The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue: A Novel

by Barbara O'Neal Narrated by Carly Robins, Kim Staunton, Allyson Johnson, Susan Dalian

Overview

Four women face the turning points of their lives in a warm and wise novel about choices and second chances by the USA Today bestselling author of When We Believed in Mermaids.

A loving wife and a mother of three accomplished children, forty-six-year-old Trudy Marino has an uncomplicated life-until she's blindsided by her husband's affair. But in Trudy's close-knit neighborhood, she's not alone in navigating the sudden surprises in a woman's life.

Her neighbor Roberta has just lost her husband of sixty-two years and struggles with bittersweet memories and grief. Roberta's granddaughter Jade is a divorcée who has taken up a cathartic new hobby to get over her cheating ex. And there's Shannelle, whose creative aspirations are fracturing her marriage.

Then Trudy meets Angel, a sensual young man with the vulnerable heart of a poet who awakens her to invigorating new sensations. With a bracing confidence and three dear friends coming together in confusion, anger, and hope, Trudy is encouraged to take control of her life, to reflect on the choices she didn't make, and to fulfill the youthful dreams she abandoned. As a new world opens up, Trudy can only marvel at where to go from here.

Revised edition: This edition of The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue includes editorial revisions.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A robust cast delivers a dynamic performance of this slice-of-life story. [Trudy] bonds with four eccentric women from Kitchen Avenue.… Though each woman is portrayed by a single narrator, creating personal connections with listeners, this doesn't overshadow the overall relationship among them.” —AudioFile Magazine

“A COMPELLING EMOTIONAL PORTRAIT . . . [O’Neal’s] writing is a gift to readers, her voice a demand for us to feel everything in our lives and to meet it with courage . . . a truly luminous novel.”
–Contra Costa Times

“[O’Neal’s] writing is, quite simply, splendid. . . . These women are as familiar as your next-door neighbor and as exotic as the goddesses who archetype their lives. [O’Neal] soars with genius in the humanity of her storytelling.”
–BookPage

“Warmhearted . . . [O’Neal’s] characters are warmly drawn and sympathetic, their problems real and believable.”
–Publishers Weekly

FEBRUARY 2022 - AudioFile

A robust cast delivers a dynamic performance of this slice-of-life story. Trudy is not quite content. She had a lovely family before her separation, but now she misses having a spark in her life. Then she bonds with four eccentric women from Kitchen Avenue. The shared friendship grows stronger as the women maneuver through their own struggles, such as marital problems and the question of what to do with the rest of their lives. Though each woman is portrayed by a single narrator, creating personal connections with listeners, this doesn’t overshadow the overall relationship among them. The friendships dramatize the strength that can be found in relying on others, no matter the blights and victories one has encountered in life. G.M. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940178261736
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	12/14/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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