This Close to Okay
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Kamali Minter
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Zeno Robinson
About this listen
A powerful, vibrant novel about the life-changing weekend shared between two strangers, from the award-winning writer Roxane Gay calls "a consummate storyteller."
On a rainy October night in Kentucky, recently divorced therapist Tallie Clark is on her way home from work when she spots a man precariously standing at the edge of a bridge. Without a second thought, Tallie pulls over and jumps out of the car into the pouring rain. She convinces the man to join her for a cup of coffee, and he eventually agrees to come back to her house, where he finally shares his name: Emmett.
Over the course of the emotionally charged weekend that follows, Tallie makes it her mission to provide a safe space for Emmett, though she hesitates to confess that this is also her day job. What she doesn’t realize is that Emmett isn’t the only one who needs healing - and they both are harboring secrets.
Alternating between Tallie and Emmett’s perspectives as they inch closer to the truth of what brought Emmett to the bridge’s edge - as well as the hard truths Tallie has been grappling with since her marriage ended - This Close to Okay is an uplifting, cathartic story about chance encounters, hope found in unlikely moments, and the subtle magic of human connection.
Book of the Month December Pick
Good Housekeeping Book Club February Pick
Marie Claire Book Club March Pick
Most Anticipated by Elle, Today (according to Goodreads), The Millions, She Reads, and Real Simple
Recommended by Refinery29, Shondaland, Oprah Daily, Washington Post, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Electric Literature, Bookriot, Parade, Harper's Bazaar, and more
©2021 Leesa Cross-Smith (P)2021 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"One of those rare feel-good novels that also crackles with wisdom, This Close to Okay introduces readers to two characters who will come to feel like cherished friends.... Over the course of a single weekend, their many conversations on love, loss, grief, and joy coalesce into a primer on human goodness.” (Elle)
“Leesa Cross-Smith’s This Close to Okay navigates difficult subjects with great tenderness and the beautiful, emotionally rich language she’s known for. By turns heartbreaking, charming, surprising and funny, Cross-Smith deftly explores what it means to be okay in the face of what life hands us.” (Elizabeth Crane, author of The History of Great Things)
"An emotional, uplifting tale of hope, chosen family, and the healing power of human connection, especially at the moments when we’re most determined to be alone.” (Good Housekeeping)
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Clare and Henry have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was 36. They were married when Clare was 23 and Henry was 31. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing.
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One of my favorite books
- By Joey on 01-13-08
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The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season
- By: Molly Fader
- Narrated by: Nancy Peterson
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Everything Hope knows about the Orchard House is from the stories of her late mother. So when she arrives at the northern Michigan family estate late one night with a terrible secret and her 10-year-old daughter in tow, she’s not sure if she’ll be welcomed or turned away with a shotgun by the aunt she has never met.
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Really Enjoyed It
- By Kathryn @theBookDate on 03-30-21
By: Molly Fader
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Whiskey & Ribbons
- By: Leesa Cross-Smith
- Narrated by: Larry Heron, Joe Bearor, Tunisia Hardison
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Set in contemporary Louisville, Leesa Cross-Smith's mesmerizing first novel surrounding the death of a police officer is a requiem for marriage, friendship, and family, from an author Roxane Gay has called "a consummate storyteller". Evi - a classically-trained ballerina - was nine months pregnant when her husband Eamon was killed in the line of duty on a steamy morning in July. Now, it is winter, and Eamon's adopted brother Dalton has moved in to help her raise six-month-old Noah.
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Beautifully Tragic and Heart Healing
- By Jennifer Glover on 08-17-18
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Before the Storm
- By: Diane Chamberlain
- Narrated by: Abby Craden, Kris Koscheski
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Laurel Lockwood lost her son once through neglect. She's spent the rest of her life determined to make up for her mistakes, and she has succeeded in becoming a committed, protective parent-maybe even overprotective. Still, she loosens her grip just enough to let Andy attend a local church social-a decision that terrifies her when the church is consumed by fire. But Andy survives...and remarkably, saves other children from the flames.
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Great book...HORRIBLE performance
- By Andrea on 03-10-15
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Lone Stars
- By: Justin Deabler
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Lone Stars follows the arc of four generations of a Texan family in a changing America. Julian Warner, a father at last, wrestles with a question his husband posed: what will you tell our son about the people you came from, now that they're gone? Finding the answers takes Julian back in time to Eisenhower's immigration border raids, an epistolary love affair during the Vietnam War, crumbling marriages, queer migrations to Cambridge and New York, up to the disorienting polarization of Obama's second term.
