
Stella Maris
And Other Key West Stories
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 $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Michael Carroll
-
By:
-
Michael Carroll
About this listen
When Cuban fisherman first spotted the Key West lighthouse floating in Florida waters, they called her Stella Maris, Star of the Sea. It’s a beacon that draws people from everywhere seeking the end-of-the-line bohemian oasis that can still be found amidst the condo share towers, chain stores, and Redneck Riviera clientele. And it’s a mecca for gay men and the women who love them. Sue Kaufman Prize-winning author Michael Carroll knows the territory intimately. His stories wind in and out of the bars and guesthouses and lives of this singular paradise: a memorial for a drag queen held at the vicar’s Victorian leads to uneasy encounters; two southern sisters on a cruise ship holiday are up against the ravages of alcohol, estrangement, and deadly weather. Newly divorced gay men (already a phenomenon) lick their wounds and bask in the island’s lasting social twilight. At the all-male, clothing-optional resort, guys of all ages fall into one another’s paths, enjoy themselves as they please, and surprise one another on their views and preconceptions.
Stella Maris is about the verities of illness and death. The past and its prisoners, AIDS, the young and not so young man’s realization of his own mortality. It’s about the unpredictable nature of life, and of survival. It’s about new beginnings and final recognitions.
©2019 Michael Carroll (P)2021 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
My Policeman
- A Novel
- By: Bethan Roberts
- Narrated by: Piers Hampton, Emma Powell
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is in 1950s Brighton that Marion first catches sight of Tom. He teaches her to swim, gently guiding her through the water in the shadow of the city's famous pier, and Marion is smitten - determined her love alone will be enough for them both. A few years later, near the Brighton Museum, Patrick meets Tom. Patrick is besotted, and opens Tom's eyes to a glamorous, sophisticated new world of art, travel, and beauty. The two lovers must share him, until one of them breaks and three lives are destroyed.
-
-
Just beautiful
- By Leighann Litcher on 09-19-22
By: Bethan Roberts
-
Blackouts
- A Novel
- By: Justin Torres
- Narrated by: Ozzie Rodriguez, Torian Brackett
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Out in the desert in a place called the Palace, a young man tends to a dying soul, someone he once knew briefly, but who has haunted the edges of his life. Juan Gay—playful raconteur, child lost and found and lost, guardian of the institutionalized—has a project to pass along. It is inspired by a true artifact of a book, Sex Variants: A Study in Homosexual Patterns, which contains stories collected in the early twentieth century from queer subjects by a queer researcher, Jan Gay, whose groundbreaking work was then co-opted by a committee, her name buried.
-
-
meh
- By Thomas E Flint on 10-28-24
By: Justin Torres
-
Unraveling
- By: Rick R. Reed
- Narrated by: David Allen Vargo
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Randy Kay has the perfect life with his beautiful wife and adorable son. But Randy's living a lie, untrue to himself and everyone who knows him. He's gay. Marriage and fatherhood, which he thought could change him, have failed. He doubts if anyone can love him for who he really is--especially himself.
-
-
Let me tell you why I loved this book...
- By Frank Benns on 12-27-22
By: Rick R. Reed
-
100 Boyfriends
- By: Brontez Purnell
- Narrated by: Brontez Purnell
- Length: 4 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Transgressive, foulmouthed, and brutally funny, Brontez Purnell’s 100 Boyfriends is a revelatory spiral into the imperfect lives of queer men desperately fighting the urge to self-sabotage. As they tiptoe through minefields of romantic, substance-fueled misadventure - from dirty warehouses and gentrified bars in Oakland to desolate farm towns in Alabama - Purnell’s characters strive for belonging in a world that dismisses them for being Black, broke, and queer. In spite of it - or perhaps because of it - they shine.
-
-
Great story but omg
- By Angela Martinez on 06-24-22
By: Brontez Purnell
-
Punks
- New & Selected Poems
- By: John Keene
- Narrated by: John Keene
- Length: 3 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A landmark collection of poetry by acclaimed fiction writer, translator, and MacArthur Fellow John Keene, Punks: New Selected Poems is a generous treasury in seven sections that spans decades and includes previously unpublished and brand new work. With depth and breadth, Punks weaves together historic narratives of loss, lust, and love.
