Backcast

By: Ann McMan

Narrated by: Christine Williams

When sculptor and author Barb Davis is given an NEA grant to pair original feminist sculptures with searing first-person essays on transitions in women's lives, she organizes a two-week writing retreat with 12 of the best, brightest, and most notorious lesbian authors in the business. But in between regularly scheduled happy hours and writing sessions, the women enter a tournament bass-fishing competition, receive life coaching from a wise-cracking fish named Phoebe, and uncover a subterranean world of secrets and desires that is as varied and elusive as the fish that swim in the waters of Lake Champlain.

Set on the beautiful shores of Vermont's Lake Champlain, Backcast is richly populated with an expansive cast of endearing and outrageous characters who battle writer's block, quirky locals, personal demons, unexpected attractions, and even each other during their two-week residency. For Barb and each of her 12 writers, the stakes in this fast-moving story are high, but its emotional and romantic payoffs are slow and sweet. Filled with equal parts laugh-out-loud humor and breathtaking pathos, Backcast serves up a sometimes irreverent, sometimes sobering look at the hidden lives of women, and how they laugh, love, lose, and blunder through their own search for meaning.

©2015 Ann McMan (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Well written and told

This story had both comedy and tragedy.The author was able to spin this tale out and reel it back in so all of the pieces fell together and provided the story with a very heart felt and warm closure. Well done, I highly recommend its reading. I was thoroughly touched by this book. I have read it and listened to it. It is worth to experience both platforms.

Gets seriously churchy

Not sure where the editor was on this book, but all of the BS Church(y) stuff could have been edited out without disrupting the story. Definitely should have cut some of the ending. It was an okay story, performance was fine, silly story about suicide (not sure why they added that, has no value to the story).

was ok

Not my favorite book by this author, had trouble following because there were so many characters to get to know. Maybe I will give it another try when I can focus just on this book.

What a book!

I started this book thinking I would never keep remember all of the characters,but each one is unfurled like a rich tapestry. It is one of my all time favorites and I will be enjoying rereading it for years to come. I highly recommend it.

Great story!

loved the funny characters and their interactions! I was surprised by a few of the plot twists. Too bad I couldn't see the sculptures!