Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview
  • Manchild in the Promised Land

  • By: Claude Brown
  • Narrated by: Cary Hite
  • Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
  • 5.0 out of 5 stars (3 ratings)

£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.

Manchild in the Promised Land

By: Claude Brown
Narrated by: Cary Hite
Try for £0.00

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

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

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.

Summary

With more than two million copies in print, Manchild in the Promised Land is one of the most remarkable autobiographies of our time - the definitive account of African-American youth in Harlem of the 1940s and 1950s, and a seminal work of modern literature.

Published during a literary era marked by the ascendance of Black writers such as Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and Alex Haley, this thinly fictionalized account of Claude Brown’s childhood as a hardened, streetwise criminal trying to survive the toughest streets of Harlem has been heralded as the definitive account of everyday life for the first generation of African Americans raised in the Northern ghettos of the 1940s and 1950s.

When the book was first published in 1965, it was praised for its realistic portrayal of Harlem - the children, young people, hardworking parents; the hustlers, drug dealers, prostitutes, and numbers runners; the police; the violence, sex, and humor.

The book continues to resonate generations later, not only because of its fierce and dignified anger, not only because the struggles of urban youth are as deeply felt today as they were in Brown’s time, but also because of its inspiring message. Now with an introduction by Nathan McCall, here is the story about the one who “made it” - the boy who kept landing on his feet and grew up to become a man.

©1965, 2005 Urban Audiobooks (P)2019 Claude Brown
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2
activate_samplebutton_t1

Listeners also enjoyed...

Raw cover art
Road Dawgz cover art
Wrath cover art
Working in America cover art
Between Riverside and Crazy cover art
Dreamland Burning cover art
Beyond That, the Sea cover art
Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem cover art
The Last Detail cover art
The Book of Harlan cover art
We Hope for Better Things cover art
The Call of the Wild cover art
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry cover art
When I Left Home cover art
Shane cover art
A Density of Souls cover art

What listeners say about Manchild in the Promised Land

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

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

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The narration takes an already incredible story to another level

I cannot rate this audiobook highly enough. The narrator puts his heart and soul into every bit of dialogue. It really brings this book to life. So great to hear proper slang from that era, with people called ‘cats’ and ‘hip’. The true story is occasionally funny, often harrowing, and always page-turning, and provides a raw glimpse into poverty in 1940s and 50s Harlem. I am about two thirds of the way through the book and am hooked. Lots of racist, misogynistic, and homophobic language throughout but - it was written over 50 years ago from a guy who grew up in extreme poverty so kind of to be expected. I highly, highly recommend this book to anyone interested in this era, and to hear it narrated in this way increases the quality of the experience even further.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!