The Longest Night: A Novel
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The Longest Night: A Novel Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Andria Williams (Author), Rebecca Lowman (Narrator), Hillary Huber (Narrator),
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 577 ratings
Editors' pick Best Literature & Fiction
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A scintillating debut novel about a young couple whose marriage is tested when they move to an army base rife with love triangles, life-or-death conflicts, and a dramatic cover-up.

In 1959, Nat Collier moves with her husband, Paul, and their two young daughters to Idaho Falls, a remote military town. An Army Specialist, Paul is stationed there to help oversee one of the country’s first nuclear reactors—an assignment that seems full of opportunity. Then, on his rounds, Paul discovers that the reactor is compromised, placing his family and the entire community in danger. Worse, his superiors set out to cover up the problem rather than fix it. Paul can’t bring himself to tell Nat the truth, but his lies only widen a growing gulf between them. Lonely and restless, Nat is having trouble adjusting to their new life. She struggles to fit into her role as a housewife and longs for a real friend. When she meets a rancher, Esrom, she finds herself drawn to him, comforted by his kindness and company. But as rumors spread, the secrets between Nat and Paul build and threaten to reach a breaking point.

Based on a true story of the only fatal nuclear accident to occur in America, The Longest Night is a deeply moving novel that explores the intricate makeup of a marriage, the shifting nature of trust, and the ways we try to protect the ones we love.

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  1. Listening Length
    13 hours and 42 minutes
  2. Author
    Andria Williams
  3. Narrator
    Rebecca Lowman, see all
  4. Audible release date
    January 12, 2016
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B019NB6BVS
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 13 hours and 42 minutes
Author Andria Williams
Narrator Rebecca Lowman, Hillary Huber, MacLeod Andrews
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date January 12, 2016
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B019NB6BVS
Best Sellers Rank #355,417 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#11,408 in Women's Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)
#12,973 in Literary Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)
#20,554 in Historical Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
577 global ratings
Amazing book! Her descriptions
5 Stars
Amazing book! Her descriptions
Amazing book! Her descriptions, her comparisons, her accounts of military wife life, and how she breaks up her chapters like scenes from a sitcom are all amazing. I cannot wait to read this author's next piece of work. I highly recommend this book.
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Top reviews from the United States

Ralph Lawrence
4.0 out of 5 stars A Nuclear Powered Story!
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2017
Verified Purchase
Having just finished this book, I'll make this quick review: It is excellently done, an interesting read, and creates a realistic picture of the time and place around Idaho Falls, Idaho, when the SL-1 reactor (titled CR-1 in the story), a U.S. Army project, exploded and killed three men. I would give it a 5 star rating, but will make it 4 stars, as I will explain here. As it happened, I was living in Idaho Falls at the time of the SL-1 event, one of three such incidents world wide (Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl being the other more widely publicized occurrences.), and I personally knew some of the people who were involved in the follow-up investigations of the event. I did not know the Army personnel directly involved, but knew a number of other people who were employed in the nuclear research activity on the "site" (as it was called) on the desert west of Idaho Falls. I knew scientists directly involved in the follow-up investigations. I also was well aware of the life-style experienced by people of that time and place, a small slice of late 1950s, early 1960s Americana. Eastern Idaho was "behind the curve" sociologically at the time perhaps by some ten years (was this symbolized by the car in the story, a Dodge Wayfarer, a model built in the early 1950s?). That said, I would point out some variation that the book described inaccurately: Idaho Falls was not, and never was, an "Army town", and it was not quite the small town that was depicted. There were no U.S. Army barracks, training camps, U.S. Navy bases (it was in a desert, after all), etc. The author does indicate this on page 13, pointing out that there were some 30 reactors located all over a desert area of some 900 square miles. The nuclear test area was NOT a part of the Minidoka internment camp, as mentioned, inhabited by Japanese Americans during WW II. Minidoka was many miles to the southwest. The reactor on which Paul Collier worked was not "one of the country's first nuclear reactors" as the book jacket claims - the Idaho Falls site had built many reactors earlier, and the earliest one had actually, some 10 years earlier, produced electricity for a short time, for publicity purpose, for the town of Arco, Idaho. While not large in the big-city sense it was a well established city of some 32,000 population, with a quite large number of people employed by the many experimental reactors located across the vast sagebrush plain. There were many thriving churches (not mentioned at all, and a resource that Paul and Nat apparently did not utilize at the time. His lonely wife could have found understanding and supportive friends, if nothing else) of the main denominations, with the Mormon (Latter Day Saints) population being in the majority in eastern Idaho (about 85% I was told, in Idaho Falls proper). There were many nuclear physicists employed in the research activity. It was said at the time that Idaho Falls contained the largest concentration of atomic scientists in the world (I don't have statistics to prove this, but I did know a number of these PhD people on a personal basis). There was a large number of mechanical and similar engineers, and other lower ranking operative people at the various reactor locations, as well as people employed in administrative positions. I personally visited several of those reactors, with the exception of the ones restricted for governmental security reasons. The site was also the location of the original U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarine prototype (Admiral Rickover's project), where a large number of Navy personnel received training in preparation for their staffing of the world-traveling Navy submarine fleet. So, "small town", indeed! Idaho Falls was, and is, a "capital city" of a kind, when it comes to significant high technology research work. All of this being said, I commend author Andria Williams for the excellent job she achieved in telling this story. The technical items aside, it was well done, and I would look forward to another book by this author.
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Timothy J. Bazzett
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it. Nat Collier is a heroine that will break your heart.
Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2019
Verified Purchase
THE LONGEST NIGHT was a truly pleasant surprise. I wanted to read it for a couple of reasons. First, because it supposedly portrayed Army life in the early 60s. Which it sorta does, but not so much really. And second, because it was written by a military spouse, and my experience with those kinds of books have been mostly positive, and this book was certainly that, i.e. I loved it!

