
Galveston
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $20.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Michael Kramer
-
By:
-
Nic Pizzolatto
About this listen
From the creator, writer, and executive producer of the HBO series True Detective and soon to be a major motion picture comes a dark and visceral novel set along the wastelands of Galveston.
On the same day that Roy Cady is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he senses that his boss, a dangerous loan-sharking bar-owner, wants him dead. Roy is alert to the possibility that a routine assignment could be a deathtrap. Yet what the would-be killers do to Roy Cady is not the same as what he does to them, and after a smoking spasm of violence, they are mostly dead and he is mostly alive.
Before Roy makes his getaway, he realizes there are two women in the apartment, one of them still breathing, and he sees something in her frightened, defiant eyes that causes a fateful decision. He takes her with him as he goes on the run from New Orleans to Galveston, Texas—an action as ill-advised as it is inescapable. The girl's name is Rocky, and she is too young, too tough, too sexy—and far too much trouble. Roy, Rocky, and her sister hide in the battered seascape of Galveston's country-western bars and seedy hotels, a world of treacherous drifters, pickup trucks, and ashed-out hopes.
Recalling the moody violence of the early novels of Cormac McCarthy and Denis Johnson, this powerful, potent, and atmospheric thriller is impossible to put down.
©2010 Nic Pizzolatto (P)2010 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Devil All the Time
- By: Donald Ray Pollock
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia, The Devil All the Time follows a cast of compelling and bizarre characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. There’s Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can’t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrificial blood he pours on his “prayer log.”
-
-
A Comedy Blockbuster in Hades
- By Mel on 06-22-13
-
The Fisherman
- By: John Langan
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other's company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumors of the Creek, and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss it as just another fish story.
-
-
The Horror of Loss
- By Jim N on 04-20-17
By: John Langan
-
Solenoid
- By: Mircea Cărtărescu, Sean Cotter - translator
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 34 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on Cartarescu's own role as a high school teacher, Solenoid begins with the mundane details of a diarist's life and quickly spirals into a philosophical account of life, history, philosophy, and mathematics. One character asks another: when you rush into the burning building, will you save the newborn or the artwork? On a broad scale, the novel's investigations of other universes, dimensions, and timelines reconcile the realms of life and art.
-
-
Our Universal Phantasmagoria
- By Isaac Linder on 03-11-24
By: Mircea Cărtărescu, and others
-
The Gone World
- By: Tom Sweterlitsch
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shannon Moss is part of a clandestine division within the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In western Pennsylvania, 1997, she is assigned to solve the murder of a Navy SEAL's family - and to locate his vanished teenage daughter. Though she can't share the information with conventional law enforcement, Moss discovers that the missing SEAL was an astronaut aboard the spaceship USS Libra - a ship assumed lost to the currents of Deep Time. Moss knows firsthand the mental trauma of time travel and believes the SEAL's experience with the future has triggered this violence.
-
-
What an amazing find!
- By Veronica on 03-07-18
By: Tom Sweterlitsch
-
Solaris
- The Definitive Edition
- By: Stanislaw Lem, Bill Johnston - translator
- Narrated by: Alessandro Juliani
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At last, one of the world’s greatest works of science fiction is available - just as author Stanislaw Lem intended it. To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Solaris, Audible, in cooperation with the Lem Estate, has commissioned a brand-new translation - complete for the first time, and the first ever directly from the original Polish to English. Beautifully narrated by Alessandro Juliani ( Battlestar Galactica), Lem’s provocative novel comes alive for a new generation.
-
-
A comment on negative reviews
- By Burns on 09-20-11
By: Stanislaw Lem, and others
-
2666
- By: Roberto Bolaño
- Narrated by: John Lee, Armando Durán, G. Valmont Thomas, and others
- Length: 39 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Composed in the last years of Roberto Bolaño's life, 2666 was greeted across Europe and Latin America as his highest achievement, surpassing even his previous work in its strangeness, beauty, and scope. Its throng of unforgettable characters includes academics and convicts, an American sportswriter, an elusive German novelist, and a teenage student and her widowed, mentally unstable father. Their lives intersect in the urban sprawl of Santa Teresa - a fictional Juárez - on the U.S.-Mexico border.
-
-
The Best Book I Read or Listened to in 2009
- By William on 01-05-10
By: Roberto Bolaño
-
The Devil All the Time
- By: Donald Ray Pollock
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia, The Devil All the Time follows a cast of compelling and bizarre characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. There’s Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can’t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrificial blood he pours on his “prayer log.”
-
-
A Comedy Blockbuster in Hades
- By Mel on 06-22-13
-
The Fisherman
- By: John Langan
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other's company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumors of the Creek, and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss it as just another fish story.
