The Vagabonds, Nicholas Delbanco
The Vagabonds, Nicholas Delbanco
List: $17.48 | Sale: $12.24
Club: $8.74

The Vagabonds

Author: Nicholas Delbanco

Narrator: Paul Boehmer

Unabridged: 9 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/05/2004

Categories: Fiction, Sagas


Synopsis

The three Saperstone siblings, who are scattered throughout the country and leading very different lives, are drawn back home to Saratoga, New York, when their mother dies. What they discover there shocks them: she has left behind a much larger estate than they could ever have imagined. The wealth, as they find out, comes in the form of long-term investments bequeathed by Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and Thomas Edison—who called themselves "the vagabonds"—to the siblings' grandmother. The money had been a payment, offered as hush money for a long-ago night of indiscretion and handed down through the generations. As a result, the three siblings soon discover that inheritance can alter not merely their separate fortunes, but their shared sense of the past.

About Nicholas Delbanco

Nicholas Delbanco is the author of more than two dozen works of fiction and nonfiction — including, most recently, Lastingness: The Art of Old Age. He is the Robert Frost Distinguished University Professor of English at the University of Michigan, where he directs the Hopwood awards program and was for many years the director of the MFA program in creative writing.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Marcia on July 16, 2020

Story about Edison and Firestone and how they used to go camping..........more

Goodreads review by Dianna on March 29, 2025

The plot had an intriguing promise, but the development was highly disappointing to me.......more

Goodreads review by Elyse on December 02, 2011

I really enjoyed this book. A lot is packed in 294 pages. Three siblings return to Saratoga Springs, N.Y. for the burial and reading of their mother's will. Turns out she is quite wealthy but the manner she acquired her wealth is a wonderful part of the story (Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Thomas Ed......more

Goodreads review by Toby on July 11, 2007

Interesting historical backdrop regarding the real life "Vagabonds" who traveled through the U.S. I had a personal interest since it was written by UM English prof, Nick Delbanco and was littered with Ann Arbor references......more

Goodreads review by Lana on September 22, 2010

Very good serious fiction.......more