
The Guts
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $15.75
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Laurence Kinlan
-
By:
-
Roddy Doyle
About this listen
Jimmy Rabbitte of The Commitments returns in the triumphant new novel from the Booker Prize–winning author.
The distinct wit and lively, authentic dialogue that are the hallmarks of Roddy Doyle’s fiction are on a full display as he reintroduces Jimmy Rabbitte in this follow-up to his beloved debut novel, The Commitments.
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. As he battles his illness on his path through Dublin, Jimmy manages to reconnect with his own past, most notably Commitments guitarist Liam "Outspan" Foster and the still-beautiful backup vocalist Imelda Quirk. Jimmy also learns the trumpet, reunites with his long-lost brother, and rediscovers the joys of fatherhood.
An immensely funny and poignant novel, The Guts captures friendship, family, the power of music, the specter of death, and the zeal for life. Jimmy Rabbitte of The Commitments returns in the triumphant new novel from the Booker Prize–winning author.
©2014 Roddy Doyle (P)2014 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Life Without Children
- Stories
- By: Roddy Doyle
- Narrated by: Roddy Doyle
- Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Love and marriage. Children and family. Death and grief. Life touches everyone the same. But living under lockdown, it changes us alone. In these ten beautifully moving short stories written mostly over the last year, Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle paints a collective portrait of our strange times.
-
-
not my style
- By J. Czap on 11-01-24
By: Roddy Doyle
-
Paula Spencer
- By: Roddy Doyle
- Narrated by: Ger Ryan
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paula Spencer begins on the eve of Paula's 48th birthday. She hasn't had a drink for four months and five days. Having outlived an abusive husband and father, Paula and her four children are now struggling to live their adult lives, with two of the kids balancing their own addictions. Paula rebuilds her life slowly. As she goes about her daily routine working as a cleaning woman, and cooking for her two children at home, she re-establishes connections with her two sisters, her mother, and grandchildren, expanding her world.
By: Roddy Doyle
-
Smile
- A Novel
- By: Roddy Doyle
- Narrated by: Roddy Doyle
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
The conclusion will take your breath away.
- By Laurie A. Bobskill on 11-02-17
By: Roddy Doyle
-
Paddy Clarke Ha-Ha-Ha
- By: Roddy Doyle
- Narrated by: Aiden Gillen
- Length: 2 hrs and 50 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
wrong order
- By Yuliya Melnyk on 01-31-16
By: Roddy Doyle
-
One Plus One
- A Novel
- By: Jojo Moyes
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Bower, Ben Elliot, Nicola Stanton, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Suppose your life sucks. A lot. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your teenage stepson is being bullied, and your math-whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can't afford to pay for. That's Jess' life in a nutshell - until an unexpected knight-in-shining-armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess' knight turns out to be Geeky Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she happens to clean. But Ed has big problems of his own, and driving the dysfunctional family to the Math Olympiad feels like his first unselfish act in ages...maybe ever.
-
-
Sometimes I need a book that is just fun to read.
- By Kathy on 07-05-14
By: Jojo Moyes
-
Queenie
- By: Candice Carty-Williams
- Narrated by: Shvorne Marks
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle-class peers. After a messy breakup from her White long-term boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places...including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth.
-
-
The Black Womans Burden
- By LATOYA LEWIS on 05-20-19
-
Life Without Children
- Stories
- By: Roddy Doyle
- Narrated by: Roddy Doyle
- Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Love and marriage. Children and family. Death and grief. Life touches everyone the same. But living under lockdown, it changes us alone. In these ten beautifully moving short stories written mostly over the last year, Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle paints a collective portrait of our strange times.
-
-
not my style
- By J. Czap on 11-01-24
By: Roddy Doyle
-
Paula Spencer
- By: Roddy Doyle
- Narrated by: Ger Ryan
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paula Spencer begins on the eve of Paula's 48th birthday. She hasn't had a drink for four months and five days. Having outlived an abusive husband and father, Paula and her four children are now struggling to live their adult lives, with two of the kids balancing their own addictions. Paula rebuilds her life slowly. As she goes about her daily routine working as a cleaning woman, and cooking for her two children at home, she re-establishes connections with her two sisters, her mother, and grandchildren, expanding her world.
By: Roddy Doyle
-
Smile
- A Novel
- By: Roddy Doyle
- Narrated by: Roddy Doyle
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
The conclusion will take your breath away.
