
I Cheerfully Refuse
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Narrated by:
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David Aaron Baker
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By:
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Leif Enger
About this listen
A storyteller “of great humanity and huge heart” (Minneapolis Star Tribune), Leif Enger debuted in the literary world with Peace Like a River, which sold more than a million copies and captured audiences’ hearts around the globe. Now comes a new milestone in this boldly imaginative author’s body of work.
Set in a not-too-distant America, I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of a bereaved and pursued musician embarking under sail on a sentient Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved, bookselling wife. Rainy, an endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs, and remote islands of the inland sea. Encountering lunatic storms and rising corpses from the warming depths, Rainy finds on land an increasingly desperate and illiterate people, a malignant billionaire ruling class, crumbled infrastructure, and a lawless society. Amid the Gulliver-like challenges of life at sea and no safe landings, Rainy is lifted by physical beauty, surprising humor, generous strangers, and an unexpected companion in a young girl who comes aboard. And as his innate guileless nature begins to make an inadvertent rebel of him, Rainy’s private quest for the love of his life grows into something wider and wilder, sweeping up friends and foes alike in his strengthening wake.
I Cheerfully Refuse epitomizes the “musical, sometimes magical and deeply satisfying kind of storytelling” (Los Angeles Times) for which Leif Enger is cherished. A rollicking narrative in the most evocative of settings, this latest novel is a symphony against despair and a rallying cry for the future.
“A heart-racing ballad of escape, shot-through with villainy and dignity, humor and music. Like Mark Twain, Enger gives us a full accounting of the human soul, scene by scene, wave by wave.”—Josh Ritter, singer and author of The Great Glorious Goddamn of It All
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Story
Medea, daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis, longs for a different life. Since childhood, she has been separated from her sister, shunned by her mother, and beaten and tormented by her brother and father. All because Medea was born with a unique and seemingly dangerous talent: witchcraft. But when a dashing young hero, Jason, arrives to claim the famed Golden Fleece that her father fiercely protects, Medea sees her opportunity for escape.
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A complicated villain
- By Jazzy on 01-28-25
By: Rosie Hewlett
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The Enchanted Lies of Céleste Artois
- By: Ryan Graudin
- Narrated by: Marisa Calin
- Length: 19 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Once, Céleste Artois had dreams of being an artist. But when the creative elite of Paris dashed those plans, she turned her talents to forgery and cons. She and the Enchantresses—her two fellow thieves and best friends—see Paris as a rich hunting ground for marks. Yet even though their hideout in Peré Lachaise cemetery is bursting with francs, Céleste cannot rest. There is always more to take. And the blood she has begun to cough into her handkerchief means her time is running out. But everything changes when she encounters Rafe, a mysterious stranger who leads her to an enchanted salon.
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Delicious imaginings!
- By Eva on 10-27-24
By: Ryan Graudin
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The Spice Gate
- By: Prashanth Srivatsa
- Narrated by: Deepti Gupta
- Length: 17 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Relics of a mysterious god, the Spice Gates connect the eight far-flung kingdoms, each separated by a distinct spice and only accessible by those born with a special mark. This is not a caste of distinction, though, but one of subjugation: Spice Carriers suffer the lashes of their masters, the weight of the spices they bear on their backs, and the jolting pain of the Gates themselves.
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Beautiful reading of an epic story
- By Chelsea Baker on 10-05-24
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The Book That Wouldn't Burn
- By: Mark Lawrence
- Narrated by: Jessica Whittaker
- Length: 22 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The boy has lived his whole life trapped within a book-choked chamber older than empires and larger than cities. The girl has been plucked from the outskirts of civilization to be trained as a librarian, studying the mysteries of the great library at the heart of her kingdom. They were never supposed to meet. But in the library, they did. Their stories spiral around each other, across worlds and time. This is a tale of truth and lies and hearts, and the blurring of one into another.
