City of Friends

By: Joanna Trollope

Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh

She glanced at her phone again. There were appeals from the girls, from her colleagues, a text from Steve reading, with uncharacteristic imperiousness, 'Call me.' She couldn't. She couldn't call anyone....

She leaned forward, gripping the edge of the bench, and stared at the ground. God, she thought, am I losing my mind? Is this what happens when you lose your job?

The day Stacey Grant loses her job feels like the last day of her life. Or, at least, the only life she'd ever known. For who was she if not a City high-flyer, Senior Partner at one of the top private equity firms in London?

As Stacey starts to reconcile her old life with the new - one without professional achievements or meetings but instead long days at home with her dog and ailing mother, waiting for her successful husband to come home - she at least has The Girls to fall back on. Beth, Melissa and Gaby. The Girls, now women, had been best friends from the early days of university right through their working lives, and for all the happiness and heartbreaks in between.

But these career women all have personal problems of their own, and when Stacey's redundancy forces a betrayal to emerge that was supposed to remain secret, their long cherished friendships will be pushed to their limits....

©2017 Joanna Trollope (P)2017 Macmillan Digital Audio

Andoh is an exceptional narrator

Would you consider the audio edition of City of Friends to be better than the print version?

Absolutely, Adjoa Andoh has an extraordinary capacity to depict moods and tone of voice and that amplifies the author's wit and wisdom. Andoh also has a stunning command of multiple accents and manners of speaking so that you get a real sense of the age, ethnicity, gender and other aspects of the diversity of the characters in the story.

What was one of the most memorable moments of City of Friends?

The speech Melissa gave regarding men hitting on women in the workplace and her relaxed, firm refusal to let Will buy her a drink afterward as the glory of that speech was not his to revel in. Well done!

Which character – as performed by Adjoa Andoh – was your favorite?

Andoh did them all so well. Something about the terseness of Beth was dead on as was the depiction of teenage angst and emerging sagacity in Tom.

If you could rename City of Friends, what would you call it?

The title is fine. This might be a bit on the nose but might I suggest "World of Friends" for the sequel as they travel to see Beth in Switzerland?

Any additional comments?

I am interested in this author now and my first pick of her other books is "daughters in law" but so far the narration is comparably quite bland.

Great story, great performance

I am a huge Trollope fan, both Anthony and Joanna.
She writes with love and grit about family life in Modern England. We care about her people and wish them all the very best. The reader was outstanding and not the sadly to frequent overly dramatic Audible reader. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a grand tale well told. Read it and then anything else Trollopean.

Mundane and bland

Well executed performance . However the story is so boring. I like slow moving, mood or artsy novels, but this is just ordinary, and I found it difficult to get through the story. I gave it a chance until chapter 10, but the only redeeming feature was the narrator's interpretation of the characters.

Tedious

I'm not sure if this book is just not very good or if the narration adds to the tedious nature. It took me forever to become interested in any of the characters, but now that I am about 2/3 finished listening, I find that none of them are very interesting and the dialogue is just awful. The attention to minutia is just unparalleled. The whole scenario over Melissa and her son and his dating a 13 year old - OMG - it just went on and on. It kind of killed any further interest I may have had. t's just painful to listen to at this point. I love Joanna Trollope, but this is not one of her better efforts.