Fin & Lady

A Novel

By: Cathleen Schine

Narrated by: Anne Twomey

Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

From bestselling author Cathleen Schine comes Fin & Lady, a wise, clever story of New York in the '60s.

It's 1964. Eleven-year-old Fin and his glamorous, worldly, older half sister, Lady, have just been orphaned, and Lady, whom Fin hasn't seen in six years, is now his legal guardian and his only hope. That means Fin is uprooted from a small dairy farm in rural Connecticut to Greenwich Village, smack in the middle of the swinging '60s. He soon learns that Lady-giddy, careless, urgent, and obsessed with being free-is as much his responsibility as he is hers.

So begins Fin & Lady, the lively, spirited new novel by Cathleen Schine, the author of the bestselling The Three Weissmanns of Westport. Fin and Lady lead their lives against the background of the '60s, the civil rights movement, and the Vietnam War-Lady pursued by ardent, dogged suitors, Fin determined to protect his impulsive sister from them and from herself.

From a writer The New York Times has praised as "sparkling, crisp, clever, deft, hilarious, and deeply affecting," Fin & Lady is a comic, romantic love story: the story of a brother and sister who must form their own unconventional family in increasingly unconventional times.

©2013 Cathleen Schine (P)2013 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“In this bildungsroman set against the swinging '60s, a young boy named Fin is orphaned and must move from his quiet Connecticut dairy farm to live with his much older half sister, Lady, in Greenwich Village, where things will never be the same for him.” —The Los Angeles Times

“Cathleen Schine's witty, wry prose is well served by actress Anne Twomey, who deftly brings to life Ms. Schine's warmly affecting story of two souls searching for an identity in New York's Greenwich Village in the 1960s.” —New York Journal of Books

“Narrator Twomey, who has a pleasing voice, deftly manages several European accents and reads at a quick pace that keeps the action moving along.” —The Plain Dealer

“Anne Twomey narrates this unusual story of creating a family with soft tones and a hint of humor…Twomey's performance captures the story's complex emotions with a lilting voice and subtle inflections.” —AudioFile Magazine

“Anne Twomey brings a thoughtful competence to the narration.” —Library Journal

Back in the Sixties

A wonderful read about a boy, Fin, growing up in the sixties in Greenwich Village, with his sister Lady his guardian. Anne Twomey's narration was exceptional. I am the same age as Fin and enjoyed my trip back to a different time.

Disappointed

This book was just ok. It was good enough to make me want to finish it. I was expecting more of a wild ride taken by a much older sister and a younger brother through the turbulent times of the 1960s. The culture of this decade is incorporated, but the story is more about the developing relationship between Lady and Fin and about Lady figuring out what she wants out of life.