Answered Prayers

By: Truman Capote

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne

Although Truman Capote's last novel was unfinished at the time of his death, its surviving portions offer a devastating group portrait of the high and low society of his time. • Includes the story La Cote Basque featured in the major FX series Feud: Capote Vs. the Swans.

"Prose that makes the heart sing and the narrative fly." —The New York Times Book Review

Tracing the career of a writer of uncertain parentage and omnivorous erotic tastes, Answered Prayers careens from a louche bar in Tangiers to a banquette at La Côte Basque, from literary salons to high-priced whorehouses. It takes in calculating beauties and sadistic husbands along with such real-life supporting characters as Colette, the Duchess of Windsor, Montgomery Clift, and Tallulah Bankhead. Above all, this malevolently funny book displays Capote at his most relentlessly observant and murderously witty.

Critic reviews

"A gift from an unbridled genius. Exciting ... irresistible ... should be cherished as top-flight work from a master." —Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Prose that makes the heart sing and the narrative fly... inspired." —The New York Times Book Review

Is truth and illusion, or is illusion truth, or are they essentially the same?

I thought this production was very well done. The stories were better written than I had remembered, and the narration was outstanding. In fact, this may have been one of the best narrated books I have ever listened to. It’s definitely not something that everyone will enjoy but if you are a fan of Truman Capote, or a fan of short stories in general, I highly recommend this.

Hard to follow

I was really looking forward to this, as I love this era and his writing, but it was hard to follow, and it's awkwardly censored.

Warning: Audible has heavily censored this book.

There are BLEEPS throughout this book, places in the recording where Audible has censored ‘naughty’ words and phrases that it doesn’t want us full-grown adults to hear. This BLEEPing-out even includes whole sentences! Some of these BLEEPS are apparently the N-slur that we daily hear uncensored in every other rap song. And yet Audible thinks it’s perfectly fine for us to hear other slurs like ‘queer’ and ‘Mick (Irish) which are UN-censored here. If you want this book, don’t buy it here on Audible — unless you want to be treated like a delicate child, and have parts of the book removed ‘for your protection’.

This audio book is censored

Truman Capote used words carefully even in his later works. Apparently Audible doesn't agree and has issued a censored version of "Answered Prayers". Most readers and listeners know why Capote chose to use words that are offensive. But the Adults at Audible not only ignore the literary use of derogatory words but bleep them out with loud disruptive sounds. If Audible wants to claim it is only offering an already censored audio book then tell us so in the description!

Really? I paid for this?

A book about sex! I was hoping it was a funny book as I did laugh early in it. Then it turned into nothing but sex and body parts. Buyers remorse! What a waste of time and money!