- By Laurie A. Bobskill on 11-02-17
By: Roddy Doyle
-
Paddy Clarke Ha-Ha-Ha
- By: Roddy Doyle
- Narrated by: Aiden Gillen
- Length: 2 hrs and 50 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
wrong order
- By Yuliya Melnyk on 01-31-16
By: Roddy Doyle
-
One Plus One
- A Novel
- By: Jojo Moyes
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Bower, Ben Elliot, Nicola Stanton, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Suppose your life sucks. A lot. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your teenage stepson is being bullied, and your math-whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can't afford to pay for. That's Jess' life in a nutshell - until an unexpected knight-in-shining-armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess' knight turns out to be Geeky Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she happens to clean. But Ed has big problems of his own, and driving the dysfunctional family to the Math Olympiad feels like his first unselfish act in ages...maybe ever.
-
-
Sometimes I need a book that is just fun to read.
- By Kathy on 07-05-14
By: Jojo Moyes
-
Queenie
- By: Candice Carty-Williams
- Narrated by: Shvorne Marks
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle-class peers. After a messy breakup from her White long-term boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places...including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth.
-
-
The Black Womans Burden
- By LATOYA LEWIS on 05-20-19
-
I Am Ozzy
- By: Ozzy Osbourne
- Narrated by: Ozzy Osbourne, Rupert Farley
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
People ask me how come I'm still alive, and I don't know what to say. When I was growing up, if you'd have put me up against a wall with the other kids from my street and asked me which one of us was gonna make it to the age of 60, with five kids and four grandkids and houses in Buckinghamshire and California, I wouldn't have put money on me, no f--king way. But here I am: ready to tell my story, in my own words, for the first time. A lot of it ain't gonna be pretty. I've done some bad things in my time. But I ain't the devil.
-
-
Laugh Out Loud & BEST Narration EVER!
- By Kerry Jackson on 01-24-21
By: Ozzy Osbourne
-
The Pact
- By: S. E. Lynes
- Narrated by: Tamsin Kennard
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fifteen-year-old Rosie lies in hospital fighting for her life. She’s trying to tell her mother what happened to her, but she can’t speak the words out loud. Toni is a doting and over-protective mother, terrified for her daughter’s life. Having lost her husband in a tragic accident, Toni has dedicated her life to keeping Rosie safe from harm. She needs to know what secrets Rosie has been keeping and how she ended up in a hospital bed - but Toni has a secret of her own....
-
-
Decent story, good narrator, but kind of annoying characters...
- By Christa on 06-30-19
By: S. E. Lynes
-
Calling Major Tom
- By: David M. Barnett
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Calling Major Tom is a funny, uplifting tale of friendship and community about a man who has given up on the world...but discovers in the most unlikely way that it might not have given up on him. We all know someone like Thomas. The grumpy next-door neighbour who complains to the residents' committee about the state of your front lawn. The man who tuts when you don't have the correct change at the checkout. The colleague who sends an all-company email when you accidentally use the last drop of milk.
-
-
4 stars!
- By MisBis on 05-25-19
By: David M. Barnett
-
Her Last Words
- By: Kim Kelly
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thisbe Chisholm wants to be a writer. It’s 2007, a time of digital revolution and skyrocketing property prices, but she’s an old-fashioned girl. She longs only to tell the stories written on her heart. While her best friends, Penny and Jane, and her darling boyfriend, John, seem set for stellar careers in their chosen fields, Thisbe works nights as a hostess at a glitzy harbourside Sydney club - a job she despises but has paid the rent for the last three years since university graduation.
-
-
Loved it!
- By hansenfamily on 03-09-23
By: Kim Kelly
-
I Am the Messenger
- By: Markus Zusak
- Narrated by: Marc Aden Gray
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver without much of a future. He's pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence, until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.
-
-
Clever read
- By Tony B on 05-14-07
By: Markus Zusak
-
Just My Luck
- By: Andrea Bramhall
- Narrated by: Rachael Beresford
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Genna Collins works a dead end job, loves her family, her girlfriend, and her friends. When she wins the biggest Euromillions jackpot on record everything changes . . . and not always for the best. When Abi Kitson fell in love she always knew it would go unrequited. The woman of her dreams was so close yet seemingly untouchable for so many reasons. Reasons like—they are best friends, or the big age gap, or the 'other' woman, nevermind Abi's own baggage.
-
-
Good
- By Wendy Davidson on 10-25-24
By: Andrea Bramhall
-
Sweet Little Lies
- A Novel
- By: Caz Frear
- Narrated by: Jane Collingwood
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cat Kinsella overcame a troubled childhood to become a detective constable. When she’s called to the scene of a murder, not far from the pub her estranged father still runs, she discovers that Alice Lapaine is dead. Cat and her team suspect Alice’s husband, until she receives a phone call that links the victim to Maryanne Doyle, a teenage girl who went missing in Ireland 18 years earlier. The call raises uneasy memories for Cat. Though she was only a child, Cat knew that her father wasn’t telling the truth when he denied knowing anything about Maryanne or her disappearance.
