Hello Beautiful cover art

Hello Beautiful

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Hello Beautiful

By: Ann Napolitano
Narrated by: Maura Tierney
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Dear Edward comes a beautifully tender, heartbreaking, and moving story of four sisters over three decades.

Meet the Padvano girls. Best friends and sisters, they are thought of as inseparable by everyone in their close-knit Chicago neighbourhood. Julia, the eldest, is the "rocket" of the family - she always has a destination in mind and clear plans for how to get there. Sylvie, the dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book and imagines a life for herself other than the expected path of wife and mother. Cecelia and Emmeline, the twins, are the artist and the caregiver. From childhood, the four sisters complete each other, expecting that their family will always be intact.

When Julia falls in love with William Walters, a history student and college sports star, she's delighted by the way her plans for adulthood are coming together. A husband, a house, a family. But when darkness from William's past begins to block the light of his future, it is Sylvie, not Julia, who steps in to help. Suddenly, things shift. Dynamics and relationships, priorities and secrets - everything that was once a given no longer is.

Rich and vivid, heartbreaking and heart-mending, Hello Beautiful captures the joy, tragedy, trust, and betrayal to ask: what does it mean to be a family? And once shattered, can it be pieced back together?

©2023 Ann Napolitano (P)2023 Penguin Audio
Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Women's Fiction Marriage Heartfelt Tear-jerking Feel-Good

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Critic reviews

"A rich, complex family saga, Hello Beautiful is a portrait of love and grief in equal measure. Napolitano's prose is so lovely, so keenly perceptive, that it held me captive until I finished. A lot of people are going to love this story." (Mary Beth Keane, New York Times bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes)

"Like great jazz, Hello Beautiful takes a melody and transforms it. This is a richly-woven story about family, but it's also a unique take on Little Women. There are no heroes or villains here, only people--flawed and loving and striving like the rest of us. Generosity is the word that comes to mind when I reflect on this gorgeous novel." (Allegra Goodman, New York Times bestselling author of The Cookbook Collector and Sam)

"Ann Napolitano's writing is astonishing." (Marian Keyes, Sunday Times bestselling author of Again, Rachel)

All stars
Most relevant
Wonderful story about imperfect humans leading to hope for us all. So enjoyable to hear.

Lovely story with hope

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I, like many, picked this for its streams of rave reviews (and the cool cover) and to be honest, I’m now a bit confused as to why so many love it. I found the first two thirds incredibly boring - a mundane play-by-play of the lives of four sisters, the eldest of which is incredibly unlikeable. Not much happened until late in the book and even then, much of it felt uninteresting. It was far too long and repetitive due to the nature of the structure, but I feel like there are much better ways to handle the perspectives without such parroting. I’d probably swerve future books by this author.

Quite a slog

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The only book I’ve scored 10/10 in the many years since I started rating what I read.

Perfect in every way

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The evolving family dynamics in the face of problems and complicated situations is very interesting if sometimes rather contrived (absolutely intentionally). Better to listen in longer blocks than I could manage but very good listen.

Relationships

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Enjoyed it by the time I’d got 3 quarters of the way through. Narrator was strangely dull in tone

A bit saccharine and slow

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