The Guest Book, Sarah Blake
The Guest Book, Sarah Blake
18 Rating(s)
List: $32.99 | Sale: $23.10
Club: $16.49

The Guest Book
A Novel

Bestseller

Author: Sarah Blake

Narrator: Orlagh Cassidy

Unabridged: 17 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/07/2019


Synopsis

"Orlagh Cassidy narrates Blake's beautifully written multigenerational story of love and lies with consummate skill. Elegant and clear, distant yet passionate, she helps listeners discover the quirks in characters' personalities and explore their motives, both evident and hidden." — AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner

This program includes a bonus conversation with the author.

The thought-provoking new audiobook by New York Times bestselling author Sarah Blake

A lifetime of secrets. A history untold.

No. It is a simple word, uttered on a summer porch in 1936. And it will haunt Kitty Milton for the rest of her life. Kitty and her husband, Ogden, are both from families considered the backbone of the country. But this refusal will come to be Kitty’s defining moment, and its consequences will ripple through the Milton family for generations. For while they summer on their island in Maine, anchored as they are to the way things have always been, the winds of change are beginning to stir.

In 1959 New York City, two strangers enter the Miltons’ circle. One captures the attention of Kitty’s daughter, while the other makes each of them question what the family stands for. This new generation insists the times are changing. And in one night, everything does.

So much so that in the present day, the third generation of Miltons doesn’t have enough money to keep the island in Maine. Evie Milton’s mother has just died, and as Evie digs into her mother’s and grandparents’ history, what she finds is a story as unsettling as it is inescapable, the story that threatens the foundation of the Milton family myth.

Moving through three generations and back and forth in time, The Guest Book asks how we remember and what we choose to forget. It shows the untold secrets we inherit and pass on, unknowingly echoing our parents and grandparents. Sarah Blake’s triumphant novel tells the story of a family and a country that buries its past in quiet, until the present calls forth a reckoning.

“Sarah Blake is such a beautiful writer she can make any world shimmer." — Paula McLain, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife and Love and Ruin

About Sarah Blake

Sarah Blake is the author of the novels Grange House and the New York Times bestseller The Postmistress. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two sons.

About Orlagh Cassidy

Orlagh Cassidy is the winner of the 2009 Best Voice in Children & Family Listening and the 2008 and 2011 Best Voice in Mystery & Suspense. She’s narrated for Jacqueline Winspear, James Patterson, Erica Spindler, Beth Harbison, and Frank Herbert, among others. Cassidy’s Broadway credits include Present Laughter with Frank Langella, Our Country's Good, and Suddenly Last Summer.  She has appeared Off-Broadway in Bright Ideas and The Field at The Irish Rep (Drama Desk Nomination). She was "Doris Wolfe" on The Guiding Light and her other television appearances include Sex and the City, Law & Order, Law and Order SVU, and Elementary.  She also appeared in the films Purple Violets, Young Adult, and Definitely, Maybe.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Angela M on June 04, 2019

4+ stars A family saga spanning three generations, a story complicated by secrets that take decades to be revealed. A privileged family, with money, a father so conscious of the family status reflected in the symbol of the island off the coast of Maine that he just has to buy it. “I want this place,”......more

Goodreads review by Ron on April 29, 2019

There’s a stunning scene toward the beginning of Sarah Blake’s new novel, “The Guest Book,” that follows a wealthy young mother gliding around New York and then to her elegant mansion in a charmingly choreographed dance of delight that ends with her 5-year-old son falling from a window to his death.......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer on May 12, 2019

Lovely writing, a historical family drama featuring generations of characters, a focus on important social themes related race and privilege. Slow and a bit lengthy for my personal preference, but I can see many readers enjoying this overall. Thank you to Flatiron Books for generously mailing me an a......more

Goodreads review by Debra on March 11, 2019

Privilege. Secrets. History. Family. The Guest Book is a sweeping tale of three generations of the Milton family. This book moves back and forth in time, showcasing secrets and consequences. This book showcases old money, racism, glamour, status, opulence, limelight, privilege, power, choices, inequa......more

Goodreads review by Katy on March 05, 2019

I really wanted to like this book more given the high praise it received, but I just couldn’t. First, the plot is so loose that the thread holding the story together is barely visible sometimes. Second, the book tries to address issues of otherness but never really makes any progress besides highlig......more


Quotes

"Orlagh Cassidy narrates Blake's beautifully written multigenerational story of love and lies with consummate skill." -AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award Winner


Awards

  • Amazon.com Best Books of the Year