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Commonwealth
- Narrated by: Hope Davis
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
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Soap Opera Digest
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Editorial reviews
Editors Select, September 2016 - The day I get to start a new novel from Ann Patchett is like Christmas to me. I can't wait to open the gift of her lyrical writing and then am sad when the book is over and wish I could relive the magic of experiencing it for the first time. My Christmas came early this year, as I got the chance to read Commonwealth ahead of publication, and will come again on September 13 when I listen to the marvelous actress Hope Davis perform the story. Davis narrated Patchett's last novel, and the return of this powerhouse combination is sure to have Commonwealth - a smart, funny, and heart-wrenchingly relatable story of two families coming together over the course of 50 years - at the top of the best seller and Best of 2016 lists. Diana, Audible Editor
Publisher's summary
The acclaimed best-selling author - winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize - tells the enthralling story of how an unexpected romantic encounter irrevocably changes two families' lives.
One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating's christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny's mother, Beverly - thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families.
Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Spending summers together in Virginia, the Keating and Cousins children forge a lasting bond that is based on a shared disillusionment with their parents and the strange and genuine affection that grows up between them.
When, in her 20s, Franny begins an affair with the legendary author Leon Posen and tells him about her family, the story of her siblings is no longer hers to control. Their childhood becomes the basis for his wildly successful book, ultimately forcing them to come to terms with their losses, their guilt, and the deeply loyal connection they feel for one another.
Told with equal measures of humor and heartbreak, Commonwealth is a meditation on inspiration, interpretation, and the ownership of stories. It is a brilliant and tender tale of the far-reaching ties of love and responsibility that bind us together.
Featured Article: 10 Great Contemporary Fiction Authors
If you like well-written novels that prioritize compelling timely storylines with artful prose and structure, then this is the genre for you. So, why is it called "contemporary"? Because it’s fiction set in the real world, in times contemporary to the date it was published, and the stories deal with real-world issues. Representing a diversity of backgrounds and nationalities, here are our picks for the best writers of contemporary fiction over the last 50 years.
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Meet Dolores Price. She's 13, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye. Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally rolls into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before really going belly-up.
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Really disappointing narrator!
- By Jessica Williams on 01-21-12
By: Wally Lamb
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The UnAmericans
- Stories
- By: Molly Antopol
- Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Again and again, Molly Antopol’s deeply sympathetic characters struggle for footing in an uncertain world, hounded by forces beyond their control. Their voices are intimate and powerful and they resonate with searing beauty. Antopol is a superb young talent, and The UnAmericans will long be remembered for its wit, humanity, and heart.
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Sensational stories! Brilliant new author.
- By MidwestGeek on 05-04-14
By: Molly Antopol
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Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See
- By: Juliann Garey
- Narrated by: Dan Butler
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In her tour-de-force first novel, Juliann Garey takes us inside the restless mind, ravaged heart, and anguished soul of Greyson Todd, a successful Hollywood studio executive who leaves his wife and young daughter and for a decade travels the world giving free reign to the bipolar disorder he's been forced to keep hidden for almost 20 years.
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Psychosis or Syphilis?
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The Visiting Privilege
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Joy Williams has been celebrated as a master of the short story for four decades, her renown passing from one generation to the next even in the shifting landscape of contemporary writing. And at long last the incredible scope of her singular achievement is put on display: 33 stories drawn from three much-lauded collections and another 13 appearing here for the first time in book form.
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I sure tried.
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The Untelling
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Aria is no stranger to tragedy. Fifteen years ago, a family outing took the lives of her father and baby sister, leaving remaining members of this fractured family struggling with their own guilt - real and imagined. At 25, Aria believes she can reinvent herself through her planned marriage with all its promise of a family of her own. Her infertility changes her life as swiftly and irrevocably as the urban landscape around her.
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Don’t waste your time!
- By shasha on 09-18-20
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Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules (Unabridged Selections)
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Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules is a collection of short stories, some classic, others impending, selected and introduced by David Sedaris.
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Great stories but only 5 of 17 are included
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May We Be Forgiven
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May We Be Forgiven, a darkly comic novel of 21st-century domestic life, stars Harold Silver, a historian who's always been jealous of his successful brother, George. But when the hot-tempered George is institutionalized for committing a violent act, Harold finds himself comforting his brother's wife and children. What follows is a scathing examination of a family so fractured it may never be whole again.
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Give this one a try!
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Strong Motion
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Louis Holland arrives in Boston in a spring of ecological upheaval (a rash of earthquakes on the North Shore) and odd luck: the first one kills his grandmother. Louis tries to maintain his independence, but falls in love with a Harvard seismologist whose discoveries about the earthquakes' cause complicate everything.
