Shop Our Mother's Day Collection Explore Now

I Thought My Father Was God: And Other True Tales from NPR's National Story Project

Add to Wishlist

I Thought My Father Was God: And Other True Tales from NPR's National Story Project

Audio CD(Abridged)

$34.95

View All Available Formats & Editions

Audio CD(Abridged)
$34.95

View All Available Formats & Editions

SHIP THIS ITEM

Temporarily Out of Stock Online
PICK UP IN STORE
Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Available within 2 business hours

Want it Today?
Check Store Availability

Related collections and offers

Overview

One of America's foremost writers collects the best stories submitted to NPR's National Story Project — and illuminates the powerful role of storytelling in all our lives.

When Paul Auster was asked to join NPR's Weekend All Things Considered program to tell stories, he turned the proposition on its head: he would let the stories come to him. He invited listeners to submit brief, true-life anecdotes about events that touched their lives.

And so the National Story Project was born. It was one of NPR's most popular features. The response was so overwhelming, with more than 4,000 stories submitted that Auster decided to cull the top works and make them available in a book — and now this CD collection. His selections — hilarious blunders, wrenching coincidences, brushes with death, miraculous encounters, improbable ironies — come from people of all ages and walks of life.

This one-of-a-kind collection is a testament to the power of storytelling that offers a glimpse into the American soul. By turns poignant, nostalgic, funny, and strange, it is an audiobook to be treasured and shared for years to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060874117
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	09/06/2005
Edition description:	Abridged
Pages:	8
Product dimensions:	5.26(w) x 5.68(h) x 1.03(d)

About the Author

Paul Auster is the bestselling author of Oracle Night, The Book of Illusions, and Timbuktu. I Thought My Father Was God, the NPR National Story Project anthology, which he edited, was also a national bestseller. His work has been translated into thirty languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Hometown:

Brooklyn, New York

Date of Birth:

February 3, 1947

Place of Birth:

Newark, New Jersey

Education:

B.A., M.A., Columbia University, 1970

Read an Excerpt

I told the listeners that I was looking for stories. The stories had to be true, and they had to be short, but there would be no restrictions as to subject matter or style. What interested me most, I said, were stories that defied our expectations of the world, anecdotes that revealed the mysterious and unknowable forces at work in our lives, in our family histories, in our minds and bodies, in our souls . . . I was hoping to put together an archive of facts, a museum of American reality.

More than ever, I have come to appreciate how deeply and passionately most of us live within ourselves. Our attachments are ferocious. Our loves overwhelm us, define us, obliterate the boundaries between ourselves and others. —from the Prologue

So there was Mr. Bernhauser yelling at us to get the hell out of his tree, and my father asked him what the problem was. Mr. Bernhauser took a deep breath and launched into a diatribe about thieving kids, breakers of rules, takers of fruit, and monsters in general. I guess my father had had enough, for the next thing he did was shout at Mr. Bernhauser and tell him to drop dead. Mr. Bernhauser stopped screaming, looked at my father, turned bright red, then purple, grabbed his chest, turned gray, and slowly folded to the ground. I thought my father was God. That he could yell at a miserable old man and make him die on command was beyond my comprehension. —Robert Winnie Bonners Ferry, Idaho

