The Beach House

By: Jane Green

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

From the author of Falling and Sister Stardust comes the New York Times bestseller about finding your place in the place you call home.

Ever since her life took an unexpected turn, Nan Powell has enjoyed living alone on the sun-drenched shores of Nantucket. At sixty-five, she’s just as likely to be found at Windermere, her beach front home, as she is skinny dipping in her neighbor’s pool. But when the money she thought would last forever starts to dwindle, Nan decides to do something drastic to keep hold of her free-spirited life: open up Windermere to strangers.

After placing an ad for summer rentals touting water views, direct access to the beach, and a sexagenarian roommate, Nan’s once quiet house is soon full of noise, laughter, and the occasional bout of tears. Between her eclectic new tenants and the sudden return of her son, Nan gets a taste of what life is like when you have someone to care for besides yourself. But just as she starts to happily settle in to her new existence, the arrival of a visitor from her past threatens to turn everyone’s lives upside down...

©2008 Jane Green (P)2008 Penguin

Critic reviews

"Green gives you a clear sense of Nantucket's weathered splendor and offers up a refreshing summertime getaway...best read on a deck chair somewhere." (Chicago Sun-Times)

“A sweetly memorable summer story, capturing the relaxing, renewing quality of life at the shore.” (New Orleans Times-Picayune)

“Breezy...deeply appealing.” (Connecticut Post)

My husband & I absolutely loved this book as we drove to Estes Park today!!

When I get done reading a book & tell my husband about the book, he’ll say “you tell it like it really happens.” That’s how I feel about the best books I read. This is one of THOSE books. Now I want to visit Nantucket, hope my husband wants to go too!!

Lovely story

This was a wonderful read/listen. Twists and turns to keep you interested and coming back for more.

5 star book

great narration, interesting book with great characters. loved it. I wish there was a sequel to it.

I really can't believe I listened to the whole boo

The story is more than lame. It made me roll my eyes sometimes. But I really love Cassandra Campbell's reading. I think I could listen to her read the phone book.

no thanks

While this book is well written, I found it (overall) to be very...sad. The breakup and heartache of marriages and relationships falling apart was actually quite depressing, and the ending (very neatly put together) seemed to border on ridiculous. Jane Green has written much better books than this one!

I’ve read it twice

This book held my interest and I found the narrator soothing to listen to. I may never live on Nantucket or near the ocean, but for a few hours I was transported there. Thank you for the experience.

Be sure to finish this book!

It was hard to follow at first because I only listen to and from work. I kept on because I knew all these different people would have a common denominator soon. Now I want to re-listen to see what I missed on such short commutes. It ended up an awesome book. Worthy of listening to again

So so so good....

I love this book. You must pay attention for the change in character narration but i wanted to pay attention. Not finished yet... so far definitely recommend.....

Great story.

I missed a lot of sleep because I couldn’t put this book down. Thank you, Jane Green.

I'm sold on Jane Geen and Nantucket

"The Beach House" was selected for me by audible.com based on what I read. This was a sweet story, an easy read and a great fix for my summer dreaming. The book opens with Nan, the matriarch of this story who definitely had my attention! Loved how I stepped into the quaint town of Nantucket from the start.
I truly enjoyed the development of characters in the story with their "could be real" relationship ups and downs and especially the coming together in the second half of the book.