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Compelling Story, Ridiculous Narrator
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The Daisy Children
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Overall
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When Katie Garrett gets the news that she’s received an inheritance from the grandmother she hardly knew, it couldn’t have come at a better time. She flees Boston and travels to rural Texas. There, she’s greeted by her distant cousin Scarlett. Friendly and flamboyant, Scarlett couldn’t be more different from sensible Katie. And as they begin the task of sorting through their grandmother’s possessions, they discover letters and photographs that uncover the hidden truths about their shared history, and the long-forgotten tragedy of the New London school explosion of 1937 that binds them.
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Multigenerational storyline lacked dignity
- By John F. Oldani, Jr. on 06-07-24
By: Sofia Grant
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If I am Missing or Dead
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In April 2002, Janine Latus' youngest sister, Amy, wrote a note and taped it to the inside of her desk drawer. "Today Ron Ball and I are romantically involved", it read, "but I fear I have placed myself at risk in a variety of ways. Based on his criminal past, writing this out just seems like the smart thing to do. If I am missing or dead this obviously has not protected me...."
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All About Janine
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The Man in the Crooked Hat
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Overall
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Private investigator Jack Pellum has spent two years searching for the man he believes murdered his wife - a man he last saw wearing a peacoat and a fedora. Months of posting flyers and combing through crime records yields no leads. Then a local writer commits suicide, and he leaves a bewildering message that may be the first breadcrumb in a winding trail of unsolved murders....
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Crazy Glue'd Me To Story
- By Ted on 01-11-18
By: Harry Dolan
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What listeners say about Commonwealth
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ruth M. Penson
- 09-19-16
A must read for Ann Patchett fans
This is my favorite of all Ann Patchett's books!!!
I love her stories, but this is the best of them all. The narration by Hope Davis is perfection.
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10 people found this helpful
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- Lissa Goldman
- 09-29-16
Ann Patchett is a masterful writer
I eagerly awaited this new novel by Ann Patchett. While it took a few chapters for me to become engaged with the story, once I did I couldn't let go. The descriptions of blended families and multiple marriages are so spot on I had tears in my eyes , both from sadness and from laughing. Anne Patchett is, in my opinion, one of the great American writers of this generation. I just wish my book club would choose one of her books!
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3 people found this helpful
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- Brenda Barnes
- 10-07-16
Complexities of Relationships
First, I must say that the timeline shifts and the changing narrators made this a little harder to listen to. I think I would have enjoyed it more had I read it rather than listened to it. Still, the story captured the complexities of relationships and how chance encounters affect our whole lives. The narrator nailed the voice if Beverly - I could see that character, and that made the story for me.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Curlz
- 09-30-16
Loved the Character Development
Where does Commonwealth rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Top 10
What other book might you compare Commonwealth to and why?
Diana Gabaldon books, specifically "Outlander" as far as being character driven.
Have you listened to any of Hope Davis’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
No I have not.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
"Commonwealth" of course.
Any additional comments?
This was a difficult listen at the beginning based solely on format. There were a lot of characters in the beginning to keep track of. If I'm listening, it means I don't have a pen and paper to jot down important info to keep characters straight. I would recommend that the listener read the first chapter to lock down the characters (what I finally did) and then enjoy the listen.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-14-17
Enjoyable
it was an interesting and entertaining story. With it jumping around between the characters and the decades, it made it a little tricky to follow, but I enjoyed it.
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- JillyJD
- 01-26-17
Too Short!
Loved this book. LOVED Hope Davis. I was surprised when it ended. I felt like there were many more Keating/ Cousins stories to tell that I would have liked to hear.
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- Colette F
- 01-01-17
Oranges?!? In June?!?
Any additional comments?
Bougainvillea without thorns? These two egregious botanical errors from an author raised in southern California got me off to a bad start with this book. As a huge fan of Bel Canto and State of Wonder I was really looking forward to this book. But the large cast of characters left most of them underdeveloped and subsequently hard to get inteterested in. Hope Davis' deadpan delivery was for once appropriate to the material. I found the famous author pick up scene at the Palmer House especially tiring. I did finish it and found some issues compelling, but will hope for better luck next time.
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- camakay
- 12-10-17
pretty good
but didn't like it as much as bel canto. bel canto felt more magical.
narrator was decent but didn't love the way she narrated women's dialogue. she made a lot of the women's voices sound silly, or comically feminine, Whereas, her regular speaking voice was pretty nice. But I felt like it made the female characters sound silly.
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- lunarchi
- 12-12-16
Great Listen!
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Ann Patchett is one of my favorite author’s. I love her writing and Commonwealth was not a disappointment. The story involved divorce, dysfunction, two families and the children of those families.. For me, Commonwealth illustrated the feral quality of neglected children and how that feral-ness follows children into adulthood. The setting and the children bounce between California and the Commonwealth of Virginia, hence the title. I listened to this as an Audible book, but I’m sure I would have enjoyed it equally reading. Definitely a great listen and/or read!
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- Mary Kathryn Flynt
- 12-14-16
Loved!
Book was one of the best I've ever read. Characters were so relevant and so well written. And I will now listen to any book Hope Davis reads. She was perfect.
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