Listen free for 30 days
-
Early Morning Riser
- Narrated by: Kate Rudd
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £14.49
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Standard Deviation
- By: Katherine Heiny
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Graham Cavanaugh's second wife, Audra, is everything his first wife was not. She considers herself privileged to live in the age of the hair towel; talks nonstop through her epidural, labour and delivery; invites the doorman to move in and the eccentric members of their son's Origami Club to Thanksgiving. She is charming and spontaneous and fun, but life with her can be exhausting. In the midst of the day-to-day difficulties and delights of marriage and raising a child with Asperger's, his first wife, Elspeth, reenters Graham's life.
-
-
Achingly funny, sad and heartwarming
- By Kaggy on 20-06-17
-
The Paper Palace
- The No.1 New York Times Bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Bookclub Pick
- By: Miranda Cowley Heller
- Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a perfect August morning, Elle Bishop heads out for a swim in the pond below 'The Paper Palace'—her family's holiday home in Cape Cod. As she dives beneath the water she relives the passionate encounter she had the night before, against the side of the house that knows all her darkest secrets, while her husband and mother chatted to their guests inside.... So begins a story that unfolds over 24 hours and 50 years, as Elle's shocking betrayal leads her to a life-changing decision—and an ending you won't be able to stop thinking about.
-
-
Don’t waste your life
- By S. Maguire on 10-08-21
-
Single, Carefree, Mellow
- By: Katherine Heiny
- Narrated by: Penelope Rawlins, Jennifer Woodward
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the title story, we meet Maya, who is torn between her wryly funny boyfriend and the allure of her veterinarian. In "Andorra," a woman's lover calls her every Thursday as he drives to meet his wife at marriage counselling. "How to Give the Wrong Impression" shows us a woman pining for her roommate, a man who will hold her hand but then tell her that her palm is sweaty.
-
-
Brilliant portrayals of our interior lives
- By Anonymous User on 20-10-21
-
Sorrow and Bliss
- By: Meg Mason
- Narrated by: Emilia Fox
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone tells Martha Friel she is clever and beautiful, a brilliant writer who has been loved every day of her adult life by one man, her husband Patrick. So why is everything broken? Why is Martha - on the edge of 40 - friendless, practically jobless and so often sad? And why did Patrick decide to leave? Maybe she is just too sensitive, someone who finds it harder to be alive than most people. Or maybe - as she has long believed - there is something wrong with her.
-
-
depressing and pointless
- By Anonymous User on 23-10-21
-
French Braid
- By: Anne Tyler
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the kids are grown and Mercy Garrett gradually moves herself out of the family home, everyone determines not to notice. Over at her studio, she wants space and silence. She won't allow any family clutter. Not even their cat, Desmond. Yet it is a clutter of untidy moments that forms the Garretts' family life over the decades, from giving a child a ride to a painstaking Easter lunch, a fateful train journey to an unexpected homecoming. And it all begins in 1959, with a family holiday to a cabin by a lake.
-
-
Wonderful!
- By Nina S Bailey on 27-03-22
-
Lessons in Chemistry
- By: Bonnie Garmus
- Narrated by: Miranda Raison
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing. But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant Nobel-prize-nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.
-
-
I laughed and cried. A masterpiece.
- By Nicola on 21-04-22
-
Standard Deviation
- By: Katherine Heiny
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Graham Cavanaugh's second wife, Audra, is everything his first wife was not. She considers herself privileged to live in the age of the hair towel; talks nonstop through her epidural, labour and delivery; invites the doorman to move in and the eccentric members of their son's Origami Club to Thanksgiving. She is charming and spontaneous and fun, but life with her can be exhausting. In the midst of the day-to-day difficulties and delights of marriage and raising a child with Asperger's, his first wife, Elspeth, reenters Graham's life.
-
-
Achingly funny, sad and heartwarming
- By Kaggy on 20-06-17
-
The Paper Palace
- The No.1 New York Times Bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Bookclub Pick
- By: Miranda Cowley Heller
- Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a perfect August morning, Elle Bishop heads out for a swim in the pond below 'The Paper Palace'—her family's holiday home in Cape Cod. As she dives beneath the water she relives the passionate encounter she had the night before, against the side of the house that knows all her darkest secrets, while her husband and mother chatted to their guests inside.... So begins a story that unfolds over 24 hours and 50 years, as Elle's shocking betrayal leads her to a life-changing decision—and an ending you won't be able to stop thinking about.
