Length13h 24m
About this audiobook
A writer and former ski jumper facing a terminal diagnosis takes one more leap—into a past of soaring flights and broken family bonds
A brilliant ski jumper has to be fearless—Jon Bargaard remembers this well. His memories of daring leaps and risks might be the key to the book he’s always wanted to write: a novel about his family, beginning with Pops, once a champion ski jumper himself, who also took Jon and his younger brother Anton to the heights.
But Jon has never been able to get past the next, ruinous episode of their history, and now that he has received a terrible diagnosis, he’s afraid he never will.
In a bravura performance, Peter Geye follows Jon deep into the past he tried so hard to leave behind, telling the story he spent his life escaping. It begins with a flourish, his father and his hard-won sweetheart fleeing Chicago—and a notoriously ruthless gangster—to land in North Minneapolis. That, at least, was the tale Jon heard, one that becomes more and more suspect as he revisits the events that eventually tore the family in two, sending his father to prison, his mother to the state hospital, and placing himself, a teenager, in charge of thirteen-year-old Anton.
Traveling back and forth in time, Jon tells his family’s story—perhaps his last chance to share it—to his beloved wife Ingrid, circling ever closer to the truth about those events and his own part in them and revealing the perhaps unforgivable violence done to the brothers’ bond.
The dream of ski jumping haunts Jon as his tale unfolds, daring time to stop just long enough to stick the landing.
As thrilling as those soaring flights, as precarious as the Bargaard family’s complicated love, as tender as Jon’s backward gaze while disease takes him inexorably forward, Peter Geye’s gorgeous prose brings the brothers to the precipice of their relationship, where they have to choose: each other, or the secrets they’ve held so tightly for so long.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.1 (706)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon, StoryGraph, LibraryThing
GenreFantasy, General Fiction
Length13 hrs 24 mins
Narrated byRobert Fass
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateSep 13, 2022
LanguageEnglish
More from Peter Geye
Demon CopperheadBarbara Kingsolver21h 3m4.5 (949.4K)$46 · $0.00
Remarkably Bright CreaturesShelby Van Pelt11h 17m4.4 (1.7M)$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)$29 · $0.00
The Left and the LuckyWilly Vlautin6h 40m4.4 (1.1K)$24 · $0.00
Hunt of the DragonJuliette Cross9h 46m4.4 (736)$20
Deadly GameChristine Feehan13h 20m4.3 (15.8K)$30
Swimming in the DarkTomasz Jedrowski6h 30m4.2 (98.9K)$24 · $0.00
Lola in the MirrorTrent Dalton13h 40m4.5 (43.9K)$33 · $0.00
Going PostalTerry Pratchett13h 36m4.5 (163.8K)$33 · $0.00
The Leo Tolstoy CollectionLeo Tolstoy9h 1m4.5 (4.9K)$12 · $0.00
Sword and ShadowMichelle Sagara16h 51m4.5 (2.2K)$40 · $0.00
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 Undead PoolKim Harrison16h 13m4.4 (34.6K)$33 · $0.00
The Edge of DawnBeverly Jenkins10h 15m4.5 (1.1K)$29 · $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
Something Like LoveBeverly Jenkins10h 21m4.6 (2.7K)$29 · $0.00
Black History CollectionFrederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois27h 9m4.6 (2.6K)$18 · $0.00
The Old Man and the Sea (Annotated)Ernest Hemingway4h 27m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
White HotIlona Andrews13h 18m4.5 (136.9K)$5 · $0.00
The Ghost by the Billabong (The Matilda Saga, #5)Jackie French14h 58m4.6 (773)$33 · $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
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
You may also like
The Summer HouseMarcia Willett8h 19m3.8 (2K)$22 · $0.00
You Remind Me of MeDan Chaon12h 39m3.7 (6K)$23 · $0.00
The Inbetween DaysEva Woods10h 10m4.1 (2.3K)$29 · $0.00
Hope and GloryJendella Benson11h 4m3.8 (2K)$29 · $0.00
Coming Home for ChristmasRaeAnne Thayne8h 16m4.3 (5.8K)$24 · $0.00
The Myth of Perpetual SummerSusan Crandall12h 15m4.1 (5.1K)$23
A Question Mark Is Half A HeartSofia Lundberg9h 42m3.8 (3.8K)$29 · $0.00
The Reason You're AliveMatthew Quick5h 38m4.0 (6.7K)$24 · $0.00
The Ones We KeepBobbie Jean Huff9h 2m3.7 (1.8K)$20
The Hour I First BelievedWally Lamb25h 10m4.0 (74.4K)$53 · $0.00
Small WorldLaura Zigman8h 3m3.5 (9.6K)$26 · $0.00
Dreaming In FrenchVanessa McCausland11h 5m4.3 (1.1K)$29 · $0.00
Because of the RainDeborah Raney7h 16m4.5 (1.9K)$17
The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D.Nichole Bernier11h 16m3.6 (5.4K)$30 · $0.00
Summertime GuestsWendy Francis7h 23m3.6 (2.2K)$24 · $0.00
Remembering EllieGillian Jackson7h 10m4.2 (256)$15 · $0.00
The Cicada HouseElla Ward11h 1m3.6 (1.5K)$29 · $0.00
The Christmas Hirelings (Children's Book)Mary Elizabeth Braddon4h 54m3.9 (7.2K)$2 · $0.00
The Book of Atlantis BlackBetsy Bonner5h 15m3.6 (1.6K)$17 · $0.00
PopsCraig Melvin7h 40m4.5 (736)$26 · $0.00