Listen free for 30 days
-
Commonwealth
- Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
People who bought this also bought...
-
State of Wonder
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Nancy Baldwin
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Research scientist Dr. Marina Singh is sent to Brazil to track down Dr. Annick Swenson, who has disappeared in the Amazon while working on a valuable new drug. The last person who was sent to find her, Marina’s research partner Anders Eckman, died before he could complete his mission. Plagued by trepidation, Marina embarks on an odyssey into the insect-infested jungle in hopes of finding her former mentor as well as answers to several troubling questions about her friend’s death.
-
-
Lost interest half way through
- By Valerie on 14-09-12
-
Bel Canto
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ann Patchett’s award winning, New York Times best-selling Bel Canto balances themes of love and crisis as disparate characters learn that music is their only common language. As in Pratchett’s other novels, including Truth & Beauty and The Magician’s Assistant, the author’s lyrical prose and lucid imagination make Bel Canto a captivating story of strength and frailty, love and imprisonment, and an inspiring tale of transcendent romance.
-
-
Bel Canto
- By Sheila Lam on 06-03-20
-
The Dutch House
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Tom Hanks
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A masterpiece from the Orange Prize-winning, New York Times number one best-selling author of Commonwealth and Bel Canto: a story of love, family, sacrifice and the power of place. Lose yourself in the story of a lifetime – the unforgettable Sunday Times best seller. A story of two siblings, their childhood home and a past that they can’t let go. Like swallows, like salmon, we were the helpless captives of our migratory patterns.
-
-
Underwhelming
- By Ted on 30-01-20
-
The Hand That First Held Mine
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the bohemian, sophisticated Innes Kent turns up by chance on her doorstep, Lexie Sinclair realises she cannot wait any longer for her life to begin, and leaves for London. There, at the heart of the 1950s Soho art scene, she carves out a new life for herself, with Innes at her side. In the present day, Elina and Ted are reeling from the difficult birth of their first child.
-
-
amazing
- By happy loon on 07-07-15
-
The Most Fun We Ever Had
- By: Claire Lombardo
- Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
- Length: 19 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet the Sorenson Family. Marilyn has somehow fallen into motherhood and spent four decades married to David, who's pretty certain he loves her more than anyone has ever loved another person. Wendy, their eldest, a cause for concern, soothes herself with drink after being widowed young, while Violet, lawyer-turned-stay-at-home-mother, is disturbed by the reappearance of a son placed for adoption 15 years earlier.
-
-
Couldn’t get into it at all.
- By FIona on 06-06-20
-
Abide with Me
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth Strout
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the late 1950s, in the small town of West Annett, Maine, a minister struggles to regain his calling, his family, and his happiness in the wake of profound loss. At the same time, the community he has served so charismatically must come to terms with its own strengths and failings, faith and hypocrisy, loyalty and abandonment, when a dark secret is revealed.
-
-
wonderful
- By Sallysomeone on 22-09-17
-
State of Wonder
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Nancy Baldwin
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Research scientist Dr. Marina Singh is sent to Brazil to track down Dr. Annick Swenson, who has disappeared in the Amazon while working on a valuable new drug. The last person who was sent to find her, Marina’s research partner Anders Eckman, died before he could complete his mission. Plagued by trepidation, Marina embarks on an odyssey into the insect-infested jungle in hopes of finding her former mentor as well as answers to several troubling questions about her friend’s death.
-
-
Lost interest half way through
- By Valerie on 14-09-12
-
Bel Canto
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ann Patchett’s award winning, New York Times best-selling Bel Canto balances themes of love and crisis as disparate characters learn that music is their only common language. As in Pratchett’s other novels, including Truth & Beauty and The Magician’s Assistant, the author’s lyrical prose and lucid imagination make Bel Canto a captivating story of strength and frailty, love and imprisonment, and an inspiring tale of transcendent romance.
-
-
Bel Canto
- By Sheila Lam on 06-03-20
-
The Dutch House
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Tom Hanks
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A masterpiece from the Orange Prize-winning, New York Times number one best-selling author of Commonwealth and Bel Canto: a story of love, family, sacrifice and the power of place. Lose yourself in the story of a lifetime – the unforgettable Sunday Times best seller. A story of two siblings, their childhood home and a past that they can’t let go. Like swallows, like salmon, we were the helpless captives of our migratory patterns.
-
-
Underwhelming
- By Ted on 30-01-20
-
The Hand That First Held Mine
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the bohemian, sophisticated Innes Kent turns up by chance on her doorstep, Lexie Sinclair realises she cannot wait any longer for her life to begin, and leaves for London. There, at the heart of the 1950s Soho art scene, she carves out a new life for herself, with Innes at her side. In the present day, Elina and Ted are reeling from the difficult birth of their first child.
