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A Good Hard Look

A Novel

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A Good Hard Look

Written by: Ann Napolitano
Narrated by: Debra Monk
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About this listen

From the New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful and Dear Edward, a novel set in Flannery O'Connor's hometown of Milledgeville, and a tragedy that forever alters the town and the author herself

"A wholly believable world shaped by duty, small pleasures, and fateful choices."—O, The Oprah Magazine

Forced by illness to leave behind a successful life in New York, literary icon Flannery O'Connor has returned to her family farm in the small town of Milledgeville, Georgia. With her health and time both limited, all she wants is to be left alone to write.

But Flannery's plans are soon upended by Melvin Whiteson, a banker from Manhattan who has recently married the town belle. Melvin is at loose ends with his new life; though he has every opportunity, he's not sure where to begin. Flannery knows exactly what she wants, but is running out of time. Through their unusual and clandestine friendship, both will come to reflect on the decisions they have made and the paths they have chosen.

Literary history and fiction gracefully intersect in this emotionally charged novel of small town Southern life, which asks us all to consider how we can live our lives to the fullest.

©2011 Ann Napolitano (P)2011 Penguin Biographical Fiction Fiction Literary Fiction Romance Heartfelt New York

What the critics say

“In A Good Hard Look, Ann Napolitano creates a fictional version of the life of the acclaimed southern writer that is as vibrantly colorful as the peacocks raised on the O’Connor family farm in Milledgeville, Georgia…Napolitano makes no attempt to mimic O’Connor’s singular style, but she does succeed in creating a wholly believable world shaped by duty, small pleasures, and fateful choices.”—O Magazine

“Napolitano’s protagonist is a marvelously outspoken, uncompromising force who becomes the impetus for several fictional Milledgeville residents to reassess and radically alter their lives…[Napolitano] has spun an absorbing, old-fashioned tale about how, as in Flannery O’Connor’s stories, ‘Grace changes a person….And change is painful.’”—The Washington Post

“To brand this a quaint period piece…would be doing Napolitano’s evocative tale of friendship and community a disservice.”—Entertainment Weekly

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Profile Image for A.B

Pretty good

It took me a while to get into the story and characters, but as I finished listening, I found I didn’t want it to end.
Not my favourite book, but it was good, nonetheless.

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