Let's Take the Long Way Home Audiobook By Gail Caldwell cover art

Let's Take the Long Way Home

A Memoir of Friendship

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Let's Take the Long Way Home

By: Gail Caldwell
Narrated by: Joyce Bean
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About this listen

In Let's Take the Long Way Home, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gail Caldwell offers a powerful and moving memoir about her coming-of-age in mid-life and her extraordinary friendship with Caroline Knapp, the author of Drinking: A Love Story.

In her younger years, Caldwell defined herself by rebellion and independence, a passion for books, and an aversion to intimacy and a distrust of others. Then, while living in Cambridge in her early 40s, Caldwell adopted a rambunctious puppy named Clementine. On one of their bucolic walks, she met Caroline and her dog, Lucille, and both women's lives changed forever.

Though they are more different than alike, these two fiercely private, independent women quickly relax into a friendship more profound than either of them expected, a friendship that will thrive on their shared secrets, including parallel struggles with alcoholism and loneliness. They grow increasingly inseparable until, in 2003, Caroline is diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer.

In her signature exquisite prose, Caldwell mines the deepest levels of devotion and grief in this wise and affecting account about losing her best friend. Let's Take the Long Way Home is also a celebration of life and all the little moments worth cherishing - and affirms why Gail Caldwell is rightly praised as one of our bravest and most honest literary voices.

©2010 Gail Caldwell (P)2010 Tantor
Friendship Journalists, Editors & Publishers Women Dogs Heartfelt Emotionally Gripping
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Editorial reviews

Former chief book critic for The Boston Globe, Pulitzer Prize-winner Gail Caldwell's second foray into the terrain of memoir demonstrates once again that she is as capable of writing a book as she is of reading one. Instead of the Texas of her youth, this time Caldwell is firmly ensconced in the scenery of Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she regularly walks her Samoyed, Clemetine. Let's Take the Long Way Home is the story of her connection with the dog, but mainly her connection with a fellow canine enthusiast, Caroline Knapp, former columnist for the Boston Pheonix and author of the memoir Drinking: A Love Story, who died of cancer in 2002.

Narrating this touching testimony of the friendship between two stubborn ladies and their pets is Joyce Bean, who has given voice to over a hundred audiobooks and also has directed the recording of dozens more. Bean blends a beautiful combination of Amarillo twang to the vowels and Bostonite grinding to the consonants, capturing Caldwell's delicate story with a uniquely dignified grace that does not give quarter to the sugary sentimentality of so many tales in this genre.

The senior member of the friendship by 10 years, Caldwell still has a lot to learn from Knapp. As they spent a great deal of time outdoors, either walking the dogs or training to row down the river, both women overcome personal demons to let in the light of the other. Both journalists, both alcoholics, both lonely dog lovers, Caldwell charts the little differences between them that enriched their extraordinary friendship. This book is a real and straightforward treatment of grief, put into proper perspective as a situation of personal growth and memory through the voice work of Joyce Bean, who keeps both feet on the ground in a tone that does justice to Caldwell's deeply honest reflections. Megan Volpert

Critic reviews

“Stunning...a book of such crystalline truth that it makes the heart ache.” ( The Boston Globe)

Featured Article: The Best Audiobooks on Friendship to Deepen Your Bonds


Friends are the family we choose. When we’re going through hardships or have something to celebrate, our friends are often the people we turn to first. So much of literature, art, music, and film is dedicated to romantic love, but the love between friends can be just as (if not more) rewarding. Of course, plenty of authors "are" writing about friendship, in all its many forms. Here is our list of the very best audiobooks about friendship across genres.

What listeners say about Let's Take the Long Way Home

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Didn’t want this book to end

It’s one of those books where you get to know the main character of the story so well that you think you know them. I didn’t want the book to end. I’d felt her joy and her pain, and the love she had for her best friend and her dog. She’s someone we all know.

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Some day I will have to read this book...

...in an attempt to erase the narration from my memory. Then I might actually enjoy it.

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Thought provoking

I loved this story. I laughed, I cried, I lamented that I don't have a relationship with a girlfriend as strong and all encompassing as the one played out in the story.

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  • Overall
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One of the most beautiful stories I have ever listened to.

I loved the relationship that these two
women had built between them
even though it is not last long enough!
It is a memoir to cherish!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Devastatingly beautiful and superbly written

Gail Caldwell is obviously a very talented writer and her descriptions of loss and grief are unbelievably well and creatively described. I was moved to tears many times, and was constantly surprised by the tale which takes so many different turns despite the knowledge that Caroline would die. The pace of the tale and non-linear time line were seamless and very enjoyable. I didn't want it to end.

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beautiful memior

i really enjoyed this beautiful well written account about two women who bonded deeply to each other.

thank you Ms. Caldwell for allowing readers to share your relationship with Caroline.

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Thought provoking

I listened to the audible version as I packed up my house of twenty years. It was exactly what I needed; reminding us that we all will eventually die, some much sooner than others. Although there are heartbreaking matters in the book, I ultimately found it uplifting. Perhaps I was in the mood for such a book, but I did enjoy it and recommend it for fellow dog lovers.

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Heartbreaking

incredible story of human and animal connection that gives tribute to the friendship if a lifetime

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Raw & honest

The author gave words to a variety of emotions I’ve experienced after losing my husband, my great love. It hurts, yet it heals.

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Uplifting! Brave!

This was a beautiful uplifting story about friendship and love and Dogs! Beautiful story loved the authors realism.

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