Useless Miracle
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Useless Miracle
Buy for $31.20
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
George Newbern
-
By:
-
Barry Schechter
About this listen
George Entmen just turned 40, and he can't complain. As the James Lydecker chair of hermeneutics in the English department at Northwestern, he is honored in his field, beloved by friends and family, and ready to drift quietly into tenured middle age. But then he discovers he can fly.
Sure, he can only fly very, very slowly - he needs to have his hands thrust out in front of him like Superman - and he only flies three or four inches above the ground. In fact, as he has to be prone to do it, he is, in flight, further from the sky than ever.
But why does this nonetheless amazing phenomenon drive so many people into a rage? Why do he and his family find themselves dodging livid magicians, exploitative friends, scheming billionairesses, 13-year-old boys who are sure they saw the wire, and, perhaps worst of all, angry hermeneuticians?
George's friend Harvey tells him that, beneath all the chaos, his gift has to have a meaning. But to find it, Harvey says, George needs to understand one thing: You're not flying, you're being flown.
©2021 Barry Schechter (P)2021 Dreamscape Media, LLCListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Face in the Water
- Iron on Iron, Book 1
- By: Gregory Ashe
- Narrated by: J.F. Harding
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 53
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 53
When Teancum Leon, a wildlife veterinarian, and his husband, semi-reformed conman Jeremiah Berger, go to a conference in central Missouri, they’re expecting a short and uneventful trip. Tean will present a paper, attend a few panels, and network (under duress). Jem is looking forward to unlimited poolside drinks, some well-deserved couple time, and peace and quiet.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great story. Great narration.
- By Aethena Drake on 11-10-23
By: Gregory Ashe
-
Joyland
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Michael Kelly
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10,411
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 9,476
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9,463
Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever. Joyland is a brand-new novel and has never previously been published.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
King in his Summer Finest
- By Cynthia on 06-06-13
By: Stephen King
-
Red, White & Royal Blue
- A Novel
- By: Casey McQuiston
- Narrated by: Ramon de Ocampo
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 13,123
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 11,636
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 11,619
When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius—his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There's only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Almost shockingly wonderful.
- By Leon Miller on 03-21-20
By: Casey McQuiston
-
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams
- Stories
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Stephen King, Dylan Baker, Brooke Bloom, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10,997
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 9,904
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9,892
A master storyteller at his best - the O. Henry Prize winner Stephen King delivers a generous collection of stories, several of them brand-new, featuring revelatory autobiographical comments on when, why, and how he came to write (or rewrite) each story. Magnificent, eerie, utterly compelling, these stories comprise one of King's finest gifts to his constant fan. "I made them especially for you," says King. "Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth."
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
HE'S A CUP OF COFFEE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 12-10-15
By: Stephen King
-
The Great Believers
- By: Rebecca Makkai
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,840
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,416
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,403
In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico's funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A story for all time
- By Carla jo Thompson on 08-06-18
By: Rebecca Makkai
-
The Nix
- A Novel
- By: Nathan Hill
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 21 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 11,148
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 10,296
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 10,276
It’s 2011, and Samuel Andresen-Anderson—college professor, stalled writer—has a Nix of his own: his mother, Faye. He hasn’t seen her in decades, not since she abandoned the family when he was a boy. Now she’s re-appeared, having committed an absurd crime that electrifies the nightly news, beguiles the internet, and inflames a politically divided country. The media paints Faye as a radical hippie with a sordid past, but as far as Samuel knows, his mother was an ordinary girl who married her high-school sweetheart.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Is There An Editor In The House??
- By Sara on 11-03-16
By: Nathan Hill
-
The Face in the Water
- Iron on Iron, Book 1
- By: Gregory Ashe
- Narrated by: J.F. Harding
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 53
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 53
When Teancum Leon, a wildlife veterinarian, and his husband, semi-reformed conman Jeremiah Berger, go to a conference in central Missouri, they’re expecting a short and uneventful trip. Tean will present a paper, attend a few panels, and network (under duress). Jem is looking forward to unlimited poolside drinks, some well-deserved couple time, and peace and quiet.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great story. Great narration.
- By Aethena Drake on 11-10-23
By: Gregory Ashe
-
Joyland
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Michael Kelly
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10,411
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 9,476
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9,463
Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever. Joyland is a brand-new novel and has never previously been published.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
King in his Summer Finest
- By Cynthia on 06-06-13
By: Stephen King
-
Red, White & Royal Blue
- A Novel
- By: Casey McQuiston
- Narrated by: Ramon de Ocampo
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 13,123
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 11,636
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 11,619
When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius—his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There's only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Almost shockingly wonderful.
