Audiobooks by Curtis Sittenfeld

Rodham: What if Hillary hadn’t married Bill?

Brought to you by Penguin WHAT IF HILLARY RODHAM HAD TURNED DOWN BILL CLINTON'S PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE? ‘Startlingly good. One of my favourite writers.’ Kate Atkinson ‘Awfully opinionated for a girl’ is what they call Hillary as she grows up in her Chicago suburb. Smart, diligent, and a bit plain, that’s the general consensus. Then Hillary goes to college, and her star rises. At Yale Law School, she continues to be a leader— and catches the eye of driven, handsome and charismatic Bill. But when he asks her to marry him, Hillary gives him a firm No. The rest, as they say, isn’t history. How might things have turned out for them, for America, for the world itself, if Hillary Rodham had really turned down Bill Clinton? With her sharp but always compassionate eye, Sittenfeld explores the loneliness, moral ambivalence and iron determination that characterise the quest for high office, as well as the painful compromises demanded of female ambition in a world ruled by men. Uncannily astute and witty in the telling, RODHAM is a brilliant reimagining – an unmissable literary landmark and truly a novel of our times. © Curtis Sittenfeld 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Curtis Sittenfeld (Author), Carrington Macduffie (Narrator)

Audiobook

You Think It, I'll Say It: Stories

"Every bit as smart, sensitive, funny, and genuine as her phenomenally popular novels,"* a dazzling collection from the New York Times bestselling author of Prep, American Wife, and Eligible "I really loved all the characters in this book. They're so complex and interesting, and in every story, you'll find them going through these pivotal moments in their lives."-Reese Witherspoon (Reese's Book Club x Hello Sunshine Book Pick) A suburban mother of two fantasizes about the downfall of an old friend whose wholesome lifestyle empire may or may not be built on a lie. A high-powered lawyer honeymooning with her husband is caught off guard by the appearance of the girl who tormented her in high school. A shy Ivy League student learns the truth about a classmate's seemingly enviable life. Curtis Sittenfeld has established a reputation as a sharp chronicler of the modern age who humanizes her subjects even as she skewers them. Now, with this first collection of short fiction, her "astonishing gift for creating characters that take up residence in readers' heads" (The Washington Post) is showcased like never before. Throughout the ten stories in You Think It, I'll Say It, Sittenfeld upends assumptions about class, relationships, and gender roles in a nation that feels both adrift and viscerally divided. With moving insight and uncanny precision, Curtis Sittenfeld pinpoints the questionable decisions, missed connections, and sometimes extraordinary coincidences that make up a life. Indeed, she writes what we're all thinking-if only we could express it with the wit of a master satirist, the storytelling gifts of an old-fashioned raconteur, and the vision of an American original. *Booklist (starred review) Praise for You Think It, I'll Say It "[Curtis] Sittenfeld makes writing lively and diverting fiction look easy, though each deceptively simple and breezy story is masterfully paced and crafted. . . . Witty and buoyant, Sittenfeld delivers her characters to her audience with bemused perspicacity and above all affection. . . . Sittenfeld proves adept at quickly establishing characters in whom the reader feels inclined to invest immediately."-Chicago Tribune "Perfectly paced, witty and laced with unexpected twists: Every story here sticks its landing. . . . Whatever [Sittenfeld] writes, we'll read it."-People "Razor-sharp, often hilarious . . . A witty, breezy, zeitgeist-y collection." -USA TODAY

Curtis Sittenfeld (Author), Emily Rankin, Mark Deakins (Narrator)

