A Widow for One Year: A Novel Audiobook

Quotes

• “Ruth Cole…emerges as a complex, conflicted woman…She is Irving’s most emotionally detailed character yet…An engaging and often affecting fable, a fairy tale that manages to be old-fashioned and modern all at once.”

  — New York Times

• “[Irving’s] characters can beguile us onto thin ice and persuade us to dance there. His instinctive mark is the moral choice stripped bare, and his aim is impressive. What’s more, there’s hardly a writer alive who can match his control of the omniscient point of view.”

  — Washington Post Book World

• “Moving and memorable…This novel marks a return to the deep but gentle examination of human nature that made Garp so successful.”

  — San Diego Union-Tribune

• “As compelling as Garp. It might be even better. Which is to say it’s terrific…Filled with compassion and complexity…A tribute to Irving’s powers as a writer…His most moving book…A Widow for One Year demonstrates, without a doubt, that John Irving is one of America’s great storytellers.”

  — San Jose Mercury News

• “An awfully fun—and funny—book…[A Widow for One Year] revolves around the world according to Ruth Cole, the daughter of a lecherous Long Island children’s book author and his beautiful, haunted wife. Irving’s strength has always been his characters…And Ruth…is one of Irving’s most fully realized creations to date.”

  — Sunday Oregonian

• “A feast…One of this storyteller’s richest works…Irving has stuck to his guns, outlived and out-written the minimalists, and every few years gives us a rich, resonant tale.”

  — Austin American-Statesman

• “Irving is a writer whose keenest sensibilities have always fallen somewhere between Dickensian verbosity and Mad magazine mischief; a writer whose work is informed by characters and events that run the gamut from the tender to the tragic…He has created in Ruth Cole a wisely enigmatic character, at once feisty and frail…A sphinx full of riddles on the road to personal redemption. Redemption ultimately seems at the heart of all Irving’s novels, people striving to rise above the absurdities of their life, daring to see some greater purpose in the mortar of their daily grind. A Widow for One Year celebrates this fusion of comic forbearance and enduring hope beautifully.”

  — Rocky Mountain News

• “Ruth Cole is one of Irving’s most endearing curmudgeons: the perfect guide through the often rocky and uncertain landscape of the human heart.”

  — Denver Post

• “Comic and tragic, brilliant, and moving…Crammed with all the wonderful characters, quirky situations, and memorable coincidences that have made [Irving] so beloved by readers…A Widow for One Year is unquestionably a big novel…in its scope, in its breadth of subjects, and in its myriad diverse characters. It’s a terrific read that will make you its willing slave, so captivating is its allure.”

  — Chattanooga Free Press

• “In the sprawling, deeply felt A Widow for One Year, John Irving has delivered his best novel since The World According to Garp…Like a warm bath, it’s a great pleasure to immerse yourself in.”

  — Entertainment Weekly

• “A Widow for One Year delivers everything John Irving fans have come to expect from the beloved author of The World According to Garp: a funny, sad, sprawling saga full of oddball yet believable characters.”

  — Glamour

• “Enchantingly balances the haunting tug of grief with the lure of enduring love…Irving’s rich narrative and his sense of play result in a delicious collusion between author and reader.”

  — Raleigh News and Observer

• “Full of humor, heartbreak, and lust.”

  — Newsday

• “Masterful…Powerful…Irving’s best books are Dickensian in their rich characters, plotting, and language—and of course, in moving the reader.”

  — Orlando Sentinel

• “There’s only one thing wrong with John Irving novels: They have to end. Readers won’t easily part with the characters of his latest work, A Widow for One Year…[An] exhilarating talent.”

  — Tennessean

• “When characters are brilliant, funny, idiosyncratic, and memorable, you are square in the middle of really good storytelling.”

  — Tampa Tribune Times