Smile
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Roddy Doyle
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By:
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Roddy Doyle
About this listen
From the author of the Booker Prize winning Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, a bold, haunting novel about the uncertainty of memory and how we contend with the past.
Just moved into a new apartment, alone for the first time in years, Victor Forde goes every evening to Donnelly's for a pint, a slow one. One evening his drink is interrupted. A man in shorts and a pink shirt comes over and sits down. He seems to know Victor's name and to remember him from secondary school. His name is Fitzpatrick.
Victor dislikes him on sight, dislikes, too, the memories that Fitzpatrick stirs up of five years being taught by the Christian Brothers. He prompts other memories - of Rachel, his beautiful wife who became a celebrity, and of Victor's own small claim to fame, as the man who would say the unsayable on the radio. But it's the memories of school, and of one particular brother, that Victor cannot control and which eventually threaten to destroy his sanity.
Smile has all the features for which Roddy Doyle has become famous: the razor-sharp dialogue, the humor, the superb evocation of adolescence, but this is a novel unlike any he has written before. When you finish the last minute, you will have been challenged to reevaluate everything you think you remember so clearly.
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Critic reviews
"Smile is a novel that's as original as it is brutal, and as painful as it is necessary. Doyle asks us not just to consider the ravages of post-traumatic stress, but to feel them, or as closely as we can, anyway. It's his bravest novel yet; it's also, by far, his best." (Michael Schaub, npr.org)
"Has anyone written as beautifully as Doyle on how love and violence lean right up against each other in childhood? From the Booker Prize-winning Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha to Smile, Doyle’s books bruise and cheer at the same time." (The Boston Globe)
"Doyle was determined to write a novel that shocked - and succeeded.... This is a performance few writers could carry off: a novel constructed entirely from bar stool chatter and scraps of memory. But you can’t turn away." (Ron Charles, The Washington Post)
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The Year of the Runaways
- By: Sunjeev Sahota
- Narrated by: Sartaj Garewal
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Thirteen young men live in a house in Sheffield, each in flight from India and in desperate search of a new life. Tarlochan, a former rickshaw driver, will say nothing about his past in Bihar, and Avtar has a secret that binds him to protect the choatic Randeep. Randeep, in turn, has a visa wife in a flat on the other side of town: a clever, devout woman whose cupboards are full of her husband's clothes, in case the immigration men surprise her with a call.
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Maybe easier to read than to listen to.
- By Eric on 06-15-16
By: Sunjeev Sahota
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Trumpet
- By: Jackie Kay
- Narrated by: Cathleen McCarron
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The death of legendary jazz trumpeter Joss Moody exposes an extraordinary secret. Unbeknown to all but his wife Millie, Joss was a woman living as a man. The discovery is most devastating for their adopted son, Colman, whose bewildered fury brings the press to the doorstep and sends his grieving mother to the sanctuary of a remote Scottish village. Winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize, Trumpet by Jackie Kay is a starkly beautiful modern classic about the lengths to which people will go for love.
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Beautiful and True
- By Colin on 05-24-17
By: Jackie Kay
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Killing Cupid
- By: Mark Edwards, Louise Voss
- Narrated by: Bea Holland, Oliver J. Hembrough
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Alex Parkinson is in love with his writing tutor, Siobhan. He has never loved anyone like this, but how can he convince Siobhan that they are meant to be together? So Alex stalks her on Facebook and finds out where she lives, buys her presents using her own credit card and sends her messages telling her exactly what he wants to do to her. He breaks into her house, reads her diary and secretly listens to her while she takes a bath. Isn't that what all lovers do?
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Love conquers all
- By Jenny on 02-04-23
By: Mark Edwards, and others
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The Piper's Son
- By: Melina Marchetta
- Narrated by: Michael Finney
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning author Melina Marchetta reopens the story of the group of friends from her acclaimed novel Saving Francesca - but five years have passed, and now it's Thomas Mackee who needs saving. After his favorite uncle was blown to bits on his way to work in a foreign city, Tom watched his family implode. He quit school and turned his back on his music and everyone that mattered, including the girl he can't forget. Shooting for oblivion, he's hit rock bottom, forced to live with his single, pregnant aunt; work at the Union pub with his former friends; and reckon with his grieving, alcoholic father.
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4.5 Stars!