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Sisterland: A Novel

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST NOVELS OF THE YEAR BY Slate - Daily Candy - St. Louis Post-Dispatch - The Guardian (U.K.) "Novelists get called master storytellers all the time, but Sittenfeld really is one. . . . What might be most strikingly excellent about Sisterland is the way Sittenfeld depicts domesticity and motherhood." - Maggie Shipstead, The Washington Post "Psychologically vivid . . . Sisterland is a testament to [Curtis Sittenfelds] growing depth and assurance as a writer." - Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "[Sittenfelds] gifts are in full effect with this novel, and she uses them to create a genuinely engrossing sense of uncertainty and suspense." - Sloane Crosley, NPRs All Things Considered Curtis Sittenfeld, author of American Wife and Prep, returns with a mesmerizing novel of family and identity, loyalty and deception, and the delicate line between truth and belief. From an early age, Kate and her identical twin sister, Violet, knew that they were unlike everyone else. Kate and Vi were born with peculiar "senses" - innate psychic abilities concerning future events and other peoples secrets. Though Vi embraced her visions, Kate did her best to hide them. Now, years later, their different paths have led them both back to their hometown of St. Louis. Vi has pursued an eccentric career as a psychic medium, while Kate, a devoted wife and mother, has settled down in the suburbs to raise her two young children. But when a minor earthquake hits in the middle of the night, the normal life Kate has always wished for begins to shift. After Vi goes on television to share a premonition that another, more devastating earthquake will soon hit the St. Louis area, Kate is mortified. Equally troubling, however, is her fear that Vi may be right. As the date of the predicted earthquake quickly approaches, Kate is forced to reconcile her fraught relationship with her sister and to face truths about herself shes long tried to deny. Funny, haunting, and thought-provoking, Sisterland is a beautifully written novel of the obligation we have toward others, and the responsibility we take for ourselves. With her deep empathy, keen wisdom, and unerring talent for finding the extraordinary moments in our everyday lives, Curtis Sittenfeld is one of the most exceptional voices in literary fiction today. Praise for Sisterland "Whats most captivating about Sisterland is the intimate, intense portrayal of identical twin sisters. . . . [The novel] unfolds like a good prophecy - inevitable and shocking." - San Francisco Chronicle "The accomplished Sittenfeld . . . is as skillful as ever at developing an intriguing premise and likable characters. . . . Sittenfelds affectionate take on sibling rivalry is spot-on." - People "The power of [Sittenfelds] writing and the force of her vision challenge the notion that great fiction must be hard to read. She is a master of dramatic irony, creating fully realized social worlds before laying waste to her heroines understanding of them. . . . Her prose [is] a rich delight." - The Boston Globe "Wise and often wickedly entertaining . . . Readers who have siblings - especially women with sisters - will likely come away feeling as if the author really is psychic." - USA TodayFrom the Hardcover edition.

Curtis Sittenfeld (Author), Rebecca Lowman (Narrator)

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Eligible: A modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Wonderfully tender and hilariously funny, Eligible tackles gender, class, courtship, and family as Curtis Sittenfeld reaffirms herself as one of the most dazzling authors writing today. This version of the Bennet family and Mr. Darcy is one that you have and haven't met before: Liz is a magazine writer in her late thirties who, like her yoga instructor older sister, Jane, lives in New York City. When their father has a health scare, they return to their childhood home in Cincinnati to help and discover that the sprawling Tudor they grew up in is crumbling and the family is in disarray. Youngest sisters Kitty and Lydia are too busy with their CrossFit workouts and Paleo diets to get jobs. Mary, the middle sister, is earning her third online master's degree and barely leaves her room, except for those mysterious Tuesday-night outings she won't discuss. And Mrs. Bennet has one thing on her mind: how to marry off her daughters, especially as Jane's fortieth birthday fast approaches. Enter Chip Bingley, a handsome new-in-town doctor who recently appeared on the juggernaut reality TV dating show Eligible. At a Fourth of July barbecue, Chip takes an immediate interest in Jane, but Chip's friend neurosurgeon Fitzwilliam Darcy reveals himself to Liz to be much less charming. . . . And yet, first impressions can be deceiving. Praise for Eligible Even the most ardent Austenite will soon find herself seduced. O: The Oprah Magazine Blissful . . . Sittenfeld modernizes the classic in such a stylish, witty way you'd guess even Jane Austen would be pleased. People (book of the week) [A] sparkling, fresh contemporary retelling. Entertainment Weekly [Sittenfeld] is the ideal modern-day reinterpreter. Her special skill lies not just in her clear, clean writing, but in her general amusement about the world, her arch, pithy, dropped-mike observations about behavior, character and motivation. She can spot hypocrisy, cant, self-contradiction and absurdity ten miles away. She's the one you want to leave the party with, so she can explain what really happened. . . . Not since Clueless, which transported Emma to Beverly Hills, has Austen been so delightedly interpreted. . . . Sittenfeld writes so well her sentences are so good and her story so satisfying. . . . As a reader, let me just say: Three cheers for Curtis Sittenfeld and her astute, sharp and ebullient anthropological interest in the human condition. Sarah Lyall, The New York Times Book Review A clever, uproarious evolution of Austen's story. The Denver Post If there exists a more perfect pairing than Curtis Sittenfeld and Jane Austen, we dare you to find it. . . . Sittenfeld makes an already irresistible story even more beguiling and charming. Elle A playful, wickedly smart retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. BuzzFeed Sittenfeld is an obvious choice to re-create Jane Austen's comedy of manners. [She] is a master at dissecting social norms to reveal the truths of human nature underneath. The Millions A hugely entertaining and surprisingly unpredictable book, bursting with wit and charm. The Irish Times An unputdownable retelling of the beloved classic. PopSugar From the Hardcover edition.

