The Likely World, Melanie ConroyGoldman
The Likely World, Melanie ConroyGoldman
List: $24.95 | Sale: $17.47
Club: $12.47

The Likely World
A Novel

Author: Melanie Conroy-Goldman

Narrator: Erica Sullivan

Unabridged: 15 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/03/2020

Categories: Fiction

Synopsis

Twenty years of addiction to cloud, a drug which wipes the user’s short-term memory, have left single mom Mellie with her mind in fragments. With the help of a tough-minded sponsor, and motivated by her own medically challenged daughter, Mellie clings to a fragile sobriety. Then, on the evening of her twenty-ninth day sober, a stranger pulls into her driveway and her heart surges. However, when Mellie’s pursuit of this man and the past they may share threatens her sponsor, Mellie will have to put her tiny family and her recovery at risk in hopes of saving the woman who saved her first.

About Melanie Conroy-Goldman

Melanie Conroy-Goldman teaches fiction writing as an associate professor of English at the Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. Her work has appeared in The Southern Review and McSweeney’s Internet Tendencies. She lives in Ithaca, New York with her husband, daughter, and two step-daughters. In addition to teaching and writing, she runs the Trias Residency for Writers and teaches for the Cornell Prison Education Program.

About Erica Sullivan

Erica Sullivan is a professional actress of both stage and screen and holds her MFA from the Yale School of Drama. She has spent over a decade as a Company Member at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She has been busy in both the stage and screen world, and has also narrated nearly one hundred audiobooks.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Suzanne

Should the addict mother of a damaged baby relinquish her child? Melanie Conroy-Goldman’s debut novel, The Likely World (Red Hen Press; August 4) attempts to answer that question, and some others, in a bizarro, post-modern coming of age story whose central actor is a fictional drug that generates al......more

Goodreads review by Ruth

A tour de force! So imaginative and complex. Well done!......more

Goodreads review by Alexis

I read "The Likely World" this summer while camping out at an airbnb during COVID. My husband and I saw no one for days. I got up early so I could make coffee and just sink into this complicated and intellectual novel. I felt like I was both living and reading about a parallel reality. The book is to......more

Goodreads review by Joshua

Don't do that Mellie -- an addict struggling to recover her life and her memories, not a light read How is your memory? Forgetting small things, worried about forgetting more? I’d like you to meet Mellie, she’s forgotten whole swaths of her life and isn’t always sure who she is. It’s not age loss or......more

Goodreads review by Ted

Tough book. Brace yourself for my actual review of this book. The book has a catchy premise and pretty much demands that you read it, which is a huge annoyance in and of itself. The book itself and its contents (as well as much of the author's typical behavior) is a perfect example of legally sancti......more

Quotes

“The Likely World is bizarre and beautiful, equal parts brainy lit and gut-bucket pulp. Its heroine is unlike any female character I’ve ever encountered and I love her.” Mary Gaitskill, National Book Award finalist

“I don’t know if you’ll ever read a literary novel like The Likely World this or any other year. It’s groovy, badass smart, and totally trippy, but also full of heartache and longing and the woundings of love. This novel absolutely sparkles with brightness and life.” Chang-rae Lee, author of Native Speaker

“[A] propulsive debut…The prose is exquisite…This skillful twist on the addiction narrative is worth a look.” Publishers Weekly

“Conroy-Goldman’s gritty, street postmodernism will rewire your brain…But it’s the depth of feeling here, about love, about motherhood…that will break your heart.” Peter Ho Davies, author of The Welsh Girl

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List