The Children: A Novel

by Ann Leary Narrated by Gretchen Mol

Overview

From New York Times bestselling author Ann Leary comes the captivating story of a wealthy, but unconventional New England family, told from the perspective of a reclusive 29-year-old who has a secret (and famous) life on the Internet.

Charlotte Maynard rarely leaves her mother's home, the sprawling Connecticut lake house that belonged to her late stepfather, Whit Whitman, and the generations of Whitmans before him. While Charlotte and her sister, Sally, grew up at "Lakeside," their stepbrothers, Spin and Perry, were welcomed as weekend guests. Now the grown boys own the estate, which Joan occupies by their grace—and a provision in the family trust.

When Spin, the youngest and favorite of all the children, brings his fiancé home for the summer, the entire family is intrigued. The beautiful and accomplished Laurel Atwood breathes new life into this often comically rarefied world. But as the wedding draws near, and flaws surface in the family's polite veneer, an array of simmering resentments and unfortunate truths is exposed.

With remarkable wit and insight, Ann Leary pulls back the curtain on one blended family, as they are forced to grapple with the assets and liabilities—both material and psychological—left behind by their wonderfully flawed patriarch.

A Macmillan Audio production.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

03/21/2016
In Leary’s portrait of a quirky old-money family, secrets come to light as the family members redefine their relationships after the death of their patriarch. Since the recent death of her stepfather, Charlotte Maynard hasn’t strayed far from home. She spends her days holed up in the attic of their sprawling Connecticut lake house, writing the fake “mommy blog” that represents her primary source of income and trying to avoid her self-aggrandizing cheapskate of a mother. Charlotte’s initially delighted when her stepbrother, Spin, brings Laurel, his fiancée, home to meet the family: she’s a gorgeous, witty, almost improbably accomplished young woman who’s not only crazy about Spin, but charmed by the whole clan. The only person who doesn’t adore Laurel on sight is Charlotte’s sister, Sally, a brilliant but emotionally fragile musician. Soon, the house isn’t the only thing crumbling around Charlotte: as Sally confronts pieces of her past, her grip on reality loosens; Charlotte’s on-again, off-again relationship with the family’s groundskeeper hits yet another snag; and worst of all, someone’s threatening to have Charlotte’s fake blog investigated for fraud. Although Leary (The Good House) ties up her loose ends a little too neatly, her characters are a delightful blend of strong personalities, all with their own little touch of delicious evil, and her darkly comic send-ups of New England wealth, nouveau riche, and Internet culture should keep readers absorbed until the final, most shocking secrets are revealed. (May)

From the Publisher

"A profound meditation on the burden of expectation, familial ties that bind, and the explosive nature of buried secrets." —Christina Baker Kline, author of Orphan Train

"[A] deeply satisfying novel about how unknowable people can be." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"The Children is populated by comically quirky characters reminiscent of Anne Tyler at her best." —Ann Hood, author of The Obituary Writer

"I loved this crumbling lakeside home, the family cracked at its foundation, and the strange intruders chipping away at everyone's peace of mind. Ann Leary's compelling tale is satisfyingly layered with unreliable witnesses and betrayals large and small; in which the worst harm may not be caused by an unknown stranger." —Helen Simonson, author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand

"[Leary's] characters are a delightful blend of strong personalities, all with their own little touch of delicious evil, and her darkly comic send-ups of New England wealth, nouveau riche, and Internet culture should keep readers absorbed until the final, most shocking secrets are revealed." —Publishers Weekly

"A witty, touching, unputdownable novel." —Good Housekeeping

"A fast-paced, darkly funny novel." —Popsugar

"A read-in-one-sitting romp, Leary’s wry and searing satire of affluence and elitism comically yet steadily builds to a sobering and malevolent finale." —Booklist

"No one does the unreliable female narrator like Ann Leary. . . . A cautionary fairy tale about what happens when you think you’re irrelevantly above it all." —Lit Hub