The army angle of this remarkable first novel is rather low key, perhaps because the protagonist, Paul Collier, is a soldier trained in maintaining nuclear reactors, a pretty rare and specialized job, especially in 1961; and he and his family were assigned to a small unit in the remote town of Idaho Falls, Idaho. Paul and his wife, Nat, are something of a mismatch, but they've been together through six years and two children. Paul's boss, a master sergeant, is a drunk and a letch, as well as dangerously incompetent. And the prototype reactor they maintain is, it turns out, in dangerous disrepair.

So all this stuff should make for a really exciting story, right? Well, yeah, and it DOES, actually. And Williams is very good at slowly building up steam, filling in her background and giving you several very well defined characters. But what really grabs you here is the love story - or stories - and how marriage actually worked back in those days. Natalie "Nat" Collier is a heroine who will nearly break your heart. She certainly did mine. When Paul is suddenly deployed for six months to Greenland, Nat, pregnant and lonely, turns to Esrom, a young Mormon cowboy and mechanic she meets. But it remains innocent, despite Nat 's budding feelings for Esrom. And I know, it sounds like the old "triangle," or the lonely army wife cheating on her deployed husband, but it's not. It's just NOT, okay? Because fortunately Esrom is an honorable young guy, and Nat really does love Paul, despite their differences - but she is just so damn LONELY, ya know? And he is so kind to her and the little girls, and . .. ah, it's hard to explain, and I feel like such a sap for loving this story so damn much, ya know? Because I know women readers will love it. DO love it, in fact. And it is a pretty accurate depiction of an Army marriage and an Army wife, especially from those years.

Here's a sample of Nat's confusion and frustration over her feelings towards Esrom -

"It was improper to be lonely; it was improper to be bored; it was improper, most of all, to be filled with anything like longing. And even if you were good and stayed in your house and loved your children and your husband - and yes, she did love her husband - people could sniff out this longing in you ... hissing 'That one, that one is not satisfied.' Because there was no cure for it, it was worse than any one thing you might actually do."

And Williams is equally perceptive in her portrayals of the male principals here too. Both Paul and Esrom come across as very believable, fully realized characters. Because THE LONGEST NIGHT, even with its slowly building plot line and shocking climactic scenes, is very much a character-driven novel, i.e. my kinda book.

It's worth a repeat, I think. I loved this book. I'll be watching to see what Andria Williams writes next. My highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the Cold War memoir, SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA
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Kindle Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars I would've liked to get to know the characters a little more
Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2016
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I thought the story was interesting and told very well. It fell short of a lot of drama. I would've liked to get to know the characters a little more.
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Top reviews from other countries

Shirley Misener
3.0 out of 5 stars Its Okay
Reviewed in Canada on February 29, 2016
Verified Purchase
I just found this book to be okay, it was interesting enough I expected more about the nuclear accident
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