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    I Thought My Father Was God
    I Thought My Father Was God
    I Thought My Father Was God
    Audiobook (abridged)9 hours

    I Thought My Father Was God

    Written by Paul Auster

    Narrated by Paul Auster

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    When Paul Auster was asked to join NPR's Weekend All Things Considered program to tell stories, he turned the proposition on its head: he would let the stories come to him. He invited listeners to submit brief, true-life anecdotes about events that touched their lives.

    And so the National Story Project was born. just over a year old, it's one of NPR's most popular features. The response has been so overwhelming, with more than 4,000 stories submitted so far, that Auster decided to cull the top works andmake them available in a book -- and now this audio tape. His selections -- hilarious blunders, wrenching coincidences, brushes with death, miraculous encounters, improbable ironies -- come from people of all ages and walks of life.

    This one-of-a-kind collection is a testament to the power of storytelling that offers a glimpse into the American soul. By turns poignant, nostalgic, funny and strange, it is an audiobook to be treasured and shared for years to come.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateAug 10, 2004
    ISBN9780060784423
    I Thought My Father Was God
    Author

    Paul Auster

    Paul Auster is the bestselling author of Oracle Night, The Book of Illusions, and Timbuktu. I Thought My Father Was God, the NPR National Story Project anthology, which he edited, was also a national bestseller. His work has been translated into thirty languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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    Reviews for I Thought My Father Was God

    4/5

    229 ratings12 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This is a wonderful set of stories. The only pitfall is that the index doesn't include the names of the chapters, which is quite annoying.
    • 5/5
      Paul Auster reads these stories. He has a sort of chatty demeanor, and you can hear how much he appreciates the circumstances and language of the tales.
    • 4/5
      When Paul Auster was approached by National Public Radio's Daniel Zwerdling about becoming a regular contributer to Weekend All Things Considered, his first inclination was to say no. His wife, however, turned the project around by suggesting that he solicit stories from listeners. In this way the National Story Project was born. The guidelines were only that the stories had to be true and short. He requested stories that "defied our expectations about the world, anecdotes that revealed the mysterious and unknowable forces at work in our lives, in our family histories, in our minds and bodies, in our souls. In other words, true stories that sounded like fiction." Thousand of listeners had stories to tell and 180 of them make up I Thought My father Was God, edited by Paul Auster. Like any collection of stories, some fell flat for me, but others, well many, are simply amazing. The most memorable stories were those having to do with coincidences (coincidentally, one of Auster's recurring themes). My favorite was a very poignant "A Family Christmas". I had listened to this on audio for the first time ten or so years ago and loved hearing them again. Although they are written stories, I felt they were meant to be heard, not read. Paul Auster reads all the stories and has a wonderful voice.
    • 4/5
      This anthology isn't a well-culled sampling of the finest writing in America, but it never makes itself out to be -- and therein lies its charm. This collection of personal narratives sent in to NPR's National Story Project offers a cross-section of contemporary life experiences -- ranging from war stories and childhood memories to lovesick missives and tales of woe. But what all of the stories have in common is a sincerity that even professional writers often miss, and for that alone I enjoyed this book.
    • 5/5
      One of my favourite books ever. Heartwarming, true or not true stories, taken from life. Better than all "chicken-soups..." combined!
    • 4/5
      When Paul Auster was approached by National Public Radio's Daniel Zwerdling about becoming a regular contributer to Weekend All Things Considered, his first inclination was to say no. His wife, however, turned the project around by suggesting that he solicit stories from listeners. In this way the National Story Project was born. The guidelines were only that the stories had to be true and short. He requested stories that "defied our expectations about the world, anecdotes that revealed the mysterious and unknowable forces at work in our lives, in our family histories, in our minds and bodies, in our souls. In other words, true stories that sounded like fiction." Thousand of listeners had stories to tell and 180 of them make up I Thought My father Was God, edited by Paul Auster. Like any collection of stories, some fell flat for me, but others, well many, are simply amazing. The most memorable stories were those having to do with coincidences (coincidentally, one of Auster's recurring themes). My favorite was a very poignant "A Family Christmas". I had listened to this on audio for the first time ten or so years ago and loved hearing them again. Although they are written stories, I felt they were meant to be heard, not read. Paul Auster reads all the stories and has a wonderful voice.
    • 5/5
      This was a lovely, lovely collection of stories. I listened to this on tape not knowing anything about it beforehand. Now I have the book so I can refer back to favorites.
    • 4/5
      a great project. Mixed bag of stories. I feel I should be more bowled over than I am.
    • 1/5
      A heavy-handed collection of people's "most profound" dinner-table vignettes. The stories are indifferently told, but the teeth-grindindly obnoxious feature of the anthology is how quickly a sweet story of coincidence becomes an indulgent glorification of sloppy thinking and self-delusion as yet another contributor concludes, "And that's how I know that my sister-in-law watches over me from beyond the grave."Oh really? And to what does the contributor attribute all the nasty coincidences in her life? The dead sister-in-law's lingering resentment of the time the author said she was fat?It's ironic that the anthology's weakness should be a love affair with confirmation bias, given that the title story is an account of a child's mistaken conclusion (through the coincidence of an overheard argument and a heart-attack) that his father can strike someone dead with a thought. The now-grown-up author shakes his head at how silly he was when he was seven. If only the anthology's editor had shaken his head over how silly the other contributors still are.
    • 4/5
      I found I had a hard time reading this book at bed time because the stories and emotions varied so much it kept me awake!
    • 5/5
      This is amazing. The title story was brilliant, and there are many others worth the price of admission.
    • 4/5
      A great collection of true stories. Will touch your every emotion. Edited by Paul Auster.