A Spool of Blue Thread cover art

A Spool of Blue Thread

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2015

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

A Spool of Blue Thread

By: Anne Tyler
Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £10.34

Buy Now for £10.34

Season's Savings | £0.99/mo for 3 months

£5.99/mo after 3 months - terms apply. Cancel monthly

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN'S FICTION PRIZE

A RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK

‘It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon…’

This is the way Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how she and Red fell in love that summer’s day in 1959. The whole family on the porch, half-listening as their mother tells the same tale they have heard so many times before.

From that porch we spool back through the generations, witnessing the events, secrets and unguarded moments that have come to define the family. From Red’s father and mother, newly arrived in Baltimore in the 1920s, to Abby and Red’s grandchildren carrying the family legacy boisterously into the twenty-first century – four generations of Whitshanks, their lives unfolding in and around the sprawling, lovingly worn Baltimore house that has always been their home…

'One of my favourite authors' Liane Moriarty

'She spins gold' Elizabeth Buchan

'Anne Tyler has no peer' Anita Shreve

'Anne Tyler is one of my favourite writers and this is a delicious book' Rachel Joyce

 Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction World Literature Heartfelt
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Critic reviews

Tyler's twentieth novel finds fresh fictional riches in imaginative territory she has been exploring for half a century... Atmospherically rendered, the passage of time has both entertaining and heart-rending results. She has never written with more finesse, vitality and acuteness
I love Tyler's writing... She writes so beautifully and with such insight. Read her books and she can actually change your view, change how you see the world (Judy Finnigan)
Exquisite
Tyler's sentences are wholly hers, instantly recognisable and impossible to duplicate (Hanya Yanigihara)
The extraordinary thing about her writing is the extent to which she makes one believe every word, deed and breath (Kate Kellaway)
Tyler writes with an apparent effortlessness which conceals great art. The Whitshank family is tragic, comic, absurd, absorbing -- and lives on its illusions, as every family must. You'll shiver with recognition (Helen Dunmore)
Anne Tyler takes the ordinary, the small, and makes them sing (Rachel Joyce)
The combination of direct appeal, subtle perception and unshowy artistry in Tyler's fiction has been admired by authors ranging from Joyce Carol Oates and Carol Shields to Jonathan Franzen and Sebastian Faulks... Her extraordinary gift for producing what seems less like fiction than actuality works wonders again... magnificent (Peter Kemp)
Every sentence is perfect in this witty story of family life
A must-read
All stars
Most relevant
I really enjoyed this book. There were some surprises, but it described the sadness and unpredictability of life very poignantly.

Enjoyable read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Not sure I enjoyed this book very typical of other American fiction. It had me hooked but I'm not quite sure what the point of the story was...... The characters have stayed with me not sure I would have bothered reading the whole book

Compulsive listen but aimless

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Wonderful description of family life and the difficulties involved. Gives a very good picture of Baltimore and the depression parts of Junior and Linny show how people survived.

Susanita's review

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Just the thing if you can't sleep. It's a serious subject with lots of humour and light enough. You can fall asleep listening and pick it up anywhere. It's an easily revisited tale of an Irish family's struggle with bereavement. All the characters are given their own voices and Kimberly Farr doesn't falter in remembering them.

A great story, beautifully narrated

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you listen to A Spool of Blue Thread again? Why?

Yes, it's filled with humour and sharp observation.

What other book might you compare A Spool of Blue Thread to, and why?

None springs to mind

Which character – as performed by Kimberly Farr – was your favourite?

I enjoyed them all. Great narration with excellent character voices.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I literally gasped with shock and surprise when there's an unexpected death half way through. Didn't see that coming!

Any additional comments?

The first I've read/listened to by Anne Tyler. I was captivated from start to finish; such a simple premise and an engagingly eccentric cast of characters. I'm aware that some reviews suggest that this isn't Tyler's best work; in which case I have further delights in store, because I so enjoyed this. It's quirky, observational and in many ways, very ordinary. But her writing takes it into the realms of the extraordinary.. I enjoyed the way the narrative weaved back and forth across the years, with the same events recounted from more than one perspective.
It's a family saga, filled with disparate characters. None are overly endearing, but they interact so well, the story flies by and I didn't want it to end. Tyler's writing is never over complicated, but always sharp, truly observational and it made me laugh out loud a few times. It's also filled with shrewd observation about human nature. I enjoyed it and don't know which of her books to try next.

Funny, observational and occasionally poignant

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews