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The Alternatives
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Sarah Bolger, Aisling Franciosi, Caoilinn Hughes, Dominique Mcelligott, Liam Heslin, John Keating
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
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Publisher's Summary
“A bold, beautiful, complex novel, and I can’t wait to read what Hughes writes next. She, too, is an unstoppable force.”—New York Times Book Review
“A tale about sisterhood, a novel of ideas, a chronicle of our collective follies, a requiem for our agonizing species, The Alternatives unfolds in a prose full of gorgeous surprises and glows with intelligence, compassion, and beauty.”—Hernan Diaz
From the writer Anthony Doerr calls “a massive talent,” the story of four brilliant Irish sisters, orphaned in childhood, who scramble to reconnect when the oldest disappears into the Irish countryside
The Flattery sisters were plunged prematurely into adulthood when their parents died in tragic circumstances. Now in their thirties—all single, all with PhDs—they are each attempting to do meaningful work in a rapidly foundering world. The four lead disparate, distanced lives, from classrooms in Connecticut to ritzy catering gigs in London’s Notting Hill, until one day their oldest sister, a geologist haunted by a terrible awareness of the earth’s future, abruptly vanishes from her work and home. Together for the first time in years, the Flatterys descend on the Irish countryside in search of a sister who doesn’t want to be found. Sheltered in a derelict bungalow, they reach into their common past, confronting both old wounds and a desperately uncertain future. Warm, fiercely witty, and unexpectedly hopeful, The Alternatives is an unforgettable portrait of a family perched on our collective precipice, told by one of Ireland’s most gifted storytellers.
What the critics say
“Exuberant. . . . to categorize this novel into a tidy box undermines the daring genius of its author. . . . Hughes’s prose is like a virtuosic jazz number—loose, free and surprising. . . . A bold, beautiful, complex novel.”—New York Times Book Review
“The novel begins with alternating chapters that sharply delve into each woman’s life and work in brief, fascinating lectures on subjects from land subsidence to locavorism. . . . Ultimately The Alternatives is concerned with the duties of caring for the planet and one’s loved ones. The fact that these responsibilities are often in conflict makes this lively novel’s sense of confusion feel well-earned.”—Wall Street Journal
“The Alternatives contains multitudes. Its mysteries and complexities reward a second reading. . . [its] ending is a stunner. And Olwen, Maeve, Nell and Rhona make it unforgettable.”—Star Tribune