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    Lily and the Octopus
    Lily and the Octopus
    Lily and the Octopus
    Audiobook8 hours

    Lily and the Octopus

    Written by Steven Rowley

    Narrated by Michael Urie

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    A national bestseller combining the emotional depth of The Art of Racing in the Rain with the magical spirit of The Life of Pi, “Lily and the Octopus is the dog book you must read this summer” (The Washington Post).

    Ted—a gay, single, struggling writer is stuck: unable to open himself up to intimacy except through the steadfast companionship of Lily, his elderly dachshund. When Lily’s health is compromised, Ted vows to save her by any means necessary. By turns hilarious and poignant, an adventure with spins into magic realism and beautifully evoked truths of loss and longing, Lily and the Octopus reminds us how it feels to love fiercely, how difficult it can be to let go, and how the fight for those we love is the greatest fight of all.

    Introducing a dazzling and completely original new voice in fiction and an unforgettable hound that will break your heart—and put it back together again. Remember the last book you told someone they had to read? Lily and the Octopus is the next one. “Startlingly imaginative...this love story is sure to assert its place in the canine lit pack...Be prepared for outright laughs and searing or silly moments of canine and human recognition. And grab a tissue: “THERE! WILL! BE! EYE! RAIN!” (New York Newsday).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJun 7, 2016
    ISBN9781442399600
    Author

    Steven Rowley

    Steven Rowley (Portland, 1971) se graduó en el Emerson College de Boston, centro especializado en Comunicación y Arte. Columnista en diversos periódicos y guionista, en la actualidad reside en Los Ángeles. Lily y el pulpo, su primera novela pu­blicada, se ha traducido a dieciocho idiomas. Fotografía © Malina Saval.

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    Reviews for Lily and the Octopus

    4/5

    492 ratings69 reviews

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    • 5/5
      As a previous and current dog owner this was exactly what I went through. I balled my eyes out with this book. Absolutely hearth wrenching and BEAUTIFUL! Thank you for telling your story Steven Rowley.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      pretty good but it goes on too long, gets very sappy. Stupid emotional inspidcharacterd
    • 4/5
      Enjoyable and heartfelt. Having loved and lost a dog to "an octopus" myself, I understand the anger, denial, blame, and all of the stages of grief that begin with the diagnosis and not the last vet visit.
    • 4/5
      I chose Lily and the Octopus because I loved Steven Rowley’s The Guncle and I wanted to read more of his work. Lily and the Octopus is his first book and it’s quite a bit different from The Guncle. It’s about Ted and his dog Lily. Lily is Ted’s best friend – they know each other inside and out. One day Lily wakes up with an octopus on her head. Ted must figure out how to get the octopus off. That’s all I can say without spoilers. I will say that it is definitely a story for dog lovers (which I am not – don’t judge!) so even though I did enjoy it, I think I would have liked it even better if I was a dog person.
    • 5/5
      A touching and well written story about love, loss, and making every moment count.
    • 5/5
      I loved Lilly’s voice, loved the story even though it made me cry and cry. I had to get up in the middle of the night and have some Cheerios. I had to reach down and touch my own sweet dog - General Bug several times in the night. He sleeps in our bed and he is 13. I was on the edge of my seat when Ted and Lilly were at sea - even though I knew that he was dreaming! Thank you.
    • 5/5
      Beautiful heartfelt and Imaginative. It made me cry which isn’t easy to do.
    • 5/5
      Beautiful story about canine love. Sad but something we all have to go through as dog lovers.. ❤️
    • 4/5
      I loved how Lilly was described in the book. The author was very fast the fall and describing their relationship. It was a fun book to read.
    • 5/5
      Incredibly sad but so happy at the same time. If you've ever lost a dog you find some peace of mind with this book. It's an incredible read, one that you never want to end. But heart wrenching at the same time.
    • 5/5
      Incredibly well written and such an accurate description of a relationship between a dog and a human. Cried a lot though.
    • 4/5
      Amazing narrator. I enjoyed the audio performance. Achingly sweet and a tad sad.
    • 4/5
      Entertaining. Charming. Easy read.
    • 4/5
      You will need lots of tissues for this book! Not recommended for dogs lovers.
    • 5/5
      My dog passed yesterday Finished this today Have hope for tomorrow now
    • 5/5
      Yes, I cried and I cried while listening to this book. I went through the same situation but in my case my little baby had linfoma. If you have a dog you’ll definitely hug him or her very tight while reading/ listening to this book.

      Dogs are angels...
    • 5/5
      So good! My heart is full of this sweet tale of a man and his best girl.
    • 5/5
      The greatest love story ever told. This is the most magnificent book I’ve ever read. I cannot stop myself from weeping and smiling at the same time. It is, by far, one of my top five novels ever. As a fellow internationally published author, I can only kneel and tip my hat in awe and gratitude.

