The Alternatives

A Novel

By: Caoilinn Hughes

Narrated by: Sarah Bolger, Aisling Franciosi, Caoilinn Hughes, Dominique Mcelligott, Liam Heslin, John Keating

“A bold, beautiful, complex novel, and I can’t wait to read what Hughes writes next. She, too, is an unstoppable force.” —New York Times Book Review

“A tale about sisterhood, a novel of ideas, a chronicle of our collective follies, a requiem for our agonizing species, The Alternatives unfolds in a prose full of gorgeous surprises and glows with intelligence, compassion, and beauty.” —Hernan Diaz

From the writer Anthony Doerr calls “a massive talent,” the story of four brilliant Irish sisters, orphaned in childhood, who scramble to reconnect when the oldest disappears into the Irish countryside

The Flattery sisters were plunged prematurely into adulthood when their parents died in tragic circumstances. Now in their thirties—all single, all with PhDs—they are each attempting to do meaningful work in a rapidly foundering world. The four lead disparate, distanced lives, from classrooms in Connecticut to ritzy catering gigs in London’s Notting Hill, until one day their oldest sister, a geologist haunted by a terrible awareness of the earth’s future, abruptly vanishes from her work and home. Together for the first time in years, the Flatterys descend on the Irish countryside in search of a sister who doesn’t want to be found. Sheltered in a derelict bungalow, they reach into their common past, confronting both old wounds and a desperately uncertain future. Warm, fiercely witty, and unexpectedly hopeful, The Alternatives is an unforgettable portrait of a family perched on our collective precipice, told by one of Ireland’s most gifted storytellers.

Thoughts

Characters are the interesting. Love the philosophical argument. Don't push so much on areviewers .enough!

Loved it.

This book isn’t going to be for everyone because it leaves a lot of unanswered questions. But the ending is true to the thesis of the book, which is when a woman has given all that she has to everyone else in her life, what is left for herself?

Great character development.

No resolution of anything was frustrating. The book ended abruptly. Not sure if this is for a series, but it left me wanting.

Beautiful narrative and themes

I absolutely love this book. While I don’t enjoy anything apocalypse-related, the four women in this story circle around one another against the background of everyday environmental and social threats. If you adore beautiful fiction and have ever wondered if you should live on a remote island pondering our shared future, this book is for you.

Confusion

Characters hard to discern from one another, save Alwin. Too much intellectual detail, not enough story.