Curtis Sittenfeld (Author), Cassandra Campbell (Narrator)

Audiobook

American Wife

On what might become one of the most significant days in her husband's presidency, Alice Blackwell considers the strange and unlikely path that has led her to the White House and the repercussions of a life lived, as she puts it, almost in opposition to itself. A kind, bookish only child born in the 1940s, Alice learned the virtues of politeness early on from her stolid parents and small Wisconsin hometown. But a tragic accident when she was seventeen shattered her identity and made her understand the fragility of life and the tenuousness of luck. So more than a decade later, when she met boisterous, charismatic Charlie Blackwell, she hardly gave him a second look: She was serious and thoughtful, and he would rather crack a joke than offer a real insight; he was the wealthy son of a bastion family of the Republican party, and she was a school librarian and registered Democrat. Comfortable in her quiet and unassuming life, she felt inured to his charms. And then, much to her surprise, Alice fell for Charlie. As Alice learns to make her way amid the clannish energy and smug confidence of the Blackwell family, navigating the strange rituals of their country club and summer estate, she remains uneasy with her newfound good fortune. And when Charlie eventually becomes President, Alice is thrust into a position she did not seek one of power and influence, privilege and responsibility. As Charlie's tumultuous and controversial second term in the White House wears on, Alice must face contradictions years in the making: How can she both love and fundamentally disagree with her husband? How complicit has she been in the trajectory of her own life? What should she do when her private beliefs run against her public persona? In Alice Blackwell, New York Times bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld has created her most dynamic and complex heroine yet. American Wife is a gorgeously written novel that weaves class, wealth, race, and the exigencies of fate into a brilliant tapestry a novel in which the unexpected becomes inevitable, and the pleasures and pain of intimacy and love are laid bare. Praise for American Wife Curtis Sittenfeld is an amazing writer, and American Wife is a brave and moving novel about the intersection of private and public life in America. Ambitious and humble at the same time, Sittenfeld refuses to trivialize or simplify people, whether real or imagined. Richard Russo What a remarkable (and brave) thing: a compassionate, illuminating, and beautifully rendered portrait of a fictional Republican first lady with a life and husband very much like our actual Republican first lady's. Curtis Sittenfeld has written a novel as impressive as it is improbable. Kurt Andersen From the Hardcover edition.

Curtis Sittenfeld (Author), Kimberly Farr (Narrator)

Audiobook

Prep

This New York Times best-seller is a funny and poignant coming-of-age story, a dead-on examination of adolescent angst, and a sharp criticism of America's social structure. Fourteen-year-old Lee Fiora enrolls at the prestigious Ault School of Massachusetts and is surrounded by beautiful, wealthy students. She immediately feels like an outsider, but manages to carve out a niche for herself. Then everything falls apart when Lee's private thoughts become public information.

