Audiobook9 hours
The Carriage House
Written by Louisa Hall
Narrated by Alyssa Bresnahan
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
For more than thirty years, William Adair' s faith in life was based on two indisputable principles: the exceptional good looks and athletic talents of his three daughters and the historical status of his family in their Philadelphia suburb. After suffering a stroke, William wakes up in his hospital bed to realize that his world has collapsed: his children are less extraordinary than he had remembered and his family' s notable history has been forgotten. William' s daughters-- all tennis champions in their youth-- are in decline. Having lost their father' s pride, the three sisters struggle to define themselves. Their mother, whose memory has started to fade, is unable to help them recall the talented girls they used to be. For three generations, a carriage house has stood on the Adair property. Built by William' s grandfather, it was William' s childhood refuge and a sign of the family' s prominence. Now held captive by a neighbor due to a zoning error, the house has decayed beyond recognition and may even be condemned. Rallying to save their father, Diana, Elizabeth, and Isabelle take on the battle for the carriage house that once stood as a symbol of their place in the world. Overcoming misunderstandings and betrayals both deep in the past and painfully new, each of the Adairs ultimately finds a place of forgiveness. The Carriage House is a moving, beautifully wrought debut novel about the complex bonds of siblings, about rebuilding lost lives, and about the saving grace of love.
Author
Louisa Hall
Louisa Hall is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Iowa and the author of the critically acclaimed novels Reproduction, Trinity, Speak. Her poems have been published in The New Republic, Southwest Review, and other journals, and she is the recipient of grants from Yaddo, Macdowell, and The T.S. Eliot Foundation. She lives in Iowa City with her family.
More audiobooks from Louisa Hall
Speak: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Trinity: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reproduction: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The Carriage House
Related audiobooks
The Third Hill North of Town Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Magnolia City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Perfect Arrangement Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Across The Deep Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Cotton Blossom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Weight of An Infinite Sky: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Adelaide Piper Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In the Blink of an Eye: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gardener of Eden: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYou Believers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Refund Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hell or High Water Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRed Leaves: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Grief of Others Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Crimson Rooms: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Backlands Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 100 Year Miracle: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Fail at the Afterlife Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat To Do About The Solomons Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mathilda Savitch: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Shades: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All That I Am: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mrs. M Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Jonathan Rosen’s The Best Minds Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHeart Spring Mountain: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Underwater Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Rock Orchard Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Woman Beyond the Sea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Fiction For You
Tom Lake: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: A Hunger Games Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hunger Games Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yellowface: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stardust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House in the Cerulean Sea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Alchemist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Parable of the Sower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kindred Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Name of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Measure: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dutch House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Carriage House
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
1 rating1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whenever I write a review I think about the many different opinions people have when reading a book. This is one of those books that will probably not appeal to everyone, but it was one I really liked. It is being compared to Jane Austen's "Persuasion" but I read that book so long ago I don;t remember all that much about it in order to compare the two. William Adair, the father, is the sun that everyone, his three daughters, his wife who is disappearing under the weight of her early onset Alzheimer's and the woman who he wanted to marry once long ago. It is about the weight of seeing oneself only through someone else's eyes and when they are disillusioned, losing ones self and having to figure out all over again who you are and what you are meant to be doing. It is about the impact of a mother who is not really able to be there any more for her husband nor her daughters and the effect this has on the family. It is also about a carriage house which comes to mean everything and then alternately nothing at all. Wonderfully written, with some very flawed but real characters, and a family that must come to terms with what they are and where they will go from here. A family that I am sure many of us can relate to. Really looking forward to what this author will write about in her next novel.