A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father

Augusten Burroughs

ISBN 10: 142720425X ISBN 13: 9781427204257

Publisher: Macmillan Audio, 2008

Synopsis

Nominated for the 2009 Audiobook of the Year

“As a little boy, I had a dream that my father had taken me to the woods where there was a dead body. He buried it and told me I must never tell. It was the only thing we’d ever done together as father and son, and I promised not to tell. But unlike most dreams, the memory of this one never left me. And sometimes...I wasn’t altogether sure about one thing: was it just a dream?”

When Augusten Burroughs was small, his father was a shadowy presence in his life: a form on the stairs, a cough from the basement, a silent figure smoking a cigarette in the dark. As Augusten grew older, something sinister within his father began to unfurl.  Something dark and secretive that could not be named. 

Betrayal after shocking betrayal ensued, and Augusten’s childhood was over. The kind of father he wanted didn’t exist for him. This father was distant, aloof, uninterested...

And then the “games” began.

With A Wolf at the Table, Augusten Burroughs makes a quantum leap into untapped emotional terrain: the radical pendulum swing between love and hate, the unspeakably terrifying relationship between father and son. Told with scorching honesty and penetrating insight, it is a story for anyone who has ever longed for unconditional love from a parent. Though harrowing and brutal, A Wolf at the Table will ultimately leave you buoyed with the profound joy of simply being alive. It’s a memoir of stunning psychological cruelty and the redemptive power of hope.

 

About this title

Review

Amazon Significant Seven, April 2008: When I started reading A Wolf at the Table, I thought I knew what to expect. Augusten Burroughs captures intense experience with an inexplicably cool remove, imparting a stillness and purity to emotions that would likely run amok in anyone else's hands. I love this quality of his writing, and it's present in full force in this memoir of a childhood spent in thrall to a predatory and deeply unpredictable father. What I wasn't prepared for was the suspense--the dread-filled, nearly sonorous waiting for the worst to happen. An artful sort of bait-and-switch happens in the telling: Burroughs brings you to the brink of a terrible catharsis more than once, but the break in tension never comes. It is profoundly sad, remarkably tender, and fueled by a sense of love and reverence that only a child knows. --Anne Bartholomew

About the Author

AUGUSTEN BURROUGHS is the New York Times bestselling author of Possible Side Effects, Magical Thinking, Dry, Running with Scissors, and Sellevision. He lives in New York City and Amherst, Massachussetts.

Performer/poet PATTI SMITH and daughter Jesse Smith collaborated with songwriter Michael Campbell in their response to A Wolf at the Table. The song, “The Only Time,” is an effort to capture the mood of the memoir by Augusten Burroughs, while maintaining a hopeful undercurrent.

INGRID MICHAELSON’s self-released album of quirky, pop gems, Girls and Boys, gained attention when her songs including, “The Way I Am,” were featured on the show, Grey’s Anatomy. With her music now a fixture on the Billboard and iTunes charts, Ingrid continues to have unprecedented success as a do-it-yourself artist.

Named after Jack London’s 1904 novel, Los Angeles’ SEA WOLF is the nom de plume for singer/songwriter Alex Brown Church and the orchestral indie rock he creates. His debut LP, Leaves In The River, was released last year on Dangerbird Records to critical acclaim. Touring the country with label mates Silversun Pickups and veterans Nada Surf, the band made its national television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Although she is currently spending a dysfunctional amount of time touring the world with her indie pop band, TEGAN QUIN from Tegan and Sara, is a bookworm who lives and writes songs in Vancouver, Canada. “His Love” was recorded in her home studio/library.

About this edition

• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 142720425X
• ISBN 13: 9781427204257
• Binding: Audio CD
• Number of pages: 9