	Introduction	xv
	Animals
	The Chicken	3
	Rascal	4
	The Yellow Butterfly	6
	Python	7
	Pooh	9
	New York Stray	11
	Pork Chop	12
	B	14
	Two Loves	16
	Rabbit Story	17
	Carolina	19
	Andy and the Snake	21
	Blue Skies	24
	Exposure	25
	Vertigo	27
	Objects
	Star and Chain	33
	Radio Gypsy	34
	A Bicycle Story	36
	Grandmother's China	39
	The Bass	41
	Mother's Watch	44
	Case Closed	46
	The Photo	47
	MS. Found in an Attic	49
	Tempo Primo	50
	A Lesson Not Learned	52
	A Family Christmas	54
	My Rocking Chair	55
	The Unicycle	57
	Moccasins	59
	The Striped Pen	61
	The Doll	63
	The Videotape	66
	The Purse	68
	A Gift of Gold	70
	Families
	Rainout	75
	Isolation	76
	Connections	78
	The Wednesday Before Christmas	80
	How My Father Lost His Job	82
	Danny Kowalski	85
	Revenge	87
	Chris	89
	Put Your Little Foot	92
	Aunt Myrtle	95
	American Odyssey	97
	A Plate of Peas	99
	Wash Guilt	101
	Double Sadness	103
	A Picture of Life	106
	Margie	109
	One Thousand Dollars	111
	Taking Leave	114
	Act of Memory	120
	Slapstick
	Bicoastal	125
	A Felt Fedora	126
	Man vs. Coat	127
	That's Entertainment	128
	The Cake	129
	Riding with Andy	131
	Sophisticated Lady	132
	My First Day in Priest Clothes	133
	Jewish Cowboy	134
	How to Win Friends and Influence People	135
	Your Father Has the Hay Fever	136
	Lee Ann and Holly Ann	139
	Why I Am Antifur	140
	Airport Story	142
	Tears and Flapdoodle	144
	The Club Car	146
	Bronx Cheer	148
	One Day in Higley	150
	Strangers
	Dancing on Seventy-fourth Street	153
	A Conversation with Bill	154
	Greyhounding	156
	A Little Story about New York	159
	My Mistake	162
	No Forwarding Address	164
	The New Girl	165
	The Iceman of Market Street	168
	Me and the Babe	171
	Lives of the Poets	172
	Land of the Lost	173
	Rainbow	175
	Rescued by God	177
	My Story	179
	Small World	183
	Christmas Morning, 1949	186
	Brooklyn Roberts	188
	$1,380 per Night, Double Occupancy	190
	A Shot in the Light	195
	Snow	202
	War
	The Fastest Man in the Union Army	207
	Christmas, 1862	208
	Mount Grappa	210
	Savenay	212
	Fifty Years Later	213
	He Was the Same Age as My Sister	214
	Betting on Uncle Louie	216
	The Ten-Goal Player	218
	The Last Hand	220
	August 1945	222
	One Autumn Afternoon	224
	I Thought My Father Was God	226
	The Celebration	228
	Christmas, 1945	230
	A Trunk Full of Memories	232
	A Walk in the Sun	235
	A Shot in the Dark	237
	Confessions of a Mouseketeer	239
	Forever	241
	Utah, 1975	243
	Love
	What If?	247
	The Mysteries of Tortellini	249
	An Involuntary Assistant	251
	The Plot	253
	Mathematical Aphrodisiac	255
	Table for Two	257
	Suzy's Choosy	259
	Top Button	260
	Lace Gloves	262
	Susan's Greetings	263
	Edith	264
	Souls Fly Away	267
	Awaiting Delivery	269
	The Day Paul and I Flew the Kite	270
	A Lesson in Love	272
	Ballerina	274
	The Fortune Cookie	276
	Death
	Ashes	279
	Harrisburg	281
	Something to Think About	283
	Good Night	285
	Charlie the Tree Killer	287
	Dead Man's Bluff	288
	My Best Friend	290
	I Didn't Know	291
	Cardiac Arrests	293
	Grandmother's Funeral	294
	High Street	296
	A Failed Execution	297
	The Ghost	299
	Heart Surgery	301
	The Crying Place	302
	Lee	303
	South Dakota	305
	Connecting with Phil	308
	The Letter	310
	Dress Rehearsal	312
	The Anonymous Deciding Factor	315
	Dreams
	4:05 a.m.	319
	In the Middle of the Night	320
	Blood	321
	T321 Interpretation of Dreams	322
	Half-Ball	323
	Friday Night	325
	Farrell	327
	Jill	329
	D-day	330
	The Wall	331
	Heaven	333
	My Father's Dream	335
	Parallel Lives	337
	Anna May	340
	Long Time Gone	342
	Meditations
	Sewing Lessons	347
	Sunday Drive	350
	Mayonnaise Sandwiches	354
	Seaside	355
	After a Long Winter	358
	Martini with a Twist	359
	Nowhere	362
	Where in the World Is Era Rose Rodosta?	363
	Peter	365
	Early Arithmetic	368
	Reflections on a Hubcap	371
	Homeless in Prescott, Arizona	373
	Being There	376
	An Average Sadness	378
	Index of Authors	381

From the B&N Reads Blog

Page 1 of

Editorial Reviews

Famed author Paul Auster presents 180 of the "true tales" from National Public Radio's monthly National Story Project series. The vividly personal biographies come from men and women of every conceivable background and cover more than 40 U.S. states. The accounts are short but powerful; they include everything from amusing misunderstandings to heartbreakingly tragic moments. The result is nothing less than what Auster himself describes as "an archive of facts, a museum of American reality."

bn.com

This is a moving collection of stories that realizes the audio format's best possibilities. Culled from a collaboration between novelist Auster (Leviathan) and National Public Radio's All Things Considered, these slices of the American experience are real-life tales from people all over the country on a range of subjects. Since Auster himself selected the stories, it's no surprise that they echo his own approach while reading them: comfortable and emotive, with dexterous use of the power of understatement. Auster's tone is engaging, if a bit mellow, but what comes across more than anything is his genuine concern for the stories themselves and his belief in their merits. He keeps his dramatization to a minimum in order to let those merits shine through, and the recording is sure to leave listeners alternately smiling, nostalgic or melancholic. Even if a particular piece doesn't strike a chord, listeners won't be disappointed for long, as one of the production's finer points is its variety. Each tale lasts only a few minutes, but many of the images linger much longer. And because the stories were originally intended for radio, this is one instance where the audio is preferred over the print version. Based on the Holt hardcover (Forecasts, June 4, 2001). (Sept.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

