City of Girls

By: Elizabeth Gilbert

Narrated by: Blair Brown

Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

The blazingly brilliant new novel from Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the international best seller Eat Pray Love: a glittering coming-of-age epic stitched across the fabric of a lost New York.

It is the summer of 1940. Nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris arrives in New York with her suitcase and sewing machine, exiled by her despairing parents. Although her quicksilver talents with a needle and commitment to mastering the perfect hair roll have been deemed insufficient for her to pass into her sophomore year of Vassar, she soon finds gainful employment as the self-appointed seamstress at the Lily Playhouse, her unconventional Aunt Peg's charmingly disreputable Manhattan revue theatre. There, Vivian quickly becomes the toast of the showgirls, transforming the trash and tinsel only fit for the cheap seats into creations for goddesses.

Exile in New York is no exile at all: here in this strange wartime city of girls, Vivian and her girlfriends mean to be free, to get up to no good, to drink the heady highball of life itself to the last drop. And when the legendary English actress Edna Watson comes to the Lily to star in the company's most ambitious show ever, Vivian is entranced by the magic that follows in the wake of this true, true star.

But there are hard lessons to be learned and bitterly regrettable mistakes to be made. Vivian learns that to live the life she wants, she must live many lives, ceaselessly and ingeniously making them new.

'At some point in a woman's life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time. After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is,' she confides. And so Vivian sets forth her story, and that of the women around her - women who have lived as they truly are, out of step with a century that could never quite keep up with them.

©2019 Elizabeth Gilbert (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Delightful!

This story is just delightful! Full of life, joy and colourful lessons in one the saddest times the world has ever known. The reader brings the story, in the form of a letter, to life and made me wish I was part of her ‘family’.

A delight

What a light and joyful yet significant story. It was stunningly read. I loved it!

A fun sexy romp

Enjoyed every single minute of this delicious novel. A tale spun so deftly and lightly that you might mistake it for being just frivolous fun. The beautiful bold characters will take you by the heart.

Outstanding

Loved every minute of the book. Brilliantly written and beautifully narrated.

Thank you Liz Gilbert!

City of Girls. What a thrill!

Thank you Elizabeth Gilbert for filling countless hours of oil painting with the company of your beautifully written book.

City of Girls was a thrill to listen to. I mostly listened to the colorful and beautifully narrated story while at my easel- and to be truthful- also as a bedtime story before falling asleep. I spend a fair amount of my time alone- with a pilot husband who is away half of our life... Your novel has kept me entertained and captivated every single minute of my time alone.

Blair Brown has done a brilliant job in narrating the tender, often shocking yet fascinating story of real life and the flavor and delicate sadness which accompanies it.

Your truthful story line, the harsh realty of being different to what society demands and the freedom of living an honest life, true to oneself, has been exhilarating to say the least.

The closing line- although honest and truthful, left me wanting the novel to have a sequel.

Thank you for the lessons. The truth. And the wisdom.

I wish I could listen to the story again. Without ever having heard it before.

I so wish there was more.

Thank you.

Excellent read

The narrator was fantastic! The story felt light and deeply comforting. Such a great book.

Absolutely loved it

I loved this story, and was completely absorbed. I relished everything from the snappy language of the 1940s conversations, to the evolving character of Vivian, and of course, to the descriptions of New York City, which is a strong contender for the leading character. Blair Brown's performance brings it all to life. I highly recommend this audio book

Brimming with wisdom and throughly entertaining

This book lived up to my every expectation. I'm devastated that I've finished it, but feel so enriched.

Thoroughly entertaining.

This book is like listening to a dear old friend recount some of life's best moments.

Loved it

The story was so sad, but so uplifting at the same time. Lots of life lessons!