-
-
Don’t waste your life
- By S. Maguire on 10-08-21
-
Single, Carefree, Mellow
- By: Katherine Heiny
- Narrated by: Penelope Rawlins, Jennifer Woodward
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the title story, we meet Maya, who is torn between her wryly funny boyfriend and the allure of her veterinarian. In "Andorra," a woman's lover calls her every Thursday as he drives to meet his wife at marriage counselling. "How to Give the Wrong Impression" shows us a woman pining for her roommate, a man who will hold her hand but then tell her that her palm is sweaty.
-
-
Brilliant portrayals of our interior lives
- By Anonymous User on 20-10-21
-
Sorrow and Bliss
- By: Meg Mason
- Narrated by: Emilia Fox
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone tells Martha Friel she is clever and beautiful, a brilliant writer who has been loved every day of her adult life by one man, her husband Patrick. So why is everything broken? Why is Martha - on the edge of 40 - friendless, practically jobless and so often sad? And why did Patrick decide to leave? Maybe she is just too sensitive, someone who finds it harder to be alive than most people. Or maybe - as she has long believed - there is something wrong with her.
-
-
depressing and pointless
- By Anonymous User on 23-10-21
-
French Braid
- By: Anne Tyler
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the kids are grown and Mercy Garrett gradually moves herself out of the family home, everyone determines not to notice. Over at her studio, she wants space and silence. She won't allow any family clutter. Not even their cat, Desmond. Yet it is a clutter of untidy moments that forms the Garretts' family life over the decades, from giving a child a ride to a painstaking Easter lunch, a fateful train journey to an unexpected homecoming. And it all begins in 1959, with a family holiday to a cabin by a lake.
-
-
Wonderful!
- By Nina S Bailey on 27-03-22
-
Lessons in Chemistry
- By: Bonnie Garmus
- Narrated by: Miranda Raison
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing. But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant Nobel-prize-nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.
-
-
I laughed and cried. A masterpiece.
- By Nicola on 21-04-22
-
A Town Called Solace
- By: Mary Lawson
- Narrated by: Maggie Huculak, Tajja Isen, Ian Lake
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Clara's sister is missing. Angry, rebellious Rose had a row with their mother, stormed out of the house and simply disappeared. Eight-year-old Clara, isolated by her distraught parents' efforts to protect her from the truth, is grief-stricken and bewildered. Liam Kane, newly divorced, newly unemployed, newly arrived in this small northern town, moves into the house next door, a house left to him by an old woman he can barely remember and within hours gets a visit from the police. It seems he's suspected of a crime.
-
-
Brilliantly real!
- By Rachel Redford on 27-04-21
-
At the Table
- By: Claire Powell
- Narrated by: Kristin Atherton
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To Nicole and Jamie Maguire, their parents seem the ideal couple - a suburban double act, happily married for more than 30 years. So when Linda and Gerry announce that they've decided to separate, the news sends shockwaves through the siblings' lives, forcing them to confront their own expectations and desires.
-
-
A Year in the Life of a Family
- By C. P. McGregor on 12-04-22
-
The Truth and Other Hidden Things
- A Novel
- By: Lea Geller
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the same day Bells Walker learns that her IUD has failed, her husband Harry is denied tenure at his Manhattan university. So Bells, Harry, their two adolescent children, and her baby bump move to New York’s Hudson Valley, where Harry has landed a job at Dutchess College in the town of Pigkill. When the farm-to-table utopia Bells envisioned is anything but, she turns to the blogosphere. Under the pen name the County Dutchess, she anonymously dishes about life in Pigkill, detailing the activities of hypercompetitive parents and kombucha-drinking hipsters.
-
Project Hail Mary
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
-
-
A return to form
- By Amazon Customer on 06-05-21
-
Oh William!
- Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2022
- By: Elizabeth Strout
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucy Barton is a successful writer living in New York, navigating the second half of her life as a recent widow and parent to two adult daughters. A surprise encounter leads her to reconnect with William, her first husband—and long-time, on-again-off-again friend and confidante. Recalling their college years, the birth of their daughters, the painful dissolution of their marriage and the lives they built with other people, Strout weaves a portrait, stunning in its subtlety, of a tender, complex, decades-long partnership.
-
-
A simple slice of life?