- By Leon Miller on 03-21-20
By: Casey McQuiston
-
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams
- Stories
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Stephen King, Dylan Baker, Brooke Bloom, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10,997
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 9,904
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9,892
A master storyteller at his best - the O. Henry Prize winner Stephen King delivers a generous collection of stories, several of them brand-new, featuring revelatory autobiographical comments on when, why, and how he came to write (or rewrite) each story. Magnificent, eerie, utterly compelling, these stories comprise one of King's finest gifts to his constant fan. "I made them especially for you," says King. "Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth."
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
HE'S A CUP OF COFFEE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 12-10-15
By: Stephen King
-
The Great Believers
- By: Rebecca Makkai
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,840
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,416
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,403
In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico's funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A story for all time
- By Carla jo Thompson on 08-06-18
By: Rebecca Makkai
-
The Nix
- A Novel
- By: Nathan Hill
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 21 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 11,148
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 10,296
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 10,276
It’s 2011, and Samuel Andresen-Anderson—college professor, stalled writer—has a Nix of his own: his mother, Faye. He hasn’t seen her in decades, not since she abandoned the family when he was a boy. Now she’s re-appeared, having committed an absurd crime that electrifies the nightly news, beguiles the internet, and inflames a politically divided country. The media paints Faye as a radical hippie with a sordid past, but as far as Samuel knows, his mother was an ordinary girl who married her high-school sweetheart.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Is There An Editor In The House??
- By Sara on 11-03-16
By: Nathan Hill
-
One More Thing
- Stories and Other Stories
- By: B. J. Novak
- Narrated by: B. J. Novak, Rainn Wilson, Jenna Fischer, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 3,938
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,507
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 3,505
B.J. Novak's One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories is an endlessly entertaining, surprisingly sensitive, and startlingly original debut that signals the arrival of a brilliant new voice in American fiction. A boy wins a $100,000 prize in a box of Frosted Flakes - only to discover how claiming the winnings might unravel his family. A woman sets out to seduce motivational speaker Tony Robbins - turning for help to the famed motivator himself. A new arrival in Heaven, overwhelmed with options, procrastinates over a long-ago promise to visit his grandmother....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
It gets better, and better, and better, and better
- By David Shear on 02-07-14
By: B. J. Novak
-
Spoonbenders
- A novel
- By: Daryl Gregory
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,992
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,593
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,577
Teddy Telemachus is a charming con man with a gift for sleight of hand and some shady underground associates. In need of cash, he tricks his way into a classified government study about telekinesis and its possible role in intelligence gathering. There he meets Maureen McKinnon, and it's not just her piercing blue eyes that leave Teddy forever charmed but her mind - Maureen is a genuine psychic of immense and mysterious power.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Slow start, but patience is your friend here.
- By Heather on 08-22-17
By: Daryl Gregory
-
Becoming a Queen
- By: Dan Clay
- Narrated by: Dan Clay
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 24
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 23
If only Mark Davis hadn’t put on a dress for the talent show. It was a joke—other guys did it too—but when his boyfriend saw Mark in that dress, everything changed. And now, fresh on the heels of high school heartbreak, Mark has given up on love. Maybe some people are just too much for this world—too weird, too wild, too feminine, too everything. Thankfully, his older brother Eric always knows what to say to keep Mark from spinning into self-loathing. "Be yourself! Your full sequin-y self.”
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Feel all the things-love it!
- By K on 11-06-23
By: Dan Clay
-
Domestic Violets
- A Novel
- By: Matthew Norman
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 222
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 196
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 193
Tom Violet always thought that by the time he turned 35, he’d have everything going for him. Fame. Fortune. A beautiful wife. A satisfying career as a successful novelist. A happy dog to greet him at the end of the day. The reality, though, is far different. He’s got a wife, but their problems are bigger than he can even imagine. And he’s written a novel, but the manuscript he’s slaved over for years is currently hidden in his desk drawer while his father, an actual famous writer, just won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His career, such that it is, involves mind-numbing corporate buzzwords....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
What a rollicking ride!
- By Pamela Harvey on 08-13-11
By: Matthew Norman
-
Fan Fiction
- A Mem-Noir: Inspired by True Events
- By: Brent Spiner, Jeanne Darst
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 869
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 767
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 765
Set in 1991, just as Star Trek: The Next Generation has rocketed the cast to global fame, the young and impressionable actor Brent Spiner receives a mysterious package and a series of disturbing letters, that take him on a terrifying and bizarre journey that enlists Paramount Security, the LAPD, and even the FBI in putting a stop to the danger that has his life and career hanging in the balance.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Best narration of any audiobook, ever.
