Martin Marten, Brian Doyle
Martin Marten, Brian Doyle
List: $17.99 | Sale: $12.59
Club: $8.99

Martin Marten
A Novel

Author: Brian Doyle

Narrator: Travis Baldree

Unabridged: 10 hr 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/30/2017


Synopsis

Dave is fourteen years old, living with his family in a cabin on Oregon's Mount Hood (or as he prefers to call it, like the Multnomah tribal peoples once did, Wy'east). Dave will soon enter high school, with adulthood and a future not far off—a future away from his mother, father, his precocious younger sister, and the wilderness where he's lived all his life.

And Dave is not the only one approaching adulthood and its freedoms on Wy'east that summer. Martin, a pine marten (of the mustelid family), is leaving his own mother and siblings and setting off on his own as well.

As Dave and Martin set off on their own adventures, their lives, paths, and trails will cross, weave, and blend. Why not come with them as they set forth into the forest and crags of Oregon's soaring mountain wilderness in search of life, family, friends, enemies, wonder, mystery, and good things to eat?

Martin Marten is a braided coming-of-age tale like no other, told in Brian Doyle's joyous, rollicking style.

About Brian Doyle

Brian Doyle (1956-2017) was the longtime editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland, in Oregon. He is the author of six collections of essays, two collections of "proems," two nonfiction books, the short story collection Bin Laden's Bald Spot, the novella Cat's Foot, and the novels Mink River, The Plover, and Martin Marten.

Doyle's books have seven times been finalists for the Oregon Book Award, and his essays have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Orion, the American Scholar, the Sun, the Georgia Review, and in newspapers and magazines around the world, including the New York Times, the Times of London, and the Age (in Australia). His essays have also been reprinted in the annual Best American Essays, Best American Science & Nature Writing, and Best American Spiritual Writing anthologies.

Among various honors for his work is a Catholic Book Award, three Pushcart Prizes, the John Burroughs Award for Nature Essays, Foreword Reviewss' Novel of the Year award in 2011, and the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2008 (previous recipients include Saul Bellow, Kurt Vonnegut, Flannery O'Connor, and Mary Oliver).


Reviews

Goodreads review by Esil

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an opportunity to read Martin Marten. Last year I had the good fortune to win Brian Doyle's The Plover from a First Reads giveaway. And to my surprise I was completely enchanted by Doyle's quirky style and vision. So I was quite happy to have a chance to......more

Goodreads review by Julie

This was the book selected for my city's annual summer read, and what a selection! It is not often that I give a book five stars, but this book is so beautifully written that I knew even before I finished it that it would be more than worthy of every one of those five stars. I won't tell you the det......more

Goodreads review by sarah

Disclaimer: I'll state right up front that I'm a die-hard Brian Doyle fan, and this book is one reason why. Rather than go on and on about it, I'll just say it's magical, it could be life-altering--if you let it-- and it's just a damned good story. As Barbara McMichael deftly observed in her review,......more

Goodreads review by Daniel

Feeling in the mood for something pleasant and comfortable, I decided to give Martin Marten a try. My intuitions were correct, it certainly is both those things. While there isn’t much in the way of narrative drive, the setting, characters, and tone of Martin Marten are full of whimsy, charm, and hu......more