Astray

By: Emma Donoghue

Narrated by: Dion Graham, James Langton, Khristine Hvam, Robert Petkoff, Suzanne Toren

This fascinating, fact-inspired fiction collection from Emma Donoghue, author of the bestselling Room, is a sequence of fourteen stories about travels to, in, and from North America.

With the turn of each page, the characters that roam across these pages go astray. They are emigrants, runaways, drifters; gold miners and counterfeiters, attorneys and slaves. They cross borders of race, law, sex, and sanity. They travel for love or money, under duress or incognito.

Donoghue describes the brutal plot hatched by a slave in conjunction with his master's wife to set them both free, and takes us to an early Puritan community in Massachusetts unsettled by an invented sex scandal. Astray also includes 'The Hunt', a shocking confession of one soldier's violent betrayal during the American Revolution, which was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Short Story Award.

These strange, true tales light up four centuries of wanderings, offering a past in scattered pieces, and a surprising and moving history for restless times.

Critic reviews

Emma Donoghue writes books that are unlike anything I have ever seen before, and Astray is no exception. There is such a deep and compassionate imagination at work in every story in this collection that Astray feels almost like an act of clairvoyance. (Ann Patchett, Orange prize-winning author of Bel Canto)

Best I've heard in a long time

My favorite part was at the end of each short story you get a bonus description of each story . My second favorite was the words from the author at the end.

Superior Quality Short Stories

Those stories and narrators!! I really enjoyed listening to this book and liked the way Donoghue found pieces from historical records and wove tales around her theme "astray." I think these are among, if not the, best short stories I have ever come across.

Excellent Selection of Short Stories

I really enjoyed these stories, connected loosely by the theme of life changes and all based on actual historical references. Some of these stories are heartbreaking, but all are interesting and insightful character stories, especially given the brevity of the "short story" format. Highly recommended.

Outstanding and riveting

Absolutely loved each story and want MORE! I can't wait to read more by this wonderful author.