Listen to a sample
You Think That’s Bad
- Author
- Jim Shepard
- Narrator
- Bronson Pinchot
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date
- 22 March 2011
- Run Time
- 7 hours 50 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
Culling the vastness of experience—from its bizarre fringes and breathtaking pinnacles to the mediocre and desperately below average—like an expert curator, Jim Shepard populates this collection with characters at once wildly diverse and wholly fascinating.
A “black world” operative can’t tell his wife a word about his daily activities, but doesn’t resist sharing her confidences. A young Alpine researcher is smitten by the girlfriend of his dead brother, killed in an avalanche he believes he caused. An unlucky farm boy becomes the manservant of a French nobleman who’s as proud of having served with Joan of Arc as he’s aroused by slaughtering children. A free spirit tracks an ancient Shia sect, becoming the first Western woman to travel the Arabian Deserts. From the inventor of the Godzilla epics to a miserable G.I. in New Guinea, each is complicit in his or her downfall and comes to learn that, in love, knowing better is never enough.
Critics Review
-
“Shepard’s cataclysmic renderings are both terrifying and awe-inspiring. There’s a word for that too—sublime.”
O, The Oprah Magazine
-
“Shepard’s use of relatively accurate biographical fact is bent to his own dramatic needs. Unlike memoirs that skew the truth, this is fiction that uses truth to warp into its own staged, often memoir-like reality.”
Chicago Tribune
-
“Each one of these eleven stories stands out for its masterly fusion of technique and subject.”
San Francisco Chronicle
-
“There is so much knowledge, insight, feeling, and artistry in each engrossing Shepard story, he must defy some law of literary physics.”
Booklist (starred review)
User Reviews
No reviews yet.
Details
- Author
- Jim Shepard
- Narrator
- Bronson Pinchot
- Duration
- 7 hours 50 minutes
- Release Date
- 22 March 2011
- ISBN
- 9781609982379
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Genre
- Short stories, Adventure fiction, Fiction: general and literary
Synopsis
Culling the vastness of experience—from its bizarre fringes and breathtaking pinnacles to the mediocre and desperately below average—like an expert curator, Jim Shepard populates this collection with characters at once wildly diverse and wholly fascinating. A “black world” operative can’t tell his wife a word about his daily activities, but doesn’t resist sharing her confidences. A young Alpine researcher is smitten by the girlfriend of his dead brother, killed in an avalanche he believes he caused. An unlucky farm boy becomes the manservant of a French nobleman who’s as proud of having served with Joan of Arc as he’s aroused by slaughtering children. A free spirit tracks an ancient Shia sect, becoming the first Western woman to travel the Arabian Deserts. From the inventor of the Godzilla epics to a miserable G.I. in New Guinea, each is complicit in his or her downfall and comes to learn that, in love, knowing better is never enough.
About xigxag
xigxag is an independent, UK-based audiobook platform and the UK's only B Corp certified audiobook company. We offer nearly 150,000 audiobooks, all with professional human narration. No AI-generated voices. xigxag is rated an Ethical Consumer Best Buy for audiobooks and a top-rated ethical bookshop.
There is no subscription. You buy the audiobooks you want, you own them permanently, and prices start at $13.95. The more you listen over the year, the less you pay per book, and there is always a selection in Listen for Less from $7.95. You can also send audiobooks as gifts using our audiobook gift cards or in-app gifting.
Every audiobook on xigxag has honest reviews covering both the book and the narration, and our community features make it easy to share what you are listening to, discover what others recommend, and find your next listen.
Download or stream on iOS, Android, or in your browser. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk.