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  • French Braid

  • A Novel
  • Written by: Anne Tyler
  • Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
  • Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
  • 3.8 out of 5 stars (19 ratings)

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French Braid

Written by: Anne Tyler
Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
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Publisher's Summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Spool of Blue Thread—a funny, joyful, brilliantly perceptive journey deep into one Baltimore family’s foibles, from a boyfriend with a red Chevy in the 1950s up to a longed-for reunion with a grandchild.

“A quietly subversive novel, tackling fundamental assumptions about womanhood, motherhood and female aging.”—The New York Times Book Review

The Garretts take their first and last family vacation in the summer of 1959. They hardly ever leave home, but in some ways they have never been farther apart. Mercy has trouble resisting the siren call of her aspirations to be a painter, which means less time keeping house for her husband, Robin. Their teenage daughters, steady Alice and boy-crazy Lily, could not have less in common. Their youngest, David, is already intent on escaping his family's orbit, for reasons none of them understand. Yet, as these lives advance across decades, the Garretts' influences on one another ripple ineffably but unmistakably through each generation.

Full of heartbreak and hilarity, French Braid is classic Anne Tyler: a stirring, uncannily insightful novel of tremendous warmth and humor that illuminates the kindnesses and cruelties of our daily lives, the impossibility of breaking free from those who love us, and how close—yet how unknowable—every family is to itself.

©2022 Anne Tyler (P)2022 Random House Audio
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What the critics say

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE

Named Best Book of the Year by Oprah Daily • NPR • The Times

French Braid is a moving meditation on the passage of time . . . Five decades into her career, one gets the sense that Tyler is no longer quite so interested in the details. Instead, French Braid offers something subtler and finer, the long view on family . . . For all its charm, French Braid is a quietly subversive novel, tackling fundamental assumptions about womanhood, motherhood and female aging.”—Jennifer Haigh, New York Times Book Review (cover)

“Brilliant . . . Captivating . . . The rich melody of French Braid offers the comfort of a beloved hymn . . . In novel after novel, Tyler catches the mingled strains of affection and exasperation that tie a family together, the love that persists somewhere between laughing and singing.”—Ron Charles, Washington Post

“If Anne Tyler isn’t the best writer in the world, who is?”—BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour

What listeners say about French Braid

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

fell short of expectations

I was disappointed in the story; it has big holes and unfinished business. I suppose I just really didn't like where it all ended up. I was very disheartened by the protagonist so it just wasn't my kind of book.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Kimberly Farr/narrator

Great story
Tyler at her finest
Most remarkable is Kimberly Farr.
She was the narrator for/Olive Kitteredge
She is fantastic
Great actor who brings each character, no matter how diverse from the last, a unique and easily identifiable voice

This is a perfect combination

I highly recommend

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