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  • Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of a Man, His Wife and Her Alligator

  • By: Homer Hickam
  • Narrated by: Adam Verner
  • Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (7 ratings)

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Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of a Man, His Wife and Her Alligator

By: Homer Hickam
Narrated by: Adam Verner
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Summary

A journey of a thousand miles. With an alligator on the back seat. And John Steinbeck as a passenger.

This is a tale where everything is true,except the bits that are made up.

In 1930s America, the Great Depression made everyone’s horizons smaller, and Elsie Lavender found herself back where she began, in the coalfields of West Virginia.
She had just one memento of her halcyon days – a baby alligator named Albert.

Then one day, her husband’s stoical patience snapped and Elsie had to choose between Homer and Albert.
She decided that there was only one thing to do: they would carry Albert home to Florida.

And so began their odyssey – a journey like no other, where Elsie, Homer and Albert encountered everything from movie stars and revolutionaries to Ernest Hemingway and hurricanes in their struggle to find love, redemption,
and a place to call home.

From the bestselling author of Rocket Boys–the basis of the movie October Sky–comes a long-awaited prequel. Big Fish meets The Notebook in this novel about a man, a woman, and their alligator.

©2015 Homer Hickam (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
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Critic reviews

"Great memoirs must balance the universal and the particular.... In his debut, Hickam...walks the line beautifully.... No matter how jaded readers have become by the onslaught of memoirs, none will want to miss the fantastic voyage of BCMA, Auk and Coalwood." (Publishers Weekly on Rocket Boys)
"Recalling a lost era, the transition between small-town life and the dawning of the new technological age, he brings his American hometown to life with vivid images, appealing characters and considerable literary magic." (Publishers Weekly on The Coalwood Way)

What listeners say about Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of a Man, His Wife and Her Alligator

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My Best of 2015

This was a great wee find. We travel back and forth through time as Homer tells his son the story of his parents' history.

I did find it hard to warm to the wife as she was basically with Homer as the man she really loved, didn't love her. She was very cold towards him and almost goaded him with the fact that another man in Florida was his superior.

However, the real star of the show was the alligator. I used to be terrified of them after my brother made me watch a horror film on them when I was 5, cheers bro! This one was adorable though. Brought up from a baby, loving long walks on his leash, belly rubs and the habit of crooning, "yeah, yeah, yeah" when we was content.

The alligator is being driven long distance back to Florida to live out its days in the everglades; along the way his keepers have many adventures and meet famous folk including John Steinback and E Hemmingway. I dare you not to find this an endearing wee heart warmer.

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