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Keeps the reader guessing
- By Gr on 08-17-23
By: Mark Lawrence
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Happy Jack and the Scary-Ass Book of Doom
- Shadows Over Earth-That-Was, Book 1
- By: Rich Partain
- Narrated by: JP Adams
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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In the year 2475, the remnants of humanity have taken to the skies, inhabiting massive domed cities that hover five miles over the ruined ecological disaster of old Earth. The Powers That Be, in their infinite wisdom, decided that the few million people left deserved to live their best lives, so they gave each sub-orbital platform its own theme and legally enforced tech level.
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Endlessly juvenile LitRPGish, fanfic schticks
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 03-21-25
By: Rich Partain
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Rogue Community College
- A Liberty House Novel
- By: David R. Slayton
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Isaac Frost is an assassin. Raised in the Graveyard of the cruel and mysterious Undertaker, he has mastered the deadly art of the knife and the skill of survival, together with scores of others just like him—young men taken from their families to become the most infamous killers throughout the realms of elves and humans. But Isaac is unique: a single drop of another’s blood can confer upon him the knowledge and power of friend and foe alike.
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A Strong Addition to the First Trilogy
- By User7190 on 10-21-24
By: David R. Slayton
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The Weaver and the Witch Queen
- By: Genevieve Gornichec
- Narrated by: Nina Yndis
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Oddny and Gunnhild meet as children in tenth century Norway, and they could not be more different: Oddny hopes for a quiet life, while Gunnhild burns for power and longs to escape her cruel mother. But after a visiting wisewoman makes an ominous prophecy that involves Oddny, her sister Signy, and Gunnhild, the three girls take a blood oath to help one another always. When Oddny’s farm is destroyed and Signy is kidnapped by Viking raiders, Oddny is set adrift from the life she imagined—but she's determined to save her sister no matter the cost.
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Loved it!
- By Emily Cross on 10-08-23
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The Warm Hands of Ghosts
- A Novel
- By: Katherine Arden
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch, January LaVoy, Katherine Arden
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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January 1918. Laura Iven was a revered field nurse until she was wounded and discharged from the medical corps, leaving behind a brother still fighting in Flanders. Now home in Halifax, Canada, Laura receives word of Freddie’s death in combat, along with his personal effects—but something doesn’t make sense. Determined to uncover the truth, Laura returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital, where she soon hears whispers about haunted trenches and a strange hotelier whose wine gives soldiers the gift of oblivion.
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WW 1 and the Apocolypse
- By Sam Pakan on 02-27-24
By: Katherine Arden
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Angels Before Man
- Angels, Book 1
- By: Rafael Nicolás
- Narrated by: Lance West
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In an eternal paradise, the most beautiful angel, Lucifer, struggles with shame, identity, and timidity, with little more than the desire to worship his creator. It isn't until the strongest angel, Michael, comes into his life that Lucifer learns to love himself. Along the way, their friendship begins to bloom into something else. Maybe the first romance in the history of everything. But this God is a jealous one, and maybe paradise is not paradise.
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Good Biblical story but drone on too much
- By DragonFox on 11-15-24
By: Rafael Nicolás
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The Dollmakers
- A Novel from the Fallen Peaks
- By: Lynn Buchanan
- Narrated by: Angela Dawe
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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In the country called One, dollmakers are vital members of the community. An artisan’s doll is the height of society’s accomplishments, while a guard’s doll is the only thing standing between the people of One and the Shod: vicious, cobbled monstrosities that will tear apart any structure—living or dead, inanimate or otherwise—to add to their horde. Apprentice Shean of Pearl is a brilliant dollmaker. With her clever dolls, she intends to outsmart and destroy the Shod, once and for all—a destiny she’s worked her whole life toward accomplishing.
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3.5 stars 🌟🌟🌟💫!
