Audiobook5 hours
St. Ivo
Written by Joanna Hershon
Narrated by Joanna Hershon
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Over the course of a weekend, two couples reckon with the long-hidden secrets that have shaped their
families, in a charged, poignant novel of motherhood and friendship
It’s the end of summer when we meet Sarah, the end of summer and the middle of her life, the middle of her career
(she hopes it’s not the end), the middle of her marriage (recently repaired). And despite the years that have passed since
she last saw her daughter, she is still very much in the middle of figuring out what happened to Leda, what role she
played, and how she will let that loss affect the rest of her life.
Enter a mysterious stranger on a train, an older man taking the subway to Brooklyn who sees right into her. Then
a mugging, her phone stolen, and with it any last connection to Leda. And then an invitation, friends from the past
and a weekend in the country with their new, unexpected baby.
Over the course of three hot September days, the two couples try to reconnect. Events that have been set in
motion, circumstances and feelings kept hidden, rise to the surface, forcing each to ask not just how they ended up
where they are, but how they ended up who they are.
Unwinding like a suspense novel, Joanna Hershon’s St. Ivo is a powerful investigation into the meaning of choice
and family, whether we ever know the people closest to us, and how, when someone goes missing from our lives, we
can ever let them go.
families, in a charged, poignant novel of motherhood and friendship
It’s the end of summer when we meet Sarah, the end of summer and the middle of her life, the middle of her career
(she hopes it’s not the end), the middle of her marriage (recently repaired). And despite the years that have passed since
she last saw her daughter, she is still very much in the middle of figuring out what happened to Leda, what role she
played, and how she will let that loss affect the rest of her life.
Enter a mysterious stranger on a train, an older man taking the subway to Brooklyn who sees right into her. Then
a mugging, her phone stolen, and with it any last connection to Leda. And then an invitation, friends from the past
and a weekend in the country with their new, unexpected baby.
Over the course of three hot September days, the two couples try to reconnect. Events that have been set in
motion, circumstances and feelings kept hidden, rise to the surface, forcing each to ask not just how they ended up
where they are, but how they ended up who they are.
Unwinding like a suspense novel, Joanna Hershon’s St. Ivo is a powerful investigation into the meaning of choice
and family, whether we ever know the people closest to us, and how, when someone goes missing from our lives, we
can ever let them go.
Related to St. Ivo
Related audiobooks
Leaving: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOff Course Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Chevy in the Hole: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sea Creatures: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sunken Cathedral: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Summer Demands Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Carry the One: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Friendship Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Atlas of Reds and Blues: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanishing Twins: A Marriage Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Gloaming Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Salvation City: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Some Go Home Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDear Fang, With Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great House Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Go Home, Ricky! Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Land of Enchantment Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Holding Her Breath: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Privilege: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5They May Not Mean To, But They Do: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Hazards: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Burning Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Homesick Songs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pleasing Hour Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Deceit and Other Possibilities: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lauras: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Await Your Reply Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All This Could Be Yours Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Short History of Women Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5All At Sea: A Memoir Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Literary Fiction For You
Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stardust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: A Hunger Games Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Parable of the Sower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tom Lake: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yellowface: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Measure: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dutch House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Name of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beneath a Scarlet Sky: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The House in the Cerulean Sea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of The Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hang the Moon: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kindred Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for St. Ivo
Rating: 3.53125 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
16 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In this gently sad but non-memorable novel, the reader knows that there's something amiss with Leda, daughter of blocked filmmaker Sarah and her husband Matthew. After a violent mugging outside their home, the couple leaves Brooklyn for upstate NY and a visit to their former neighbors Kiki and Arman and their new baby. Sarah immediately lies about Leda's status and encounters other visitors and some MAGA types during the time frame of one long weekend. The denouement about Leda isn't dramatic enough to have been woven throughout the narrative, nor are mysteries about Kiki and Arman and what Matthew's been withholding. A pleasant meander but that's about all there is here.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So, I finished this book and have been pondering over the last few days. Why, did I like this book so much and why does it continue to echo in my thoughts. There are no big action scenes, actually very little action action at all. I didn't especially like nor did I dislike the characters. Yet, this story drew me in, and kept me there.Two couples, once good friends attempt to reconcile when one of the couples has a young daughter. Twenty years have passed and when they knew each other before, the other couple had a young child. They arrive to spend the weekend together, both are hiding something from the other, and tension simmers due to this. There is as much meaning in what is unsaid as in what is said. There is so much going on under the surface.The truth is, this is life. Messy, complicated, the pulling apart, the making of concessions. I could relate to this book, these characters. Dreams can turn into failures, opportunities lost. Hopes, heartbreaks, hope and expectations. People come and go, in this book and in our lives. We act out of character, do things we don't understand as one of the characters does in the book.The writing is terrific, the dialogue flows naturally. A book that makes one think about if afterwards is not rare, but not common either. I just feel lucky when I find/ read one that does.ARC from Edelweiss.