- By Kristen Mack on 10-14-21
By: Brent Spiner, and others
-
The Smash-Up
- A Novel
- By: Ali Benjamin
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Rebecca Lowman, Dion Graham, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
Ethan has always been one of the good guys, and for years, nobody has appreciated this fact more than his wife, Zo. Until now. Jolted into activism by the 2016 election, Zo’s transformed their home into the headquarters for the local resistance, turning their comfortable decades-long marriage inside-out.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
what happened????
- By Barbara S on 03-19-21
By: Ali Benjamin
-
We Play Ourselves
- A Novel
- By: Jen Silverman
- Narrated by: Renata Friedman
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 55
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 47
Not too long ago, Cass was a promising young playwright in New York, hailed as “a fierce new voice” and “queer, feminist, and ready to spill the tea.” But at the height of all this attention, Cass finds herself at the center of a searing public shaming, and flees to Los Angeles to escape—and reinvent herself. There she meets her next-door neighbor Caroline, a magnetic filmmaker on the rise, as well as the pack of teenage girls who hang around her house. They are the subjects of Caroline’s next semidocumentary movie, which follows the girls’ clandestine activity.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Brilliant Satire
- By T on 08-28-24
By: Jen Silverman
-
We're All Damaged
- By: Matthew Norman
- Narrated by: Scott Merriman
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,468
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,328
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,333
Andy Carter was happy. He had a solid job. He ran 5Ks for charity. He was living a nice, safe Midwestern existence. And then his wife left him for a handsome paramedic down the street. We're All Damaged begins after Andy has lost his job, ruined his best friend's wedding, and moved to New York City, where he lives in a tiny apartment with an angry cat named Jeter that isn't technically his. But before long he needs to go back to Omaha to say good-bye to his dying grandfather.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Another Manic Pixie Dream Girl Story
- By M. Papa on 06-18-16
By: Matthew Norman
-
The Broom of the System
- A Novel
- By: David Foster Wallace
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 573
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 483
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 485
At the center of The Broom of the System is the betwitching (and also bewildered) heroine, Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman. The year is 1990 and the place is a slightly altered Cleveland, Ohio, which sits on the edge of a suburban wasteland-the Great Ohio Desert. Lenore works as a switchboard attendant at a publishing firm, and in addition to her mind-numbing job, she has a few other problems. Her great-grandmother, a one-time student of Wittgenstein, has disappeared with twenty-five other inmates of the Shaker Heights Nursing Home.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Evidence I WASTED my College years.
- By Darwin8u on 04-18-12
-
On Beauty
- By: Zadie Smith
- Narrated by: Peter Francis James
- Length: 18 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 796
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 355
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 357
This wise, hilarious novel reminds us why Zadie Smith has rocketed to literary stardom. On Beauty is the story of an interracial family living in the university town of Wellington, Massachusetts, whose misadventures in the culture wars—on both sides of the Atlantic—serve to skewer everything from family life to political correctness to the combustive collision between the personal and the political. Full of dead-on wit and relentlessly funny, this tour de force confirms Zadie Smith's reputation as a major literary talent.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Somewhat Disappointed
- By Cherokee on 11-15-05
By: Zadie Smith
-
Beijing Payback
- A Novel
- By: Daniel Nieh
- Narrated by: Ewan Chung
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 134
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 114
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 114
Victor Li is devastated by his father’s murder and shocked by a confessional letter he finds among his father’s things. In it, his father admits he was never just a restaurateur - he was part of a vast international crime syndicate that formed during China’s leanest communist years. Victor travels to Beijing, where he navigates his father’s secret criminal life, confronting decades-old grudges, violent spats, and a shocking new enterprise that the organization wants to undertake. Standing up against it is likely what got his father killed, but Victor remains undeterred.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The reader is outstanding
- By Clara R. Arechiga on 08-01-19
By: Daniel Nieh
-
We Contain Multitudes
- By: Sarah Henstra
- Narrated by: Matthew Gouveia, Tony Kim
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 587
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 560
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 559
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe meets I'll Give You the Sun in an exhilarating and emotional novel about the growing relationship between two teen boys, told through the letters they write to one another. Jonathan Hopkirk and Adam "Kurl" Kurlansky are partnered in English class, writing letters to one another in a weekly pen-pal assignment. With each letter, the two begin to develop a friendship that eventually grows into love. But with homophobia, bullying, and devastating family secrets, Jonathan and Kurl struggle....
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
A lot to like here, but...
- By Robert Jason on 05-15-19
By: Sarah Henstra