Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Country Girls

Author: Edna O'Brien

Narrator: Edna O'Brien

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-06-10

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 73 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

It is the early 1960s in a country village in Ireland. Caithleen Brady and her attractive friend, Baba, are on the verge of womanhood and dreaming of spreading their wings in a wider world - of discovering love and luxury and liquor and above all, fun. With bawdy innocence, shrewd for all their inexperience, the girls romp their way through convent school to the bright lights of Dublin where Caithleen finds that suave, idealised lovers rarely survive the real world.

Members Reviews:

Hard to listen to

This is an excellent story, and quite an interesting view into life in an earlier time in Ireland. Unfortunately, the author's narration makes the experience almost unbearable, with her long pauses and constant gulping breaths. It is really a shame. I really wished she had let someone else do the reading as I am having a hard time enjoying her wonderful writing and find myself only able to listen to a little at a time, before I can't stand it anymore. Do yourself a favor and get a hard copy of this fascinating glimpse into a different time and place.

Spectacular Writing and Narrating

I was almost swayed by negative reviews of Edna O'Brien's narration. Wow, am I glad I downloaded it anyway. O'Brien is a spectacular writer whose sensitivity to small details and physical gestures rivals that of Proust. She brings the world of her youth to life in such vivid complexity and psychological honesty, I was completely transported.

As for the reading, it's true she is not a professional narrator and you can hear her taking breaths and pausing at odd moments. HOWEVER, she has a gorgeous voice that is so full of feeling--plus the lovely accent, and a hushed, expectant tone--that I was captivated and hanging on every sentence.

One of the best listens of the year for me. I was driving for much of this and at one point was so moved I had to pull over!

Where have all the romantics gone?

Where does The Country Girls rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

Right at the top.

What other book might you compare The Country Girls to and why?

Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate. Terribly Mitford-esque..

What about Edna O'Briens performance did you like?

Sound of her voice, incredible diction. marvelous irony.

If you could take any character from The Country Girls out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Mr. Gentleman. You have to ask why?

Any additional comments?

Where are the negative reviews coming from? Really ladies and gentlemen, have we forgotten the romance of courtship and are we too old to remember how hard our hearts ached when we first fell in love? Edna O'Brien has not forgotten, I am hard pressed to find more than a handful of writers who could write about this experience with as much beauty and haunting charm as she evokes This is the first audiobook that has pressed a review from me. Well, I'd put Jeremy Irons reading of Lolita as my all time no. 1, but it's pretty damn hard to knock Nabokov off the top..

delightful and compelling

A humorous, mesmerizing and well-observed story of the difficulties and excitements of a young girl growing up poor in Ireland. Charmingly and movingly read by the author. I was hooked from the beginning and listened to many passages twice to enjoy them again.

Marvelous.

Marvelous reading, old world tone, and sultry, captivating description.