In 2001, when NPR asked Auster to become a regular storyteller on Weekend All Things Considered, he wasn't interested. Then his wife suggested that he ask people to send him their stories to read on the air, and a few months later the National Story Project with was born. From some 4000 stories, Auster has selected 179, grouping them in loose categories: animals, objects, families, slapstick, strangers, war, love, death, dreams, and meditations. All are short, all are true, and they can be sad, hilarious, or both at the same time. In the title piece, Robert Winnie's father tells someone to drop dead and he does! In another, a grandson who has made his grandmother furious hears his grandfather tell him, "You are my revenge." Others tell of impossible coincidences, difficult lives, and wonderful comebacks. As this collection ably proves, we all shape experience into stories, and Auster has done a storyteller's job himself of grouping the pieces effectively. Highly recommended for public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/01.] Mary Paumier Jones, Westminster P.L., Westminster, CO Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Adult/High School-Auster was on the verge of saying no to an offer to tell his own stories on the air when a chance remark by his wife changed the complexion and ultimately the direction of a National Public Radio project. She suggested that listeners be invited to make submissions. With that, the remarkable National Story Project was born. The rules were relatively simple; the stories had to be true and they had to be short. Four thousand people sent in their work. After just a few months, it became evident to Auster that too many good stories were coming in and that a book would be necessary to do justice to the project. He chose what he considered to be the best-179 pieces, written by individuals ranging in age from 20 to 90, from all walks of life, and touching on everything from the amazing to the poignant. Readers will turn pages to see if the next story is just as memorable as the one before, and it is. This is a wonderful book about some incredible people, to enjoy and to share with others.-Peggy Bercher, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

A collection of vignettes from the American stew pot, written for broadcast on National Public Radio by men and women from every racial, cultural, and economic stratum. Auster, who proposed the National Story Project in 1999 and has been reading the results on NPR ever since, has received more than 4,000 submissions since the project began. He culled 179 of them for this volume, few more than two or three pages long, some as brief as half a page. Placing no limits on subject matter, Auster asked his listeners only for anecdotes that "revealed the mysterious and unknowable forces at work in our lives." What he got were tales ranging from spectral apparitions in the bedroom to painful custody trials, with a preponderant emphasis on childhood memories. The collection he shaped from this material encompasses the comic and the tragic, the absurd and the surreal, the mundane and the ethereal. The title story, for instance, recounts a bizarre incident from the writer's youth, when his father in a burst of justifiable irritation told a cranky neighbor to "drop dead"-and the neighbor did. "The Chicken," which opens the collection, is a provocative six-sentence tale about a bird's adventure on the streets of Portland, Oregon. The volume is divided somewhat arbitrarily into 10 chapters, beginning with "Animals" and concluding with "Meditations"; "War," "Death," "Love," and "Slapstick" fall in between. The prose can be awkward, pretentious, or occasionally elegant, but for the most part it's simple and direct. "A Shot in the Light," for instance, relates the story of a man who was shot four times by a stranded motorist he had befriended. Victim and shooter survive, and the piece shows forgivenesson both sides, but the author makes no attempt to relate the incident to larger religious or political themes. Bedside fodder for general readers and a bonanza for fiction writers looking for core stories to launch a novel. Author tour

Kirkus Reviews

A powerful book, one in which strangers share with you their darkest secrets, their happiest memories, their fears, their regrets. To read these essays is to look into hearts, to see life from other viewpoints, to live vicariously.” —The Boston Globe

“Unforgettable testimonials of human resilience. Moving and amusing dispatches from across America.” —Us Weekly (starred review)

“Human foibles and frailties, laughter and tears...We are all hearing—and telling—stories all the time, especially now, in these days when life itself seems so fragile and precious. But Paul Auster's wonderful efforts, choosing these fine stories, have given us a timely and invaluable reminder of what it means to listen—to really listen—to America talking.” —The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)

“Finally, a bathroom book worthy of Pulitzer consideration: the one-to-three-page stories gathered in this astonishing, addictive collection are absolute gems.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“It is difficult to think of another book published this year, and probably any book to be published next year, that is so simple and so obvious, so excellent in intention and so elegant in its execution, and which displays such wisdom and such knowledge of human life in all its varieties. It is also difficult to think of a book that is so stark a reminder that human experience can be horrid and utterly unbelievable, and which therefore answers so precisely to our current needs and circumstances.” —The Guardian (UK)

“As this collection ably proves, we all shape experience into stories, and Auster has done a storyteller's job himself of grouping these pieces effectively. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal (starred review)

“Like no other book I have read in years, this one restored my belief in Americans and the American experience.” —Philip Levine, Ploughshares

From the Publisher

A wonderful story collection...and something that would make a great gift for the holidays.

Sunday Oklahoman

I Thought My Father Was God: And Other True Tales from NPR's National Story Project

I Thought My Father Was God: And Other True Tales from NPR's National Story Project

Audio CD(Abridged)

Audio CD(Abridged)

Related collections and offers

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Read an Excerpt

Table of Contents

Customer Reviews

Related collections and offers

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Read an Excerpt

Table of Contents

Related Subjects

Customer Reviews