NARROW THE ROAD
BY JAMES WADE
Narrated by Roger Clark
Literary Fiction / Coming of Age / Southern / Historical
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Publication Date: August 26, 2025
Audio Length: 9 hours, 20 minutes
Print Length: 306 pages
ABOUT THE BOOK: In this gripping coming-of-age odyssey, a young man's quest to reunite his family takes him on a life-altering journey through the wilds of 1930s East Texas, where both danger and opportunity grow as thick as the pines.
With his father missing and his mother gravely ill, William Carter is struggling to keep his family's cotton farm afloat in the face of drought and foreclosure. As his options wane, William receives a mysterious letter that claims to know his father's whereabouts.
Together with his best friend Ollie, a mortician in training, William sets out to find his father and bring him home to set things right. But before the boys can complete their quest, they must navigate the labyrinth of the Big Thicket, some of the country's most uncharted, untamed land. Along the way they encounter eccentric backwoods characters of every order, running afoul of murderers, bootleggers, and even the legendary Bonnie and Clyde.
But the danger is doubled when the boys agree to take on a medicine show runaway named Lena, eliciting the ire of the show's leader, the nefarious con man Doctor Downtain. As William, Ollie, and Lena race to uncover the clues and find William's father, Downtain is closing in on them, readying to make good on his violent reputation. With the clock ticking, William must decide where his loyalties lie and how far he's willing to go for the people he loves.
From award-winning author James Wade, Narrow the Road is a riveting exploration of a young man's hard-won coming-of-age and the courageous ways a person can forge a singular path in the face of overwhelming adversity. Alive with grit and tenderness, this is an unforgettable story of the power of friendship to sustain us through loss, betrayal, and devastating consequence.
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BOOK REVIEW
I don't spend time on plot summary, so please read the synopsis above.
HALL WAYS REVIEW: Audiobook Review. I read NARROW THE ROAD with my ears and not surprisingly, it's outstanding. It's so outstanding that I'm now turning to the paperback to revisit some exceptionally profound, beautiful, heartbreaking sentences and scenes that only Texas author James Wade can create. Wade has a near-unbelievable talent to tell a tale. (I've read all of his books to date, and I've never been disappointed.)
As always, audiobook narrator Roger Clark knocks it out of the park with his perfect delivery of Wade's words. Clark performs and voices the characters in such a way that we're transported to another place and time. His pacing is perfect (I listened at regular speed), and the audio is glitch free -- because Blackstone Audio doesn't do any differently.
If you enjoy savoring a story slowly and appreciate carefully constructed sentences that evoke all the feels, NARROW THE ROAD is a must-read experience. I expect to see this book on a lot of awards lists this year.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Wade is the award-winning author of Beasts of the Earth, All Things Left Wild, and River, Sing Out. He is the youngest novelist to win two Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America, and the recipient of the MPIBA’s prestigious Reading the West Award. James’s work has appeared in Southern Literary Magazine, the Bitter Oleander, Writers’ Digest, and numerous additional publications. James lives and writes in the Texas Hill Country with his wife and children.
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