The Alternatives

A Novel

By: Caoilinn Hughes

Narrated by: Sarah Bolger, Aisling Franciosi, Caoilinn Hughes, Dominique Mcelligott, Liam Heslin, John Keating

Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

“A bold, beautiful, complex novel, and I can’t wait to read what Hughes writes next. She, too, is an unstoppable force.”—New York Times Book Review

“A tale about sisterhood, a novel of ideas, a chronicle of our collective follies, a requiem for our agonizing species, The Alternatives unfolds in a prose full of gorgeous surprises and glows with intelligence, compassion, and beauty.”—Hernan Diaz

From the writer Anthony Doerr calls “a massive talent,” the story of four brilliant Irish sisters, orphaned in childhood, who scramble to reconnect when the oldest disappears into the Irish countryside

The Flattery sisters were plunged prematurely into adulthood when their parents died in tragic circumstances. Now in their thirties—all single, all with PhDs—they are each attempting to do meaningful work in a rapidly foundering world. The four lead disparate, distanced lives, from classrooms in Connecticut to ritzy catering gigs in London’s Notting Hill, until one day their oldest sister, a geologist haunted by a terrible awareness of the earth’s future, abruptly vanishes from her work and home. Together for the first time in years, the Flatterys descend on the Irish countryside in search of a sister who doesn’t want to be found. Sheltered in a derelict bungalow, they reach into their common past, confronting both old wounds and a desperately uncertain future. Warm, fiercely witty, and unexpectedly hopeful, The Alternatives is an unforgettable portrait of a family perched on our collective precipice, told by one of Ireland’s most gifted storytellers.

©2024 Caoilinn Hughes (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Exuberant. . . . to categorize this novel into a tidy box undermines the daring genius of its author. . . . Hughes’s prose is like a virtuosic jazz number—loose, free and surprising. . . . A bold, beautiful, complex novel.”—New York Times Book Review

“The novel begins with alternating chapters that sharply delve into each woman’s life and work in brief, fascinating lectures on subjects from land subsidence to locavorism. . . . Ultimately The Alternatives is concerned with the duties of caring for the planet and one’s loved ones. The fact that these responsibilities are often in conflict makes this lively novel’s sense of confusion feel well-earned.”—Wall Street Journal

“The Alternatives contains multitudes. Its mysteries and complexities reward a second reading. . . [its] ending is a stunner. And Olwen, Maeve, Nell and Rhona make it unforgettable.”—Star Tribune

Great character development.

No resolution of anything was frustrating. The book ended abruptly. Not sure if this is for a series, but it left me wanting.

It’s a tie between boring story and painful sophomoric political rants

I didn’t like the slow moving story and I didn’t like the annoying, idiotically simplistic lectures about global warming, Brexit, big pharma, etc etc. It was stupid

False advertising

The book advertised by the publisher and the one I listened to were completely different. Yes, the parents died in mysterious circumstances, and those circumstances remained a mystery...it was never revealed in the book. These four "sisters" sounded more like colleagues to me, complete strangers in fact, getting together and hardly having a thing to say to each other. The author took the opportunity of four different careers to lecture on everything from global warming to continental drift to veganism to politics in Northern Ireland. It was the oddest collection of philosophies and it was hard to keep interested. At one point, as the four sisters are gathered at the bungalow of the eldest one, eventually found (who keeps waiting for them to leave), one of them asks, "Why are we here?" Indeed. Unless you enjoy esoteric discussions of high-brow topics, save your money.