When in Rome
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Cassandra Campbell
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By:
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Liam Callanan
About this listen
From nationally bestselling, award-winning author Liam Callanan, the story of an opportunity to start over at midlife, a chance to save a struggling convent in the Eternal City, and the dramatic re-emergence of an old flame . . .
Claire, fifty-two, desperately desires a fresh start. After decades as a real estate broker specializing in old religious properties, she’s looking for something new. And then, on the eve of her thirtieth college reunion, a call comes from Rome.
It’s from a struggling convent facing a precipitous end, and Claire isn’t so sure she can help out. But once in Rome, she finds a group of funny, fearless nuns in a gorgeous, if crumbling, villa, a city whose colors deepen as she spends miles running its streets, and above all, a chance to reflect. It leads her unexpectedly to wonder: maybe she should stay in Rome. In the convent. Forever.
Her college roommate and business partner has thoughts. So does Claire’s daughter. And so does Marcus, a once-buzzy actor, who’s still as devastatingly handsome as he was when he first fell for Claire at eighteen. He’s come and gone from Claire’s life since college but reappears in Rome just as she’s about to decide what’s next.
A look at faith, in oneself as much as a higher power, and love, romantic and familial, lost and found, this is the thoroughly charming story of one woman who sets out to rewrite her past and future, only to be surprised by the plot twists life takes . . . when in Rome.
©2023 Liam Callanan (P)2023 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Callanan’s Claire is a soulful seeker, and his Rome, a sensory pleasure."—Oprah Daily
“If Eat, Pray, Love was organized in a different order, it might feel a bit like Callanan's introspective and genuine exploration of the sacrifices and opportunities that come with a new outlook on life. Taking a wide view of love of all types—platonic, spiritual, romantic, geographic—When in Rome should appeal to fans of Kate Atkinson, Kate Weinberg, and Emma Straub.”—Booklist (starred)
“Callanan (Paris by the Book) builds a charming story from a woman’s midlife crisis…Callanan keeps things moving with the question of the convent’s fate hanging over the characters, and carefully outlines Claire’s complicated feelings about her relationships and vocation. This is a delight.”—Publishers Weekly
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Unruly Red knows she’s no one’s idea of a sweet old granny. But with one long-distance phone call, the fortysomething bar owner with the tattoos and tight jeans is suddenly responsible for two young grandchildren she hardly knows.
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What a surprise
- By Donna on 02-07-18
By: Pamela Morsi
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Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self
- By: Danielle Evans
- Narrated by: Daniel Deadwyler, Jeanette Illidge, Je Nie Fleming, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Striking in their emotional immediacy, the stories in Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self are based in a world where inequality is reality but where the insecurities of adolescence and young adulthood, and the tensions within family and the community, are sometimes the biggest complicating forces in one's sense of identity and the choices one makes.
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things we do to oursekves
- By Jamintel on 02-06-23
By: Danielle Evans
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Serious Moonlight
- By: Jenn Bennett
- Narrated by: Devon Sorvari
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Mystery-book aficionado Birdie Lindberg has an overactive imagination. Raised in isolation and homeschooled by strict grandparents, she's cultivated a whimsical fantasy life in which she plays the heroic detective and every stranger is a suspect. But her solitary world expands when she takes a job the summer before college, working the graveyard shift at a historic Seattle hotel. In her new job, Birdie hopes to blossom from introverted dreamer to brave pioneer, and gregarious Daniel Aoki volunteers to be her guide.
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Great characters wrapped in a mystery inside a romance
- By cheryl anderson on 07-11-19
By: Jenn Bennett
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The Stuff that Never Happened
- A Novel
- By: Maddie Dawson
- Narrated by: Teri Clark Linden
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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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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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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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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A Wild and Precious Life
- A Memoir
- By: Edie Windsor, Joshua Lyon
- Narrated by: Donna Postel, Joshua Lyon
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In this memoir, which she began before passing away in 2017 and completed by her co-writer, Edie recounts her childhood in Philadelphia, her realization that she was a lesbian, and her active social life in Greenwich Village's electrifying underground gay scene during the 1950s. Edie was also one of a select group of trailblazing women in computing, working her way up the ladder at IBM and achieving their highest technical ranking while developing software.
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🏳️🌈 Wow! 🏳️🌈
- By Natalia Zimnoch on 10-15-19
By: Edie Windsor, and others
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Embassy Wife
- A Novel
- By: Katie Crouch
- Narrated by: Marni Penning
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Persephone Wilder, a displaced genius posing as the wife of an American diplomat in Namibia, takes her job as a representative of her country seriously and comes up with an intricate set of rules to survive a range of problems: how to dress in hundred-degree weather without showing too much skin, how not to look drunk at embassy functions, and how to eat roasted oryx with grace. She also suspects her husband is not actually the ambassador’s general counsel but instead a secret agent in the CIA. She takes the new trailing spouse, Amanda Evans, under her wing....