-
-
A Well-Deserved National Book Award Winner
- By Andre on 08-22-23
By: John Keene
-
Fire Island
- A Century in the Life of an American Paradise
- By: Jack Parlett
- Narrated by: Joe Jameson
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fire Island, a thin strip of beach off the Long Island coast, has long been a vital space in the queer history of America. Both utopian and exclusionary, healing and destructive, the island is a locus of contradictions, all of which coalesce against a stunning ocean backdrop. Now, poet and scholar Jack Parlett tells the story of this iconic destination—its history, its meaning and its cultural significance—told through the lens of the artists and creators who sought refuge on its shores.
-
-
Excellent
- By Jonathan Hurst on 08-16-23
By: Jack Parlett
-
My Policeman
- A Novel
- By: Bethan Roberts
- Narrated by: Piers Hampton, Emma Powell
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is in 1950s Brighton that Marion first catches sight of Tom. He teaches her to swim, gently guiding her through the water in the shadow of the city's famous pier, and Marion is smitten - determined her love alone will be enough for them both. A few years later, near the Brighton Museum, Patrick meets Tom. Patrick is besotted, and opens Tom's eyes to a glamorous, sophisticated new world of art, travel, and beauty. The two lovers must share him, until one of them breaks and three lives are destroyed.
-
-
Just beautiful
- By Leighann Litcher on 09-19-22
By: Bethan Roberts
-
Blackouts
- A Novel
- By: Justin Torres
- Narrated by: Ozzie Rodriguez, Torian Brackett
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Out in the desert in a place called the Palace, a young man tends to a dying soul, someone he once knew briefly, but who has haunted the edges of his life. Juan Gay—playful raconteur, child lost and found and lost, guardian of the institutionalized—has a project to pass along. It is inspired by a true artifact of a book, Sex Variants: A Study in Homosexual Patterns, which contains stories collected in the early twentieth century from queer subjects by a queer researcher, Jan Gay, whose groundbreaking work was then co-opted by a committee, her name buried.
-
-
meh
- By Thomas E Flint on 10-28-24
By: Justin Torres
-
Unraveling
- By: Rick R. Reed
- Narrated by: David Allen Vargo
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Randy Kay has the perfect life with his beautiful wife and adorable son. But Randy's living a lie, untrue to himself and everyone who knows him. He's gay. Marriage and fatherhood, which he thought could change him, have failed. He doubts if anyone can love him for who he really is--especially himself.
-
-
Let me tell you why I loved this book...
- By Frank Benns on 12-27-22
By: Rick R. Reed
-
100 Boyfriends
- By: Brontez Purnell
- Narrated by: Brontez Purnell
- Length: 4 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Transgressive, foulmouthed, and brutally funny, Brontez Purnell’s 100 Boyfriends is a revelatory spiral into the imperfect lives of queer men desperately fighting the urge to self-sabotage. As they tiptoe through minefields of romantic, substance-fueled misadventure - from dirty warehouses and gentrified bars in Oakland to desolate farm towns in Alabama - Purnell’s characters strive for belonging in a world that dismisses them for being Black, broke, and queer. In spite of it - or perhaps because of it - they shine.
-
-
Great story but omg
- By Angela Martinez on 06-24-22
By: Brontez Purnell
-
Punks
- New & Selected Poems
- By: John Keene
- Narrated by: John Keene
- Length: 3 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A landmark collection of poetry by acclaimed fiction writer, translator, and MacArthur Fellow John Keene, Punks: New Selected Poems is a generous treasury in seven sections that spans decades and includes previously unpublished and brand new work. With depth and breadth, Punks weaves together historic narratives of loss, lust, and love.
