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Reservation Road (Abridged) Audiobook
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(3.01) - 1,368 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
A riveting novel of feeling and suspense in which grief and punishment become tragically intertwined. At the close of a beautiful summer day near the quiet Connecticut town where they live, the Learner family--Ethan and Grace, their children, Josh and Emma--stop at a gas station on their way home from a concert. Josh Learner, lost in a ten-year-old's private world, is standing at the edge of the road when a car comes racing around the bend. He is hit and instantly killed. The car speeds away. From this moment forward, Reservation Road becomes a harrowing countdown to the confrontation between two very different men. The hit-and-run driver is a small-town lawyer named Dwight Arno, a man in desperate need of a second chance. Dwight is also the father of a ten-year-old boy, who was asleep in the car the night Josh Learner was killed. Now Dwight must decide whether to run from his crime or to pay the price for what he did. Ethan Learner, a respected professor of literature at a small New England college, has seen his orderly world shattered in a single moment, yet persists in the belief that he can find the unknown man who killed his son. Behind their stories are those of eight-year-old Emma, who can't stop thinking her brother's death was her fault, and of Grace, who must find the strength to keep herself and her family together, and to be the mother Emma so badly needs. In a gripping narrative woven from the voices of Ethan, Dwight, and Grace, Reservation Road tells the story of two ordinary families facing an extraordinary crisis--a book that reads like a thriller but opens up a world rich with psychological nuance and emotional wisdom. Reservation Road explores the terrain of grief even as it astonishes with unexpected redemption: powerful and wrenching and impossible to put down.
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"After a horrible event, this book follows the emotional journeys of all those involved. The exploration of guilt, grief, and the reverberations we feel at the seams presents a bit of life that I recognize right away. It has a fairly good ending for a book of this type as well. And for you lit geeks, it has an interesting use of first person AND third person omniscient perspectives. I really liked this one."
— Daniel (5 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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This is a shattering book, imagined with startling emotional precision and generosity. And though it begins in catastrophe, Reservation Road turns out to be a kind of map of connectedness: Touch a child here and the whole world trembles out of orbit; everyone bleeds; finally, perhaps, after great pain, everyone heals. John Burnham Schwartz is awfully young to own this much wisdom, but there it is, on every page.
— Rosellen Brown -
A powerful and affecting novel...haunting...highly suspenseful...compelling to read.
— Michiko Kakutani, New York Times -
Spellbinding...a haunting tale
— Booklist -
A poignant thriller...quietly breathtaking...a suspenseful literary novel
— Betsey Osborne, Vanity Fair -
A pleasure to read. Suspense is redefined here...
— Sandra Scofield, Newsday -
A lovely book, full of life and feeling
— Peter Matthiessen -
One of those rare--very rare--novels that you don't so much read as inhabit...But it's the novel's conclusion, as perfect as it is sudden, shocking and completely unexpected, that will stick in your memory.
— Tom Dehaven, Entertainment Weekly -
A beautiful novel. An important novel
— David Bowman, New York Observer -
Both a beautiful, wrenching story of redemption, and a novel of exquisite suspense
— Anne Lamott -
A first-rate work of fiction disguised as a page-turning thriller
— David Halberstam -
An unexpected pleasure...It will leave the reader entranced as well as moved.
— Erica Noonan, Boston Herald -
A non-stop read...a wonderful writer
— Ward Just -
A triumph of form, pacing and power...character-driven as it is, it reads like a thrille, swift and complete.
— Kit Reed, New York Times Book Review -
It possesses a conclusion of such power that it would be a literary crime to reveal it.
