Listen free for 30 days

  • The Empress of Idaho

  • Written by: Todd Babiak
  • Narrated by: Roger Wayne
  • Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
  • 3.6 out of 5 stars (5 ratings)

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 + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
The Empress of Idaho cover art

The Empress of Idaho

Written by: Todd Babiak
Narrated by: Roger Wayne
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $35.09

Buy Now for $35.09

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

Publisher's Summary

Best-selling and award-winning author Todd Babiak returns with an immersive and affecting story about a teenager's fascination with an enigmatic new woman in town whose past is catching up with her.

Monument, Colorado, July 1989. Fourteen-year-old Adam Lisinski is mesmerized the moment Beatrice Cyr steps into his life. Adam has a lot going for him: he's hoping to be a starter on his high school football team, he has a fiercely protective mom, a girlfriend, and a part-time job at Eugene's Gas Stop, where he works with his best friend. But he neglects everything that matters to him after Beatrice, his neighbour's enigmatic new wife, comes to town. Soon he finds himself alone with her - in the change room at Modern You, a clothing store on Second Street; in the back row of the theatre at Chapel Hill Cinema; in the front seat of her truck. He's confused about who she is, what she wants, and where she comes from. 

Adam is desperate, caught between wanting to spend time with Beatrice - whose past is catching up with her - and lying to everyone he cares about. The guilt overwhelms him. And when Beatrice convinces Adam's mom to quit her job and partner in a risky real estate venture, he has to do something before everything spins further out of control. The plan he comes up with tests his courage and leads him to an unshakable truth about loyalty and love. 

By turns riveting and tender-hearted, The Empress of Idaho is a story about the vulnerability and confusion of adolescence at the moment when it slams against adulthood. It's an unforgettable portrait of a boy's difficult coming of age.

©2019 Todd Babiak (P)2019 McClelland & Stewart

What the critics say

”If Gillian Flynn, Richard Ford, Vladimir Nabokov, and John Irving got together to write a novel, they would come up with The Empress of Idaho. Todd Babiak has gotten very close to perfection here. Plan ahead before you start - once you do, you will not be able to stop.” (Cathal Kelly, author of Boy Wonders)

The Empress of Idaho is like a 1980s Lolita turned into a darkly compulsive miniseries by Jean-Marc Vallée - starring a beautiful teenage boy. An achingly tender read shot through with Babiak’s humour and grace, this novel charms you as it haunts you. I could not put it down.” (Claudia Dey, author of Heartbreaker)

“Babiak skillfully develops his characters and their connections in a manner which reveals their individual depths and documents the effect Beatrice has upon them.... [Adam’s] victimization - from grooming through to the aftermath - is handled realistically and heartbreakingly.... A powerful, unsettling novel.” (Toronto Star)

What listeners say about The Empress of Idaho

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1

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

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

Unexpected and satisfying ending

I appreciated the insights into personal struggles that this story offered, in particular the struggles of a young man sexually abused by a much older woman. As the intensity grew, and the impossibility of escape seemed clearer, I wondered how the writer could possibly conclude this tale. I found the ending both surprising and unusually satisfying among fiction reads. Narration was solid, although I found the rendering of the women's voices a little awkward.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Compulsive Listening

Todd Babiak has written a raunchy and daring coming-of-age novel, set in small town, late 1980s America. Compulsive listening as the 14 year old protagonist goes from one funny but darkly distressing crisis to another.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!