
The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Saskia Maarleveld
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By:
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Emma Knight
About this listen
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY
“Undeniably delicious.”—The New York Times
“A spellbinding debut about friendship, motherhood, first love, and the choices that bind us. . . I couldn't put it down!”—Carley Fortune, #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Summer Will Be Different
A witty, atmospheric, and brilliantly told novel that offers compelling portraits of womanhood, motherhood and female friendship, along with the irresistible intrigue surrounding an extraordinary British family
Arriving at the University of Edinburgh for her first term, Pen knows her divorced parents back in Canada are hiding something from her. She believes she’ll find the answer here in Scotland, where an old friend of her father’s—now a famous writer known as Lord Lennox—lives. When she is invited to spend the weekend at Lord Lennox’s centuries-old estate with his enveloping, fascinating family, Pen begins to unravel her parents’ secret, just as she’s falling in love for the first time . . .
As Pen experiences the sharp shock of adulthood, she comes to rely on herself for the first time in her life. A rich and rewarding novel of campus life, of sexual awakening, and ultimately, of the many ways women can become mothers in this world, The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus asks to what extent we need to look back in order to move forward.
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Critic reviews
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“An amazingly accomplished debut.”—Oprah Daily
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- By: Fredrik Backman, Elizabeth DeNoma - translator
- Narrated by: Stacy Gonzalez
- Length: 1 hr and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.
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Narrator doesn’t get Backman’s satire or rhythm
- By joey1603 on 12-01-24
By: Fredrik Backman, and others
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Say No More
- By: Caroline Overington
- Narrated by: Anna Skellern
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Original Recording
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Who is Audrey Hoedemaker? It's a question her sister Maureen has heard more times than she can count, and she doesn't know what the short answer would be. Little sister, troubled teen, backpacker, musical theatre coach, con artist, childcare worker. Murderer. A tragic, traumatic childhood casts a long shadow on the Hoedemaker sisters. Maureen has worked hard to move beyond the violence of the past and build a good, honest life for herself. Audrey, however, just can't seem to do the same, careening from one state of chaos to another.
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Seriously, that was the ending?
- By alicia in athens on 02-13-25
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At forty, Peter, an asylum lawyer in New York City, is overworked and isolated. He spends his days immersed in the struggles of immigrants only to return to an empty apartment and occasional hook-ups with a man who wants more than Peter can give. But when the asylum case of a young gay man pierces Peter's numbness, the event that he has avoided for twenty years returns to haunt him. Ann, his mother, who runs a women's retreat center she founded after leaving his father, is wounded by the estrangement from Peter but cherishes the world she has built.
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Good multiple narrators. Tiresome characters.
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Overall
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Story
On a White Night in 2019, prima ballerina Natalia Leonova returns to St. Petersburg two years after a devastating accident that stalled her career. Once the most celebrated dancer of her generation, she now turns to pills and alcohol to numb the pain of her past. She is unmoored in her old city as the ghosts of her former life begin to resurface: her loving but difficult mother, her absentee father, and the two gifted dancers who led to her downfall. One of those dancers, Alexander, is the love of her life, who transformed both Natalia and her art.
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just boring
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In Berlin’s artistic underground, where techno and drugs fill warehouses still pockmarked from the wars of the twentieth century, nineteen-year-old Nila at last finds her tribe. Born in Germany to Afghan parents, raised in public housing graffitied with swastikas, drawn to philosophy, photography, and sex, Nila has spent her adolescence disappointing her family while searching for her voice as a young woman and artist. Then in the haze of Berlin’s legendary nightlife, Nila meets Marlowe, an American writer whose fading literary celebrity opens her eyes to a life of freedom.
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The Realism
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What listeners say about The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jeri B
- 03-01-25
Boring. DNF.
OMG. Usually I can’t wait to get back to an audio book. This was SO BORING. I quit with 5 hours to go, and at 1.4 speed. Do yourself a favor. Don’t.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Linda K. Goff
- 03-12-25
Well written and excellent and performances by the narrators, but shallow story.
What was the point of the novel? The story was not worthy of a novel. Very weak premise.
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- Amyen Evert
- 01-14-25
Gorgeous prose, women’s connections to themselves and each other, and fantastic narrator.
Gorgeous prose, memorable multi-dimensional characters (especially the female characters), intelligent without being didactic, and expressed what is to be a girl, woman, wife, mother through the lens of each character while making different choices. Their choices. I saved so many passages, and though the narration was exceptional (so much so that I want to listen to other novels due to her voice and voice acting skills) I also want to buy the novel and underline all of the sentences and pages that I loved. It will be full of yellow.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Margo H. Green
- 01-25-25
A wonderful book!
The characters and their stories are so well written. It’s a fascinating listen with an excellent narrator.
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- elisabeth
- 01-16-25
Excellent writing
Beautifully narrated/ excellent writing/ detailed richly developed characters/ vivid descriptions of landscape and interiors/ lyrical musings on life’s many journeys and choices made
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- Melissa hinson
- 01-24-25
Get this wonderful book!!! Couldnt put it down!!!!
Whether or not you attended college- you have a history of your early adulthood- when youre away from your family, and trying to figure out who you are- this book will hit home with you. Its so great! The writing is so colorful and thorough!!!
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- Meredith G.
- 02-27-25
a beautiful story
a beautiful read. i will be thinking about this book and the characters for a long time
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-13-25
More more more!!
Such an excellently told story. I couldn’t get enough and was left truly satisfied with that craving for more !!!! Highly recommend!
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- Kimberly D. Holmberg
- 01-10-25
Incredible writing!
I loved the study into friendships and family roles that aren’t always what they seem.
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- Monica Ningen
- 03-15-25
Captivating
The author wraps you in a journey where you are invested and can’t wait for the next chapter. Must read!
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