Saints for All Occasions, J. Courtney Sullivan
Saints for All Occasions, J. Courtney Sullivan
12 Rating(s)
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Saints for All Occasions
A novel

Author: J. Courtney Sullivan

Narrator: Susan Denaker

Unabridged: 15 hr 1 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/09/2017


Synopsis

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER

A New York Times Critics’ Top Book of 2017 

"This year’s best book about family." —Ron Charles, The Washington Post

A sweeping, unforgettable novel from The New York Times best-selling author of Maine, about the hope, sacrifice, and love between two sisters and the secret that drives them apart.

Nora and Theresa Flynn are twenty-one and seventeen when they leave their small village in Ireland and journey to America. Nora is the responsible sister; she's shy and serious and engaged to a man she isn't sure that she loves. Theresa is gregarious; she is thrilled by their new life in Boston and besotted with the fashionable dresses and dance halls on Dudley Street. But when Theresa ends up pregnant, Nora is forced to come up with a plan—a decision with repercussions they are both far too young to understand. Fifty years later, Nora is the matriarch of a big Catholic family with four grown children: John, a successful, if opportunistic, political consultant; Bridget, quietly preparing to have a baby with her girlfriend; Brian, at loose ends after a failed baseball career; and Patrick, Nora's favorite, the beautiful boy who gives her no end of heartache. Estranged from her sister, Theresa is a cloistered nun, living in an abbey in rural Vermont. Until, after decades of silence, a sudden death forces Nora and Theresa to confront the choices they made so long ago. A graceful, supremely moving novel from one of our most beloved writers, Saints for All Occasions explores the fascinating, funny, and sometimes achingly sad ways a secret at the heart of one family both breaks them and binds them together.

About J. Courtney Sullivan

American author, J. Courtney Sullivan, has been very successful in her writing career. She has written several novels, mostly concerning the relationships among women. She is a self-proclaimed feminist, which explains her choice of themes for her books, both fiction and non-fiction. Sullivan comes from an Irish-Catholic heritage, where women identify by their middle name instead of first names. She had one piece published for Allure magazine under "Courtney Sullivan", but added the J. back in from then forward. She was raised near Boston, Massachusetts, and attended Smith College, majoring in Victorian Literature and received awards for her short stories, and for her work in Women's Studies.

Sullivan graduated from Smith in 2003, after which she moved to New York City to begin working for Allure magazine. After Allure, she worked at The New York Times for four years. Now, her work has made The New York Times Book Review, Chicago Tribune, New York magazine, New York Observer, Men's Vogue, Elle, and Glamour. In 2006, she wrote for the New York Times a column entitled, "Modern Love", that described her experiences in the dating world. Sounds like Sara Jessica Parker's character, Carrie Bradshaw, in "Sex and the City".

Her NYT bestselling novels are: Commencement, Maine, The Engagements, and Saints For All Occassions. Her work has been celebrated with her receiving many different, prestigious literary awards. Her novel, The Engagements, is to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon and distributed by Fox 2000.

Sullivan lives with her husband and their son in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, NY.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Always on February 23, 2020

Nora is Theresa's older sister and constantly worries about Theresa, especially since their mother died. Nora feels like it is her responsibility to take care of Theresa and so when Nora's fiance moves to the US Nora asks him to send for both her and Theresa. Charlie, Nora's fiance, eventually saves......more

Goodreads review by Yun on May 18, 2021

I've had Saints for All Occasions in my physical to-read pile for a while now. I keep picking it up due to the great reviews, and then putting it down again after reading the book jacket, wondering if there is enough in this book to keep my attention. I'm so glad I finally took the plunge and read t......more

Goodreads review by Karen on August 30, 2017

4.5 for this Irish Catholic family drama. Nora and her sister Theresa are very young and are coming over to America from Ireland, Nora on the promise of marriage to a childhood friend and Theresa to hopefully become a teacher. Things don't go smoothly and we see such sacrifice, and learn about the u......more

Goodreads review by JanB on June 14, 2018

4+ stars! A multi-generational family saga that follows two Irish sisters, Nora and Theresa, who immigrate to the U.S. from Ireland at a young age. One sister, the quiet, responsible one, arrives to wed through a pre-arranged marriage, while the other sister is a free spirit. Not surprisingly they ta......more


Quotes

"Reminiscent of both Colm Toibin's Brooklyn and Matthew Thomas's We Are Not Ourselves… All of Sullivan's characters leap off the page. You don't read this book; you breathe it." –Janet Maslin, "Times Critics' Top Books of 2017," The New York Times

"Fabulous and smart." —Emma Straub, The New York Times Book Review
 
“Moving… Eloquently testifies to the durability of the fabric of family… Touched with… warmth, kindness and gentle wisdom.” —Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal
 
“A breathtaking literary ode to life, change, and the unbreakable bonds of family.” —Redbook

“Carefully plotted... Sullivan succeeds in creating a believably complicated, clannish Irish-American family… Engrossing.” —Suzanne Berne, The New York Times
 
“An engrossing family drama… Sullivan’s profound understanding of her characters and the Irish-Catholic culture that defines them illuminates every scene.” —Kim Hubbard, People Magazine
 
“This year’s best book about family… Elegant… Captivating… Deft and insightful… A quiet masterpiece…impressive. Saints for All Occasions is so unassuming that its artistry looks practically invisible. In a simple style that never commits a flutter of extravagance, Sullivan draws us into the lives of the Raffertys, and in the rare miracle of fiction makes us care about them like they were our own family.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post
 
“A blockbuster…An engrossing family drama with feisty humor and transformative tough love.”
Elle
 
“I hope to read another novel as strong and wise and beautiful and heartbreaking as J. Courtney Sullivan’s Saints for All Occasions this year, but I'm not sure I will.”
—Richard Russo