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    The Gift
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    The Gift
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    The Gift
    Audiobook (abridged)4 hours

    The Gift

    Written by Cecelia Ahern

    Narrated by Trevor White

    3.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    This Christmas, sprinkle some Cecelia Ahern magic in your life

    A magical and enchanting story which ends on Christmas Day, from the bestselling author of PS I Love You.

    This will be a beautiful hardback, gorgeously designed and illustrated and the ultimate gift purchase this Christmas

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 20, 2008
    ISBN9780007291168
    Unavailable
    The Gift
    Author

    Cecelia Ahern

    Cecelia Ahern was born and grew up in Dublin. Her novels have been translated into thirty-five languages and have sold more than twenty-five million copies in over fifty countries. Two of her books have been adapted as films and she has created several TV series. She and her books have won numerous awards, including the Irish Book Award for Popular Fiction for The Year I Met You. She lives in Dublin with her family.

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    Reviews for The Gift

    3.5/5

    271 ratings21 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 3/5
      I thought this would be a pleasant light read for the Christmas season, and expected to finish it quickly, reading a chapter or two each evening. It took me over two weeks... and it wasn't a difficult read. Just - strange. Not as quirky as some of the author's other books, but bizarre; a tale within a tale. A teenage boy, angry at his parents, is taken to a police station and then told a long story about a guy called Lou whom the police dealt with that morning.

      Lou is a workaholic who neglects his family... but his life changes when he meets Gabe. It's never spelled out who Gabe is but the Christmas theme and the events that unfold make it fairly obvious. Gabe is a homeless man whom Lou buys a coffee.. and then employs in his mailroom. And it just gets odder and odder, Gabe eventually giving Lou some tablets that have a very peculiar effect which temporarily seems to make his busy life rather easier. Only it's not that simple...

      I kept finding myself forgetting who was whom (other than Lou and Gabe) and slightly startled when there was a temporary return to the teenage boy at the police station. And I really struggled to like Lou. He does start to feel more human towards the end - and then there's a depressing conclusion.

      The moral is clear - don't neglect family for work - but this is not a light and frivolous Christmas story. The writing is good and the story flows... but when I'd finished, I rather wished I hadn't bothered.

      Not really recommended.
    • 5/5
      It brough tears to my eyes I loved every second of the book and couldn't put it down. At first I didn't care for the main character but as the story progresses, he pulls at your heart strings. A true Christmas Story that brings tears, joy and leaves you feeling a sense of guilt.
    • 5/5
      Love it! And yes...time is indeed a kind of gift you can not wrapped and lay underneath the Christmas tree. And it is way more precious than all the materials things we give and received this Christmas. I definitely love this book made me cry while reading the last few pages.
    • 4/5
      This book is for you if:
      you are in the mood for a good old Christmas-ly cry
      you feel introspective and open to reflect on the sense of life
      you want to reconnect with family values
      you want something that will remind you what are the important things in life
      This book is NOT for you if:
      you need something easy-breezy with no drama
      you DO NOT want to cry
      you're looking for more of a happily ever after novel
      you are looking for a girl-meets-boy novel