- By Trosado on 09-01-20
By: Melina Marchetta
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The Heart's Invisible Furies
- A Novel
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Stephen Hogan
- Length: 21 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Cyril Avery is not a real Avery - or at least that's what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn't a real Avery, then who is he? Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead.
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Outstanding. A Must listen.
- By Keith G on 09-04-17
By: John Boyne
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The Girls in the Garden
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Jewell
- Narrated by: Colleen Prendergast
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Imagine that you live on a picturesque communal garden square, an oasis in urban London where your children run free, in and out of other people's houses. You've known your neighbors for years and you trust them. Implicitly. You think your children are safe. But are they really? On a midsummer night, as a festive neighborhood party is taking place, preteen Pip discovers her 13-year-old sister Grace lying unconscious and bloody in a hidden corner of a lush rose garden. What really happened to her?
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Delightful
- By Julie on 11-03-17
By: Lisa Jewell
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Field of Blood
- By: Denise Mina
- Narrated by: Heather O'Neill
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Abridged
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Little Brian Wilcox's murder is the hottest story in Scotland. Every major newspaper crowds its pages with stories examining the crime from every angle. If only Paddy Meehan could get a scoop on the case. A nationally syndicated story would surely launch her fledgling journalism career out of the free local rag she's been working at.
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Wrong Accent
- By Amazon Customer on 04-01-14
By: Denise Mina
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The Playdate
- By: Louise Millar
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Single mother Callie has come to rely heavily on her best friend Suzy. But Callie suspects Suzy's life isn't as simple as it seems. It's time she pulled away - going back to work is just the first step towards rediscovering her old confidence. So why does she keep putting off telling Suzy about her new job? And who will care for her rather frail daughter, Rae, while she is gone?
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Very Good
- By Delah on 05-03-12
By: Louise Millar
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Some Kind of Fairy Tale
- A Novel
- By: Graham Joyce
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Twenty years ago, 16-year-old Tara Martin disappeared from a small town in the heart of England. Now, her sudden return and the mind-bending tale of where she’s been will challenge our very perception of the truth. For 20 years after Tara Martin disappeared, her parents and her brother, Peter, lived in denial of the grim fact that she was gone for good. Then suddenly on Christmas Day, the doorbell rings at her parents’ home, and there, dishevelled and slightly peculiar looking, Tara stands. It’s a miracle, but alarm bells are ringing for Peter. Tara’s story just does not add up.
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Extremely Well Done
- By Amanda on 07-11-12
By: Graham Joyce
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The Brightest Star in the Sky
- A Novel
- By: Marian Keyes
- Narrated by: Caitriona Keyes
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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The Brightest Star in the Sky follows seven neighbors whose lives become entangled when a sassy and prescient spirit pays a visit to their Dublin townhouse with the intent of changing at least one of their lives. But what will this metamorphosis be and who will the sprite choose?
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Terrible sound quality, worse narration
- By Jan on 02-23-10
By: Marian Keyes
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Paula Spencer is a 39-year-old working-class woman struggling to reclaim her dignity after marriage to an abusive husband and a worsening drinking problem. Paula recalls her contented childhood, the audacity she learned as a teenager, the exhilaration of her romance with Charlo, and the marriage to him that left her feeling powerless. Capturing both her vulnerability and her strength, Roddy Doyle gives Paula a voice that is real and unforgettable.
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Terrible audio narration
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One summer's evening, two men meet up in a Dublin restaurant. Drinking pals back in their youth, now married and with grown up children, their lives have taken seemingly similar paths. But Joe has a secret he needs to tell Davy, and Davy has a sorrow he wants to keep from Joe. Both are not the men they used to be. Joe has left his wife and family for another woman, Jessica.
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Moving & believable
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not my style
- By J. Czap on 11-01-24
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Paddy Clarke Ha-Ha-Ha
- By: Roddy Doyle
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Patrick Clarke is a 10-year-old boy trying to make sense of his world. He is confused. His Ma and Da fight too much. School seems like a joke. And love, though it has a good reputation, seems pretty cruel. Paddy sees everything, but has trouble understanding it all. His story is an exuberant romp through the triumphs, indignities, and troublemaking detours of an Irish childhood.