— Deirdre Donahue, USA Today
Awards
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A 1998 New York Times Notable Book for Fiction
Reservation Road Listener Reviews
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" Wow! I couldn't put this book down. The ending was not what I expected. A "Wrenching story of redemption" (as the comments on the back say) sums it all up. "
— Beth, 2/10/2014 -
" This is a haunting and beautiful story; it keeps seeping into my mind days after putting it down. The characters don't want o stay on the page, they keep appearing here and there throughout the day. "
— Kathi, 2/6/2014 -
" suspenseful. a page turner. easy reading. "
— Mandy, 2/1/2014 -
" I enjoyed this book, though I found the mother's character to be underdeveloped and some of the father's behavior to be a little difficult to believe. "
— Edijkelly, 1/26/2014 -
" I got this book thinking I would watch the Mark Ruffalo movie afterwards. Unfortunately, I really had no desire to live through all that pain again. I guess this is more a character piece than a twisty turny plotty book and it definitely felt real and believable (and in a strange way made me grateful everything is going so swimmingly in my life), but, at the end of the day, I just needed a little more plot. The end also got a little melodramatic for me. "
— Tim, 1/19/2014 -
" I enjoyed this book while at the same time finding it completely depressing. "
— Michele, 1/11/2014 -
" A realistic character study of how people deal with loss and tragedy. Hearbreaking and touching, this is one of my favorite books! "
— Chien-ying, 1/10/2014 -
" This was pretty upsetting subject matter but well written. "
— Kelly, 1/4/2014 -
" Excellent story and excellent narration in this audiobook version. I am going to move right on to 1)watching the movie and 2)reading the sequel, Northwest Corner. "
— Deb, 1/4/2014 -
" It's a better version of something I would have read in a creative writing class in college, but a worse version of Andre Dubus. "
— G, 12/30/2013 -
" This was a quick summer read. I enjoyed the different points of view. "
— Lynn, 12/19/2013 -
" Such a haunting book. The same event & its aftermath told by three different people. It is beautifully written & manages to paint the picture of grief, loss & guilt vividly. I only wish the ending were more conclusive! "
— Cat, 8/17/2013 -
" This was a difficult book to get through. The movie was totally different from the storyline. I think I approve of the ending. "
— Mary, 4/6/2013 -
" I love when books change the point of view in each chapter. "
— Patricia, 12/18/2012 -
" I thought this book was depressing. It took me a long time to read because it was easy to put down and long in between to pick up. The wonderful "F" bomb was used a lot! "
— kristy, 12/2/2012 -
" It was an enticing read even though I had an idea of the ending based on the sequel I read prior, Northwest Corner. "
— Seed, 9/9/2012 -
" I've Learned that a human being is a mass of emotions, contrasting, yet combined and related. "
— Salma, 7/16/2012 -
" Tough subject matter, great story, crazy ending! "
— Kate, 4/9/2012 -
" What kind of an ending was that?! "
— Amber, 4/2/2012 -
" This book reminded me a lot of Lovely Bones. It was an interesting story, but somewhere along the way I became lost as to when the characters thoughts/feelings started to shift to where they were at the end. Also, not a big fan of the end. "
— Theresa, 1/8/2012 -
" Heart-breaking and beautifully written. Wonderful characters and a unique storyline. "
— Trisha, 6/15/2011 -
" This is a story of loss without redemption. Maybe that will come in the sequel. "
— Susan, 5/3/2011 -
" Sad,depressing and didn't like the ending. "
— Carrie, 12/21/2010 -
" 5 out of 5...This book made me cry so much... "
— Jessica, 9/23/2010 -
" I listened to this book on tape a long time ago and was reminded of it while reading another Burnham Schwartz novel. I remember it as a haunting story. "
— Carla, 7/18/2010 -
" This was an excellent book but it really made me feel for the family's loss, so strongly that I kind of wished that I wasn't reading it as I kept on turning the pages. Very powerful emotionally. "
— Derek, 2/9/2010 -
" grief & guilt of shakespearean proportions!! A riveting dark tale, wonderfully told. I appreciated having 3 separate voices on this CD book. "
— Sarah, 2/4/2010
About John Burnham Schwartz
John Burnham Schwartz is the author of several novels, including Claire Marvel, Bicycle Days, and Reservation Road. His books have been translated into more than fifteen languages, and his writing has appeared in many publications, including the New York Times and New Yorker. He lives with his wife and their son in Brooklyn.
About the Narrators
Stanley Tucci is an actor, writer, director, and producer. He has directed five films and appeared in over seventy films, countless television shows, and a dozen plays on and off Broadway. He has been nominated for an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and a spoken word Grammy; is a winner of two Golden Globes and two Emmys; and has received numerous other critical and professional awards and accolades. He is also author of two cookbooks, The Tucci Table and The Tucci Cookbook.
John Shea’s career includes more than forty films, most notably the Academy Award-winner Missing. His television work includes Lois and Clark and Mutant X, and he has appeared in more than twenty-five plays on and off Broadway and in London’s West End.
Anne Twomey is an accomplished actress of both stage and screen. Her Broadway credits include Orpheus Descending with Vanessa Redgrave, To Grandmother’s House We Go, and Nuts, for which she received a Tony nomination and a Theatre World Award. Her many television appearances include guest roles on Seinfeld, Law & Order: SVU, Spin City, and the Christopher Reeves’ movie-of-the-week Rear Window. She has also appeared in the films Picture Perfect and Orpheus Descending. Her audiobook narrations have won her five AudioFile Earphones Awards.