The Narrowboat Summer

By: Anne Youngson

Narrated by: Helen Lloyd

Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

"Narrator Helen Lloyd's consistent pace and subtle British inflections enhance this sweet story about seizing the day with friends." (AudioFile magazine)

From the author of Meet Me at the Museum, a charming novel of second chances, about three women, one dog, and the narrowboat that brings them together.

Eve expected Sally to come festooned with suitcases and overnight bags packed with everything she owned, but she was wrong. She arrived on foot, with a rucksack and a carrier bag. “I just walked away,” she said, climbing on to the boat. Eve knew what she meant.

Meet Eve, who has left her thirty-year career to become a Free Spirit; Sally, who has waved goodbye to her indifferent husband and two grown-up children; and Anastasia, a defiantly independent narrowboat-dweller, who is suddenly landlocked and vulnerable.

Before they quite know what they’ve done, Sally and Eve agree to drive Anastasia’s narrowboat on a journey through the canals of England, as she awaits a life-saving operation. As they glide gently - and not so gently - through the countryside, the eccentricities and challenges of narrowboat life draw them inexorably together, and a tender and unforgettable story unfolds. At summer’s end, all three women must decide whether to return to the lives they left behind, or forge a new path forward.

Candid, hilarious, and uplifting, Anne Youngson's The Narrowboat Summer is a celebration of the power of friendship and new experiences to change one’s life, at any age.  

A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books

©2021 Anne Youngson (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Beautifully produced and read

As a female boater with a “slow go” trawler, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. This book for me was about women finding themselves while exploring new challenges and places. