
Whale Fall
A Novel
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About this listen
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NOTABLE BOOK • A stunning debut from an award-winning writer, about loss, isolation, folklore, and the joy and dissonance of finding oneself by exploring life outside one’s community
“Both blunt and exquisite . . . O’Connor’s excellent debut . . . is an example of precisely observed writing that makes a character’s specific existence glimmer with verisimilitude.”—Maggie Shipstead, New York Times Book Review
"Whale Fall is a powerful novel, written with a calm, luminous precision, each feeling rendered with chiseled care, the drama of island life unfolding with piercing emotional accuracy."—Colm Toibin, New York Times bestselling author of Long Island
In 1938, a dead whale washes up on the shores of remote Welsh island. For Manod, who has spent her whole life on the island, it feels like both a portent of doom and a symbol of what may lie beyond the island's shores. A young woman living with her father and her sister (to whom she has reluctantly but devotedly become a mother following the death of their own mother years prior), Manod can't shake her welling desire to explore life beyond the beautiful yet blisteringly harsh islands that her hardscrabble family has called home for generations.
The arrival of two English ethnographers who hope to study the island culture, then, feels like a boon to her—both a glimpse of life outside her community and a means of escape. The longer the ethnographers stay, the more she feels herself pulled towards them, reckoning with a sensual awakening inside herself, despite her misgivings that her community is being misconstrued and exoticized.
With shimmering prose tempered by sharp wit, Whale Fall tells the story of what happens when one person's ambitions threaten the fabric of a community, and what can happen when they are realized. O'Connor paints a portrait of a community and a woman on the precipice, forced to confront an outside world that seems to be closing in on them.
©2024 Elizabeth O'Connor (P)2024 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
A New York Times Notable Book of 2024
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker and NPR
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
“Both blunt and exquisite . . . O’Connor’s excellent debut . . . is an example of precisely observed writing that makes a character’s specific existence glimmer with verisimilitude.”—Maggie Shipstead, New York Times Book Review
"Spare and bracing...O'Connor constructs her setting with precise, atmospheric detail that captures a world slowly being eroded....It all makes for a haunting and lucid exploration of the moments leading up to immense change."—NPR
“In Whale Fall, the landscape and its people speak together…By rejecting nostalgia but still foregrounding landscape, Whale Fall makes space for the more intimate, surreal ways that culture can relate to nature.”—The Nation
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- Unabridged
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Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television "family."
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Wish I Hadn't Cliff Noted This in High School
- By Joel on 03-27-17
By: Ray Bradbury
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The House on the Water
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- By: Margot Hunt
- Narrated by: Taylor Schilling
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Every year, Caroline Reed takes a trip with her best friend, Esme Lamont. They’re usually accompanied by their spouses - but this year, everything’s changed. Esme has just gone through a bitter divorce, and Caroline's wondering if her own marriage is reaching its breaking point as she and her husband, John, cope with the discovery that their son has been abusing drugs. Still, the inseparable duo books a weeklong stay at a beach-front home in Shoreham, Florida, inviting Esme’s brother, Nick, and his new husband. After a blissful first night in the vacation home, tragedy strikes.
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Wonderful Story
- By David M. Wilcox on 12-04-20
By: Margot Hunt
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Brain Damage
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Megan Tusing
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As Charly struggles to recover from her brain injury, she begins to realize that the events of that fateful night are trapped in the damaged right side of her brain. Now, she must put the jigsaw pieces together to discover the identity of the man who tried to kill her...before he finishes the job he started.
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Who Else Laughed, Cried, and Shuddered?
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He Who Fights with Monsters 2
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- Length: 22 hrs and 1 min
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But Jason Asano is settling into his new life. Now, a contest draws young elites to the city of Greenstone to compete for a grand prize. Jason must gather a band of companions if he is to stand a chance against the best the world has to offer. While the young adventurers are caught up in competition, the city leaders deal with revelations of betrayal as a vast and terrible enemy is revealed. Although Jason seems uninvolved, he has unknowingly crossed the enemy’s path before.
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Contrary to common reviews
- By Karen on 05-21-21
By: Shirtaloon, and others
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Master of Salt & Bones
- By: Keri Lake
- Narrated by: Stefanie Kay, Ryan West
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
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When I was a little girl, I dreamed a handsome knight would come and rescue me from my wretched mother. He'd ride up on his white steed and break the curse I've been fated to carry since the day I was born. Funny how things changed over time, how the fairytale twisted into something far more crooked—and darker—than I ever imagined. In reality, my knight is scarred and broken, living alone in a castle of bones that overlooks the sea. He isn’t searching for me. He never was.
