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  • I Couldn't Love You More

  • By: Esther Freud
  • Narrated by: Niamh Cusack
  • Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (120 ratings)
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I Couldn't Love You More cover art

I Couldn't Love You More

By: Esther Freud
Narrated by: Niamh Cusack
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Summary

Bloomsbury presents I Couldn't Love You More by Esther Freud, read by Niamh Cusack.

An unforgettable novel of mothers and daughters, wives and muses, secrets and outright lies.

An Evening Standard Book of 2021.

Rosaleen is still a teenager, in the early '60s, when she meets the famous sculptor Felix Lichtman. Felix is dangerous, bohemian, everything she dreamed of in the cold nights at her Catholic boarding school. And at first their life together is glitteringly romantic – drinking in Soho, journeying to Marseilles. But it’s not long before Rosaleen finds herself fearfully, unexpectedly alone. Desperate, she seeks help from the only source she knows, the local priest, and is directed across the sea to Ireland on a journey that will seal her fate.

Kate lives in '90s London, stumbling through her unhappy marriage. But something has begun to stir in her. Close to breaking point, she sets off on a journey of her own, not knowing what she hopes to find.

Aoife sits at her husband’s bedside as he lies dying and tells him the story of their marriage. But there is a crucial part of the story missing, and time is running out. Aoife needs to know: what became of Rosaleen?

Spanning three generations of women, I Couldn’t Love You More is an unforgettable novel about love, motherhood, secrets and betrayal - and how only the truth can set us free.

©2021 Esther Freud (P)2021 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Critic reviews

"Beautiful, moving, wonderful.... Let me be the first (but not the last) to say I couldn’t love it more." (Sam Baker)

"I hugely enjoyed it. She is such a compelling writer, so good at evoking atmosphere." (Lynn Barber)

"I loved it. I loved its ambition and the dexterity with which it was done, its poignancy and truth. I hope it does brilliantly." (Elizabeth Buchan)

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What listeners say about I Couldn't Love You More

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Beautifully written and tender

I loved this tender and frequently heart-rending story of multi-faceted love in three generations of related women whose experiences alternate through the book beautifully read by Niamh Cusack.
The oldest woman is Aoife (Irish pronounced eefa) who fell in love with her husband Cash during the war and now sits by his sick bed in old age after a bullying, unhappy marriage, still hoping one day to know what happened to her lost child. Next is Rosaleen, 18 in the early 1960s, sweet and impressionable, who falls heavily and completely for Felix, an East European sculptor more than twice her age, who spoke the words of the title to her 'I couldn't love you more'. But, abandoned, it ends for Rosaleen in despair and agony with the Irish Sisters of "Mercy". The third generation is Kate in the 1990s living with her adored, demanding daughter Freya and her destructively alcoholic failed musician husband Matt. Struggling to find herself, she starts to investigate her unknown mother who had once given her up for adoption in the early 60s.

There's so much to enjoy in this book and the narration definitely adds delicacy and deepens the heart of it. Esther Freud's writing is poetic and lyrical, not in a fey way, but in tenderly - in a way the episodes in the novel are rather like movements in a piece of music.
The different experiences of love are explored with startling empathy as in Rosaleen's passion for much older Felix and for her newborn baby, or in the complex maternal love of Kate for her child and mixed love and loathing for her alcoholic husband. The sections with the Sisters of Mercy are almost too harrowing to bear: the pregnant girls being harshly punished for their sins and having their babies sold to couples who arrive in cars to collect the new baby they have paid for, the bottle of expressed mother's milk tucked inside its shawl.
The three women are delicately woven together, their stories intertwining. The ending (I won't spoil it) is beautifully crafted and both uplifting and realistic.

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8 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Jumped about like a Jack in the box


Lovely narration but this jumped about too much that I got bored rewinding and finding out what was happening.

Looks like it’s just me as everyone else seems to rave about this book,

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1 person found this helpful

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A moving story.

I was totally immersed and captivated by this beautifully written story. It covers topics that I am very familiar with and felt invested in the characters. Nicely delivered.

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Brilliant

Excellent story - based on what actually happened in Ireland and UK in the 60s . Beautifully written and beautifully read . Thought provoking and heart rending

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Deeply deeply moving.

Beautifully narrated.
The story is heartbreaking and heartwarming. A story involving complex family relationships, but it’s beautifully weaved and intertwined.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

confusing

I struggled with this book. Maybe if I'd read it rather than listened it might have been easier. very Irish accents, some a bit grating. Story jumped around way too much.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Took ages to get going

Reminded me of the longest uphill start on a rollercoaster. I just knew it would gather pace eventually, and I was right!

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Stick with it

It took me three restarts and some focused concentration to get into this book. Sometimes one chapter ran into another and unless the listener is really aware, the story gets confused. I needed to listen to this in big chunks rather than small bites. Definitely worth sticking with. The rewards of the story, writing and performance are well worth it!

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A beautiful book

Beautifully written and read. Difficult at times as the fact that this was the truth for some is so sad but it is committed with such honesty and poetry. The people feel real and I would love to know more!

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Beautiful and disturbing

This novel, woven around the lives of three generations of mothers/daughters in the latter half of the last century, explores the often appalling nature of the attitudes and treatments directed towards women who failed to live up to traditional expectations. I was a little unsure about it at first, as I found the initial few chapters a little difficult to follow (probably would have been easier with the printed book). However, I soon became drawn into the story, which I found incredibly moving and compelling. The way in which the overlapping eras are drawn together is skilful, and the language was so effective, with raw emotions drawn so very vividly and poetically, that I felt as if I myself was going through the experiences I was reading about. Niamh Cusack's narration was perfect and added a further dimension to the book. The overall quality of this audiobook, in my opinion, is such that I would recommend it with no hesitation.

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