Curtis Sittenfeld (Author), Julie Dretzin (Narrator)

Audiobook

Eligible

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'The book of the summer' The Times 'Sheer joy... Giddy and glam and a hearty update of Pride and Prejudice' Jessie Burton, author of The Miniaturist The Bennet sisters have been summoned from New York City. Liz and Jane are good daughters. They've come home to suburban Cincinnati to get their mother to stop feeding their father steak as he recovers from heart surgery, to tidy up the crumbling Tudor-style family home, and to wrench their three sisters from their various states of arrested development. Once they are under the same roof, old patterns return fast. Soon enough they are being berated for their single status, their only respite the early morning runs they escape on together. For two successful women in their late thirties, it really is too much to bear. That is, until the Lucas family's BBQ throws them in the way of some eligible single men . . . Chip Bingley is not only a charming doctor, he's a reality TV star too. But Chip's friend, haughty neurosurgeon Fitzwilliam Darcy, can barely stomach Cincinnati or its inhabitants. Jane is entranced by Chip; Liz, sceptical of Darcy. As Liz is consumed by her father's mounting medical bills, her wayward sisters and Cousin Willie trying to stick his tongue down her throat, it isn't only the local chilli that will leave a bad aftertaste. But where there are hearts that beat and mothers that push, the mysterious course of love will resolve itself in the most entertaining and unlikely of ways. And from the hand of Curtis Sittenfeld, Pride & Prejudice is catapulted into our modern world singing out with hilarity and truth.

Curtis Sittenfeld (Author), Cassandra Campbell (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Man of My Dreams: A Novel

“Being raised in an unstable household makes you understand that the world doesn’t exist to accommodate you, which, in Hannah’s observation, is something a lot of people struggle to understand well into adulthood.”–from The Man of My Dreams In her acclaimed debut novel, Prep, Curtis Sittenfeld created a touchstone with her pitch-perfect portrayal of adolescence. Her prose is as intensely realistic and compelling as ever in The Man of My Dreams, a disarmingly candid and sympathetic novel about the collision of a young woman’s fantasies of family and love with the challenges and realities of adult life. Hannah Gavener is fourteen in the summer of 1991. In the magazines she reads, celebrities plan elaborate weddings; in Hannah’s own life, her parents’ marriage is crumbling. And somewhere in between these two extremes–just maybe–lie the answers to love’s most bewildering questions. But over the next decade and a half, as she moves from Philadelphia to Boston to Albuquerque, Hannah finds that the questions become more rather than less complicated: At what point can you no longer blame your adult failures on your messed-up childhood? Is settling for someone who’s not your soul mate an act of maturity or an admission of defeat? And if you move to another state for a guy who might not love you back, are you being plucky–or just pathetic? None of the relationships in Hannah’s life are without complications. There’s her father, whose stubbornness Hannah realizes she’s unfortunately inherited; her gorgeous cousin, Fig, whose misbehavior alternately intrigues and irritates Hannah; Henry, whom Hannah first falls for in college, while he’s dating Fig; and the boyfriends who love her more or less than she deserves, who adore her or break her heart. By the time she’s in her late twenties, Hannah has finally figured out what she wants most–but she doesn’t yet know whether she’ll find the courage to go after it. Full of honesty and humor, The Man of My Dreams is an unnervingly insightful and beautifully written examination of the outside forces and personal choices that make us who we are.

Curtis Sittenfeld (Author), Susan Denaker (Narrator)

Audiobook

You Think It, I'll Say It: Stories

Random House presents the audiobook edition of You Think It, I'll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld, read by Emily Rankin and Mark Deakins. In 'The World Has Many Butterflies', a married woman flirts with a man she meets at parties by playing You think it, I'll say it, putting into words the bitchy things she guesses he's thinking about their fellow guests. But she is in for a shock when, in time, she finds out what was really in his mind. 'The Nominee' sees Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail, confessing her surprising true feelings about a woman journalist she has sparred with over the years. In 'Gender Studies', a visiting academic sleeps with her taxi driver, for what turns out to be all the wrong reasons. The theme that unites these stories in this dazzling first collection by Curtis Sittenfeld is how even the cleverest people tend to misread others, and how much we all deceive ourselves. Sharp and tender, funny and wise, this collection shows Sittenfeld's knack for creating real, believable characters, while also skewering contemporary mores with brilliant dry wit. *'Do-Over, one of the stories in this dazzling first collection by Curtis Sittenfeld,is shortlisted for the 2018 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award* 'Most people I know who have read anything by Curtis Sittenfeld would read anything else the woman wrote, me included' The Times

