River of Heaven: A Novel
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River of Heaven: A Novel Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Lee Martin (Author), Arthur Morey (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 38 ratings
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“You have to know the rest of my story, the part I can’t yet bring myself to say. A story of a boy I knew a long time ago and a brother I loved and then lost.”

Past and present collide in Lee Martin’s highly anticipated novel of a man, his brother, and the dark secret that both connects and divides them. Haunting and beautifully wrought, River of Heaven weaves a story of love and loss, confession and redemption, and the mystery buried with a boy named Dewey Finn.

On an April evening in 1955, Dewey died on the railroad tracks outside Mt. Gilead, Illinois, and the mystery of his death still confounds the people of this small town. River of Heaven begins some fifty years later and centers on the story of Dewey’s boyhood friend Sam Brady, whose solitary adult life is much formed by what really went on in the days leading up to that evening at the tracks. It’s a story he’d do anything to keep from telling, but when his brother, Cal, returns to Mt. Gilead after decades of self-exile, it threatens to come to the surface.

A Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Bright Forever, Lee Martin masterfully conveys, with a voice that is at once distinct and lyrical, one man’s struggle to come to terms with the outcome of his life. Powerful and captivating, River of Heaven is about the high cost of living a lie, the chains that bind us to our past, and the obligations we have to those we love.

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  1. Listening Length
    8 hours and 57 minutes
  2. Author
    Lee Martin
  3. Narrator
    Arthur Morey
  4. Audible release date
    September 4, 2008
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B001FVJIU6
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 8 hours and 57 minutes
Author Lee Martin
Narrator Arthur Morey
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date September 04, 2008
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B001FVJIU6
Best Sellers Rank #500,708 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#498 in LGBTQ+ Mysteries
#2,797 in LGBTQ+ Mystery (Books)
#3,175 in LGBTQ+ Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
38 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Joe Oestreich
5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautifully Written Page-Turner
Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2008
Verified Purchase
In River of Heaven, author Lee Martin visits a boatload of trouble upon Sam Brady, the focal character:

1. The weight of a childhood secret
2. A lonely life as a closeted homosexual in a small, Midwestern town
3. A scheming brother who is vaguely associated with domestic terrorists and their plan to take down the Sears Tower

In lesser hands these threads would unravel, but Martin gives us a novel that's tightly plotted--every twist both surprising and inevitable given what we know of the characters and their desires and disappointments. Yes Sam's story is sweeping and out of proportion to his seemingly quiet and unassuming life. But Martin, like his narrator Sam, knows that it's usually the small things--a dropped penny here, a newspaper photo there--that lead to trouble writ large.

Martin's sentences are as beautiful as his plot is well-crafted (e.g. "Times like these, I try harder than ever to believe there's a kinder world going on somewhere else beyond this one, and, if there really is, we'll all find it one day."). His mastery of small town (and 1950s) vernacular is worth the price of the book. And, even amid such high drama, his characters are just as flawed and feeble as, in Sam's words, "the crumbled up folks we are when we're alone with ourselves." All told, River of Heaven is the best boys-on-railroad-tracks fiction since Stephen King's novella, The Body.

Buy this book.
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Monique L
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2014
I thoroughly enjoyed it. Very thought provoking in parts, especially towards the end.
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seerjeani27
5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful touching story
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2012
Verified Purchase
I love the story of this man who lived inside himself just marking time until he's forced to look up and interact with life...As always Lee has created incredible depth with his characters and their emotions and the changes they experience...I have read most of Lee Martin's books and have never been disappointed. His vivid descriptions put the reader right into the story...Can't wait to read more!! Thanks Lee!!!
One person found this helpful
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Curt Falls
5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2014
Verified Purchase
One of my favorite authors!! His stories always pull me in & I can't put them down! I highly recommend!
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Armchair Interviews
5.0 out of 5 stars A sweet and tragic story, well-told
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2008
Sam Brady has hidden from life and merely observed the passing of the world. The world and his past are about to come find him. All because of a silly doghouse.

Sam's only real companions in recent memory have been his succession of dogs. Sam decides to build Stump, his current hound, a doghouse that looks like a ship. Arthur, his widowed neighbor and an ex-Navy man, feels the need to contribute his expertise. Soon the two are almost friends.

Enter Duncan Hines, a newspaper reporter who does a human interest story on Stump's ship. Duncan mentions that he's a relative of Dewey Finn. Dewey Finn who died on the railroad tracks in 1955. Dewey Finn, the only person in the world, besides his brother Cal, that Sam ever really felt close too. Just the mention of that name sets Sam's present on a collision course with his past.

The more actively Sam participates in his present, the closer the past comes. Between the appearance of Arthur's granddaughter and the reemergence of old acquaintances, life won't seem to let Sam slip away unnoticed anymore. When Cal returns for the first time in a very long time, it becomes inevitable that the truth will have to come out about that long-ago day. Truths from then and now will have to be faced, before they destroy everyone.

Sam's often meandering tale comes out in bits and pieces. The past and the present are woven together in a beautiful way-a way that keeps you curious and anticipating, while easing you into a complete understanding of Sam Brady. By the end of the novel, Sam's pain, his loss, his torture, and even his hope are all very real.

This is a simple, sweet, tragic story of how hiding from life doesn't keep you safe, and the evils of the past don't always like to stay there. It broke my heart and made me smile.

Armchair Interviews says: That's high praise for a good storyteller.
5 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars engaging thriller
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2008
In Michigan Arthur Pope is stunned when his "first mate" Bess dies leaving him alone. Still gregarious, Arthur crashes into the life of his sexagenarian gay neighbor, reclusive Sammy Brady who lives quietly with Stump, his basset hound. Arthur persuades Sammy that they need to build a special doghouse for Stump. He designs the canine abode to look like a ship as would be expected by a former navy officer.

When the Daily Mail learns of the odd shaped doghouse, they send human interest reporter Duncan Hines to interview Sammy, Stump and Arthur. However, Duncan is related to Dewey Finn, Sammy's childhood friend from Rat Town, who inexplicably died on a railroad track five decades ago near Mt. Gilead, Illinois; Sammy knows what happened but kept it secret. Sammy's estranged brother Cal arrives to hide an antique from a vicious collector as does Arthur's granddaughter Maddie at a time the local militia has an interest in both men.

RIVER OF HEAVEN is an engaging thriller that starts off innocent enough as two elderly men build a special doghouse for Seaman Stump, but begins a series of complicated twists starting with the arrival of Duncan. The spins add suspense and tension, but with so many it can be difficult to keep track as fifty years come full circle. Still fans will enjoy this rich tale in which Sammy never recovered from the secret of what did occur back in 1955 that he promised Cal he would maintain forever.

Harriet Klausner
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Mary E. Krauski
5.0 out of 5 stars mostly a character study about a 65 year old gay man. Very well done.
Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2016
I listened to this book being read by Arthur Morey. I just thought it was a beautiful and interesting book. I could really picture the characters and it held my interest from start to finish.
I know there will be people who will say it bored them. Someone always seems to say that. but I had great sympathy for the central character.
and I really wanted to know what happened that night at the railroad track.
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Becky
3.0 out of 5 stars Book Club Read
Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2013
Verified Purchase
Our book club read this book, it prompted lots of discussion. Not a book I would pick myself to read but was interesting for a group discussion.
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