      I enjoyed this book, it reduced me into tears, I was on a plane and had to contain myself not to sob loudly in front of everybody.
      Ahern initial description of the quiet street on Christmas morning was sublime.
      Overall, a sad book with plenty of moral... but one of the good ones
    • 4/5
      A good story from Cecelia Ahern. Lou Suffern - successful, married, 2 children, big house but not enough time. Always needing to be 2 places at once and puts his family second. He then meets Gabe, a homeless man who he gives a job to and the the story begins.I liked this book, its set at Christmas time and it sets the scene for the story. I liked Gabe for most of the book. Lou I found quite difficult to relate to. The book moves on at a steady pace and there almost an element of unpredictability in some cases. I can't explain or it would ruin the story for you.This gets a 4.5/5 from me. It was just missing a little something so I didn't make it quite 5 star but a great read nonetheless.
    • 5/5
      I don't often read "chic lit" but chose this for our book club to read for our December novel as it appeared on my Amazon recommendations. With that in mind, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it and was very pleasantly surprised not only by the novel itself but by the ending (which I won't spoil here).
      In her main character Lou Suffern, Ahern creates a protagonist that is difficult to empathise with at the same time as he is very easy to understand. A driven, work is priority while his family suffers at home man is not the first choice when it comes to a "hero" for the reader to root for. However, by the end of the book not only was I rooting for him, I was convinced by his transformation, introduced through the character of Gabe.
      I think Ahern uses Gabe well, there's always an element of doubt about whether he's a real person, whether he's been sent there ala "A Wonderful Life" to show Lou what life would be/could be like or whether he's there with a nefarious purpose in mind.
      With the central premise that time is precious and something that can never be reclaimed, Ahern gives us a somewhat updated twist on Dicken's A Christmas Carol which is perfect for the season, even if it ends with a bittersweet note.
    • 4/5
      Gives you much to think about - with a twist at the end! Highly recommended.
    • 2/5
      This book is not a chick-lit. At times, language and story seems somber. But it has a beautiful hidden message. With dash of supernatural and corporate hi-life thrown in. Apt for Christmas gifts since it does have a Christmas background too! ;)
    • 4/5
      I loved this book about a man who is given the opportunity to make amends with the people in his world before he is taken from all of them. It was just what I needed to read at Christmas.
    • 5/5
      This book had me all teary at the end. The second book (after If You Could See Me Now) by Cecelia Ahern which gave me that effect. I love how Ahern splatters reality with an ounce of magic. The change in Lou's behavior and the purity of his love warmed my heart right to the very core. I finished reading this book in about three days and that's saying something. The Gift is a must-read. It captures the essence of life, how we tend to forget the truly meaningful things because we are too engrossed in chasing after what everyone else deem important. It blew me away!
    • 5/5
      I discovered Cecelia Ahern only few years ago, well after the 'PS I Love You' hype, and enjoying her full of magic books since. The Gift is a lovely contemporary story of a young businessman learning to realize what really matters in life. I imagine this won't be a hit with a lot of people, but I found it quite endearing and a very pleasant and quick read. Well done Cecelia!
    • 3/5
      Synopsis: Lou Suffern is a successful business man who works hard at his job. However, he is so tied up with his work that he neglects his family who can't rely on him to turn up to family outings on time if at all. When Lou meets homeless man Gabe, he slowly starts to realise what's most important.My Opinion: A bit cliche'd but still well written with important lessons for everybody.
    • 2/5
      Picked up as a holiday read (hence also reading the German translation).Where to start? The translation is clumsy, full of half-English words and badly-translated idioms. (A heart attack is not a Herzattacke, it's a Herzinfarkt, dammit!)The writing it heavy on exposition and full of similes which the author undoubtedly thinks are incredibly clever - she is wrong.The real trouble with the book, though, is the one-dimensionality of the characters. Lou, the main character, is a "businessman" who works for a "development company". He is a workaholic who doesn't spend enough time with his family, and the book is supposed to show us how he realises what's really important in life before it's too late. I work in a business environment, I occasionally spend more time in the office than I should, there are months when my cat forgets what I smell like - I should be able to identify with this character. And yet I struggle, because he is simply play-acting at being a "businessman". Cecelia Ahern has clearly never worked in that kind of environment herself, and it shows. Every time she attempts to describe Lou's