- By JennyJoJo Hooper on 18-02-22
-
The Exhibitionist
- By: Charlotte Mendelson
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet the Hanrahan family, gathering for a momentous weekend as famous artist and notorious egoist Ray Hanrahan prepares for a new exhibition of his art - the first in many decades - and one he is sure will burnish his reputation for good. His three children will be there: beautiful Leah, always her father’s biggest champion; sensitive Patrick, who has finally decided to strike out on his own; and insecure Jess, the youngest, who has her own momentous decision to make.
-
-
Grotesque, unbelievable main characters
- By Jeannivista on 21-05-22
-
Love Marriage
- Winner of the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Literature
- By: Monica Ali
- Narrated by: Ayesha Dharker
- Length: 15 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yasmin Ghorami has a lot to be grateful for: a loving family, a fledgling career in medicine and a charming, handsome fiancé, fellow doctor Joe Sangster. But as the wedding day draws closer and Yasmin's parents get to know Joe's firebrand feminist mother, both families must confront the unravelling of long-held secrets, lies and betrayals. As Yasmin dismantles her own assumptions about the people she holds most dear, she's also forced to ask herself what she really wants in a relationship and what a 'love marriage' actually means.
-
-
Really Something Different
- By sue tid on 21-02-22
-
The Whalebone Theatre
- By: Joanna Quinn
- Narrated by: Olivia Vinall
- Length: 18 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cristabel Seagrave has always wanted her life to be a story, but there are no girls in the books in her dusty family library. For an unwanted orphan who grows into an unmarriageable young woman, there is no place at all for her in a traditional English manor. But from the day that a whale washes up on the beach at the Chilcombe estate in Dorset, and 12-year-old Cristabel plants her flag and claims it as her own, she is determined to do things differently.
-
-
So glad i took a chance on this one!
- By joanna on 10-06-22
-
I'm Sorry You Feel That Way
- By: Rebecca Wait
- Narrated by: Tamsin Kennard
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For Alice and Hanna, saint and sinner, growing up is a trial. There is their mother, who takes a divide-and-conquer approach to child-rearing, and their father, who takes an absent one. There is their older brother, Michael, whose disapproval is a force to be reckoned with. There is the catastrophe that is never spoken of but has shaped everything. As adults, Alice and Hanna must deal with disappointments in work and in love, as well as increasingly complicated family tensions and lives that look dismayingly dissimilar to what they'd intended.
-
-
St George
- By St George on 13-07-22
-
Where the Crawdads Sing
- By: Delia Owens
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For years, rumors of the 'Marsh Girl' have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved.
-
-
Oh my word...
- By Private on 09-05-20
-
Apples Never Fall
- By: Liane Moriarty
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the outside, the Delaneys appear to be an enviably contented family. Even after all these years, former tennis coaches Joy and Stan are still winning tournaments, and now that they've sold the family business they have all the time in the world to learn how to 'relax'. Their four adult children are busy living their own lives, and while it could be argued they never quite achieved their destinies, no-one ever says that out loud.
-
-
Great Fun
- By lottie on 17-09-21
-
Mrs March
- By: Virginia Feito
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Rogers
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A creature of routine and decorum, Mrs March lives an exquisitely controlled existence on the Upper East Side. Every morning begins the same way, with a visit to her favourite patisserie to buy a loaf of olive bread, but her latest trip proves to be her last when she suffers an indignity from which she may never recover: an assumption by the shopkeeper that the protagonist in George March’s new book - a pathetic sex worker, more a figure of derision than desire - is based on Mrs March.
-
-
dismal
- By Deb on 31-08-21
Summary
Jane easily falls in love with Duncan: he's charming, good-natured and handsome. He has also slept with nearly every woman in Boyne City, Michigan.
Jane sees Duncan's old girlfriends everywhere - at restaurants, at the grocery store, even three towns away. While she may be able to come to terms with dating the world's most prolific seducer of women, she wishes she didn't have to share him quite so widely. His ex-wife, Aggie, still has Duncan mow her lawn. And his co-worker Jimmy comes and goes from Duncan's apartment at the most inopportune times. Jane wonders how the relationship is supposed to work with all these people in it. But any notion Jane has of love and marriage changes with one tragic accident. Now her life is permanently intertwined with Duncan's, Aggie's and Jimmy's, and she knows she will never have Duncan to herself. But is it possible that a deeper kind of happiness is right in front of her eyes?
