Small Rain

A Novel

By: Garth Greenwell

Narrated by: Garth Greenwell

"Garth Greenwell's superb narration makes a powerful case for authors reading their own work...there's an open tenderness in Greenwell's voice that's immediately compelling"—AudioFile on Cleanness

This program is read by the author.

A medical crisis brings one man close to death—and to love, art, and beauty—in a profound and luminous novel by award-winning author Garth Greenwell.

A poet's life is turned inside out by a sudden, wrenching pain. The pain brings him to his knees, and eventually to the ICU. Confined to bed, plunged into the dysfunctional American healthcare system, he struggles to understand what is happening to his body, as someone who has lived for many years in his mind.

This is a searching, sweeping novel set at the furthest edges of human experience, where the forces that give life value—art, memory, poetry, music, care—are thrown into sharp relief. Time expands and contracts. Sudden intimacies bloom. Small Rain surges beyond the hospital to encompass a radiant vision of human life: our shared vulnerability, the limits and possibilities of sympathy, the ideal of art and the fragile dream of America. Above all, this is a love story of the most unexpected kind.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Long-listed, CPL: Chicago Public Library Best of the Best, 2024

Long-listed, Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year, 2024

Long-listed, NYPL Best Books of the Year, 2024

Long-listed, Los Angeles Times Best Books of the Year, 2024

PEN/Faulkner Award nominee, 2024

National Book Critics Circle Award nominee, 2024

Long-listed, Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year, 2024

Long-listed, NPR Best Book of the Year, 2024

©2024 Garth Greenwell (P)2024 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Greenwell—such a finely tuned, generous writer—transforms a savage illness into a meditation on a vital life.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“I just didn’t put it down . . . Very romantic, incredibly moving.”—Miranda July, author of All Fours

“A fierce, beautiful novel about loving, living, dying, caring and being cared for. Greenwell’s sentences crackle with contained energy.”—Sarah Moss, author of Summerwater

Worth Getting Through

Although my first impression was Winnie the Pooh (the voice) is gay and has a medical emergency, I was drawn in and felt a bit of privilege about being trusted with the intimate details of the illness and the author’s life. The medical aspect was interesting, but the impact on a life as a whole made me lean into this story and want an explanation of the illness and what the narrator could expect in the future. But with real life, nothing is ever that neat.

I’m glad I read the prequel

I loved this book and lived it. From experience, I knew how and why this unnamed character felt the way he did being trapped in a hospital for days with an ailment during the Covid pandemic. The language is poetic, aching. I was left on the edge of my seat wondering if the hospital was going to discharge him. A fine book and conclusion of this series. I highly recommend it.

Small Rain

I loved the deep emotions, the doubts, the exploring, the wonder, and questions. The author was definitely the only person who could have conveyed these feelings. The perfect reader. I totally loved the book. It was a book club choice. I listened to it twice!

A Masterpiece

As a senior gay man who has been both patient and care giver, this book hit very close to the bone. The descriptions of the internal meanderings of the mind as one lay in pain, helpless but coherent, is both very true and amusing by its very veracity. My only complaint is that it ended.

A beautiful portrait of sudden illness

A unique perspective from a poet who has a sudden medical emergency and that results in an ICU stay during COVID times. The narrative drifts from detailed descriptions of each medical decision and larger philosophical and biographical stories. It made me consider the preciousness of my own health and how the standard of care we receive in medical settings can make such a difference in quality of life.

Perfection

Unlike anything I’ve ever read before. Delicate attention to every detail and interaction. Beautiful prose from the POV of a poet whose life is threatened by a failing body. Read so earnestly. I will never forget this book.

The passion of the author/reader is the best there is.

This is a perfect book to listen to. The description didn’t seem interesting but it really was. It was so descriptive and passionate. It was enthralling. Highly recommend.

Don’t

Not what one comes to expect from Gareth ..
I get the jest - but the experiment failed to take off ..
I rarely ever post reviews specially not neg ones - but I felt hmmmm it’s a queer trap - not fair ..