-
-
The Horror of Loss
- By Jim N on 04-20-17
By: John Langan
-
Solenoid
- By: Mircea Cărtărescu, Sean Cotter - translator
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 34 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on Cartarescu's own role as a high school teacher, Solenoid begins with the mundane details of a diarist's life and quickly spirals into a philosophical account of life, history, philosophy, and mathematics. One character asks another: when you rush into the burning building, will you save the newborn or the artwork? On a broad scale, the novel's investigations of other universes, dimensions, and timelines reconcile the realms of life and art.
-
-
Our Universal Phantasmagoria
- By Isaac Linder on 03-11-24
By: Mircea Cărtărescu, and others
-
The Gone World
- By: Tom Sweterlitsch
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shannon Moss is part of a clandestine division within the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In western Pennsylvania, 1997, she is assigned to solve the murder of a Navy SEAL's family - and to locate his vanished teenage daughter. Though she can't share the information with conventional law enforcement, Moss discovers that the missing SEAL was an astronaut aboard the spaceship USS Libra - a ship assumed lost to the currents of Deep Time. Moss knows firsthand the mental trauma of time travel and believes the SEAL's experience with the future has triggered this violence.
-
-
What an amazing find!
- By Veronica on 03-07-18
By: Tom Sweterlitsch
-
Solaris
- The Definitive Edition
- By: Stanislaw Lem, Bill Johnston - translator
- Narrated by: Alessandro Juliani
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At last, one of the world’s greatest works of science fiction is available - just as author Stanislaw Lem intended it. To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Solaris, Audible, in cooperation with the Lem Estate, has commissioned a brand-new translation - complete for the first time, and the first ever directly from the original Polish to English. Beautifully narrated by Alessandro Juliani ( Battlestar Galactica), Lem’s provocative novel comes alive for a new generation.
-
-
A comment on negative reviews
- By Burns on 09-20-11
By: Stanislaw Lem, and others
-
2666
- By: Roberto Bolaño
- Narrated by: John Lee, Armando Durán, G. Valmont Thomas, and others
- Length: 39 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Composed in the last years of Roberto Bolaño's life, 2666 was greeted across Europe and Latin America as his highest achievement, surpassing even his previous work in its strangeness, beauty, and scope. Its throng of unforgettable characters includes academics and convicts, an American sportswriter, an elusive German novelist, and a teenage student and her widowed, mentally unstable father. Their lives intersect in the urban sprawl of Santa Teresa - a fictional Juárez - on the U.S.-Mexico border.
-
-
The Best Book I Read or Listened to in 2009
- By William on 01-05-10
By: Roberto Bolaño
-
The Wide, Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies
- By: John Langan
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Langan has, in the last few years, established himself as one of the leading voices in contemporary horror literature. Gifted with a supple and mellifluous prose style, an imagination that can conjure up clutching terrors with seeming effortlessness, and a thorough knowledge of the rich heritage of weird fiction, Langan has already garnered his share of accolades. This new collection includes nine of his substantial stories.
-
-
Forgot the Horror
- By Dylan on 10-04-18
By: John Langan
-
Pale Fire
- By: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A 999 line poem in heroic couplets, divided into 4 cantos, was composed - according to Nabokov's fiction - by John Francis Shade, an obsessively methodical man, during the last 20 days of his life.
-
-
An amazing feat for such a unique novel
- By AmazonCustomer on 03-27-12
By: Vladimir Nabokov
-
Blood Meridian
- Or the Evening Redness in the West
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author of the National Book Award-winning All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy is one of the most provocative American stylists to emerge in the last century. The striking novel Blood Meridian offers an unflinching narrative of the brutality that accompanied the push west on the 1850s Texas frontier.
-
-
A beautiful nightmare
- By Ryan on 07-11-11
By: Cormac McCarthy
-
The Kill Artist
- By: Daniel Silva
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the assassination of his wife and son, Gabriel Allon retires from his brutal anti-terrorist career and loses himself in his previous cover job: art restoration. But when Tariq al-Hourani, the Palestinian terrorist responsible for his family’s death, begins a killing spree designed to destroy Middle East peace talks, Gabriel once again slips into the shadowy world of international intrigue. In a global game of hide-and-seek, the motives of Gabriel and Tariq soon become more personal than political.
-
-
Reluctant Assassin
- By Snoodely on 10-30-13
By: Daniel Silva
-
Women
- A Novel
- By: Charles Bukowski
- Narrated by: Christian Baskous
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Low-life writer and unrepentant alcoholic Henry Chinaski was born to survive. After decades of slacking off at low-paying dead-end jobs, blowing his cash on booze and women, and scrimping by in flea-bitten apartments, Chinaski sees his poetic star rising at last. Now, at 50, he is reveling in his sudden rock-star life, running three hundred hangovers a year, and maintaining a sex life that would cripple Casanova.