Critic reviews
"Glorious. I love how it evokes the rhythm of life in all its joy and ordinariness and chaos. I loved the dialogue, the relationships. I love the one-liners, the humour, the gorgeous detail, the food, the innermost thoughts, and the love." (Nina Stibbe, author of Reasons to Be Cheerful)
"Wise, sad and barkingly funny. Katherine Heiny writes brilliantly about what we mean by the word 'family', and her novel is loving without being soppy and warm without being cosy - I didn't want it to end." (Lissa Evans, author of V for Victory)
"Katherine Heiny’s books feel like spending time with a smart, funny and beloved friend who always has a million interesting things to talk about but always wants to know about you, too. She is a charming and insightful and unique writer, and Early Morning Riser is every bit as good as Standard Deviation, if not better." (Lisa Jewell, author of Invisible Girl)
More from the same
What listeners say about Early Morning Riser
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rachel Redford
- 07-05-21
Can love survive marriage?
Early morning Riser takes us along with Jane from the age of 26 for the next 17 years. Katherine Heiny has an Elizabeth Strout-ish skill at giving the everyday minutiae of ordinary lives a specialness which is gratifying and moving. There's also lots of laugh-aloud humour provided by, for example, Jane's elementary school pupils, her awful outspoken mother, and her violently stroppy toddler. There is also one of the most vividly real descriptions of childbirth I've ever read (the author has surely recently given birth!) and an excruciating pre-wedding family gathering where Jane's mother pronounces her daughter's delicate rose-coloured wedding dress as looking as though an old red sock had got into the wash.
We follow Jane from her first relationship with Duncan (spoiled only by Duncan's track record which means every woman in small town Boyne City Michigan has had sex with him, and by his intrusive ex-wife Aggie whose lawn Duncan still mows) - to marriage and children. Along the way Jane learns what the novel is all about: love. That is the sort of love Jane comes to feel for Jimmy, the vulnerable 'slow-learning' young man to whom she gives a home when his mother dies; love for children however infuriating they might be (the author is great on children's speech and behaviour); the love of a husband however imperfect he may be; and the love of life however imperfect that may be.
The whole has a tremendous narrative drive matching Jane's own drive and embracing of life - even when it's sitting at a supper party listening to a guest detailing her gluten allergy. I loved it and I loved all her quirky similes such as a broken heart is like having a melon ball scooped out of a melon. It's one of those books where you miss the characters when it's finished.
It's very well read but I gave it only a 4 because of the men's voices. It's very hard for a female voice to create a successful male one, and her men came out too boomy
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- A. Townley
- 04-06-21
Not for me
I had heard about this book before it was released and pre-ordered it as the press for it made me think this would be something I’d enjoy. Sadly, it wasn’t.
The characters weren’t particularly relatable and I struggle to like any of them. This wasn’t helped by the narrator’s range of one voice for all female characters and one for all males.
The endless lists had me wondering if the author was struggling to meet a word count target, as she’s run out of steam in telling the story.
The descriptions of the school activities and students’ interactions made me wonder what is going on these days in second grade, as they seemed more fitting for a kindergarten class. By the same token, while it was made clear that Jimmy had learning difficulties, I began to wonder if most of the people describe in the book did too.
I stuck with it in the hope that there might be an interesting denouement, but this never materialised and I felt a sense of relief when the book finished.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- M. Bourke
- 15-05-21
boring and not funny !
I read great reviews but it's a dull unfunny book about irritating characters doing very little
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ellby
- 26-04-21
Just gorgeous
I adored Standard Deviation and this follow up was every bit as brilliant. Katherine Heiny has such a beautiful, distinctive, dreamy quality to her writing – she creates perfect little worlds that you want to crawl into forever. Can’t recommend enough!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- N. Murray
- 05-08-21
N M Murray
A delightful story beautifully read by Kate Rudd A change to have such an easy listen.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Debbie Smith
- 07-08-22
This one is ok but it does go on a bit
Some good bits it’s an easy listening for sure but towards the end chapters it got for me very boring
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Vicki H
- 28-06-22
it was okay
finished it a month back story hasn't even stuck with me.
good beach read. I have read better recently.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Emma
- 24-08-21
Gentle enjoyable read
Lovely gentle meandering story, absolutely perfect after a few thrillers. Beautifully read and left me feeling warm and fuzzy, exactly what I needed.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Wendy Barton
- 20-08-21
A wonderful listen!
One of the best readings ever and a heartwarming story. A bit like Anne Tyler.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Deirdre Motherway
- 28-06-21
Fantastic story, horrible narration editing
This is such a fantastic book almost ruined by the audio. The editing of the narrator is so bad that I wondered if the narrator was computer generated. Buy this in print!