The Hearts of Men

A Novel

By: Nickolas Butler

Narrated by: Adam Verner

Camp Chippewa, 1962. Nelson Doughty, age thirteen, social outcast and overachiever, is the Bugler, sounding the reveille proudly each morning. Yet this particular summer marks the beginning of an uncertain and tenuous friendship with a popular boy named Jonathan.

Over the years, Nelson, irrevocably scarred from the Vietnam War, becomes Scoutmaster of Camp Chippewa, while Jonathan marries, divorces, and turns his father’s business into a highly profitable company. And when something unthinkable happens at a camp get-together with Nelson as Scoutmaster and Jonathan’s teenage grandson and daughter-in-law as campers, the aftermath demonstrates the depths—and the limits—of Nelson’s selflessness and bravery.

The Hearts of Men is a sweeping, panoramic novel about the slippery definitions of good and evil, family and fidelity, the challenges and rewards of lifelong friendships, the bounds of morality—and redemption.

Tightly wrought unflashy character driven

In this Richard Fordesque novel, Nickolas Butler has given us a tightly woven, character driven novel, a novel that begins in 1962, takes an interlude in 1996, and then finishes in 2019. This is about heroism, family, friendship, love. The story may not be flashy or exciting but it is definitely very instructive, there is wisdom here. The narrative performance was decent as the baritone voice had trouble modulating multiple male voices, some which sounded like radio announcers.

Eagle Scout

As an Eagle Scout that grew up in Scouting during the 70's & 80's this book truly touched me. I could see a lot of my Scouting days in the stories. This book tugged really hard on my heart strings. I could relate to the camp Ranger as in my day I spent a lot of time with him helping him with the never ending things that needed repairs or installation. The other thing that I could relate to is the heard of white deer, for us it was several bobcats that the previous Ranger had raised because they had been abandoned. We would come across them all the time. How we knew that it was them is they would allow us to get within 10 feet before they would stand up and casually walk off into the thicket. Too many great memories were reopened for me.
Thank You
JSerow
Eagle Class of '83

Loved

A gorgeous and deeply felt read. The characters are authentic, complicated, and human in all the best ways. A must for anyone interested in what it truly means to be a man—without ever being spoon-fed the lesson.

Enjoyed the story but the narrator

The characters and story kept my interest; however, I did not care for the narration which was affected, forced and overly dramatic.

Sad, but not hopeless

I almost stopped listening to this one in the opening chapters, because it was just so sad (I was aching for Nelson and his desire for friends ), and also during a truely awful scene between rival scout troops. So glad I stuck with it - credit the excellent narration and the good writing - because I really liked this character-based story.