work life, it ends up as a string of meaningless buzzwords - he might as well be negotiating the BlackBerry and closing the deal on the paperwork. The environment itself feels like a cliche from the 50s (or Germany in the 90s): the only women working in Lou's company are secretaries, and they sleep with their bosses.None of the other characters fare any better - they are all sketches and stock characters, one-dimensional cliches. Keeping in mind that the plot isn't particularly original (except, perhaps, for the ending), and the whole thing leaves an aftertaste like rice rice cakes - bland Styrofoam.To top it all off, the author/narrator is incredibly patronising. Just in case we didn't get the point, she spends the last ten pages ramming it home over and over. Colour me unimpressed.Bechdel: I *think* there's a scene where Lou's wife tells their five-year-old daughter, who's busy puking her guts out, that everything's okay - but I'm not even sure if it's written as dialogue or, yet again, exposition. I'm going to be a little stricter with Bechdel this year though - I don't think this counts. Fail.
    • 4/5
      This was my first Cecilia Ahern, would you believe, and I wasn't sure what to expect. A light chick lit read, a happy ending, a little romance, a Christmas moral? Well, that last part was there for the taking, but I couldn't have been more wrong about the rest! Instead, what Ahern offers is a thoughtful portrayal of a family in meltdown, with a twist of magic that somehow never overwhelms the message of the story.Lou Suffern is a workaholic. All day, every day, he slogs at his office, skipping from one meeting to another, from one task to the next, skilfully juggling everything and everyone in a feverish attempt to win the position - and the office - left vacant when his colleague had a breakdown. At night, he takes to the bars and restaurants of Dublin, cavorting with clients and flirting with women. The only thing he can't bring himself to do, it seems, is to go home and spend quality time with his wife and children. Everything changes the day he meets Gabriel, a homeless man living outside his office building, and to his own great surprise, gives him not only his coffee but also a job in the busy mail room. But who is Gabe? He looks a little like Lou. He seems to know things about him and his life that no stranger could know, and he has the uncanny knack of popping up everywhere. Almost like he can be in two places at once - a talent Lou would love to possess...This was definitely a more accomplished and better-written novel than I was, rather cynically, expecting. Lou is one of those characters we root for even though we hope we'll never be like him. Throughout the book I wanted to grab hold of him and shake him as he made his bad decisions and pushed his family further and further away through his own selfishness and ambition, and I was longing for him to turn things around before it was too late. I like the fact that we are left to draw our own conclusions about Gabe as well - is he some kind of magical figure of conscience? An angel, as his name suggests? In true magical realism style, we are simply left to wonder over the cryptic clues.The only thing I really didn't like was Ahern's over-zealous use of imagery. Oh, how I hated it. She mixes her metaphors and scrambles her similes and seems to feel the need to describe EVERYTHING in reference to something else. This veers from laughably ridiculous to vaguely irritating to hideously jarring and back again, and lost the book a star for me. On the flip side, the characters and relationships are beautifully drawn, and the family and company circles through which Lou moves are pitch-perfect. It made me think, it made me cry, and the moral of the story is ever-relevant in today's fast-paced, consumer-driven society. Definitely a good novel for the run-up to Christmas!
    • 4/5
      ‘Enchanting’ certainly is a suitable word to describe The Gift. While it isn’t exactly the perfect Christmas story (I’ll get to that later), it’ll still warm readers’ hearts.The story follows Lou, a workaholic who’s so busy with his career, he has no time for his family. One day, as a random act of kindness, he meets Gabe, a homeless man outside his office and gives him a job. Gabe gradually begins to warm up to Lou, and gives him a container of pills that ‘gives Lou all the time he needs’.Ahern has certainly matured as a writer. Her writing is more emotionally driven and thought provoking. While she does tend to push the fantasy aspect of her novel beyond something believable, as long as it works, I’m not complaining. Time is also a prominent theme in the novel, and Ahern successfully emphasizes it through her characters.Lou isn’t the kind of character you’d warm up to at the beginning. At first I was repulsed by his attitude towards his family, but as the story progresses, I start rooting for him to change his ways. During the second-half of the story, Lou begins to redeem himself as a family man, and that’s when he becomes truly likeable. Gabe is as mysterious when he enters the story as when it ends. I felt there were too many unanswered questions about him, and that made him a little unrealistic. However, I was a little disappointed at the ending. I understand that Ahern had to kill off Lou’s character to make him more sympathetic, but in doing so, it gives the novel a sad and sombre tone, which doesn’t really fit with the festive mood of Christmas. Ahern also spent too much time building Lou’s character – nearly the entire first half of the novel was dedicated to establishing Lou as a workaholic. I felt she could’ve explored more of Gabe’s character, and explain some of the mysteries surrounding him, like how does he know so much about Lou and his life.Despite some minor letdowns, The Gift is a heartwarming and emotional novel, and should satisfy Cecelia Ahern fans, as well as anyone looking for a nice, thought-provoking read