-
-
Don't start your Bukowski journey here
- By Lucca ate your Lunch! on 03-19-14
By: Charles Bukowski
-
The Shards
- A Novel
- By: Bret Easton Ellis
- Narrated by: Bret Easton Ellis
- Length: 23 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bret Easton Ellis’s masterful new novel is a story about the end of innocence, and the perilous passage from adolescence into adulthood, set in a vibrantly fictionalized Los Angeles in 1981 as a serial killer begins targeting teenagers throughout the city.
-
-
Don’t read if you have a weak stomach
- By Judith on 02-13-23
-
11-22-63
- A Novel
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Craig Wasson
- Length: 30 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King - who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer - takes listeners on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.
-
-
I Owe Stephen King An Apology
- By Kelly - Write Well Academy on 04-16-12
By: Stephen King
-
The Savage Detectives
- A Novel
- By: Roberto Bolaño
- Narrated by: Eddie Lopez, Armando Durán
- Length: 26 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The late Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño has been called the García Marquez of his generation. The Savage Detectives is a hilarious and sexy, meandering and melancholy, companionable and complicated road trip through Mexico City, Barcelona, Israel, Liberia, and finally the desert of northern Mexico. It is the first of Bolaño's two giant works, with 2666, to be translated into English and is already being hailed as a masterpiece.
-
-
Bolaño Poetic Gyre
- By Darwin8u on 11-14-14
By: Roberto Bolaño
-
The Cuckoo's Calling
- By: Robert Galbraith
- Narrated by: Robert Glenister
- Length: 15 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, creditors are calling, and after a breakup with his longtime girlfriend, he’s living in his office. Then John Bristow walks through his door with a shocking story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry - known to her friends as the Cuckoo - famously fell to her death a few months earlier.
-
-
Unbelievable debut mystery set in London
- By Tracey on 05-26-13
By: Robert Galbraith
-
The Black Echo: Special Edition
- Harry Bosch, Book 1
- By: Michael Connelly
- Narrated by: Titus Welliver
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal...because the murdered man was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who had fought side by side with him in a hellish underground war. Now Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam. From a dangerous maze of blind alleys to a daring criminal heist beneath the city, his survival instincts will once again be tested to their limit.
-
-
Titus Welliver has really stepped in it!
- By George Moneo on 04-08-20
By: Michael Connelly
-
Stick
- By: Elmore Leonard
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After serving time for armed robbery, Ernest "Stick" Stickley is back on the outside and trying to stay legit. But it's tough staying straight in a crooked town - and Miami is a pirate's paradise, where investment fat cats and lowlife drug dealers hold hands and dance. And when a crazed player chooses Stick at random to die for another man's sins, the struggling ex-con is left with no choice but to dive right back into the game. Besides, Stick knows a good thing when he sees it....
-
-
Can't beat this with a stick (sorry).
- By Richard Delman on 05-14-12
By: Elmore Leonard
-
Mythologies
- The Complete Edition, in a New Translation
- By: Roland Barthes, Annette Lavers - translator, Richard Howard - translator
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Roland Barthes's groundbreaking Mythologies first appeared in English in 1972, it was immediately recognized as one of the most significant works in French theory - yet nearly half of the essays from the original work were missing. This new edition of Mythologies is the first complete, authoritative English version of the French classic. It includes the brilliant "Astrology", never published in English before.
-
-
Fun and engaging
- By Chris Hall on 01-08-19
By: Roland Barthes, and others
Editorial reviews
Nic Pizzolatto has had a very respectable run as a writer of short stories, and this is his first effort at committing to a somewhat longer project. His main character, Roy Cady, is in much the same situation as the author. Roy has had a distinguished career as a bag man for a heavy duty criminal who owns a bar in the French Quarter, but when Roy discovers Stan wishes to prematurely and violently terminate their relationship, he is forced into plotting a long term escape back to Galveston. Narrating this classy character portrait punctuated by suspenseful spurts of action is veteran Michael Kramer, whose hard-boiled voicework has made the rounds on over a hundred other audiobooks to date.
Despite Roy's best intentions to hide out and then clean up his act, there are several things getting in the way in a major way. For example, the day Stan puts a hit out on him is the same day he learns he is also being killed by some blotches on an x-ray of his lungs. Hacking and coughing his way through the attempt on his life, he ends up saddled with a sneaky young hooker. Maybe he can clean up both their acts and come out a hero, but the weights keep piling on. The hooker stops to pick up her 3-year-old sister, there's a junky thief who tempts Roy into a risky job, they all stay in a cheap motel full of nosy old ladies keeping on eye on Roy's every move, and the truck's glove box contains a pile of papers detailing some illegal activities that could help Roy make a pile of money if he lets Stan know he's still alive.
