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The Mermaid Chair

The No. 1 New York Times bestseller

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About this listen

 Don't miss the extraordinary new novel from Sue Monk Kidd, The Book of Longings - published on 21st April 2020, and available to buy now.

Jessie Sullivan has been married half her life, and has become accustomed to her role. But when she returns to the isolated island where she grew up to establish why her mother has been behaving oddly, she is to find a lot more than she came looking for. A loving, exuberant character, who believes herself to be happy, she has forgotten a hidden part of her spirit - the part represented by the beautiful, vibrant and legendary mermaid carved on a chair in the island's monastery.

When Jessie falls passionately in love with a monk who is close to taking his final vows, she discovers a place in herself that she had never previously imagined could exist. THE MERMAID CHAIR is the story of a woman trying to save her outgrown life - the roles, identities, securities and illusions she had created for herself - before finally emerging as something far more alive and powerful.

(P)2005 Penguin Audio©2005 Sue Monk Kidd Contemporary Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Metaphysical & Visionary United States Women's Fiction World Literature Merfolk

Critic reviews

The novel has humour and a profound feeling for its primeval landscape of mud flats and salt creeks... [A] sensitively plotted emotional journey
A highly charged tale full of sexual and spiritual desire. Every bit as moving and convincing as The Secret Life of Bees
All stars
Most relevant
It is a very relatable and heart warming story of love, loss and forgiveness in a beautiful setting.

A pleasurable read

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Is there anything you would change about this book?

I wasn't keen on the narrators voice when she was her daughter, very annoying sounded 5 years old not 20! The story took ages to get going and then finished rather rushed and left me uninterested and bored.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Wonderful description about the island.

Dissappointed, not as good as Her other books.

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Her character portrayal and superb use of language and metaphor create a deeply evocative Read.

beautiful writing.

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I was so looking forward to this book, as I had listened to The Invention of Wings and read The Scene the Life of Bees. Unfortunately the narrator's inflections made the main character sound very smug and insincere, so much so that I could not continue listening. I may read the book as I was enjoying the story.

The Narrators voice distracted me from the story.

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That might be an unfair title, but after the brilliance of her other novels I've read I felt a little let down by this one.
The thing that kept me going was that the turmoil Jessie felt was identifiable to me. Though as I'm going through it currently it could have been deeper, a lot of time flew by without acknowledging the crossroads she felt she was at. We didn't really learn much about the other characters either, they could have had amazing back stories.
I didn't dislike the book, I just felt it could have been deeper.

Not her best work

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