    • 4/5
      Cecelia Ahern has done it again, at least in this readers mind. I first read her book "A Place Called Here" and was intrigued by her imagination and her writing style. I moved on to "P.S. I Love You", "If You Could See Me Now" and then "Love, Rosie". All of her books have a fantasy theme and all have things that you dream and wish could happen in life. "The Gift" is no different. Not only does it have a wonderful storyline but it also tries to teach the lesson that time is precious and no matter what you do, once time is gone you can't get it back. Cherish what you have and love the ones in your life now because if you put it off, you may run out of time.Now I must go track down "Thanks for the Memories", "Mr. Whippy" and "Irish Girls Are Back in Town".ENJOY!
    • 3/5
      I didn't know what to expect from this book when it was chosen as our book club christmas read, we usually choose a light weight often funny book. I haven't read PS I Love You but I didn't enjoy the film very much. This wasn't funny but it was very easy to read, if a little 'preachy' in some ways. The overall theme of make the most of what you have and in particular family was a good one, especially at Christmas and I felt like making my husband read it on more than one occasion! Like many of the other reviews I didn't like the ending.
    • 4/5
      Lou is not a character you like, but I didn't not care for him either. I was surprised that instead of anger towards his character, I was actually rooting for him to change his ways. I wanted so much for him to really get it. Lou has the demanding job, and the go-go-go attitude, but his family is shunned to the back. He has no time for them, nor does he feel bad about it...in the beginning. The character of Gabe was a guardian angel type, and a little creepy. I really don't feel who he was was really explained, but I assumed he was something like Lawrence from It's a Wonderful Life only everyone could see him. The writing was very good. There definitely a improvement in Cecelia Ahern's writing, especially with the prose. I love P.S I Love You, and it's still my favorite of Ms. Ahern's books but her writing has matured from that book. I've heard people say that The Gift is too preachy, but I didn't feel that while reading it. I thought the whole time and family is precious storyline actually swayed away from being overly preachy. The ending wasn't what I would have liked but then again maybe the impact of what she was trying to get would have been less.
    • 3/5
      As far as I know, most of Cecilia Ahern's books carry this "motivational" theme underneath. This one is no exception. The book is written in simple English and is probably directed at class 8 students. Then again to contradict that logic, you'll find that there is reference to sex and promiscuity and is not for them. It is probably targeted at people suffering from "impatience" or "attention deficit disorder". Either way, the book fails.The story revolves around Lou - a success hungry, work worshipper, family neglecting, corporate employee - and his encounter with Gabe - a poor man with unusual observation powers. It is the story of how Lou is helped by Gabe to understand and overcome the rat race he had put himself into. Cecilia Ahern tries to incorporate a sense of magical realism by introducing a pill as a deus ex machina, which allows Lou to be in two places at once for a brief amount of time.Of course, the book preaches the necessity of work-life balance but that's it. Depending on what you prefer, this book can be used as a quick read during a small journey. I read it while I was commuting on a local train and back.For simple English, yet depth of thought, my vote goes to The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
    • 2/5
      All Cecelia Ahern's books have been different and this one is no exception.
    • 3/5
      Having just seen parts of her father's biography on RTE (Ireland's National TV station) and it noting that he was quite the absent father, I have to wonder how much of this is wishful thinking on the part of Cecelia Ahern. It's a story about a boy who throws a semi-frozen turkey through a window who gets told a story about another man. A workaholic who learns lessons about the important things in life and who realises that life is now not tomorrow.I can see this one splitting it's audience. It's unsubtle in it's message and pretty obvious in it's heart-string tugging. A little too obvious for my tastes, I'm sure other people's mileage may vary. The packagaing is cute, the ribbon isn't a permanent part of the cover though and as it's usually shrink wrapped the lack of cover details makes it hard to decide what it's all about.