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The Weekend

An unforgettable story of female friendship by the bestselling author of the Booker Prize-shortlisted Stone Yard Devotional

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The Weekend

By: Charlotte Wood
Narrated by: Brigid Lohrey
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Summary

 A TIMES PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR
'So great I am struggling to find the words to do it justice' Marian Keyes
'Radical... I really recommend it' Pandora Sykes
'Riveting' Elizabeth Day
'A perfect, funny, insightful, novel about women, friendship, and ageing' Nina Stibbe
'A lovely, lively, intelligent, funny book' Tessa Hadley
'One sharp, funny, heartbreaking and gorgeously-written package' Paula Hawkins
'A rare pleasure... As with the novels of Elizabeth Strout or Anne Tyler, these are characters not written to please, but to feel true' The Sunday Times
'Glorious... Wood joins the ranks of writers such as Nora Ephron, Penelope Lively and Elizabeth Strout' Guardian

Sylvie, Jude, Wendy and Adele have a lifelong friendship of the best kind: loving, practical, frank and steadfast. But when Sylvie dies, the ground shifts dangerously for the remaining three.

These women couldn't be more different: Jude, a once-famous restaurateur with a spotless life and a long-standing affair with a married man; Wendy, an acclaimed feminist intellectual; Adele, a former star of the stage, now practically homeless.

Struggling to recall exactly why they've remained close all these years, the grieving women gather for one last weekend at Sylvie's old beach house. But fraying tempers, an elderly dog, unwelcome guests and too much wine collide in a storm that brings long-buried hurts to the surface - a storm that will either remind them of the bond they share, or sweep away their friendship for good. Aging Parents Death & Dying Fiction Friendship Genre Fiction Grief & Loss Literary Fiction Parenting & Families Personal Development Relationships Sociology Women's Fiction
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Critic reviews

The Weekend by Charlotte Wood is acerbic brilliance . . . It is so great I am struggling to find the words to do it justice . . . Wood is an agonisingly gifted writer, so great at capturing micro-emotions, the complexity of friendship, love, mother-child tension, all done with breezy readability. At times it's funny, thought-provoking, very moving. I care so much about the characters. I am now going to read all her other books! (Marian Keyes)
Old female characters don't often get to occupy centre stage in modern fiction, but Australian author Charlotte Wood's three 70-something protagonists in The Weekend are exquisitely drawn. All sorts of emotions and humorous situations erupt when the trio (and a dog) reunite for a weekend in New South Wales to clear out the decaying beach house of their recently dead friend Sylvie. As well as being a shrewd dissection of grief, regret and the realities of bodily decay, The Weekend triumphantly brings to life the honest, inner lives of three interesting women (Books of the Year)
A rare pleasure . . . Warm and wise . . . This unsentimental gaze is typical of Wood's quietly radical tragicomedy. I was shocked by how unusual it felt to spend 275 pages exclusively in the company of older women . . . With ostensibly light touch, Wood commands the long histories of these three very different women . . . A surefooted novel that packs 50 years into one weekend (Claire Lowden)
A glorious, forthright tale of female friendship . . . The temptation to reduce ageing to a condition experienced en masse rather than by individuals is a trap that snares only lesser writers. The better ones have avoided it - writers such as Nora Ephron and Penelope Lively, and, most recently, Elizabeth Strout. Joining their ranks is Australian Charlotte Wood, whose novel The Weekend conceives of old age as a state of mutiny rather than stasis, a period of constant striving against the world, but also against oneself . . . Masterful . . . What gives this novel its glorious, refreshing, forthright spine is that each of its protagonists is still adamantly (often disastrously) alive, and still less afraid of death than irrelevance (Sara Collins)
The Weekend captivated me from the excellent opening chapter . . . The three main characters - Jude, Adele and Wendy - are superbly drawn . . . Wood evocatively captures the pasts of these resilient women . . . The Weekend triumphantly brings to life the honest, inner lives of Jude, Adele and Wendy . . . This wise, funny novel will help you understand yourself - and it may scare the s*** out of anyone brave enough to confront the truths within its masterful pages
All stars
Most relevant
The dog wife present not for itself, but for the selfishness of one story details of friends reaching a certain age the life in this likes after their present and past life come together following the debt there are their close screen

Getting old and the realisation of what one go through which limited finance

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Although the book was well written and the characters interesting, the narration was terribly over-acted. I had to give up in the end. Too annoying.

Terrible narration

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Over hyped and under delivered - read in a flat monotone - did not enjoy this as much as I thought based on other reviews

Nothing really happens

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To all you Charlotte Woods' fans out there - buy a printed copy of The Weekend. The narration is so awful that it almost completely ruins this fantastic book. I have listened to hundreds of Audible books over the years and this narration ranks among the top 3 worst experiences. I wonder whether the author has any say in the choice of narrator? It's sad to think how many people will never know how great this book is because they won't be able to endure the narration for more than 10 minutes....

Amazing book spoiled by narrator

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Charlotte Wood writes utterly believable characters. The gentle pace of the story does not belie the urgency of the major issues that are explored.

Brilliant, involved, read

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