-
Dispossession
- Narrated by: Gabrielle Union
- Length: 57 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $6.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's Summary
From Tayari Jones, author of the New York Times best-selling An American Marriage, and performed by Gabrielle Union, one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020, comes an unflinching story about mothers and sons that will leave listeners reeling for days.
Motherhood isn’t easy, especially when you’re a mother of a Black son. Ten years ago, Cheryl jumped at the chance to send her son, Javonte, to an exclusive boarding school in New England - far away from Atlanta and the violence of the city streets. It was the American dream, or was it? Now settled in Vermont, Javonte is married and well-employed, but Cheryl hardly ever sees him, and when she does, her own son seems like someone she only used to know. So, when Javonte announces he’s coming home to Atlanta for MLK weekend, Cheryl calls off work, thinking this could be their chance to reconnect.
But a few days before the visit, Javonte cancels his trip.
After begging for the hours back at the white glove moving company where she works, Cheryl accepts a last-minute gig in her own neighborhood, cheered by the idea of a Black family moving on to bigger and better. But on her way to the job site, Cheryl learns the home’s occupants aren’t moving by choice. Over the next several hours, Cheryl must reckon with her own unresolved past in this searing story about family, race, and the lasting consequences of a choice that can’t be taken back.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Ground Given
- By: Kassandra Montag
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 1 hr and 22 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sinead - who is both resilient and vulnerable, insightful and insecure - spends her days supporting her ailing mother and appeasing Emerson, the man who owns her house and the diner where she works. She wants nothing more than to leave the town her own dark history is bound up in, but Emerson asserts his power over her, thwarting her progress at every turn. One day, Tobias, a mysterious rambler from the east coast, walks into the diner, and Sinead makes the impulsive decision to invite him into her life and home.
-
-
Turned political 11 minutes in
- By Heather M Tyler on 01-21-21
By: Kassandra Montag
-
Silver Sparrow
- A Novel
- By: Tayari Jones
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Coleman Williams, Heather Alicia Simms
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in a middle-class neighborhood in Atlanta in the 1980s, Silver Sparrow revolves around James Witherspoon's two families - the public one and the secret one. When the daughters from each family meet and form a friendship, only one of them knows they are sisters. It is a relationship destined to explode when secrets are revealed and illusions shattered. As Jones explores the backstories of her rich yet flawed characters - the father, the two mothers, the grandmother, and the uncle - she also reveals the joy, as well as the destruction, they brought to one another's lives.
-
-
underwhelming ending
- By Keisha on 01-17-13
By: Tayari Jones
-
An American Marriage (Oprah’s Book Club)
- A Novel
- By: Tayari Jones
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden, Eisa Davis
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to 12 years for a crime Celestial knows he didn't commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding.
-
-
Loved the Story, but...
- By Lisa N. Haynes on 03-01-18
By: Tayari Jones
-
Finding Me
- A Memoir
- By: Viola Davis
- Narrated by: Viola Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In my book, you will meet a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life-changing decision to stop running forever. This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose but also my voice in a world that didn’t always see me.
-
-
A Glorious Listen!
- By Ajm220 on 04-27-22
By: Viola Davis
-
Just as I Am
- A Memoir
- By: Cicely Tyson, Michelle Burford
- Narrated by: Cicely Tyson, Viola Davis, Robin Miles
- Length: 16 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just as I Am is my truth. It is me, plain and unvarnished, with the glitter and garland set aside. Here, I am indeed Cicely, the actress who has been blessed to grace the stage and screen for six decades. Yet I am also the church girl who once rarely spoke a word. I am the teenager who sought solace in the verses of the old hymn for which this book is named. I am a daughter and mother, a sister, and a friend. I am an observer of human nature and the dreamer of audacious dreams.
-
-
Disappointed with the background noise
- By Marlise Alexandre on 01-29-21
By: Cicely Tyson, and others
-
Leaving Atlanta
- By: Tayari Jones
- Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor, Kevin R. Free, Robin Miles
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning novelist Tayari Jones delivers a story based on the 1979-1980 Atlanta child murders. Told from the perspective of three fifth-grade classmates, Leaving Atlanta is a vividly disturbing, but hopeful novel.
-
-
Why does Audible make you answer these questions?
- By Rich in BCS on 04-03-13
By: Tayari Jones
-
Ground Given
- By: Kassandra Montag
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 1 hr and 22 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sinead - who is both resilient and vulnerable, insightful and insecure - spends her days supporting her ailing mother and appeasing Emerson, the man who owns her house and the diner where she works. She wants nothing more than to leave the town her own dark history is bound up in, but Emerson asserts his power over her, thwarting her progress at every turn. One day, Tobias, a mysterious rambler from the east coast, walks into the diner, and Sinead makes the impulsive decision to invite him into her life and home.
-
-
Turned political 11 minutes in
- By Heather M Tyler on 01-21-21
By: Kassandra Montag
-
Silver Sparrow
- A Novel
- By: Tayari Jones
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Coleman Williams, Heather Alicia Simms
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in a middle-class neighborhood in Atlanta in the 1980s, Silver Sparrow revolves around James Witherspoon's two families - the public one and the secret one. When the daughters from each family meet and form a friendship, only one of them knows they are sisters. It is a relationship destined to explode when secrets are revealed and illusions shattered. As Jones explores the backstories of her rich yet flawed characters - the father, the two mothers, the grandmother, and the uncle - she also reveals the joy, as well as the destruction, they brought to one another's lives.
-
-
underwhelming ending
- By Keisha on 01-17-13
By: Tayari Jones
-
An American Marriage (Oprah’s Book Club)
- A Novel
- By: Tayari Jones
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden, Eisa Davis
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to 12 years for a crime Celestial knows he didn't commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding.
-
-
Loved the Story, but...
- By Lisa N. Haynes on 03-01-18
By: Tayari Jones
-
Finding Me
- A Memoir
- By: Viola Davis
- Narrated by: Viola Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In my book, you will meet a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life-changing decision to stop running forever. This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose but also my voice in a world that didn’t always see me.
-
-
A Glorious Listen!
- By Ajm220 on 04-27-22
By: Viola Davis
-
Just as I Am
- A Memoir
- By: Cicely Tyson, Michelle Burford
- Narrated by: Cicely Tyson, Viola Davis, Robin Miles
- Length: 16 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just as I Am is my truth. It is me, plain and unvarnished, with the glitter and garland set aside. Here, I am indeed Cicely, the actress who has been blessed to grace the stage and screen for six decades. Yet I am also the church girl who once rarely spoke a word. I am the teenager who sought solace in the verses of the old hymn for which this book is named. I am a daughter and mother, a sister, and a friend. I am an observer of human nature and the dreamer of audacious dreams.
-
-
Disappointed with the background noise
- By Marlise Alexandre on 01-29-21
By: Cicely Tyson, and others
-
Leaving Atlanta
- By: Tayari Jones
- Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor, Kevin R. Free, Robin Miles
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning novelist Tayari Jones delivers a story based on the 1979-1980 Atlanta child murders. Told from the perspective of three fifth-grade classmates, Leaving Atlanta is a vividly disturbing, but hopeful novel.
-
-
Why does Audible make you answer these questions?
- By Rich in BCS on 04-03-13
By: Tayari Jones
-
You Got Anything Stronger?
- Stories
- By: Gabrielle Union
- Narrated by: Gabrielle Union
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Remember when we hit it off so well that we decided we’re going to need more wine? Well, this time you and I are going to turn to our friend the bartender and ask, you got anything stronger? I promise to continue to make you laugh, but with this round, the stakes get higher as the conversation goes deeper.
-
-
Best listen of the year
- By Bethany Bruder on 09-15-21
By: Gabrielle Union
-
The Vanishing Half
- A Novel
- By: Brit Bennett
- Narrated by: Shayna Small
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, Southern Black community and running away at age 16, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: Their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her Black daughter in the same Southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for White, and her White husband knows nothing of her past.
-
-
Soap opera material
- By Sheila S on 06-06-20
By: Brit Bennett
-
Concrete Rose
- By: Angie Thomas
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If there's one thing seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter knows, it's that a real man takes care of his family. As the son of a former gang legend, Mav does that the only way he knows how: dealing for the King Lords. With this money he can help his mom, who works two jobs while his dad's in prison. Life's not perfect, but with a fly girlfriend and a cousin who always has his back, Mav's got everything under control. Until, that is, Maverick finds out he's a father. But it's not so easy to sling dope, finish school, and raise a child.
-
-
Five Starr!
- By Dayna on 01-18-21
By: Angie Thomas
-
We're Going to Need More Wine
- Stories That Are Funny, Complicated, and True
- By: Gabrielle Union
- Narrated by: Gabrielle Union
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this moving collection of thought-provoking essays infused with her unique wisdom and deep humor, Union tells astonishingly personal and true stories about power, color, gender, feminism, and fame. Union tackles a range of experiences, including bullying, beauty standards and competition between women in Hollywood, growing up in white California suburbia and then spending summers with her Black relatives in Nebraska, coping with crushes, puberty, and the divorce of her parents.
