Angela's Ashes Audiobook By Frank McCourt cover art

Angela's Ashes

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime
Try for $0.00
More purchase options
Buy for $22.49

Buy for $22.49

A Pulitzer Prize–winning, #1 New York Times bestseller, Angela’s Ashes is Frank McCourt’s masterful memoir of his childhood in Ireland—now with a new introduction by Patrick Radden Keefe.

“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”

So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank’s mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank’s father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy—exasperating, irresponsible, and beguiling—does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father’s tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies.

Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank’s survival. Wearing rags for diapers, begging a pig’s head for Christmas dinner and gathering coal from the roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors—yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance, and remarkable forgiveness.

Angela’s Ashes, imbued on every page with Frank McCourt’s astounding humor and compassion, is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic.

Accolades & Awards

Audible Essentials
Memoir Essentials
Pulitzer Prize
1997
National Book Critics Circle Award
1996
Los Angeles Times Book Prize
1996
Adventurers, Explorers & Survival Art & Literature Audible Essentials Authors Biographies & Memoirs Los Angeles Times Book Prize Memoir Essentials National Book Critics Circle Award Pulitzer Prize Heartfelt Biography Emotionally Gripping Witty Funny Feel-Good

Featured Article: The Best Memoirs to Make You Laugh, Cry, and Think


The memoir, as an art form, is one of the most difficult and complex to pull off. That’s why these titles are so impressive: not only are they excellent works in their own right, but they’ve achieved cultural acclaim, resonating with listeners of different ages, genders, races, religions, and identities. Often narrated by the authors themselves, these audiobooks allow listeners to be immersed in each story and feel all of the raw and unfiltered emotion that comes with them.

Featured Article The Best Memoirs to Make You Laugh Cry and Think
Balanced Humor-tragedy • Compelling Childhood Perspective • Authentic Irish Accent • Vivid Characters • Vivid Irish Setting

Highly rated for:

All stars
Most relevant
The draw of this book has everything to do with the writer's incredible talent for colorful and moving story telling, and a writing style that comes alive with McCourt's uncomplicated and free flowing Irish accented narration. Frank McCourt's amazing life story is a not just a must-read, but a Classic.

Thank you Frank McCourt!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I'm sitting here having just finished listening to the book, trying to organize my thoughts for this quick review. It's tough, though, as McCourt's lyrical prose -- and masterful narration -- are ringing so loudly in my head that everything else is eclipsed.

I can guarantee, absolutely, you won't be disappointed in the time you invest to sit through ANGELA'S ASHES (unless, of course, you're from the north, or some kind of a presbyterian).

Double your pleasure

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As a regular non-fiction reader, I was delighted by this story and found myself very eager to get back in the car to listen to more. The autobiographical nature and the author reading his own work really gave this selection the "real" story that I prefer in non-fiction. My only criticism is that the story ended rather abruptly, leaving me in a state of severe withdrawal. I do not like to read books and then see the movies, or vice versa, as I feel I blur the author's original intentions, but I find myself really craving to see this movie. I have since figured out that the author continues his tale in the book "Tis." I won't be able to download that fast enough.

Fun Fiction Tale for this Non-Fiction Lover

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Frank McCourt is a fabulous writer and a superb narrator of his own story. Unfortunately, his story is so depressing that I simply can't give it a five star rating. Growing up in Ireland where the Catholic Church seems to influence every aspect of life creates an atmosphere of oppression and lost hope. Having a father who is a drunk and and a mother who keeps having children with no real way to care for them adds to the depression of the story. Yet other reviewers talk of Mr. McCourt's forgiveness, which I do not understand nor see. Great writing. Great narration. Horrible story. Thanks anyway, but I think it's time for another romance novel...

Great story about a life I would never want...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is one of the best I've read in years. However, one must be prepared for the painful story the author tells about his life. I know I felt very lucky for my childhood when compared to Frank McCourt's.

However, the shining star of the book is Frank himself. He overcame the odds and wrote a wonderful narrative to a story of adversity, sorrow, and ultimately triumph.

A story of despair and truimph

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews