Noah's Compass

Author: Tyler, Anne

Brand: Brand: Random House Audio

Edition: Unabridged

Characteristics:

• Used Book in Good Condition

Format: Audiobook

Release date: 05-01-2010

Details: Short description From the incomparable Anne Tyler, a wise, gently humorous, and deeply compassionate novel about a schoolteacher who has been forced to retire at sixty-one, coming to terms with the final phase of his life. Liam Pennywell, who set out to be a philosopher and ended up teaching fifth grade, never much liked the job at that run-down private school, so early retirement doesn't bother him. But he is troubled by his inability to remember anything about the first night that he moved into his new, spare, and efficient condominium on the outskirts of Baltimore. All he knows when he wakes up the next day in the hospital is that his head is sore and bandaged. His effort to recover the moments of his life that have been stolen from him leads him on an unexpected detour. What he needs is someone who can do the remembering for him. What he gets is—well, something quite different. We all know a Liam. In fact, there may be a little of Liam in each of us. Which is why Anne Tyler's lovely novel resonates so deeply. Press reviews Praise for Anne Tyler's Noah's Compass “Everyone loves Anne Tyler . . . and her 18th novel will undoubtedly provide another reason.” —San Francisco Chronicle “ Noah's Compass is immensely readable. It displays many of Tyler's finest qualities: her sharp observation of humanity, her wry comedy; the luminous accuracy of her descriptions. . . Hers is a fine-grained art, whose comedy could easily coarsen into the self-consciously quirky. If it does not, this is because her surprises are rooted in character: it is human nature that she evidently finds infinitely fascinating and surprising, with its constantly unforeseeable capacity for change. . . [A] novel by Anne Tyler is cause for celebration.” —Caroline Moore, The Sunday Telegraph “Tyler reveals, with unobtrusive mastery, the disconcerting patchwork of comedy and pathos that marks all our lives.” —Michael Dirda, The Wall Street Journal “Dazzling . . . A beautifully subtle book, an elegant contemplation of what it means to be happy.” —Elizabeth Day, The Observer, UK "Fired from his job, Liam Pennywell moves into a small apartment and wakes up the next morning in the hospital with head injuries he can't explain. What turns out to have been an attack by a thief leads to unexpected grace, as Liam is forced to engage more deeply with his family and with a woman who finds him irresistible." — More magazine “Pure pleasure” —Helen W. Mallon, Philadelphia Inquirer About the author and other contributors Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. This is her eighteenth novel. Her eleventh, Breathing Lessons, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland. From the hardcover edition. Excerpt. Reprinted with the kind permission of the copyright holders. All rights reserved. In the sixty-first year of his life, Liam Pennywell lost his job. It wasn't such a good job, anyway. He'd been teaching fifth grade in a second-rate private boys' school. Fifth grade wasn't even what he'd been trained for. Teaching wasn't what he'd been trained for. His degree was in philosophy. Oh, don't ask. Things seemed to have taken a downward turn a long, long time ago, and perhaps it was just as well that he had seen the last of St. Dyfrig's dusty, scuffed corridors and those interminable after-school meetings and the reams of niggling paperwork. In fact, this might be a sign. It could be just the nudge he needed to push him on to the next stage—the final stage, the summing-up stage. The stage where he sat in his rocking chair and reflected on what it all meant, in the end. He had a respectable savings account and the promise of a pension, so his money situation wasn't out-and-out desperate. Still, he would have to economize. The prospect of economizing interests him. He plunges

EAN: 9780739384770

Languages: English

Binding: audio CD

Item Condition: Used - Very Good