-
-
Excellent
- By Latoya on 11-16-17
By: Gabrielle Union
-
Black Girl, Call Home
- By: Jasmine Mans
- Narrated by: Jasmine Mans
- Length: 1 hr and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From spoken word poet Jasmine Mans comes an unforgettable poetry collection about race, feminism, and queer identity. With echoes of Gwendolyn Brooks and Sonia Sanchez, Mans writes to call herself - and us - home. Each poem explores what it means to be a daughter of Newark, and America - and the painful, joyous path to adulthood as a young, queer Black woman. Black Girl, Call Home is a love letter to the wandering Black girl and a vital companion to any woman on a journey to find truth, belonging, and healing.
-
-
Brilliant Delicious
- By erica on 04-22-21
By: Jasmine Mans
-
Zikora
- A Short Story
- By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Narrated by: Adepero Oduye
- Length: 1 hr and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Zikora, a DC lawyer from Nigeria, tells her equally high-powered lover that she’s pregnant, he abandons her. But it’s Zikora’s demanding, self-possessed mother, in town for the birth, who makes Zikora feel like a lonely little girl all over again. Stunned by the speed with which her ideal life fell apart, she turns to reflecting on her mother’s painful past and struggle for dignity. Preparing for motherhood, Zikora begins to see more clearly what her own mother wants for her, for her new baby, and for herself.
-
-
Great quick listen.
- By Tally on 11-09-20
-
The Other Black Girl
- A Novel
- By: Zakiya Dalila Harris
- Narrated by: Aja Naomi King, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Heather Alicia Simms, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and microaggressions, she’s thrilled when Harlem-born and bred Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They’ve only just started comparing natural hair care regimens, though, when a string of uncomfortable events elevates Hazel to Office Darling, and Nella is left in the dust.
-
-
Provocative
- By TDub on 06-05-21
-
Finding Tamika
- By: Erika Alexander, Kevin Hart, Charlamagne Tha God, and others
- Narrated by: Erika Alexander
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Black girls and women disappear every day, but not without a trace. Join actress and activist Erika Alexander in a neo-noir, true crime drama as she searches for Tamika Huston, a 24-year-old Black woman from Spartanburg, SC who went missing in 2004. Her case became a rallying cry for other missing Black women in America and led to a growing demand to expose a system that ignores missing girls and women of color.
-
-
Such a wonderful series.
- By amber on 03-04-22
By: Erika Alexander, and others
-
When the Side N*gga Catch Feelings 2
- The Finale
- By: Jessica N Watkins
- Narrated by: Benjamin Charles, Wesleigh Siobhan, Nicole Small, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of When the Side N*gga Catch Feelings, Part 1, all hell breaks loose. The two side dudes that Heaven and Treasure have fallen for pretended as if they could play second to another man. Now, their feelings are in the way, secrets have been revealed, and Vegas and Ross are determined to make sure that the outcome is deadly.
-
-
Fun Book
- By Amazon Customer on 01-30-20
-
Before We Were Yours
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Wingate
- Narrated by: Emily Rankin, Catherine Taber
- Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge - until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents - but they quickly realize the dark truth.
-
-
I was rivetted, finished in three days.
- By Lin Cloward on 06-26-17
By: Lisa Wingate
-
It's Not All Downhill from Here
- A Novel
- By: Terry McMillan
- Narrated by: Terry McMillan
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Loretha Curry’s life is full. A little crowded sometimes, but full indeed. On the eve of her 68th birthday, she has a booming beauty-supply empire, a gaggle of lifelong friends, and a husband whose moves still surprise. True, she’s carrying a few more pounds than she should be, but Loretha is not one of those women who think her best days are behind her - and she’s determined to prove wrong her mother, her twin sister, and everyone else with that outdated view of aging wrong. It’s not all downhill from here.
-
-
terry McMillan is in her own way
- By Jestina M Spaine on 04-12-20
By: Terry McMillan
-
The Things We Cannot Say
- By: Kelly Rimmer
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon, Nancy Peterson
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since she was nine years old, Alina Dziak knew she would marry her best friend, Tomasz. Now 15 and engaged, Alina is unconcerned by reports of Nazi soldiers at the Polish border, believing her neighbors that they pose no real threat, and dreams instead of the day Tomasz returns from college in Warsaw so they can be married. But little by little, injustice by brutal injustice, the Nazi occupation takes hold, and Alina’s tiny rural village, its families, are divided by fear and hate. Then, as the fabric of their lives is slowly picked apart, Tomasz disappears.
