It’s great fun listening to narrator Pete Simonelli illuminate the gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood featured in this engaging audiobook by the author of the GOSSIP GIRL series. With lively rhythms he shines a spotlight on the interconnected lives of four affluent families who reside there. The animated and witty characterizations of Roy, a successful novelist; Stuart, a formerly famous musician; Tupper, an odd industrial designer; and Peaches, a bubbly school nurse, along with their spouses and children, will entertain listeners. Simonelli shows considerable range in depicting each character's emotions and is especially adept at portraying the concerns of adolescents. The novel is an amusing slice of contemporary urban life. M.J. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Cobble Hill: A Novel
Narrated by Pete Simonelli
Cecily von ZiegesarUnabridged — 9 hours, 39 minutes
Cobble Hill: A Novel
Narrated by Pete Simonelli
Cecily von ZiegesarUnabridged — 9 hours, 39 minutes
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Overview
Welcome to Cobble Hill.
In this eclectic Brooklyn neighborhood, private storms brew amongst four married couples and their children. There's ex-groupie Mandy, so underwhelmed by motherhood and her current physical state that she fakes a debilitating disease to get the attention of her skateboarding, ex-boyband member husband Stuart. There's the unconventional new school nurse, Peaches, on whom Stuart has an unrequited crush, and her disappointing husband Greg, who wears noise-cancelling headphones-everywhere.
A few blocks away, Roy, a well-known, newly transplanted British novelist, has lost the thread of his next novel and his marriage to indefatigable Wendy. Around the corner, Tupper, the nervous, introverted industrial designer with a warehouse full of prosthetic limbs struggles to pin down his elusive artist wife Elizabeth. Throw in two hormonal teenagers, a ten-year-old pyromaniac, a drug dealer pretending to be a doctor, and a lot of hidden cameras, and you've got a combustible mix of egos, desires, and secrets bubbling in brownstone Brooklyn.
“Breezy, witty, and compulsively fun to read” (Kirkus Reviews), Cobble Hill is highly entertaining portrait of contemporary family life and the colorful characters who call Brooklyn home.
Editorial Reviews
08/10/2020
This amusing romp from von Ziegesar (the Gossip Girl series) centers on an ensemble cast of self-aware, alienated couples in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Cobble Hill. Roy Clarke, famed British novelist of the cult hit Rainbow series, functions as the book’s center, arriving in Cobble Hill at the insistence of his critical wife, Wendy, who had hoped moving from London to New York City to take the features editor job at a fashion magazine would give her life a new direction. Roy, along with Wendy and their awkward adolescent daughter, Shy, hoped to “slip into Brooklyn and discover it quietly, be discovered by it quietly,” and in Roy’s efforts to overcome his six-year writing drought, he finds inspiration in his new neighborhood’s oddball residents: lonely Tupper Paulsen, a commercially successful but superficial artist; Tupper’s eccentric, seldom-seen performance artist wife, Elizabeth; sexy, dimpled Peaches, an English-major dropout and public school nurse with unrealized drummer dreams; Peaches’s awkward teenage son, Liam, who is self-diagnosed with Asperger’s and in love with Shy; and Stuart Little, a former rock star determined to be a good dad and a good husband to his wife, Mandy. The roiling tensions within and between families break into the open during the Bonfire Night party Roy throws for the neighborhood. Von Ziegesar’s quirky novel of lovable misfits will appeal to fans of Tom Perrotta. (Oct.)
Praise for Cobble Hill
"Surprisingly tender...breezy, witty and compulsively fun to read...full of laughable moments...[a] diverting escape that will make readers long for the human connection of a tight-knit neighborhood." —Kirkus Reviews
“Von Ziegesar’s quirky novel of lovable misfits will appeal to fans of Tom Perrotta.” —Publishers Weekly
“Thoughtfully observed and frequently funny...Readers of ensemble fiction by Emma Straub and Amy Poeppel—as well as grown-up fans of Gossip Girl—will enjoy this inside look at the lifestyles of the creative class.” —Booklist
“Delightful and comforting...A real Brooklyn novel that belongs on the shelf with Paul Auster and Emma Straub.” —Vanity Fair
“The funny, observant [von Ziegesar] takes on bourgeois bohemian Brooklyn in this fast-moving, gimlet-eyed novel.”—Town and Country
“A delightful look at connected lives...The story delves deep into the minds of each character, providing a dynamism that makes it impossible not to become invested in what happens to each one.” —Associated Press
“A fun, quirky character study of four couples harboring secrets that inevitably implode in over-the-top fashion. Blair Waldorf would approve.” —The Washington Post
"If you live for front stoop gossip, don't sleep on this one." —Good Housekeeping
"Entertaining." —Vogue
09/01/2020
Von Ziegesar pens her first adult novel after a hugely successful career writing the "Gossip Girl" series, and she does it with aplomb. Four couples and their children are at the heart of this character-driven story set in Cobble Hill, one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Brooklyn. There's Roy, a best-selling British author, and his magazine editor wife, Wendy; Elizabeth, a famous artist, and her ubersuccessful inventor husband Tupper; Stuart, a former member of a successful boy band, and his wife Mandy, a former model who has gained a bit of weight and taken to her bed; and the school nurse Peaches and her music teacher husband Greg. These people all have secrets, from getting demoted at work to stealing a neighbor's meal kits to faking a serious illness. Over the course of a year, these quirky neighbors get to know one another and ultimately come together for karaoke and a fiery finish. VERDICT This is a book to get lost in. "Gossip Girl" fans who are all grown up will be first in line to read this, followed closely by admirers of Sophie Kinsella and Gabrielle Zevin. [See Prepub Alert, 4/15/20.]—Stacy Alesi, Eugene M. & Christine E. Lynn Lib., Lynn Univ., Boca Raton, FL
It’s great fun listening to narrator Pete Simonelli illuminate the gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood featured in this engaging audiobook by the author of the GOSSIP GIRL series. With lively rhythms he shines a spotlight on the interconnected lives of four affluent families who reside there. The animated and witty characterizations of Roy, a successful novelist; Stuart, a formerly famous musician; Tupper, an odd industrial designer; and Peaches, a bubbly school nurse, along with their spouses and children, will entertain listeners. Simonelli shows considerable range in depicting each character's emotions and is especially adept at portraying the concerns of adolescents. The novel is an amusing slice of contemporary urban life. M.J. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
2020-07-14
Gossip Girl (2002) author von Ziegesar takes on the complicated lives of quirky Brooklyn married couples.
In Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, four seemingly happy couples are each dealing with secret dissatisfactions. There’s Roy, a British novelist who’s struggling to write his next novel, and his wife, Wendy, a big-shot magazine editor who’s hiding her recent demotion. There’s former punk rocker Stuart Little and his wife, Mandy, who’s lying about the real reason she stays in bed all day. There’s the school nurse, Peaches, whom every man seems to have a crush on, and her pretty much ignored husband, Greg. And then there’s the strangest couple of all, a designer/inventor named Tupper and his mysterious artist wife, Elizabeth. Unlike von Ziegesar’s previous work for teens, this isn’t full of drama, sex, and scandal—instead, readers are treated to a surprisingly tender, detailed, and quiet study of eccentric characters who are thoroughly interesting even when making bad decisions. There are so many characters, and the point of view shifts so rapidly, that following along can sometimes be confusing. Also, every character displays an obnoxious obsession with Mandy’s weight (have none of them ever met an overweight person before?). But von Ziegesar’s writing style is breezy, witty, and compulsively fun to read, making this an entertaining distraction full of laughable moments and realistically awkward dialogue.
A pleasantly diverting escape that will make readers long for the human connection of a tight-knit neighborhood.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940178960257 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Simon & Schuster |
| Publication date: | 11/10/2020 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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