The Emilys
A Novel
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The Emilys
Narrated by:
Kristen Sieh, Sophie Amoss
Pre-order Now for £15.55
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Narrated by:
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Kristen Sieh
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Sophie Amoss
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By:
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Heather Abel
About this listen
“Gorgeous and compelling.”—Kelly Link, author of The Book of Love
“And if we weren’t afraid of the darkness? What world would we make then?”
Eve is at a breaking point. Alone with her two children in Massachusetts while her husband pursues his music career in New York City, she’s frustrated, bored, and above all, lonely when she runs into Demeter, a childhood friend with whom she shared one transformative summer. Demeter is as beautiful and charismatic as Eve remembers, but she’s also distraught. Demeter’s daughter, like a growing number of others, young and old, cannot go outside during the day. No one knows why, and doctors are skeptical that these people—soon dubbed Emilys, after a famously reclusive local poet—are telling the truth. But Eve believes her friend, whose company revives her and gives her purpose. She will help Demeter—if she can just figure out how.
Eve’s search for answers brings her into the fold of an unlikely band of detectives—the local librarian and the town’s most prolific writer of letters to the editor, who both loved the same woman and now hate each other; an actor hoping to make amends for past mistakes; a hermit botanist whose seed collection might hold a clue if she’d only open her door. They meet in playdates and potlucks, the Elks Lodge and the food co-op, the botanical garden and the riverbank, venturing deep into the town’s past and finding their way towards a future wilder and more wondrous than they had ever expected. But for Eve, this future will require a price: She is keeping secrets from her husband, fighting with Demeter, distracted from her children. What is she willing to risk to find a cure?
The Emilys is a capacious, profound book about how love of all kinds—love between friends, between mothers and kids, between strangers and neighbors, love for the earth—opens up new possibilities. It asks: How will we learn to live in an altered world? How will we keep each other safe? And when the darkness comes, how will we find joy?
Critic reviews
“The Emilys is a smart, soulful novel brimming with wonder, grace, and mystery.”—Claire Vaye Watkins, author of I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness
“Heartfelt and thought-provoking, The Emilys is a timely page-turner about motherhood, friendship, sacrifice, and survival in our no-longer-quite-natural world. With wit, lyricism, and compassion, Abel brings to life fallible, deeply human characters whose resilience speaks to our moment with urgency and grace.”—Ruth Ozeki, author of The Book of Form and Emptiness
“Heather Abel has written a prismatic, brilliant novel that teaches us how to live—and more important, to love—in a natural world that is rapidly changing, even as our all-too-human yearnings stay the same. Rich in language, in philosophy and science, and most significant, in hope—The Emilys is its own cure, and you’ll be infinitely better for reading it.”—Julia Fine, author of The Upstairs House
“This kaleidoscopic marvel of a novel is many things at once: propulsive climate-crisis mystery, nuanced portrait of women’s friendships, wry reckoning with the complexities of parenting, and love letter to our imperiled Earth. Heather Abel has written an urgent, beautiful study of how we try to take care of one another in a threatened and threatening world, and of the astonishing ways our fates are intertwined.”—Leni Zumas, author of Red Clocks
“A gorgeous and compelling novel. Abel makes it not only possible but deeply pleasurable to consider uncertainty and absence—and the communities that form around them. This is a book to read with friends.”—Kelly Link, author of The Book of Love
“The Emilys kept me reading late into the night. It’s a bighearted novel that manages to be both wide-reaching and intimate. Each character is fascinating: humane, complex, and specific. Abel is brilliant at depicting contemporary fears and hopes, and her writing is deeply attentive to the landscapes and mindscapes that shape those fears and hopes.”—Dana Spiotta, author of Wayward
“Heartfelt and thought-provoking, The Emilys is a timely page-turner about motherhood, friendship, sacrifice, and survival in our no-longer-quite-natural world. With wit, lyricism, and compassion, Abel brings to life fallible, deeply human characters whose resilience speaks to our moment with urgency and grace.”—Ruth Ozeki, author of The Book of Form and Emptiness
“Heather Abel has written a prismatic, brilliant novel that teaches us how to live—and more important, to love—in a natural world that is rapidly changing, even as our all-too-human yearnings stay the same. Rich in language, in philosophy and science, and most significant, in hope—The Emilys is its own cure, and you’ll be infinitely better for reading it.”—Julia Fine, author of The Upstairs House
“This kaleidoscopic marvel of a novel is many things at once: propulsive climate-crisis mystery, nuanced portrait of women’s friendships, wry reckoning with the complexities of parenting, and love letter to our imperiled Earth. Heather Abel has written an urgent, beautiful study of how we try to take care of one another in a threatened and threatening world, and of the astonishing ways our fates are intertwined.”—Leni Zumas, author of Red Clocks
“A gorgeous and compelling novel. Abel makes it not only possible but deeply pleasurable to consider uncertainty and absence—and the communities that form around them. This is a book to read with friends.”—Kelly Link, author of The Book of Love
“The Emilys kept me reading late into the night. It’s a bighearted novel that manages to be both wide-reaching and intimate. Each character is fascinating: humane, complex, and specific. Abel is brilliant at depicting contemporary fears and hopes, and her writing is deeply attentive to the landscapes and mindscapes that shape those fears and hopes.”—Dana Spiotta, author of Wayward
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