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Read for bookclub but fell in Love
- By Ericka Lawson on 09-11-22
By: Justin Deabler
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What I Carry
- By: Jennifer Longo
- Narrated by: Reba Buhr
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Growing up in foster care, Muir has lived in many houses. And if she's learned one thing, it is to Pack. Light. Carry only what fits in a suitcase. Toothbrush? Yes. Socks? Yes. Emotional attachment to friends? Foster families? A boyfriend? Nope! There's no room for any additional baggage. Muir has just one year left before she ages out of the system. One year before she's free. One year to avoid anything - or anyone - that could get in her way. Then she meets Francine. And Kira. And Sean. And everything changes.
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Enlightening
- By Kindle Customer on 06-09-21
By: Jennifer Longo
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No One Knows Us Here
- A Novel
- By: Rebecca Kelley
- Narrated by: Merritt Hicks
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Rosemary Rabourne is already struggling to pay the bills when her recently orphaned half sister, Wendy, shows up at her door. Rosemary will try anything to provide for the traumatized teenager—including offering her services as a high-end escort. Leo Glass is the billionaire CEO of a revolutionary social app. He wants the “girlfriend experience”—someone contractually obligated to love him—and he thinks he’s found the perfect match in Rosemary.
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Good but not uplifting story
- By Kim on 08-02-23
By: Rebecca Kelley
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Snap Out of It
- A Novel
- By: Maddie Dawson
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
After three marriages and a lot of living, resilient Billie Slate knows exactly what trouble love can bring. Now she’s reinvented herself as the Heartbreak Bunny, an on-call performance artist who can heal anyone who’s been burned by that four-letter word, LOVE, by hopping about and whisking away sad mementos from their past relationships. Call it magic. Call it peculiar. But her bunny costume is as perfect as her breakup mantra: SNAP OUT OF IT.
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REFRESHINGLY WONDERFUL
- By Iteachart on 03-07-23
By: Maddie Dawson
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Face It
- By: Georgette Kaplan
- Narrated by: Anastasia Watley
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Performance
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Story
In college, Elizabeth Smile shared a magical tryst with her roommate, Michelle Harlow. She had no idea the night would leave Elizabeth pining after her for the next ten years. Now Michelle is back with a strange offer: Will she pretend to be Michelle's lesbian lover to beat Michelle's cheating husband?
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Give it a chance—brilliant!
- By Meredith on 01-22-23
By: Georgette Kaplan
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The Stuff that Never Happened
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- By: Maddie Dawson
- Narrated by: Teri Clark Linden
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- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Annabelle McKay knows she shouldn’t have any complaints. She’s been in a stable marriage that’s lasted almost three decades and has provided her with two wonderful children and thousands of family dinners around a sturdy oak table. Other wives envy the fact that Grant is not the type of man who would ever cheat on her or leave her for a younger woman. The trouble is Annabelle isn’t sure she wants to be married to Grant anymore. The trouble is she’s still in love with someone else.
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Don’t pass this one up.
- By Lauren on 03-10-20
By: Maddie Dawson
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Horrid
- By: Katrina Leno
- Narrated by: Heather Costa
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
Following her father's death, Jane North-Robinson and her mom move from sunny California to the dreary, dilapidated old house in Maine where her mother grew up. All they want is a fresh start, but behind North Manor's doors lurks a history that leaves them feeling more alone...and more tormented.
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Reader
- By Kindle Customer on 11-14-21
By: Katrina Leno
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Tagged for Death
- A Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mystery
- By: Sherry Harris
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Starting your life over at age 38 isn't easy, but that's what Sarah Winston finds herself facing when her husband CJ runs off with a 19-year-old temptress named Tiffany. Sarah's self-prescribed therapy happily involves hitting all the garage and tag sales in and around her small town in Massachusetts. But after returning from a particularly successful day searching for yard-sale treasures, Sarah finds a grisly surprise in one of her bags: a freshly bloodied shirt...that undoubtedly belongs to her ex, CJ, who now happens to be Ellington's chief of police. And Tiffany has gone missing.