-
-
A Well-Deserved National Book Award Winner
- By Andre on 08-22-23
By: John Keene
-
Fire Island
- A Century in the Life of an American Paradise
- By: Jack Parlett
- Narrated by: Joe Jameson
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fire Island, a thin strip of beach off the Long Island coast, has long been a vital space in the queer history of America. Both utopian and exclusionary, healing and destructive, the island is a locus of contradictions, all of which coalesce against a stunning ocean backdrop. Now, poet and scholar Jack Parlett tells the story of this iconic destination—its history, its meaning and its cultural significance—told through the lens of the artists and creators who sought refuge on its shores.
-
-
Excellent
- By Jonathan Hurst on 08-16-23
By: Jack Parlett
-
My Government Means to Kill Me
- A Novel
- By: Rasheed Newson
- Narrated by: Jelani Alladin
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born into a wealthy Black Indianapolis family, Earl “Trey” Singleton III leaves his overbearing parents and their expectations behind by running away to New York City with only a few dollars in his pocket. Vibrant, humorous, and fraught with entanglements, Rasheed Newson’s My Government Means to Kill Me is an exhilarating, fast-paced coming-of-age story that lends itself to a larger discussion about what it means for a young gay Black man in the mid-1980s to come to terms with his role in the midst of a political and social reckoning.
-
-
Engrossing, fascinating and sexy listen
- By JMM1997 on 10-07-22
By: Rasheed Newson
-
The Best of Me
- By: David Sedaris
- Narrated by: David Sedaris
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For more than 25 years, David Sedaris has been carving out a unique literary space, virtually creating his own genre. A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is also highly attuned to the world outside. It opens our eyes to what is at absurd and moving about our daily existence. And it is almost impossible to listen without laughing.
-
-
Almost No New Material
- By Lizardectomy on 11-05-20
By: David Sedaris
-
The New Life
- A Novel
- By: Tom Crewe
- Narrated by: Freddie Fox
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1894, John Addington and Henry Ellis begin writing a book arguing that homosexuality, which is a crime at the time, is a natural, harmless variation of human sexuality. Though they have never met, John and Henry both live in London with their wives, Catherine and Edith, and in each marriage, there is a third party: John has a lover, a working-class man named Frank, and Edith spends almost as much time with her friend Angelica as she does with Henry.
-
-
Brilliant historical fiction
- By Shrewsie Shrew on 01-15-23
By: Tom Crewe
-
Chances Are...
- A Novel
- By: Richard Russo
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One beautiful September day, three men convene on Martha's Vineyard, friends ever since meeting in college circa the 60s. They couldn't have been more different then, or even today - Lincoln's a commercial real estate broker, Teddy a tiny-press publisher, and Mickey a musician beyond his rockin' age. But each man holds his own secrets, in addition to the monumental mystery that none of them has ever stopped puzzling over since a Memorial Day weekend right here on the Vineyard in 1971: the disappearance of the woman each of them loved - Jacy Calloway.
-
-
Incredibly Disappointing
- By Brent Duncan on 08-28-19
By: Richard Russo
-
28 Summers
- By: Elin Hilderbrand
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Mallory Blessing's son, Link, receives deathbed instructions from his mother to call a number on a slip of paper in her desk drawer, he's not sure what to expect. But he certainly does not expect Jake McCloud to answer. It's the late spring of 2020 and Jake's wife, Ursula DeGournsey, is the frontrunner in the upcoming Presidential election. There must be a mistake, Link thinks. How do Mallory and Jake know each other?
-
-
Loved this Book
- By Forrest on 06-18-20
By: Elin Hilderbrand
-
All Down Darkness Wide
- A Memoir
- By: Seán Hewitt
- Narrated by: Seán Hewitt
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Seán Hewitt meets Elias, the two fall headlong into a love story. But as Elias struggles with severe mental illness, they soon come face-to-face with crisis. All Down Darkness Wide is a perceptive and unflinching meditation on the burden of living in a world that too often sets happiness and queer life at odds, and a tender and honest portrayal of what it’s like to be caught in the undertow of a loved one’s deep depression. As lives are made and unmade, this memoir asks what love can endure and what it cannot.
-
-
The very deepest end of the pool
- By Gary Francis Burnham on 05-27-23
By: Seán Hewitt
-
Golden Girl
- By: Elin Hilderbrand
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a perfect June day, Vivian Howe, author of 13 beach novels and mother of three nearly grown children, is killed in a hit-and-run car accident while jogging near her home on Nantucket. She ascends to the Beyond where she's assigned to a Person named Martha, who allows Vivi to watch what happens below for one last summer. Vivi also is granted three “nudges” to change the outcome of events on earth.
-
-
Good read!
- By Rainy day lady on 06-05-21
By: Elin Hilderbrand
-
Three Women
- By: Lisa Taddeo
- Narrated by: Tara Lynne Barr, Marin Ireland, Mena Suvari, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In suburban Indiana we meet Lina, the homemaker and mother of two whose marriage, after a decade, has lost its passion. Starved for affection, Lina battles daily panic attacks and, after reconnecting with an old flame through social media, embarks on an affair that quickly becomes all-consuming. In North Dakota we meet Maggie, the 17-year-old high school student who allegedly has a clandestine physical relationship with her handsome, married English teacher; the ensuing criminal trial will turn their quiet community upside down.
-
-
Moving, literary nonfiction
- By Homer on 07-25-19
By: Lisa Taddeo
-
Life and Other Inconveniences
- By: Kristan Higgins
- Narrated by: Barbara Caruso, Dion Graham, Suzy Jackson, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Emma London never thought she had anything in common with her grandmother Genevieve London. The regal old woman came from wealthy and bluest-blood New England stock, but that didn't protect her from life's cruelest blows. Genevieve rose from the ashes of grief and built a fashion empire that was respected the world over, even when it meant neglecting her other son. When Emma's own mother died, her father abandoned her on his mother's doorstep. Genevieve took Emma in and reluctantly raised her - until Emma got pregnant her senior year of high school.
-
-
Another KH Winner
- By S. Plemmons on 08-23-19
By: Kristan Higgins
-
Riding the Elephant
- A Memoir of Altercations, Humiliations, Hallucinations, and Observations
- By: Craig Ferguson
- Narrated by: Craig Ferguson
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Craig Ferguson has defied the odds his entire life. He has failed when he should have succeeded and succeeded when he should have failed. The fact that he is neither dead nor in a locked facility (at the time of printing) is something of a miracle in itself. In Craig’s candid and revealing memoir, listeners will get a look into the mind and recollections of the unique and twisted Scottish American who became a national hero for pioneering the world’s first TV robot skeleton sidekick and reviving two dudes in a horse suit dancing as a form of entertainment.
-
-
Other drivers think I'm nuts...
- By LA Rider on 05-15-19
By: Craig Ferguson
-
Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory
- Stories
- By: Raphael Bob-Waksberg
- Narrated by: Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Full Cast, Nicholas Gonzalez, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the creator of the beloved and universally acclaimed television series BoJack Horseman, a fabulously off-beat collection of short stories about love - the best and worst thing in the universe. Equally at home with the surreal and the painfully relatable (and both at once), Bob-Waksberg delivers a killer combination of humor, romance, whimsy, cultural commentary, and crushing emotional vulnerability.
-
-
Breaks your heart in the best way just like bojack
- By Lauren C. on 06-24-19
-
A Beginner's Guide to Free Fall
- By: Andy Abramowitz
- Narrated by: Andy Abramowitz
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Davis Winger has it all. A respected engineer who designs roller coasters in theme parks across the country, he is deeply in love with his wife and has a beautiful young daughter and a happy home. Until an accident strikes on one of his rides. Nothing fatal - except to his career. And to his marriage, when a betrayal from his past inadvertently comes to light. In one cosmically bad day, Davis loses it all.
-
-
"I like roller coasters ..."
- By Stephen on 01-17-20
By: Andy Abramowitz
What listeners say about Stella Maris
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Patrick Ryan
- 06-25-21
Excellent collection, excellent audio performance
STELLA MARIS is a highly original, gritty, sexy, character-fueled short story collection. Michael Carroll sings on the page. He also performs the audio recording, and in that he sings the longing and lust and gristle and smoke and wit and anger and love and pain right into your ear. He's an original, and I can't wait for what he does next.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!