Two Deserts, Julie Brickman
Two Deserts, Julie Brickman
List: $16.95 | Sale: $11.87
Club: $8.47

Two Deserts
Stories

Author: Julie Brickman

Narrator: Jeff Gurner, Hillary Huber, Holly Linneman, Carol Monda, Robert Petkoff, Alan Winter, various narrators

Unabridged: 6 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Julie Brickman

Published: 02/04/2020


Synopsis

Deserts of sand and deserts of the heart, Middle Eastern deserts and American deserts, the story collection Two Deserts follows the circles of two unforgettable women across cultures and deserts. The Arabian circle includes a seventeen-year-old girl yearning for freedom and a Muslim mother plotting to rescue her son from a jihadist movement. The American circle includes a hooker who is training her daughter for the life, a priest in love, and a club of women whose husbands are dying.

About Julie Brickman

Author of the novel, What Birds Can Only Whisper, and the novella, The Galapagos Story, JULIE BRICKMAN has published her work in the North American Review, Louisville Review, Barcelona Review, failbetter.com, Persimmons Tree, San Diego Union Tribune, and other journals. The recipient of grants from the Canada Council, a writer-in-residence position at the Berton House in Dawson City, Yukon, and a Pushcart Prize nomination, Brickman teaches fiction in the MFA program of Spalding University’s School of Creative and Professional Writing in Louisville, Kentucky. She divides her time between Laguna Beach, California and New York City.

About Jeff Gurner

Jeff Gurner is a voice, stage and screen actor. He has recorded hundreds of radio and television commercials, video games, and is an award winning audiobook narrator. He is best known for his narration of Patrick Lee and to Karen Miller’s The Star Wars Clone Wars series and works by Mark Sullivan and Terry Francona. AudioFile magazine praised Jeff''s "deep, compelling voice and well-acted presentation" and awarded him a 2006 AudioFile Earphones Award for Jennifer Egan’s The Keep.Gurner’s theater credits include The Lion King on Broadway, Guys and Dolls, Harold and Maude: The Musical, and A Christmas Story. Television credits include The Good Wife, Mercy, and Law & Order.

About Hillary Huber

Hillary Huber is a multiple Audie Award finalist, an Earphones Award winner, and an AudioFile Best Voice. She has recorded over six hundred titles spanning many genres and holds a bachelor's degree in English literature. A voracious reader and listener, she was raised in Connecticut and Hawaii but now splits her time between California and New York.

About Carol Monda

Carol Monda is an Earphones Award–winning narrator and accomplished voice-over artist. She is also an award-winning actor known for her work in Out of Season, After You Left, and The Gentlemen.

About Robert Petkoff

Robert Petkoff has won multiple AudioFile Earphones awards for his acclaimed narrations. He was named Best Voice of Fiction & Classics for his reading of The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore by Benjamin Hale. His other narration credits include Oath of Office by Michael Palmer, Gangster Squad by Paul Lieberman, and books by David Foster Wallace.Petkoff has appeared on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in theaters across America and Europe.  He has worked in television and film. His theater credits include Lord Evelyn Oakleigh in the Broadway production of Anything Goes, Perchik as part of the Tony-nomianted cast of Fiddler on the Roof, and Hubert Humphrey in the Tony award-winning play All the Way. He has also had numerous roles in television on shows such as Law and Order and Married with Children.

About Alan Winter

Alan Winter is an audiobook narrator whose readings include Hard Work by Roy Williams and Sexual Intelligence by Marty Klein, among others.


Reviews

Goodreads review by V.G. on December 06, 2015

I found Two Deserts remarkably refreshing. Some stories are interconnected, while some are not, yet each explores a unique and thought-provoking facet of the human experience. Love, loss, lust, desire, sexual orientation, death, feminism, sexism, religion, adolescent egocentrism—you name it, Brickma......more

Goodreads review by J on February 04, 2016

I picked up the last copy of Two Deserts today at Laguna Beach books and devoured the first story before I’d even left the store. With blustery weather today, I have kept reading through several more of the stories and truly admire what Julie Brickman has done. Brickman's writing is intelligent and......more

Goodreads review by Teddy on November 14, 2013

This story collection demonstrates Brickman's skill as a writer and her compassion as a human. Characters are richly portrayed in settings made real by just the right amount of description. My favorite among all the pieces in this excellent collection is "Marriage Gear." So much is conveyed with so......more


Quotes

“This is brilliant work—bold, true-hearted, and beautiful. Brickman believes in the reality of the body, but the body illumined by an unflinching intellect and indomitable spirit.” Sena Jeter Naslund, New York Times bestselling author

“Julie Brickman’s collection Two Deserts has its darknesses, of course, but also the startling, timely, cultural breadth and luminous grace scene for scene that she’s known for.” Philip F. Deaver, Flannery O’Connor Award–winning author of Silent Retreats

“Brickman’s storytelling takes many forms—all of them exhibiting her mastery of character and place. You will be transported, as I was.” Susan Vreeland, New York Times bestselling author

“Written in beautifully descriptive prose, Two Deserts is a collection of fourteen short stories that reveal deep reflections on life made by various different characters. Reading through each story is a peaceful drift down a lazy river on a beautiful spring day. Finishing each one is a profound realization of a kindred human emotion.” The US Review of Books