-
-
Formulaic and Romanticized
- By Michael & Cora on 11-04-19
By: Kelly Rimmer
Boys can break your heart more than men
As with An American Marriage and Half Light, Tayari Jones has the ability to tell stories about the Black experience that are refreshingly nuanced, intimate, and relatable. In her latest short story, Dispossession, performed beautifully by Gabrielle Union, Cheryl is a divorcée who has an uncomfortably distant relationship with her only son. After taking on a job at a moving company, Cheryl finds herself having to collect the items of someone who’s been evicted, which causes her to reflect on memories of her own family getting put out several times when she was a young girl, and how that has impacted her life since then. My heart ached for this woman, who, like most mothers, struggles with how to do the right thing for her child.

About the Creator

About the Performer
Featured Article: The Best Black Audiobook Narrators to Listen to Right Now
A skilled performer has the ability to take the written word to new heights, infusing an author’s work with empathy, warmth, and excitement. And representation matters just as much for audio as it does for any visual medium: listeners should feel and hear themselves in art driven by powerful performers and authentic deliveries. We’ve gathered a few of the best Black audiobook narrators in the business and their can't-miss performances.
Audible Questionnaire with Gabrielle Union.
Audible Originals
We’re raising the bar on audio entertainment with these original listens produced in the Audible studios.



African American Authors
Here are 15 must-listens from today’s most acclaimed and top-selling African American authors.
Celebrity Narrated Listens
From classics to modern favorites, this list features some of greatest stories brought to life by Hollywood’s best.
What listeners say about Dispossession
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sarah Peters
- 01-19-21
Wanted more
I love Tayari Jones and my only negative comment is that I wanted a bit more from this story. So, it’s a short story and maybe that’s the point? Still love her writing.
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bee
- 01-15-21
I Wanted More
As a mother of a teenage Black male, this story drew me in. I could relate to her plight of feeling like sometimes no matter what you do as a mother it's never enough, yet you just keep trying. I wasn't ready for the story to end. I wanted to more about the family dynamics. The narration was spot on. I definitely want to hear more from this author. Her writing is eloquent, relatable and evokes emotion.
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- L.R
- 01-15-21
Brilliant Storyline.
WOW! What a powerful story that got me back 40 years. The story was so rich and descriptive. It was like I was there myself. Brilliant author. Phenomenal narrator!
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tonetta Bullard, Realtor
- 01-23-21
Hmmmm....
I do not understand why this short story is so incomplete? It feels like Tayari Jones could not tie it together. As parents we try to do what we think is best for our children. Most times that leaves someone disappointed...us, them...or both. That is the case in this story parents are disappointed and child is angry all are broke hearted. The disconnect comes in the lost in life the mother is suffering through and why???? Her current situation has nothing to do with her past, yet she is stuck and full of regret. I keep feeling like I missed something significant in the story... I did the point and/or plot of it all.
The narrator Gabrielle Union tried to save this story but her acting did not transfer to successful narration. She is reading and that is not what narrators should do. They should become each character and make them different and unique. You should be able to distinguish them from each other.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Shopper
- 01-16-21
wonderful and heartfelt
the story is rememberable and the reader is remarkable! I love the soothing sound of her voice. would like follow the reader. ha.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- MsTko
- 01-16-21
I liked it.
A perspective that I've often wondered about-- Being the one putting people out, when once being the person put out.
Also, the family dynamics was interesting.
Overall, i found it very relateable, plus i love all the references to parts of Atlanta, a place i hold dear in my heart
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Adanna H
- 01-14-21
Moving Tale of A Mother
I enjoyed this moving, poignant story. Narrator Gabrielle Union deftly conveys main character Cheryl’s struggles and regrets.
If you are a parent, this short story will make you think twice about the things you do in the name of what's best for your child and the consequences of your choices.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kindle Customer
- 01-14-21
Thought provoking...
A short story that will produce a long train of thought, expertly narrated. I thoroughly enjoyed.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Adrian
- 02-08-21
Meh...
What was the point of a partial story??? I’m glad it was less than an hour long.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 01-20-21
Good but...
It's actually a 3.5 stars for me.
I really liked this story, the narration was pretty good too; however, something lacked for me.
Maybe im just not used to short stories but i definitely needed a bit more of this. I wanted the story to continue and get to know a bit more about Jevante and more family details.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Dohm64
- 04-27-22
Tayari Jones Never Misses
A beautiful, bittersweet short story wonderfully performed. Gabrielle Union is a warm and animated narrator giving this story of generational divides life
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- P. Clancy
- 02-16-22
good story
good story but would have liked if there was more to the story ended toofast
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- SEH
- 07-31-21
Heartbreaking, beautifully told story
I love this author. This short story about mothers and sons is beautifully told.
Even in such a short space of time, you feel like you know the characters so well.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 01-30-21
Loved this
Heartbreaking narrative of mothers and sons beautifully read. Made more meaningful in this Covid era as many suffer evictions..