-
-
amazing
- By happy loon on 07-07-15
-
The Most Fun We Ever Had
- By: Claire Lombardo
- Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
- Length: 19 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet the Sorenson Family. Marilyn has somehow fallen into motherhood and spent four decades married to David, who's pretty certain he loves her more than anyone has ever loved another person. Wendy, their eldest, a cause for concern, soothes herself with drink after being widowed young, while Violet, lawyer-turned-stay-at-home-mother, is disturbed by the reappearance of a son placed for adoption 15 years earlier.
-
-
Couldn’t get into it at all.
- By FIona on 06-06-20
-
Abide with Me
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth Strout
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the late 1950s, in the small town of West Annett, Maine, a minister struggles to regain his calling, his family, and his happiness in the wake of profound loss. At the same time, the community he has served so charismatically must come to terms with its own strengths and failings, faith and hypocrisy, loyalty and abandonment, when a dark secret is revealed.
-
-
wonderful
- By Sallysomeone on 22-09-17
-
Redhead by the Side of the Road
- By: Anne Tyler
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Micah Mortimer isn’t the most polished person you’ll ever meet. His numerous sisters and in-laws regard him oddly but very fondly, but he has his ways and means of navigating the world. He measures out his days running errands for work – his TECH HERMIT sign cheerily displayed on the roof of his car - maintaining an impeccable cleaning regime and going for runs (7:15 every morning). He is content with the steady balance of his life. But then the order of things starts to tilt.
-
-
Wonderful and poignant
- By Amazon Customer on 26-04-20
-
Dominicana
- By: Angie Cruz
- Narrated by: Coral Peña
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fifteen-year-old Ana Canción never dreamed of moving to America, the way the girls she grew up with in the Dominican countryside did. But when Juan Ruiz proposes and promises to take her to New York City, she must say yes. It doesn't matter that he is twice her age, that there is no love between them. Their marriage is an opportunity for her entire close-knit family to eventually immigrate. So on New Year's Day, 1965, Ana leaves behind everything she knows and becomes Ana Ruiz, a wife confined to a cold six-floor walk-up in Washington Heights.
-
-
Great novel, narration was lacking
- By Dunja on 12-10-20
-
Hamnet
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Daisy Donovan
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home? Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London. Neither parent knows that one of the children will not survive the week.
-
-
Narrator fights writing and wins (sadly)
- By Leaf Green on 20-07-20
-
The Art of Falling
- By: Danielle McLaughlin
- Narrated by: Tara Flynn
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nessa McCormack's marriage is coming back together again after her husband's affair. She is excited to be in charge of a retrospective art exhibit for one of Ireland's most beloved and enigmatic artists, the late sculptor Robert Locke. But the arrival of two outsiders imperils both her personal and professional worlds: a chance encounter with an old friend threatens to expose a betrayal Nessa thought she had long put behind her, and at work, an odd woman comes forward claiming to be the true creator of Robert Locke's most famous work, The Chalk Sculpture.
-
-
A really enjoyable read
- By Claire on 03-03-21
-
The Gift of Rain
- By: Tan Twan Eng
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin, Luke Thompson
- Length: 16 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Penang, 1939: Sixteen-year-old Philip Hutton is a loner. Half English, half Chinese and feeling neither, he discovers a sense of belonging in an unexpected friendship with Hayato Endo, a Japanese diplomat. But when the Japanese invade Malaya, threatening to destroy Philip's family and everything he loves, he realises that his trusted friend has been harbouring a devastating secret.
-
-
The perfect novel
- By SDY on 13-08-13
-
Clock Dance
- By: Anne Tyler
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Willa Drake can count on one hand the defining moments of her life: when she was 11 and her mother disappeared, being proposed to at 21, the accident that would make her a widow at 41. At each of these moments, Willa ended up on a path laid out for her by others. So when she receives a phone call telling her that her son’s ex-girlfriend has been shot and needs her help, she drops everything and flies across the country. The spur-of-the moment decision to look after this woman - and her nine-year-old daughter, and her dog - will lead Willa into uncharted territory....
-
-
I wish this book went on forever
- By Tor on 19-08-18
-
Anything Is Possible
- By: Elizabeth Strout
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anything Is Possible tells the story of the inhabitants of rural, dusty Amgash, Illinois, the hometown of Lucy Barton, a successful New York writer who finally returns, after 17 years of absence, to visit the siblings she left behind. Reverberating with the deep bonds of family and the hope that comes with reconciliation, Anything Is Possible again underscores Elizabeth Strout's place as one of America's most respected and cherished authors.
-
-
A good and thoughtful read.
- By S. Corner on 03-09-17
-
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
- By: Anne Tyler
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Through every family run memories that bind it together - despite everything. The Tulls of Baltimore are no exception. Abandoned by her salesman husband, Pearl is left to bring up her three children alone - Cody, a flawed devil; Ezra, a flawed saint; and Jenny, errant and passionate. Now as Pearl lies dying, stiffly encased in her pride and solitude, the past is unlocked and with it, secrets. A classic novel from one of America's greatest living novelists, now available as an audiobook.
-
-
Tyler's own favourite
- By Mr. Jw Perks on 10-01-15
-
Olive Kitteridge
- Fiction
- By: Elizabeth Strout
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.
