The King Is Always Above the People Audiobook By Daniel Alarcón cover art

The King Is Always Above the People

Stories

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

The King Is Always Above the People

By: Daniel Alarcón
Narrated by: David DeSantos
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $15.75

Buy for $15.75

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

A slyly political collection of stories about immigration, broken dreams, Los Angeles gang members, Latin American families, and other tales of high-stakes journeys, from the award-winning author of War by Candlelight and At Night We Walk in Circles.

Migration. Betrayal. Family secrets. Doomed love. Uncertain futures. In Daniel Alarcón's hands these are transformed into deeply human stories with high stakes. In "The Thousands", people are on the move and forging new paths; hope and heartbreak abound. A man deals with the fallout of his blind relatives' mysterious deaths and his father's mental breakdown and incarceration in "The Bridge". A gang member discovers a way to forgiveness and redemption through the haze of violence and trauma in "The Ballad of Rocky Rontal". And in the tour de force novella "The Auroras", a man severs himself from his old life and seeks to make a new one in a new city, only to find himself seduced and controlled by a powerful woman. Richly drawn, full of unforgettable characters, The King is Always Above the People reveals experiences both unsettling and unknown and yet eerily familiar in this new world.

©2017 Daniel Alarcón (P)2017 Penguin Audio
Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Fiction Genre Fiction Latino American Literary Fiction Short Stories United States World Literature Emotionally Gripping Heartfelt

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story Audiobook By John Freeman - editor cover art
The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story By: John Freeman - editor
Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self Audiobook By Danielle Evans cover art
Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self By: Danielle Evans
Dreams from My Father Audiobook By Barack Obama cover art
Dreams from My Father By: Barack Obama
And the Mountains Echoed Audiobook By Khaled Hosseini cover art
And the Mountains Echoed By: Khaled Hosseini
American Spy Audiobook By Lauren Wilkinson cover art
American Spy By: Lauren Wilkinson
Swing Time Audiobook By Zadie Smith cover art
Swing Time By: Zadie Smith
2666 Audiobook By Roberto Bolaño cover art
2666 By: Roberto Bolaño
The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears Audiobook By Dinaw Mengestu cover art
The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears By: Dinaw Mengestu
The Thing Around Your Neck Audiobook By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie cover art
The Thing Around Your Neck By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Refugees Audiobook By Viet Thanh Nguyen cover art
The Refugees By: Viet Thanh Nguyen
A Map for the Missing Audiobook By Belinda Huijuan Tang cover art
A Map for the Missing By: Belinda Huijuan Tang
Native Speaker Audiobook By Chang-rae Lee cover art
Native Speaker By: Chang-rae Lee
The Dew Breaker Audiobook By Edwidge Danticat cover art
The Dew Breaker By: Edwidge Danticat
The World of Tomorrow Audiobook By Brendan Mathews cover art
The World of Tomorrow By: Brendan Mathews
The Return of Faraz Ali Audiobook By Aamina Ahmad cover art
The Return of Faraz Ali By: Aamina Ahmad
The Lion's Den Audiobook By Eoin Dempsey cover art
The Lion's Den By: Eoin Dempsey
I'm Supposed to Protect You from All This Audiobook By Nadja Spiegelman cover art
I'm Supposed to Protect You from All This By: Nadja Spiegelman
The Septembers of Shiraz Audiobook By Dalia Sofer cover art
The Septembers of Shiraz By: Dalia Sofer
A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea Audiobook By Dina Nayeri cover art
A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea By: Dina Nayeri
Homeland Audiobook By Fernando Aramburu, Alfred MacAdam - translator cover art
Homeland By: Fernando Aramburu, and others

Critic reviews

"These stories explore immigration, family loyalty and redemption. Alarcón throws his characters into high-stakes situations to draw out humanity where it seems little hope is left." (The Washington Post)

“Alarcón is an empathic observer of the isolated human, whether isolated by emigration or ambition, blindness or loneliness, poverty or war. His stories have a reporter's mix of kindness and detachment, and perhaps as a result, his endings land like a punch in the gut.... He's a brilliant stylist, and there are plenty of moments in this collection where he's happy to flex.... Alarcón writes about them with a grayscale beauty that few writers can achieve, or try to. His purpose isn't to approve or condemn, or to liberate. He's writing to show us other people's lives, and in every case, it's a pleasure to be shown.” (NPR)

"Showcases his talent as a master storyteller. In 10 vivid, captivating stories, Alarcón explores immigration, family relationships, secrets, betrayal, hope, love, heartbreak, forgiveness, and redemption." (Buzzfeed)

No reviews yet