March

By: Geraldine Brooks

Narrated by: Richard Easton

Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize—a powerful love story set against the backdrop of the Civil War, from the author of The Secret Chord.

From Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the character of the absent father, March, and crafted a story "filled with the ache of love and marriage and with the power of war upon the mind and heart of one unforgettable man" (Sue Monk Kidd). With "pitch-perfect writing" (USA Today), Brooks follows March as he leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause in the Civil War. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs. A lushly written, wholly original tale steeped in the details of another time, March secures Geraldine Brooks' place as a renowned author of historical fiction.

Don't miss Louisa May Alcott's classic Little Women.

©2005 Geraldine Brooks (P)2005 Penguin Audio and BBC Audiobooks America

Critic reviews

"Brilliant...Geraldine Brooks' new novel, March, is a very great book.... Brooks has magnificently wielded the novelist's license." (Beth Kephart, Chicago Tribune)

"A beautifully wrought story.... Gripping.... A taut plot, vivid characters and provocative issues." (Heller McAlpin, Los Angeles Times Book Review)

"Honorable, elegant and true." (John Freeman, The Wall Street Journal)

March wonderful on Audible

Our book club has read The Underground Railroad and March. Two great historical novels that told personal stories in a very special way. I recommend them both!

OK

Perhaps reading the novel would have been better. The timeframe bounced around. The characters were confusing. The narrator did fine when reading for men. When he read for women, the tone was still a man's voice. That and the way the time setting skipped around made the book very confusing and not very enjoyable.

Beautifully Written!

Wow…I’ve listened twice. Her writing, the story, the narrator…all top notch. Amazingly beautiful.

A delight!

Factual and fictional; horrible and beautiful; crafted to teach, honor, respect and mark yet also entertain.

Satisfying historical fiction

Enjoyable and informative civil war action from the viewpoint of Mr .March. Now there is closure on Little Women.

Little Women Remix?

Geraldine Brooks takes the character of the March family patriarch, Papa March, from Little Women and remakes both him and his beloved Marmie in her own image. I suppose that's the beauty and power of writing -- we can all become a little godlike. Unfortunately Brooks' remix takes two sweet and noble characters from a timeless novel and drags them through the mire until they are barely recognizable. I found that disturbing and disconcerting. On the other hand, the story that Brooks tells was engaging enough to keep me listening to the end. The story stands strongly enough on its own -- it doesn't need the gimmick of recreating a well known and well loved children's classic to get our attention. I wish Brooks had realized that. I think it would have made a more powerful novel.

An interesting story

What an amazing story, to think it was written by an Aussie that read "Little Women" when she was ten years old. To think she would go into libraries and other places of letters in Virginia and Massachusetts to do the research that she weaved into this tale. I originally thought this would be a book about the Civil War. In the end it simply about human nature set in the timeframe of the Civil War. Ms. Brooks is a great writer!

Wish I would’ve just read it!

This book is a wonderful. The reader is very hard to listen to. His voice didn’t resonate with me, and he sounds like his constantly spitting. I wish I had just read the book instead of listening to parts. The writing and story are on par with Brooks other works.

great story, great reader

I started this book by first reading Alcott's Little Women for the first time. LW was somewhat hard for me to get through--I found the March family rather too goody-good and its lives too quaint--but I'm glad I made that effort, as Brook's book was better with the background. Much enjoyed the backstories she created, and her accounts of Mr. March's time at war and of Mrs. March's time fetching him. Delicious writing beautifully read. Not sure I'd have found the book as compelling if I hadn't first read LW though, and I much wish the parts narrated by Mrs. March had been read by a woman.

Fantastic read!

Compelling spin off of Little Women! I was newly educated on the Civil War and horrors of slavery by main characters who were complex and real.