neill10h3.7 (2.5K)$29 · $0.00
Valentine in MontrealHeather O'Neill4h 21m3.8 (1.2K)$20 · $0.00
The Capital of DreamsHeather O'Neill10h3.7 (2.4K)$29 · $0.00
Before the Coffee Gets Cold: A Toshikazu Kawaguchi Book SetToshikazu Kawaguchi18h 55m4.5 (1.4K)$40 · $0.00
The Song of AchillesMadeline Miller11h 15m4.3 (2.3M) · 1115$29 · $0.00
Hunt of the DragonJuliette Cross9h 46m4.4 (736)$20
All This Twisted GloryTahereh Mafi11h 31m4.3 (54.6K)$29 · $0.00
Deadly GameChristine Feehan13h 20m4.3 (15.8K)$30
A Tree Grows in BrooklynBetty Smith14h 55m4.4 (577.6K)$33 · $0.00
Dark GuardianChristine Feehan12h 32m4.5 (26.3K)$33 · $0.00
The Neil Gaiman ReaderNeil Gaiman27h 3m4.5 (3.2K)$53 · $0.00
The HobbitJ. R. R. Tolkien10h 51m4.4 (4.9M)$12 · $0.00
Bad HabitAlana S. Portero5h 37m4.4 (52.3K)$24 · $0.00
Science Fiction & Fantasy CollectionH. P. Lovecraft16h 32m4.5 (2.7K)$2 · $0.00
The Last GodMichael McClung3h 43m4.5 (493)$5.10 · $0.00
The Undead PoolKim Harrison16h 13m4.4 (34.6K)$33 · $0.00
The Edge of DawnBeverly Jenkins10h 15m4.5 (1.1K)$29 · $0.00
The Tapestry of FateShannon Chakraborty20h 2m4.4 (3.4K)$46 · $0.00
The Lack of LightNino Haratischwili26h 20m4.4 (9.2K)$53 · $0.00
My Dear HamiltonStephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie23h 7m4.4 (63.6K)$46 · $0.00
A Broken People's PlaylistChimeka Garricks6h 40m4.4 (3.7K)$24 · $0.00
Wicked BiteJeaniene Frost8h 56m4.4 (14.6K)$29 · $0.00
The Kingdom of CopperS. A. Chakraborty23h 13m4.4 (123.2K)$46 · $0.00
WhistlerAnn Patchett10h 45m4.6 (4.6K)$29 · $0.00
Demon CopperheadBarbara Kingsolver21h 3m4.5 (949.4K)$46 · $0.00
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
Remarkably Bright CreaturesShelby Van Pelt11h 17m4.4 (1.7M)$29 · $0.00
Cast in BloodMichelle Sagara16h 35m4.6 (607)$33 · $0.00
The Captain Blood Trilogy (Annotated)Rafael Sabatini29h 20m4.6 (1K)$3 · $0.00
Ship of the Line (Annotated)Cecil Louis Troughton Smith11h 13m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
The George Orwell CollectionGeorge Orwell24h 46m4.5 (14.4K)$12 · $0.00
ShivajiRanjit Desai25h 13m4.6 (3.1K)$24 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust15h 38m4.5 (9.2K)$2 · $0.00
Driving ForceElle James4h 58m4.6 (407)$20 · $0.00
When God Calls the HeartBrian Bird, Michelle Cox3h 24m4.6 (439)$10 · $0.00
Five Little IndiansMichelle Good10h 34m4.5 (64.5K)$29 · $0.00
Lolth's WarriorR. A. Salvatore13h 20m4.6 (2.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Things We Cannot SayKelly Rimmer13h 48m4.5 (359.1K)$33 · $0.00
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du BoisHonoree Fanonne Jeffers29h 49m4.5 (58K)$8 · $0.00
Going PostalTerry Pratchett11h 23m4.5 (189.9K)$29 · $0.00
Glen AffricKarine Giebel22h 51m4.5 (3.2K)$46 · $0.00
The Book Of NegroesLawrence Hill15h 45m4.5 (107.3K)$33 · $0.00
Anne of Green GablesL. M. Montgomery11h 1m4.5 (1.2M)$2.30 · $0.00
You may also like
Gem & DixieSara Zarr5h 45m3.8 (3K)$24 · $0.00
Girls from da Hood 8Treasure Hernandez, Natalie Weber6h 35m4.3 (377)$20
The Shotgun RuleCharlie Huston9h4.0 (3K)$20 · $0.00
VedaEllen Gardner5h 44m4.2 (1.7K)$17
That Bird Has My WingsJarvis Jay Masters9h 49m4.4 (13.7K)$29 · $0.00
My Life as a RatJoyce Carol Oates13h 4m3.9 (9K)$33 · $0.00
Coldhearted & CrazyMs. Michel Moore5h 25m4.2 (1.3K)$20
When God Laughs, and Other StoriesJack London4h 23m4.1 (355)$2 · $0.00
Manhattan TransferJohn Dos Passos14h 35m3.9 (20.7K)$2.40
Last Summer on State StreetToya Wolfe6h 6m4.3 (12.9K)$24 · $0.00
The Complete Works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Novels, Short Stories and Autobiographical WritingsFyodor Dostoyevsky270h 59m4.7 (2.5K)$2 · $0.00
MoreGünday, Hakan12h 1m4.1 (4.7K)Free
Confessions of a Video VixenKarrine Steffans, Karen Hunter5h 43m3.7 (8.8K)$24 · $0.00
Dog FoodRaynesha Pittman5h 25m4.4 (2K)$20
Missing OkaleeLaura Ojeda Melchor5h 25m4.2 (343)$17
The Polygamist’s DaughterAnna LeBaron8h 54m4.2 (4.3K)$20
The Bottom of the SkyWilliam C. Pack21h 48m4.2 (515)$32
Goodbye, Sweet GirlKelly Sundberg6h 18m4.1 (3.4K)$24 · $0.00
The Love You SaveGoldie Taylor7h 25m4.3 (1.6K)$24 · $0.00
ValentineElizabeth Wetmore10h 20m4.0 (57.9K)$29 · $0.00