-
-
My favorite book this year
- By Jennifer Nelson on 08-16-18
By: Caz Frear
-
Daft Wee Stories
- By: Limmy
- Narrated by: Limmy
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Daft Wee Stories is Limmy’s first book. It is a collection of stories. There are short stories. There are longer stories. There are stupid stories. There are thoughtful stories. There are upside-down stories. There are normal-way-up stories. There are weird stories. There are less weird stories. There are really weird stories. There is nothing else like it. Have a listen.
-
-
It really works
- By Daniel Smith on 10-01-20
By: Limmy
-
Mirror, Mirror
- A Novel
- By: Cara Delevingne
- Narrated by: R. Jones
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Among the students of Pimlico Academy, Red, Leo, Rose, and Naomi are misfits - outsiders who have found a safe haven in music and their band, Mirror, Mirror. For these 16-year-olds, fitting in at school is nearly as difficult as navigating their complicated home lives. Red has an alcoholic mother and a father who's never around. Leo's brother is in prison. Rose uses sex and alcohol to numb the pain of a brutal attack. Naomi's punk rock princess persona gives her the freedom to be her true self.
-
-
Outstanding!
- By Daphne on 10-18-17
By: Cara Delevingne
-
The Photograph
- A Lesbian Mystery Romance
- By: Jane Retzig
- Narrated by: Danielle O'Farrell
- Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When she hears Niamh busking in the center of town, Becky is stunned by the intensity of her attraction to the itinerant young musician. The feeling is mutual. For Niamh, Becky has a familiar feel that reminds her of the home and family she has lost, and she quickly finds herself looking for ways to meet this intriguing young woman again.
-
-
this isn't a romance
- By Serenity Dee on 10-16-18
By: Jane Retzig
-
We Don't Know Ourselves
- A Personal History of Modern Ireland
- By: Fintan O'Toole
- Narrated by: Aidan Kelly
- Length: 22 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In We Don't Know Ourselves, Fintan O'Toole weaves his own experiences into Irish social, cultural, and economic change, showing how Ireland, in just one lifetime, has gone from a reactionary "backwater" to an almost totally open society - perhaps the most astonishing national transformation in modern history. O'Toole narrates the once unthinkable collapse of the all-powerful Catholic Church, brought down by scandal and by the activism of ordinary Irish. He relates the horrific violence of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which led most Irish to reject violent nationalism.
-
-
Relentlessly Negative
- By John on 06-02-22
By: Fintan O'Toole
-
People Person
- By: Candice Carty-Williams
- Narrated by: Danielle Vitalis
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dimple Pennington knows of her half-siblings, but she doesn’t really know them. Five people who don’t have anything in common except for faint memories of being driven through Brixton in their dad’s gold jeep, and some pretty complex abandonment issues. Dimple has bigger things to think about. She’s thirty, and her life isn’t really going anywhere. An aspiring lifestyle influencer with a wayward boyfriend, Dimple’s life has shrunk to the size of a phone screen. And despite a small but loyal following, she’s never felt more alone in her life.
-
-
Excellent Story
- By C. Marshall on 10-01-22
Critic reviews
"Doyle's Jimmy Rabbitte reappears, dealing with cancer, mortality, and love.... I was undone by the emotional clarity of the writing itself, and by the calm, but never static, way Doyle has of presenting a scene." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Quintessential Doyle...both laugh-out-loud funny and disarmingly moving.... [It] contains some of the snappiest, wittiest, most believable, and exhilarating dialogue in fiction.... To make a story about middle-aged men battling cancer a largely effervescent lark without a trace of sentimentality is a notable achievement." (The Boston Globe)
"Roddy Doyle is a great master of dialogue, which is his narrative medium-- the main way he tells. And it's impossible for anyone, I would think, not to laugh out loud at the wit and shock of it.... If [The Guts] has a unifying theme, it is the awareness of death, and the fresh perspective on life thrown by its advancing shadow." (The New York Review of Books)
What listeners say about The Guts
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Linda
- 01-09-15
Narrator Makes the Story
I truly love the way Roddy Doyle's characters are so true to life. They are just regular people and so easy to relate to.
The narrator on this book is superb! He absolutely makes this book so much fun to listen to.
Another great book!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- MovieSign
- 11-28-22
Love Roddy Doyle and the Commitments
The Commitments is top five for me. Loved hanging out with Jimmy Rabbitte again. Roddy Doyle is a master of dialogue. Story was a bit slow but I still loved. No complaints here.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Madeleine Sann
- 02-14-15
Best audiobook since Wolf Hall
A terrific Roddy Doyle -- heartbreaking and hilarious. The reader was one of the best audiobook readers I've heard. I often return books because I don't like the reader. Please, Laurence Kinlin, record more books!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Andy Milfred
- 01-15-23
Very entertaining and great laughs.
I really enjoyed this story. I must admit that I am half Irish and that I enjoy everything Irish.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!