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We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

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We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

By: Karen Joy Fowler
Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy
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Rosemary doesn't talk much and about certain things she's silent. She had a sister, Fern, her whirlwind other half, who vanished from her life in circumstances she wishes she could forget. And it's been 10 years since she last saw her beloved older brother, Lowell.

Now at college, Rosemary starts to see she can't go forward without going back to the time when aged five, she was sent away from home to her grandparents and returned to find Fern gone.

It was Rosemary's parents who began all of the trouble - isn't it always? But, dear listener, exactly how they did it is a twist you'll have to discover for yourself.

©2013 Karen Joy Fowler (P)2022 Profile Books Ltd Contemporary Fiction Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction
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Critic reviews

"Readably juicy and surreptitiously smart." (Barbara Kingsolver)

"Wise, provocative and wildly endearing." (Guardian)
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This book really made me stop and think. Like nothing I have ever read before, or ever will again.

Unbelievable beautiful story

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very little story involved, lots of feelings and science, I was bored in the first few chapters but persevered. narrator didn't suit the character, but it was well performed.

boring

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What a wonderful book. So refreshing to read something completely different to the norm. Simply brilliant. The narrator was perfect too.

Simply brilliant!

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A must read! Enjoyable with challenging ideas. Narration is flatter than perhaps a British actor, but suits the tone of the tale

Unexpected

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Having studied psychology at undergraduate level the research was familiar and put a real story to the research which was interesting. I liked the character of Lowell but he was sad and made me think about how he had been let down by his parents. They had put their desires and dreams before his and Rosemary’s future.

The book did not always flow and I had to keep going back to listen again. The reader a voice was also off putting at times as it sounded like a computer/ Alexa!

However, overall I would recommend and am tempted to read again.

Thought provoking and poignant.

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