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frustrating book
- By Anonymous User on 01-08-23
By: Sherry Harris
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It Had to Be You
- A Novel
- By: Georgia Clark
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell, Feodor Chin, Frankie Corzo, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
For the past 20 years, Liv and Eliot Goldenhorn have run In Love in New York, Brooklyn’s beloved wedding-planning business. When Eliot dies unexpectedly, he even more unexpectedly leaves half of the business to his younger, blonder girlfriend, Savannah. Liv and Savannah are not a match made in heaven, to say the least. But what starts as a personal and professional nightmare transforms into something even savvy, cynical Liv Goldenhorn couldn’t begin to imagine.
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Distractingly bad narration
- By maggie walsh on 05-12-21
By: Georgia Clark
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He Came in with It
- A Portrait of Motherhood and Madness
- By: Miriam Feldman
- Narrated by: Ann Richardson
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
In an idyllic Los Angeles neighborhood, where generations enjoy deep roots in old homes, the O’Rourke family fits right in. Miriam and Craig are both artists and their four children carry on the legacy. When their teenage son, Nick, is diagnosed with schizophrenia, a tumultuous decade ensues in which the family careens off the conventional course. Like the 10 Biblical plagues, they are hit by one catastrophe after another: violence, evictions, arrests, a suicide attempt, a near-drowning - even cancer and a brain tumor - play against the backdrop of a wild teenage bacchanal.
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So Beautifully Written
- By Michael on 08-01-22
By: Miriam Feldman
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What listeners say about This Close to Okay
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- OwlLover
- 04-27-21
A good enough easy read (but TW: suicide)
At first, I was concerned about the overt religious references and did not want to keep going if it would continue. It did, but not at a high frequency. It just felt like it didn't fit. The story itself ks quite intetesting and the alternating narration works well. The end is a bit messy and inexplicable.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Dee
- 03-27-21
heart-warming
This is my first time writing a review and this book deserves it. 5 stars all the way!
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4 people found this helpful
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- Ray Squad
- 12-17-21
We're they supposed to be black??
Sounded like this book was written to portray a white story line but they decided at the last minute to make the characters bi-racial?! The story didn't align with real-life black characters at all. Very white washed.
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- Sigrid Macdonald
- 06-24-21
Beautiful story
This was an excellent story and I quite enjoyed the dynamics of how the relationship between the two main characters unfolded. At first I thought it would be hard to maintain a story line with just two characters, but the author did bring in other characters along the way and even with just the two, the man and the woman, both dialogue and narrative moved along well.
My only issue with the story is that on a number of occasions, I questioned its plausibility. Would a smart woman really pick up a desperate man who was about to jump off a bridge? I can see how a smart and compassionate woman could do that and persuade him to go with her to an all-night coffee shop but not take him back to her apartment alone. It just seemed too dangerous. Doesn't Leesa Cross-Smith watch Dateline :) Or all the documentaries about people you meet on the Internet, largely male, who assault their dates, catfish them, sextort them or even murder them? I'm not saying you can't trust men but I am saying that I would not trust a desperate stranger on a bridge, particularly a man who's about to jump.
Once I got past that part of the story line, because I recognized that it could happen, I thoroughly enjoyed the book.
The only reason I rated the narrator four stars instead of five was that although she had a beautiful voice, her enunciation was not great with words like didn't or wouldn't (which came out sounding more like "dint, wount, etc).
I would recommend this title. Well done.
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- mmm
- 10-03-21
should be labeled a christian book
this book could be triggering for those sensitive to suicide. it has more prayer and religious references than a typical fiction book
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- micki
- 09-27-22
Confusing Ending
Overall I liked and enjoyed the book. But the mixed feelings the main character had about 2 different men was confusing. It seemed liked the author didn’t know how to wrap things up. Hated the ending.
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- Passionate Book Reader
- 01-03-22
A Melancholy Story
This was a well-written story with strong character development. It was a bit too melancholy for me. Hence, 3-stars. It was OK.
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- Anonymous User
- 02-09-22
See Help
A story with a lot of twist and turns. Like to see made into movie.
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- Kindle Customer
- 07-03-21
Humanitarian Book!
I love books that remind us in this day and age that humans do care about one another! I love the performers they really brung the story to life for me.
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- teylor d
- 01-06-22
Loved This Book!
This was a really interesting and different storyline. I was not expecting the way it played out at all. It’s a love story with a huge twist!
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