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The Friend

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The Friend

By: Sigrid Nunez
Narrated by: Hillary Huber
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About this listen

 A moving story of love, friendship, grief, healing, and the magical bond between a woman and her dog - NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING NAOMI WATTS AND BILL MURRAY

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST 100 BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY
WINNER OF THE 2018 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD

'A true delight: I genuinely fear I won't read a better novel this year' FINANCIAL TIMES

'Loved this. A funny, moving examination of love, grief, and the uniqueness of dogs' GRAHAM NORTON

'Delicious' SUNDAY TIMES 100 BEST SUMMER READS
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When a woman unexpectedly loses her lifelong best friend and mentor, she finds herself burdened with the unwanted dog he has left behind. Her own battle against grief is intensified by the mute suffering of the dog, a huge Great Dane, and by the threat of eviction: dogs are prohibited in her apartment building.

Isolated from the rest of the world, increasingly obsessed with the dog's care, determined to read its mind and fathom its heart, she comes dangerously close to unravelling. But while troubles abound, rich and surprising rewards lie in store for both of them.
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'Very, very clever. Mature. Entertaining. Eminently readable and re-readable. Absolutely delightful' IRISH TIMES

'I loved it . . . It's one of my favourite books and it moved me' WHOOPI GOLDBERG

'A perfect novel . . . It's my favorite kind of masterpiece - one you can put into anyone's hand' EMMA STRAUB

A New York Times Notable Book of 2018 * A Financial Times 2018 Best Book: Critics Pick * A Buzzfeed Best Book of 2018 * A Bustle Best Fiction Book of 2018 * An NPR Best Book of 2018©2018 Sigrid Nunez (P)2018 Hachette Audio UK Animals Fiction Friendship Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Heartfelt
All stars
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I loved the eloquence of the narrator as much as I looved the story. Beautiful way to end the book too.

Interesting perspective

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As a dog lover I was anticipating a moving story of the bond between a grieving woman and her dead friends, dog. I couldn't engage with the story. Was the narrator talking to me, herself, the dog, her dead friend or her therapist? The frequent anecdotes and quotations were irritating interrupting the flow of the story. It was vey hard to seem intellectual but sort of fell flat.

Description of the book is inaccurate

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Was really looking forward to reading this book as I saw the trailer for the movie. I should’ve just seen the movie. Now I don’t even want to.

My first ever one star review

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I managed to wake and hear the last 5 minutes of chapter 4 - that perfectly summed up my review i.e. was the author making a point or did she miss the point of literature! As forhe sarcastic tone of the narrator omg..

Yawn.. slept through, gave up

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.