
The Old Place
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Narrated by:
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Barrie Kreinik
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By:
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Bobby Finger
Winner of the Crook’s Corner Book Prize
One of Vanity Fair's Best Books of the Year
A bighearted and moving debut about a wry retired schoolteacher whose decade-old secret threatens to come to light and send shockwaves through her small Texas town.
Billington, Texas, is a place where nothing changes. Well, almost nothing. For the first time in nearly four decades, Mary Alice Roth is not getting ready for the first day of school at Billington High. A few months into her retirement—or, district mandated exile as she calls it—Mary Alice does not know how to fill her days. The annual picnic is coming up, but that isn’t nearly enough since the menu never changes and she had the roles mentally assigned weeks ago. At least there’s Ellie, who stops by each morning for coffee and whose reemergence in Mary Alice’s life is the one thing soothing the sting of retirement.
Mary Alice and Ellie were a pair since the day Ellie moved in next door. That they both were single mothers—Mary Alice widowed, Ellie divorced—with sons the same age was a pleasant coincidence, but they were forever linked when they lost the boys, one right after the other. Years later, the two are working their way back to a comfortable friendship. But when Mary Alice’s sister arrives on her doorstep with a staggering piece of news, it jeopardizes the careful shell she’s built around her life. The whole of her friendship with Ellie is put at risk, the fabric of a place as steadfast as Billington is questioned, and the unflappable, knotty fixture that is Mary Alice Roth might have to change after all.
©2022 Bobby Finger (P)2022 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
One of:
Washington Post's 10 Noteworthy Books for September
People's Best New Books
Town & Country’s 45 Must-Read Books of Fall
New York’s 25 Notable New Releases
Nylon's September 2022 Must-Read Book Releases
Lambda Literary’s Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Literature Picks for September
Arlington Magazine’s 10 New Books to Read in September
Kirkus Review's 150 Most Anticipated Fall Books
LitHub's Most Anticipated Books of 2022
“Reading Finger’s playful portrait of the denizens of a small Southern town embracing and forgiving their many flaws feels like laughing with your best friend while sipping sweet tea on the back porch.”–Washington Post
“I found myself thinking of each character’s complexities and their imperfect dynamics as much as I do those of lifelong friends, and know they’ll stay with me a long time.”–Vanity Fair
“[A] heartwarming tale of friendship and what happens when we stop carrying secrets that weighed us down for years.”–Town & Country
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Contrived ending
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Surprising and devastating and delightful
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A story of life
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The twist of the plot
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Not much of a story
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Easy read
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incredible book
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I didn’t read any reviews or details before hitting play, eager to be surprised. And surprised I was, in the best of ways. At first, I was disappointed that Bobby’s voice that I love listening to so much wasn’t narrating the novel, but once I understood more about the story, and once I heard her skillful reading, I was convinced that Barrie Kreinik had been the perfect choice.
I couldn’t stop listening. Everything about it kept me enthralled and emotionally invested - a credit to Bobby’s precise, impeccable prose, his deliberately layered narrative building, and his overall storytelling skill. As if it weren’t obvious already, I strongly recommend this book.
Fantastic, surprising debut
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Heartfelt, hilarious Texas fiction.
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Really enjoyed this book!
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