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A Spool of Blue Thread: A novel Audiobook
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Publisher Description
Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize “It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon. . .” This is how Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how she fell in love with Red that day in July 1959. The Whitshanks are one of those families that radiate togetherness: an indefinable, enviable kind of specialness. But they are also like all families, in that the stories they tell themselves reveal only part of the picture. Abby and Red and their four grown children have accumulated not only tender moments, laughter, and celebrations, but also jealousies, disappointments, and carefully guarded secrets. From Red’s father and mother, newly arrived in Baltimore in the 1920s, to Abby and Red’s grandchildren carrying the family legacy boisterously into the twenty-first century, here are four generations of Whitshanks, their lives unfolding in and around the sprawling, lovingly worn Baltimore house that has always been their anchor. Brimming with all the insight, humor, and generosity of spirit that are the hallmarks of Anne Tyler’s work, A Spool of Blue Thread tells a poignant yet unsentimental story in praise of family in all its emotional complexity. It is a novel to cherish.
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"This is a great story of a simple family and all of its intricate relationships."
— Melissa (5 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“Exploring this dichotomy—the imperfections that reside within a polished exterior—is Tyler’s specialty, and her latest generation-spanning work accomplishes just that, masterfully and monumentally…Indelible.”
— Elle -
“Tyler tenderly unwinds the tangled skeins of three generations, then knits them together…in precise often hilarious detail…By the end of this deeply beguiling novel, we come to know a reality entirely different form the one at the start. Not that anyone’s lying, only that everything—the way we see the world and the way we understand it to work—is changed by the intimate, incremental shifts of daily life.”
— O, The Oprah Magazine -
“[Tyler’s] extraordinary gift for producing what seems less like fiction than actuality works wonders again. Characters all but elbow their way off the page with lifelikeness… Masterly…A gleamingly accomplished book.”
— Sunday Times (London) -
“Tyler show[s] once again that she’s a gifted and engrossing storyteller.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“Luminous…The Pulitzer Prize-winning Tyler marks the fiftieth year of her writing career with another remarkably convincing look at the push and pull of family life.”
— BookPage -
“Narrator Kimberly Farr’s experience with character-driven novels is evident from her nuanced performance of this compelling story.”
— AudioFile
Awards
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A BookPage Top Pick for February 2015
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An Amazon Best Book of the Month for February 2015
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A New York Times Editor’s Choice
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A February 2015 LibraryReads Pick
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A Carnegie Medal for Literature Longlist Selection
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A 2015 Baileys’ Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist Selection
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A 2015 Amazon Best Books of the Year Selection for Literature & Fiction
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A People Magazine Best Book of 2015
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A 2015 LibraryReads Favorites of the Favorites selection
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A BookRiot Pick of Best Family Drama Audiobooks
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About Anne Tyler
Anne Tyler is an American novelist, short-story writer, and literary critic and considered a major figure in American literature. Her novels have earned a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, Amabassador Book Award, London Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence, among other awards, and several have been New York Times bestsellers. Her novel The Accidental Tourist was made into an Academy Award-winning motion picture in 1988. She was was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and now lives in Baltimore, Maryland, where many of her books are set. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
About Kimberly Farr
Kimberly Farr is an actress and winner of numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards for narration. She has appeared on Broadway and at the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Roundabout Theatre, Playwright’s Horizons, and the American Place. She created the role of “Eve” in Arthur Miller’s first and only musical, Up from Paradise, which was directed by the author. She appeared with Vanessa Redgrave in the Broadway production of The Lady from the Sea and has acted in regional theaters across the country, including a performance in the original production of The 1940’s Radio Hour at Washington, DC’s Arena Stage.