      This is the new American Novel.

      This changed me in ways I never knew I could be changed. More so than Paul Colheo’s “The Alchemist”, and my all time favorite, “Flowers for Algernon”

      Read this. Audiobook this. Just get to it. Your life won’t be the same again.
    • 5/5
      What a sweet and heart breaking book! Anyone who has ever loved a dog or a cat will be captivated from the first chapter. And even though it breaks your heart, there is sweet hope. Listen! You will love it.
    • 5/5
      This is an absolute treasure, a must for anyone with a bond to a beloved pet, written with enormous heart, imagination and thought. I laughed, I cried, I hugged my dog too hard throughout. I think you need your dog beside you though. I did. Beautiful book. I love this man, and I love Lily.
    • 1/5
      This review is going to be very unpopular. Lily and the Octopus seems to be the 'it' book at the moment, and many readers, bloggers and reviewers I know have fallen in love with this book. I just didn't. I might cop some flack for this but I have to be honest, I hated Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley.The best parts were every segment of dialogue from Lily the dog. Great voice and amusing dialogue.The reason I hated this book was because I couldn't stand Ted, the main character. I thought he was a self-absorbed, narcissistic, self-indulgent, vacuous man and I just couldn't warm to him or his plight.And that was even before I got to the magical realism that didn't quite work and a 30 page dream sequence that had me hoping the finish would arrive soon.I know I'm going to be in the minority of readers here, but sometimes that happens. This book wasn't for me, but I know it has made readers laugh and cry and provided enjoyment for plenty of others.I was going to give this book 2 stars until I checked my own rating scheme. Two stars for me means not a good read, didn't really enjoy this one, whereas one star means terrible read, don't bother. I really wouldn't bother with this one and it was a terrible read for me, so one star it is.* Copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster *
    • 5/5
      Emotional in all the best ways, particularly for dog lovers. I was laughing and reading so many passages out loud that my husband finally picked it up and read the whole thing before I read it to him. This was the first book to have me not only in tears, but crying so hard I almost couldn't make it through the end, even though I knew it was coming all along. We have two fur-babies of our own, so this really hit home for me. By far the best book I've read, though when I revisit in a few years, I don't think I could make it through the tough parts again. Definitely recommend.
    • 5/5
      This as a beautiful gut wrenching listen, and extremely hard to stop listening to. Love love loved it.
    • 4/5
      This is a poignant story about a lonely gay man and his beloved dog. Highly recommend as an audio book.
    • 4/5
      This is a sweet, sad, funny and adorable story about a man and his dog. It's very different from any of the man's best friend stories that I've read. The way I took it was that the man personifies his dog. The dog is his world, and he has conversations with his dog all the time. The emotions sneak up on you.
    • 3/5
      Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley was a very different book from what I was expecting. I thought I had picked up a charming book about how a dog came into a man’s life and helped him get over the loss of his life partner. Instead this was a very sad book about the death of a well loved dog.Told in the form of a fable with plenty of magical realism, this was a heart-wrenching account of the final weeks that the author spent with his adored 12 year old dachshund, Lily, who succumbed to a brain tumour. Lily, the dog, was a wonderful heroine, the tumour, or as it was called in the book, the octopus, was a dastardly villain, leaving the human, a lonely middle-age gay man, stuck in the middle, trying to to do the right thing but not wanting to let go.I was not in the right head space for this book so I can’t say that I appreciated it or will take anything away from it. It was obvious that the human, Ted, absolutely adored his dog but I found the whole thing a little too self-indulgent and the raw emotions that were exposed made me very uncomfortable. It appears that there are many people who found this book touching and, yes, charming, but unfortunately I wasn’t one of them.
    • 5/5
      I read over half the book in just a day, without realizing it. Beware: you will bawl.
    • 5/5
      I usually shy away from books where the dog dies, but this one has a lot of heart and humor, and you know what the outcome will be from the start.
    • 3/5
      To me this was a very confusing book. It was chosen for my book club and borrowed an audio version from the library. I couldn't understand what was going on at the beginning so Iput it aside and went to read some reviews. When the reviews informed that the main character was talking about a cancerous growth (he called it an octopus) on the head of his dog Lily, I was able to return to the book and finish.Was the book, great? Not IMO however, it was heartwarming to read of someone who loved their dog so much.
    • 5/5
      This was an endearing book about love and life. Ted is a forty-something writer. He and his dachshund Lily have been together for 12 years. They are each other's everything, through Ted's breakups and Lily's health scares. When the Octopus comes into the picture, Ted discovers just how deeply he can feel love. "Lily and the Octopus" is a lovely book, charmingly written to be whimsical while touching the greatest depths of your heart.