Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Sample

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Bitter Sun

By: Beth Lewis
Narrated by: Christopher Ragland
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
activate_samplebutton_t1

Listeners also enjoyed...

Antigoddess cover art
How to Save a Life cover art
Beneath the Skin cover art
Shallow Graves cover art
How It Ends cover art
My Heart Is a Chainsaw cover art
Armadillos cover art
Monstrous Affections cover art
Futile Efforts cover art
AFRAID - Tidbits of the Macabre cover art
The Hollower cover art
The Long List Anthology cover art
Dying for a Living cover art
Barbed Wire Heart cover art
Strange Angels cover art
My Best Friend's Exorcism cover art

Summary

It all started when we found the body.
Then nothing was ever the same.

The Dry meets Stand by Me and True Detective in this stunningly written tale of the darkness at the heart of a small mid-Western town and the four kids who uncover it.

In the heatwave summer of 1971, four kids find a body by a lake and set out to solve a murder. But they dig too deep and ask too many questions.

Larson is a town reeling in the wake of the Vietnam draft, where the unrelenting heat ruins the harvest, and the people teeter on the edge of ruin.

As tension and paranoia run rife, rumours become fact, violence becomes reflex. The unrest allows the dark elements of the close-knit farming community to rise and take control.

And John, Jenny, Gloria and Rudy are about to discover that sometimes secrets are best left uncovered…

©2018 Beth Lewis (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

‘Wonderfully evocative … written with a heart-breaking intensity that lingers in the mind’ Daily Mail

'A summer bonfire of a book which draws you into its dark heart and holds you there’ Sarah Hilary

‘With notes of To Kill A Mockingbird (without the wise adults) and Stand By Me … a town’s dark underbelly is revealed’ Emerald Street

‘Bitter Sun is a tragic tour de force that held me spellbound for weeks. A savage coming-of-age story so beautifully told. I cannot recommend it highly enough’ Chris Whitaker, author of Tall Oaks

‘A beautifully written, atmospheric and evocative thriller full of heartbreak and nostalgia’ SJI Holliday

‘I loved Bitter Sun. Beautifully written, raw and heart-wrenching’ Roz Watkins

‘Beating with a dark, menacing heart, Bitter Sun is sure to delight readers of Stephen King and Jim Thompson. Lewis's writing is like taking a punch to the gut – evocative, visceral and wholly uncompromising. She is, undoubtedly, one the finest new writers around’ G X Todd

Praise for Beth Lewis:

‘The protagonist is one of the strongest females that I’ve read… For a fast and adventurous book, with unusual characters, this will be a good summer read for you.’ Robin Hobb

‘What a voice Elka has, marvellously sustained’ Rob Ewing, author of The Last of Us

‘Arresting … Lewis takes the reader on an odyssey that highlights the striking wilderness landscape and Elka's grit' Publishers Weekly

‘The Wolf Road is an extraordinary novel – dark and funny and full of wild energy. Elka is a brilliant creation – fierce and vulnerable at the same time. Her story and her voice pull you in from the first page and never let you go. Gripping and unforgettable’ Antonia Hodgson, author of The Devil in the Marshalsea

What listeners say about Bitter Sun

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.