• Three Junes

  • A Novel
  • By: Julia Glass
  • Narrated by: John Keating
  • Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
  • 3.6 out of 5 stars (1,585 ratings)

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Three Junes  By  cover art

Three Junes

By: Julia Glass
Narrated by: John Keating
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Editorial reviews

Why we think it's Essential: I listened to Three Junes after a trip to Scotland, and found myself transported back to that country by John Keating's lilting narration of this engrossing family saga. But Keating's storytelling prowess extends beyond Scotland's borders; he is just as skilled with American characterizations and crosses time zones and years seamlessly in recounting the three summers that make up this gorgeous National Book Award-winning story. — Diana Dapito

Publisher's summary

Three Junes is a vividly textured symphonic novel set on both sides of the Atlantic during three fateful summers in the lives of a Scottish family.

In June of 1989, Paul McLeod, the recently widowed patriarch, becomes infatuated with a young American artist while traveling through Greece and is compelled to relive the secret sorrows of his marriage. Six years later, Paul’s death reunites his sons at Tealing, their idyllic childhood home, where Fenno, the eldest, faces a choice that puts him at the center of his family’s future.

A lovable, slightly repressed gay man, Fenno leads the life of an aloof expatriate in the West Village, running a shop filled with books and birdwatching gear. He believes himself safe from all emotional entanglements - until a worldly neighbor presents him with an extraordinary gift and a seductive photographer makes him an unwitting subject. Each man draws Fenno into territories of the heart he has never braved before, leading him toward an almost unbearable loss that will reveal to him the nature of love.

Love in its limitless forms - between husband and wife, between lovers, between people and animals, between parents and children - is the force that moves these characters’ lives, which collide again, in yet another June, over a Long Island dinner table. This time it is Fenno who meets and captivates Fern, the same woman who captivated his father in Greece ten years before. Now pregnant with a son of her own, Fern, like Fenno and Paul before him, must make peace with her past to embrace her future.

Elegantly detailed yet full of emotional suspense, often as comic as it is sad, Three Junes is a glorious triptych about how we learn to live, and live fully, beyond incurable grief and betrayals of the heart - how family ties, both those we’re born into and those we make, can offer us redemption and joy.

©2002 by Julia Glass
(P)2002 by Random House Audio
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: LGBTQ+

Critic reviews

"Julia Glass' talent just sends chills up my spine; her novel is a marvel." (Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls)
"Has the rich pleasures of a 19th-century novel and the rush of New York life of the last ten years. I'm amazed it's a first novel - it is a mature, captivating work of fiction." (John Casey, author of The Half-life of Happiness)
"Almost threatens to burst with all the life it contains...extraordinary." (Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours)

What listeners say about Three Junes

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I didn't want it to end

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this to most of my friends, if they listend to audiobooks. This was my first audiobook and I really enjoyed listening to it while my local NPR station was doing pledge breaks.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Three Junes?

I enjoyed the whole book after I got used to the shifting between time periods and places.

Have you listened to any of John Keating’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This was the first narration by John Keating for me. I thought that he did an excellent job. his characters were all distinct and I enjoyed the different accents.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I don't know about listening to it all in one sitting, but I didn't want it to end. Months later I find myself wondering how Fenno is doing.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Three Junes

I have been a member of Audible for many years and have never written a review. Three Junes was the worst book that I have ever listened to. The Scottish brogue was very disconcerting. Also Ms. Glass's depiction of gay's as reprobates and Scot's as lazy, entitled rich folk was too lopsided. I will not ever read or listen to another of Ms. Glass's books. This was a waste of time and money.

Byfield, Mass.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A Wonderful Story

I loved the story, the writing and the structure. The reader had a wonderful Scottish accent, not so great American. But that did not take away from this amazing book. Had no idea who Julia Glass was, but something about this caught my eye when I was browsing. Now I want to read more of her books.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Worse fake Scots accent ever!

In the midst of this book now, and it is ruined by Keating's very poor and uncertain fake Scots accent. He sounds confused -- sometimes Irish, sometimes fake Scots, maybe a bit of Welsh in there, but not authentic. Better off to use his own voice -- whatever it is. Would not recommend based on fakey narration. Why not just hire a Scotsman to read it, for pete's sake?

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Agony

I have labored mightily to finish this book, which is well-written and narrated, but I simply cannot. After an auspicious and sometimes near-lyrical start, it devolves into unrelieved angst. Unless you are a homosexual or are struggling to love and understand a homosexual, this book will waste your time.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

labor to listen

This may have been a great listen however I found it so very difficult to get used to the strong accent of the author. It became a labor to listen.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Lovely book, poor editing and narration

The interwoven stories are moving and well told. The awful attempts at Scottish and American accents are very distracting, however, and the editing was especially bad at the end of each chapter - there isn't even a breath between the last sentence and the announcement of the next chapter. I stuck with it because I was so riveted by the story-line, but will probably reread the print version in future in order to fully savour the prose.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Great narrator

I loved the book even if it didn't have a plot. The characters were brought to life by the narrator who seems able to do so many accents. I couldn't tell until the credits which one was his true accent.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

I enjoyed this "little" book

I thought this book was thoroughly enjoyable. I called it a "little" book, only in that nothing grand happens. It is about as far removed from an epic as a book gets. Instead it is a few slices of some fairly ordinary lives. There is very little plot, yet the slices are at moderately pivotal portions of the these lives.

The book was divided into three parts, each primarily from one character's viewpoint (though all intertwined). But within each part are two story lines, one in the current time, and one in the past.

My only complaint is that it took me a little while to understand in an audiobook when we were transitioning from present to past. The scottish accent was a little tough too, but go to where I could comprehend easily after an hour or so.

But the book was touching....some resolution to its issues....though not perfect resolution, as is too often the case in life.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

It takes some time to get into it.

Requires attentive listening due to constant time shifts but found myself wanting to re-listen by the end.

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