Michael Kramer is just the man to tell this tale, which is really the inner monologue of a conflicted man who struggles to do right in the face of the baggage and demons that keep popping up from his past. Soaked in booze and southern swagger, Kramer keeps a tight hold on Roy's frustratedly optimistic musings, such that even his poor choices are ultimately charming ones. Pizzolatto, who grew up in Louisiana, has produced a terrific character sketch that Kramer embodies to deliver with ease. Megan Volpert
Critic reviews
What listeners say about Galveston
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Taryn
- 03-23-14
Extremely mediocre with terrible narration
I guess I am one of the few who was very disappointed in this audio. Perhaps reading it would have been better. I had really high hopes as a big fan of the True Detective Series that Nic PIzzolatto wrote for HBO.The narration was absolutely monotone in my opinion, one dimensional and BORING. I was tempted to stop listening and then re-read some of the reviews and thought, "well maybe I am missing something". So I perservered till the end. What a waste of time. The storyline was nothing original and I really did not care what happened to any of the characters as they were mostly unlikeable. I will agree that his writing is very descriptive and at times beautiful, you can see and feel the places he describes. However, the reader ruined it for me- with his monotone drawl. Glad that this was a special bargain book and I didnt waste an entire credit on this one. Perhaps the movie will be better or maybe he will evolve as a novelist in the future. He certainly did a great job with True Detective!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lee
- 01-21-18
A Dark, Atmospheric Novel
I’ll preface this by saying that I’m from Port Arthur, TX and spent most of my young adulthood ranging back and forth from Anahuac to New Iberia. So I was predisposed to enjoy this book and Season One of True Detective. At any rate, this novel is Gulf Coast Noir at its finest. One thing that really stands out is Pizzolatto’s description of the fleabag motel in Galveston and its occupants. It’s like the last outpost of the desperado and the down on their luck.
I really enjoyed this book but a large part of that is because I’m familiar with the setting. Your mileage may vary. But I think this book offers something for everyone.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tasha
- 11-24-22
Wow
I LOVED this book. Raw, gritty. Real. Even the narration didn’t bother me like it did some people. I felt it created this character in my mind really well.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 02-14-24
Pizzolatto tears at your heartstrings!
I came to this book through the author’s work with True Detective. He does an amazing job at bringing characters to life. “Life is barely long enough to get good at one thing… so be careful what you get good at.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael Dean
- 04-03-24
Brutal violence and brooding lyricism
A masterpiece of the form. A tale of brutal violence shot through with brooding lyricism. Simply one of the best crime novels I've ever read. Great narration adds atmosphere and authenticity.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Curt
- 05-07-11
A Great Read
This is a terrific book. I read a review of the novel, I believe, in the NYTimes before making the purchase. It described the book as possessing a rare combination of exceptional story-line and writing that rises to the level of literature. I couldn't agree more.
Add a perfect narrator to the audio version of the text and you have something rather special.
Over the past several years, I have listened to who knows how many books -- a lot. Only three have caused me to sit in my car to continue listening after arriving at my destination. This is one of the three books. (I even had someone at my office tap on my window to make sure that everything was okay.)
Final note: I wondered if it was just me, so I purchased the CD version and asked a friend to give the book a listen. He reports that he listened to Galveston twice. During the second listen, he noted that the quality of the writing -- especially the subtle foreshadowing of what was to come -- was even better than he initially thought. The book became richer and more complex the second time around.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
29 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Roy
- 09-14-10
Easy Read and Compelling Characters
This is Pizzolatto's first novel and it is an interesting read. It involves a Roy Cady is a strong-arm man for a New Orleans gangster. He picks up a girl, Raquel Arceneaux, who is caught up in a job and flees to Galveston, Texas. Roy is dying of cancer and he is caught with Arceneaux who he just can't quite leave behind. If you are looking for a lot of Galveston in this book - you'll not find it. It is just the setting for Roy Cady's demise. If you are looking for an interesting story, this might be a story for you.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
14 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rere
- 11-28-17
Wildly complicated story
Devastating circumstances, natural occurrences and bowels of dispair but some new self awareness and redemption?
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael Conner
- 03-23-15
Good story
The story was great. Loved it. Listened frequently. The narrator was perfect for this novel. Enjoyed it a lot. Give it a read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Stephanie
- 11-17-12
Richly Layered
This is a book that can be enjoyed on so many levels. The writing is first rate and the narrator couldn't be more perfect for the story. It is a pretty decent noir-type crime story but succeeds the most as a rich character study of a flawed man.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
19 people found this helpful