- By Gyan on 03-02-25
By: Lynn Buchanan
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Playground
- A Novel
- By: Richard Powers
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Robin Siegerman, Eunice Wong, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Four lives are drawn together in a sweeping, panoramic new novel from Richard Powers, showcasing the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Overstory at the height of his skills. Twelve-year-old Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs. Ina Aroita grows up in naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home. Two polar opposites at an elite Chicago high school bond over a three-thousand-year-old board game; Rafi Young will get lost in literature, while Todd Keane’s work will lead to a startling AI breakthrough.
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What a tremendous story
- By Deb Hatch on 11-08-24
By: Richard Powers
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The Destroyer of Worlds
- A Return to Lovecraft Country
- By: Matt Ruff
- Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Summer, 1957. Atticus Turner and his father, Montrose, travel to North Carolina to mark the centennial of their ancestor’s escape from slavery, but an encounter with an old nemesis leads to a life-and-death pursuit. Back in Chicago, George Berry is diagnosed with cancer and strikes a devil’s bargain with the ghost of Hiram Winthrop, who promises a miracle cure—but only if George brings Winthrop back from the dead.
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Matt Ruff!!!
- By ayodele higgs on 03-04-23
By: Matt Ruff
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Black Shield Maiden
- By: Willow Smith, Jess Hendel
- Narrated by: Willow Smith
- Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Lore, legend, and history tell us of the Vikings: warrior kings on epic journeys of conquest and plunder. But the stories we know are not the only stories to tell. There is another story, one that has been lost to the mists of time: the saga of the dark queen.
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Good Ideas
- By Dakoma White on 07-26-24
By: Willow Smith, and others
What listeners say about I Cheerfully Refuse
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- Sarah
- 06-22-24
Great epic sweet story
An apocalyptic journey told from the perspective of a gentle and kind Everyman. Has elements of cormac McCarthy and the Iliad and maybe a little mad max. Loved it
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8 people found this helpful
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- Karlee F.
- 10-21-24
Epic Moving Story
I am so thankful to have found Leif Enger - to have been willingly lost in this epic story - and to emerge wiser, and hopeful, and grateful for the good we have and the need to tend to that good.
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- Ralphwaldoe
- 03-25-25
Slow Stead Burn
This book is a slow, but steady pace for a book. I listened at 1.9x speed and that kept it moving for me. Any slower and I might have lost interest. The characters are steady also, nothing wild, but solid characters.
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- AmmPnW
- 06-07-24
A great book
Part Orpheus, Odysseus, Aeneas and Dante with Don Quixote. This book is a robust ode to a life jolly, cantankerous and free. It is a call to grow, to love truth and to love it with mercy, grace and cheer. A story of beauty. Unless you’ve fully realized a sense of home, acceptance, truth, joy and forgiveness, you should read this book
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4 people found this helpful
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- Wilson
- 07-19-24
Never a dull moment!
I truly enjoyed this book in a way many have not taken me. The Narrator was perfect. He filled the story telling even beyond the written words. He added just enough emotion to allow the listener to be in the moment along with him without whining or over acting. Well done to both writer and narrator!
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4 people found this helpful
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- Emily W
- 04-19-24
Dystopia rust belt odyssey
This story felt like a take on The Odyssey with all the strange characters along the way of a sea journey. It is grim and dark for sure- as some readers have noted, but this is dystopic fiction, although in this case it was more dystopian literature which made it a winner to me.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Paul
- 05-17-24
Delight unfurling
I’ve listened twice through already. Another gem from one of the best. Long may he write.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Jon
- 01-08-25
The best!
I truly think he is one of the best writers of our time. I’ve enjoyed everything he’s written, including this book. The performance was excellent as well.
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- David R. Shockey
- 09-07-24
Post Apocalyptic Yet Beautiful
Loved this book, gripping, engaging, beautiful and tragic. Interesting take on what post decline America might be through the captivating lens of Enger’s Superior.
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1 person found this helpful
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- earendil
- 08-03-24
Very well written
Great book, great characters, very well written, and great narration. Definitely worth a listen. well done!
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1 person found this helpful