The Father's Tale

A Novel

By: Michael O'Brien

Narrated by: Kevin O'Brien

Canadian bookseller Alex Graham is a middle-age widower whose quiet life is turned upside down when his college-age son disappears without any explanation or trace of where he has gone. With minimal resources, the father begins a long journey that takes him away from his safe and orderly world for the first time.

As he stumbles across the merest thread of a trail, he follows it in blind desperation, and is led step by step on an odyssey that takes him to fascinating places and, sometimes, to frightening people and perils.

Through the uncertainty and the anguish, the loss and the longing, Graham is pulled into conflicts between nations, as well as the eternal conflict between good and evil. Stretched nearly to the breaking point by the inexplicable suffering he witnesses and experiences, he discovers unexpected sources of strength as he presses onward in the hope of recovering his son—and himself.

©2011 Ignatius Press (P)2023 Ignatius Press

Deeply thought provoking

Considering that the novel is over 30 hours long, beginning it gave me some trepidation. If it wasn't on our Well Read Mom reading list I never would've attempted it so thanks goes to them.
This book was amazing. There were so many parts where I was overwhelmed with swirling thoughts and had to stop the reading to marinate in it. The lessons that Alexander learned on his journey will resonate with me for years.
I look forward to reading other works from this author. He is truly gifted!

What an incredible story. What an interesting narrator.

The choice of different voices was so strange, it was difficult to get through at times.

Decent book, but worst narrator ever

I listen to about two audiobooks a month and I never write reviews, but I feel compelled to write one about The Father's Tale simply for its narrator. He is without a doubt the worst narrator I have ever had the displeasure to listen to. As others have noted, the voices he uses for characters' dialogue are either utterly absurd, half-screamed, or both. (The Muppet analogy mentioned in other reviews is spot-on.) I am shocked that his performance was approved by any producer/director, as it is embarrassingly unlistenable.

Because of this, I ended up purchasing the book on Kindle and reading quite a bit of it, rather than listening. It definitely contains some deep Christian themes, which I appreciated. I enjoyed the setting of Siberia, too, since it's not a place that shows up very often in fiction.

However, the plot is very disjointed and the book is far too long. (I'm an editor and I would have cut it down by half, if not more.) The last 100 pages or so are also not very believable. All in all, it might be worth reading if you have a particular interest in Russian culture, but I wouldn't recommend it otherwise.

Long

Very long but had some beautiful moments. The performance was so quiet at times I couldn’t hear and the voices of some of the characters didn’t sound human. Some were good but many were awful

Extremely detailed

Wonderfully written. The author did his assignment wi the so many beautiful details. It’s a bit long but complete worth it.