Curtis Sittenfeld (Author), Emily Rankin, Mark Deakins (Narrator)

Audiobook

Vermählung (Gekürzt)

Mrs. Bennets Leben dreht sich nur um das Eine: Wie kann sie es bloß schaffen, dass ihre fünf Töchter endlich den Richtigen finden? Zumindest für Jane, die Älteste, gibt es Hoffnung: Chip Bingley, der attraktive Arzt, der noch vor kurzem als Bachelor in der Fernsehshow 'Vermählung' vergeblich nach der großen Liebe suchte, zieht in die Kleinstadt. Und gleich beim ersten Zusammentreffen knistert es zwischen Chip und Jane - ganz zur Freude von Mrs. Bennets. Doch was ist mit ihren vier anderen unverheirateten Töchtern?

Curtis Sittenfeld (Author), Luise Helm (Narrator)

Audiobook

American Wife: The acclaimed word-of-mouth bestseller

Brought to you by Penguin In the year 2000, in the closest election in American history, Alice Blackwell's husband becomes president of the United States. Their time in the White House proves to be heady, tumultuous, and controversial. But it is Alice's own story - that of a kind, bookish, only child born in the 1940s Midwest who comes to inhabit a life of dizzying wealth and power - that is itself remarkable. Alice candidly describes her small-town upbringing, and the tragedy that shaped her identity; she recalls her early adulthood as a librarian, and her surprising courtship with the man who swept her off her feet; she tells of the crisis that almost ended their marriage; and she confides the privileges and difficulties of being first lady, a role that is uniquely cloistered and public, secretive and exposed. In Alice Blackwell, Curtis Sittenfeld has created her most dynamic and complex heroine yet. American Wife is not a novel about politics. It is a gorgeously written novel that weaves race, class, fate and wealth into a brilliant tapestry. It is a novel in which the unexpected becomes inevitable, and the pleasures and pain of intimacy and love are laid bare. (c) Curtis Sittenfeld 2008 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Curtis Sittenfeld (Author), Kimberly Farr (Narrator)

Audiobook

Prep: The startling coming-of-age novel by the Sunday Times bestselling author of AMERICAN WIFE

Brought to you by Penguin. From the bestselling author of AMERICAN WIFE, ELIGIBLE and YOU THINK IT, I'LL SAY IT. Lee Fiora is a shy fourteen-year-old when she leaves small-town Indiana for a scholarship at Ault, an exclusive boarding school in Massachusetts. Her head is filled with images from the school brochure of handsome boys in sweaters leaning against old brick buildings, girls running with lacrosse sticks across pristine athletics fields, everyone singing hymns in chapel. But as she soon learns, Ault is a minefield of unstated rules and incomprehensible social rituals, and Lee must work hard to find - and maintain - her place in the pecking order. 'Sittenfeld writes girls and women as they truly are, with shades of light and dark, with and without grace, apologetic as well as fearless' BIM ADEWUNMI, Guardian 'PREP might just be my favourite book' PANDORA SYKES 'Sittenfeld shares with Salinger a knack of capturing, in effortless prose, a teenager mindset' The Times 'PREP is more than a coming of age story - it’s a study of social class ... and Sittenfeld renders it with astonishing deftness and clarity.' JENNIFER EGAN 'Straightforward, serious, funny... There is so much that is right about this book.' London Review of Books 'Sharp, caustic and brilliantly observed' Observer © Curtis Sittenfeld 2005 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Curtis Sittenfeld (Author), Jorjeana Marie (Narrator)

Audiobook