-
-
Olive Kitteridge is someone we already know
- By katemoloney on 21-10-19
-
Summerwater
- By: Sarah Moss
- Narrated by: Morven Christie
- Length: 4 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the longest day of the summer, 12 people sit cooped up with their families in a faded Scottish cabin park. The endless rain leaves them with little to do but watch the other residents. A woman goes running up the Ben as if fleeing; a retired couple reminisces about neighbours long since moved on; a teenage boy braves the dark waters of the loch in his red kayak. Each person is wrapped in their own cares but increasingly alert to the makeshift community around them.
-
-
Thoughts for our fractured times - brilliant
- By Rachel Redford on 29-08-20
-
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
- By: Marina Lewycka
- Narrated by: Siân Thomas
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcee. He was 84 and she was 36. She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade, churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside. Sisters Vera and Nadezhda must put aside a lifetime of feuding to save their émigré engineer father from voluptuous gold-digger Valentina.
-
-
Excellent, charming and very engaging throughout
- By Neil Bottle on 20-06-15
-
Dear Life
- By: Alice Munro
- Narrated by: Liza Ross, Robert Slade
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moments of change, chance encounters, twists of fate that create a new way of thinking or being: The stories in Dear Life build to form a radiant, indelible portrait of just how dangerous and strange ordinary life can be. The collection includes four powerful pieces, "autobiographical in Feeling", set during the time of Munro's own childhood, in the area where she grew up.
-
-
Very Gentle & Enjoyable
- By Alison on 06-12-13
Summary
It is 1964: Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating's christening uninvited, where he notices a heart-stoppingly beautiful woman. When Bert kisses Beverly Keating, his host's wife, he sets in motion the joining of two families. In 1988, Franny Keating, now 24, meets one of her idols, the famous author Leon Posen.
After telling him about her family, she unwittingly relinquishes control over their story. Franny never dreams that the consequences of this encounter will extend into the lives of her scattered siblings and parents.
Critic reviews
More from the same
What listeners say about Commonwealth
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- jennifer
- 14-09-16
For the first time
Ann Patchett is a genius but the person narrating her audiobook is so painfully bad that I can't make it through the whole thing. It's genuinely distracting.
23 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- opinion
- 16-08-17
Can I say that this has been a bit disappointing
Likes; some of the writing is quite poetic and it is easy to read
A plot point is woven throughout the book.
I had some favourite characters. And there were some thought provoking bits.
Dislikes; a lot of pages describing the mundane tedious parts of day to day life, makes for a lot of boringness. Jumping from present to past with a tonne of characters. I thought that I was feeling confused because I was listening to the story, but friends who read it, also felt confused. All in all a dull book for me.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Karen G
- 06-04-18
A struggle...
The narrators voice was irritating and made the story difficult to access . I wouldn’t recommend this one
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Story
- susan lowes
- 11-04-17
dreadful marration<br />
childlike narration. ridiculous attempts at male voices. totally overwhelmed the story. read this yourself.
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Roni Loveless
- 30-01-20
Worse narrator
I’d read up to halfway of this book on hard copy and was utterly loving it , I needed to finish it for my book group but had to multi task so decided to listen to the second half . The female narrator doing the male characters voices was awful totally ruined the image I had of them in my head . Such a shame as this is a fabulously written book but the voice was so jarring ,could not finish it on Audible had to go back to reading it .
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Hannah
- 08-08-19
Ending?
I was really enjoying this but then it just meandered to an end and felt unfinished which was a shame.
I read some poor reviews of the narration for this book. I thought it was excellent and not a distraction at all.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mrs S Kyriakides
- 13-12-20
What a disappointment
Up till now I have really enjoyed books by Ann Patchett but sadly Commonwealth has been a disappointment. Meandering story moving through different time zones with a host of characters - I never quite got to the point of it. And the final nail in the coffin was the narrator; she has a lovely voice but the voices she uses for the men and children in the story are excruciating. Such a pity.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Clare78
- 14-08-20
Commonwealth
It is an excellent story, which starts off a bit slow and gets better as it goes on. It’s well crafted and engaging, but the narrator is rather annoying (to say the least) and her various international vocal accents are verging on racist!! It sadly detracts from the story.
-
Overall
- A. L. Stevens
- 21-02-20
Narrator is terrible
After thoroughly enjoying the Dutch House I was keen to start this. I found the narrator completely off-putting. Her male voices are so bad they sound like insane Muppets. I can't listen to it. This is one where I'll be happy to simply read the book without audio.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Margaret Carroll
- 03-01-20
Well read
I really enjoyed the book. Sometimes the narrator is very poor and spoils the story but Laurence Bouvard does an excellent job
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Melanie Cilliers
- 21-06-20
Ann Patchet is a master
read all her books by now and never not satisfied... state of wonder also brilliant!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- LAA
- 09-12-16
Commonwealth
Sorry narrater.
Pretty OK story but hard to enjoy due to narrator's inadequate reading ability.