"Leary has a gift for creating compelling, layered characters, and the structure and pacing of this novel are remarkable." —Dallas-Fort Worth Star Telegram

"Ann Leary’s latest novel, The Children, delivers the same page-turning story telling and complexity of characters as her last book, The Good House. . . . As always, Leary makes dysfunction, pathology and even tragedy completely compelling." —The Huffington Post

"Great fun." —People

"As in The Good House, the details in Leary’s characters are bright." —The New York Times Book Review

"Leary commands every scene with the poise of a practiced storyteller who has mastered the timing required to craft narrative tension, punctuated throughout by precise and intentional reveals." —Ploughshares

Library Journal - Audio

07/01/2016
The members of the late Whit Whitman's family descend upon Lakeside, the large Connecticut lake house where the poet's second wife, Joan, and her two daughters, Charlotte and Sally Maynard, are permitted to live by the terms of Whit's will. Everything is quite civil, even amiable, until the girls' stepbrother, Spin Whitman, brings his gorgeous new fiancée Laurel Atwood to meet the family. Things start to unravel as Laurel begins to question Joan and childless Charlotte, who has a secret (and very lucrative) mommy blog, about the past and their residence in Lakeside, which is rightfully Whitman property. However, bipolar Sally brings things to a head when her suspicions about Laurel turn out to be correct. At times, the back-and-forth time frame is a bit confusing, but Charlotte's first-person, witty perspective should keep most listeners engaged. As past mistakes—and secrets—emerge, nearly everyone is on edge and suspicious. The growing tension is compelling, particularly after a sudden death raises the usual thorny questions related to money and inheritance. Narrator Gretchen Mol artfully captures each character and the many twists and turns in this often melodramatic tale. VERDICT Recommended for listeners who enjoy general fiction and glimpses into the lives of the wealthy.—Susan Baird, formerly with Oak Lawn P.L., IL

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2016-03-03
Leary (The Good House, 2013, etc.) writes about nutty, pedigreed New Englanders in this noirish comedy in which financial wrangling and emotional secrets are kept under wraps within a well-born Connecticut family until the arrival of an interloper from west of the Rockies. Single, childless 29-year-old narrator Charlotte is a typical Leary character—likable but slightly bent. Charlotte makes a good living writing a fake mommy blog and swears she doesn't have agoraphobia although she hasn't left her home during the day since shortly after her beloved stepfather Whit's death three years ago. Charlotte's home is "Lakeside Cottage," where she and her older sister, Sally, grew up with Whit and their mother, Joan. Wealthy, eccentric Whit had two great passions: Joan and the banjo. He and Joan didn't believe in talking about, let alone spending, money. Although his two sons from his first marriage, Perry and Spin, have inherited the once-grand, now increasingly dilapidated family house, Whit requested that Joan be allowed to live there until her death. Enter Spin's new girlfriend, soon to be fiancee, Laurel, from Idaho. Laurel's resume—Olympic-level skier, MFA from USC, huge advance for her first novel, a relative of Ernest Hemingway—is as intimidating as her aggressively friendly manner. While Charlotte warms to Laurel's questionable charm, Sally, who has moved home after losing her job as a violinist in Manhattan, remains suspicious. But Sally, who has a history of sneakiness, sexual misbehavior, and mental illness, may not be the best judge of character. And Charlotte may not be, either; she's fascinated by Laurel's knowledge of what she calls "life hacks"—actually scams, like ways to use a fancy hotel's amenities without staying there—which are supposedly research for her novel. Leary is by turns affectionate and vicious toward her characters. So, is Laurel trustworthy? Was Whit? And what about Charlotte's off-and-on lover, Everett, who lives rent free on the property as a kind of caretaker and is not above flirting with an attractive woman like Laurel? In this deeply satisfying novel about how unknowable people can be, intrigue builds with glass shards of dark humor toward an ending that is far from comic.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169485424
Publisher:	Macmillan Audio
Publication date:	05/24/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

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