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5 STARS
- By AudioObsessed on 03-12-23
By: Keri Lake
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Mary Jane
- By: Amy Herzog
- Narrated by: Rachel McAdams, April Matthis, Brenda Wehle, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 16 mins
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Academy Award nominee Rachel McAdams stars in Mary Jane, a poignant and intimate drama following a single mother’s journey caring for her chronically ill young son. Set in New York City, the play unfolds in two parts—Mary Jane's small Queens apartment and a pediatric hospital. With unflinching honesty and unexpected humor, we witness Mary Jane's tireless devotion, her interactions with medical professionals, and her struggle to maintain her sense of self.
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Amazing performance
- By Andrew Reynolds on 12-28-24
By: Amy Herzog
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Slayers: A Buffyverse Story
- By: Christopher Golden, Amber Benson
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Original cast members from the beloved TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, reunite for an all-new adventure about connections that never die—even if you bury them. A decade has passed since the epic final battle that concluded Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV). The game-changing spell that gave power to all potential Slayers persists. With new Slayers constantly emerging, things are looking grim for the bad guys.
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A dream come true
- By Anonymous User on 10-12-23
By: Christopher Golden, and others
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Glorious writing
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This Strange Eventful History
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Overall
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Over seven decades, from 1940 to 2010, the pieds-noirs Cassars live in an itinerant state—separated in the chaos of World War II, running from a complicated colonial homeland, and, after Algerian independence, without a homeland at all. This Strange Eventful History, told with historical sweep, is above all a family story: of patriarch Gaston and his wife Lucienne, whose myth of perfect love sustains them and stifles their children; of François and Denise, devoted siblings connected by their family's strangeness; of François's union with Barbara; of Chloe, the result of that union.
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Be Prepared for a Jarring Narration
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What listeners say about Whale Fall
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Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Performance
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- Patrick Baeringer
- 01-09-25
Beautiful, Dreary, and Real
I think this was a wonderful novella to listen to, if a bummer. Having an VA who seems to have known Welsh was certainly a benefit!
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- Hawaiian 54
- 12-16-24
The rhythm of the language matched the storytelling.
The presumption of the mainland researcher telling the main character who she (island dweller) was, what she should do, what she believed, wanted and needed all the while being angry for her need for attention and affection was pretty galling-but unfortunately not unusual when an « elevated » culture meets another they consider less so.
The writing was beautiful, the characters richly described, a very good listrn.
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- SH
- 08-07-24
Loss of innocence and disillusionment beautifully told
I wouldn’t recommend any other format for this story because the narration brings the Welsh names and songs to life. Beautifully done. Though we could see what the future held for Manod before she did, the way the author wove her loss of innocence and the disillusionment she ultimately experienced from meeting and trusting outsiders with the practices and principles of the islanders was very engaging.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Laura M
- 06-26-24
Compelling story, superbly performed
The performance of this novel is a real work of art. It’s so impressive. The novel itself is beautifully told, with very impactful imagery of the landscape. The way tension is built is subtle and gorgeous. I love that the island life is lamented but not idealized.
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- ROJ
- 08-01-24
Poetic and Musical
Lovely Welsh accents, intriguing historical fiction if a small island and folk ways of life.
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- Letizia P.
- 09-22-24
Fabulous narration!
Wonderful, atmospheric short novel brought to life by perfect narration! I particularly enjoyed the pronunciation of Welsh and also the singing.
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- Lauren Goodsmith
- 01-29-25
Outstanding-- lyrical and evocative
I had planned to read this even before it was identified in the New York Times Book Review as one of the best audiobooks of 2024. I found it striking and original in every regard: the unique and evocative setting; the compelling central figure of Manod, the young woman born and bred on the island, yet imagining a life beyond its shores; the lyrical prose; and the outstanding vocal performances. Highly recommended.
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- Ninip
- 12-15-24
Unusual, powerful story
The setting of this story, on a small island off Wales in 1938, is fascinating. There are only about 35 or 40 inhabitants, and they lead a spare life, out of date with the mainland. The main character, Manod, is so beautifully and elegantly presented to us. I read this on paper first, but I was enchanted by the Audible version. Hearing all the different voices in Welsh was wonderful, and the narrator’s voice is exactly right. It’s not often that I read a book and then want to reread it (in this case, listen to it) immediately. But this book is extraordinary.
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- Lilly
- 01-01-25
Excellent book for audible
I usually prefer to read actual literature in a hard copy. In the case of Whalefell, I believe the experience was tremendously enhanced by the narration. The accents, the Welsh spoken aloud, the singing voices and so on. All this added a fabulous additional dimension to this poetic book, as others have described. Like all good poetry, it’s better when heard aloud. Bravo
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- S. Blakely
- 07-30-24
Short but powerful
This is one I will revisit again and again. The prose is spare and understated, but the impact is huge. I’m so glad I gave it a chance. Highly recommended.
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