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wrong order
- By Yuliya Melnyk on 01-31-16
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The Guts
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In the 1980s Jimmy Rabbitte formed the Commitments, a ragtag, blue-collar collective of Irish youths determined to bring the soul music stylings of James Brown and Percy Sledge to Dublin. Time proves a great equalizer for Jimmy as he’s now approaching 50 with a loving wife, four kids, and a recent cancer diagnosis that leaves him feeling shattered and frightened. Jimmy still loves his music, and he still loves to hustle - his new thing is finding old bands and then finding the people who loved them enough to pay for their resurrected albums.
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Very entertaining and great laughs.
- By Andy Milfred on 01-15-23
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Terrible audio narration
- By T in New England on 08-21-24
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Love
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One summer's evening, two men meet up in a Dublin restaurant. Drinking pals back in their youth, now married and with grown up children, their lives have taken seemingly similar paths. But Joe has a secret he needs to tell Davy, and Davy has a sorrow he wants to keep from Joe. Both are not the men they used to be. Joe has left his wife and family for another woman, Jessica.
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Moving & believable
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not my style
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wrong order
- By Yuliya Melnyk on 01-31-16
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The Guts
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Overall
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Very entertaining and great laughs.
- By Andy Milfred on 01-15-23
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What listeners say about Smile
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- D
- 11-22-21
Doyle fan
Not surprising, this book is really good. Unexpected ending. I highly recommend listing. Nice to hear the author s voice.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Janet
- 09-17-20
Ignorance is not bliss
This is my first Roddy Doyle book. I did not know what to expect but was caught up in the writing and the language of Irish boys/middle aged men. While various facts of the story hinted at the ending I was too caught up in the efforts the “I” was making to build a new life to question why he was so much in need of the emotional support of his new surroundings. The reality of his life is still a mystery for me but one that can be imagined.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jeff Lacy
- 02-24-18
Vividly entertaining
This is a vividly and weirdly crafted novel, leaving one asking in the end, Where was the substance of this exquisite story? Doyle has a well tuned ear for dialogue and sensitive eyes and heart for people, so that his characters in this novel are round and alive. The story is visceral and ephemeral as Doyle unfolds the plot. This is an entertaining intriguing novel. Doyle’s performance is excellent.
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- KO
- 01-08-20
Outstanding writing, dialogue, and reading
This is one of the richest books I have read (listened to). Roddy Doyle is a masterful writer: of structure, narrative, character development, dialogue (among the best), flow, etc. What an amazing novel, and a great reading by the man himself. I wish that he would do readings of his other books. Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha is only available in an abridged version. Would highly recommend.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Ed Piper
- 11-27-17
Masterful dialect Brilliant insights
I expected no less from this familiar writer. Still the dialect was so transporting, and the personal rumination so deftly chronicled, the character and his demons will live long in my consciousness. Brilliant!
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- Laurie A. Bobskill
- 11-02-17
The conclusion will take your breath away.
To say that I Iiked Smile would be a wrong. Rather it gripped me. Doyle's narration is perfect. Few authors can pull it off--voicing their own works. Stephen King can, and Roddy Doyle can.
They share other attributes: an ease with natural dialogue, a knack for showing us their characters from the inside out, and an ability to subtly build suspense. And a talent for giving us endings as sharp as a switchblade.
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6 people found this helpful
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- joan
- 11-17-17
Goes nowhere
I’m a fan of Roddy Doyle but this book was all details one minute and then big chunks of updates the next. Won’t recommend
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4 people found this helpful
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- EMFORD
- 03-15-21
An interesting story, but hard to like characters
i did not have any connection or empathy for the main character and that made it difficult for me toblike the story. It may be partly my fault. I was hoping for a light and fun story set in a pub, this is not that!
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1 person found this helpful
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- just asking for some common sense
- 08-14-18
Roddy Doyle strikes again
Roddy Doyle is known for dealing with serious subjects with his wry humor. I felt this book wasn't as strong as some others I've read and listened to. I applaud him for writing a book about what happened during the main character's school years and how it affected his whole life. I'm not sure why there are so many 3 star reviews and lower because I thought it was a strong 4.
There wasn't as much humor as most other books, but it was a compelling read. I will continue to listen to his books, especially when he narrates them for it really takes me to Ireland. I would thank him for tackling another tough subject.
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- Lulu Dx
- 03-13-23
Tragic Powerful Ending
The book reads like a retelling of a life filled with regrets, pain, hope and dreams. Something everyone can relate to. But with Victor’s story there is just more. I was completely drawn into his narrative wanting to know what happened and where it would go. Brilliant ending!!
Narration by the author was perfect!
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