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Have narrator re-record this book
- By Amazon Customer on 09-30-21
By: Katie Crouch
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Surfside Sisters
- A Novel
- By: Nancy Thayer
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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A Nantucket woman returns home to find that reunions aren’t always simple, in this heartwarming novel from the New York Times bestselling author. Keely Green always dreamed of leaving the beautiful shores of Nantucket to become a writer. Now she’s a bestselling novelist living in New York City, attending glamorous cocktail parties, mingling with the literary elite, and dating a charming pediatric surgeon. But a moment of clarity strikes when Keely’s boyfriend suddenly wants to settle down and her editor rejects her latest novel.
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Too fluffy!
- By LoRe Bolling on 07-10-19
By: Nancy Thayer
What listeners say about When in Rome
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Christy
- 02-08-24
Could not finish this book- I really tried.
It is entirely too slow. I could not devote any more of my time to try to understand or empathize with Claire’s thoughts and actions- both past and present.
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- JF
- 08-15-23
Not great, some nice parts
I read this for a book club, so perhaps my mind will change after our discussion because someone in the group clearly liked it enough to add it to our list, but I had a really hard time finishing this book. I didn't like the main character, found many scenes unbelievable, and the amount of times the word "said" was used in dialogue scenes was entirely distracting. Claire said. Marcus said. Monica said. Dorothy said. Sister so-and-so said. Said. Said. Said. Said.
The narrator was good. No issues with her reading of the material. Just the material itself.
On the positive side, I enjoyed the descriptions of the Italian scenery. Beautiful, descriptive, flowing language really made the setting a character in and of itself, probably my favorite one.
I found Claire to be weak and flighty. Marcus too. Dorothy was okay. Monica came across as a stereotypical type-A *gasp* ambitious woman who we're not meant to like. I don't know enough about any of the nuns to have an opinion or really care.
*Spoilers*
I had a hard time buying that a woman who spent her college years preparing to become a nun (foregoing parties and dates and love) would, immediately after graduation, follow the advice of the bossy friend to hook up with a random guy for a one-night stand. And get pregnant.
She's in love with Marcus, but she made a secret deal with God to not be with him if God healed him after an non-existent illness. She wants to be nun and should know better, and it is mentioned in the story that she knows it's ridiculous and not how God works, yet for 30 years, she denies her and Marcus' happiness because...reasons? And it's a secret. Because of course it is.
Sure, Claire and Marcus can talk about everything with each other, except their true feelings for one another FOR 30 YEARS. How can that possibly be a good and healthy relationship?
There's an author's note at the end, where it's mentioned that you can't impulsively marry someone in an airport chapel. While I appreciate that note, I found that scene unnecessary for the story, especially because it's so implausible. Marcus is twice divorced, did he get those annulled? I haven't practiced Catholicism in a minute, but that is (or at least used to be) a pretty big deal. What about licenses and government paperwork? Also, he checked himself out of the hospital and is going to jump on plane right away? Is that safe/allowed?
The convent in Rome is going to close if they don't get one more member because one lady died and it dropped them below the minimum number required. So this organization that has been around for centuries just waits until the last minute and pins all of their hopes on one person joining? And Claire wants to jump up and save the day and the organization. Why wouldn't they be doing massive outreach before it reached the point where they would close? Very contrived. Also, what about the shady sister back in the States who wants to sell it for cheap to her brother? What's going on there? But the real estate broker and not-doing-so-great actor can afford to outbid the shady brother?
Honestly, by this point, I was just trying to finish the book so I could be done with it, and probably being more nitpicky than necessary, but my suspension of disbelief had been lifted and there was no lowering it again. I disliked all of the characters and the plot in this book, so without the beautiful descriptions of Rome, it would have been a total loss for me. I admire and appreciate authors for their work, but this one just isn't for me.
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- Sarah Centrella
- 12-28-23
Slow, no plot
Literally, nothing happens in this 10 hours of listening. There’s no plot or storyline just endless repetition. I couldn’t wait for it to be over. 
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- KathV
- 08-22-23
great potential but overall frustrating
Although I didn't think the topic would be interesting, it could have been.
the author seems to repeat both portions of the narrative and its themes.
It seems like the author could have showed more progress in Claire's thinking and decision making throughout the book, instead of coming to an abrupt decision at the end, that was anti-climactic. We also could have learned more about the supporting characters in those middle chapters where nothing much was going on.
The final chapter was the most satisfying, but too little too late.
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- Leila
- 06-03-24
Stunning
I liked how it was taken place in Rome which is an anticipated destination that I would like to go visit but I loved how the story really spoke about religion in parts it isn’t much known in many books that I read and listened to and I’m very grateful to have picked up this book and I will be reading more novels from the author.
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- Julie
- 04-08-23
Wonderful!
Whew - love the way the author weaves the story in and out of the streets of Rome. I began this last night and couldn’t stop listening as I just had to know how the story ended - thank you Liam for a beautiful story. ♥️
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-17-23
Love Rome but too slow
I love Rome and I love the church. But the story bogged way down too many times with Clair not deciding.
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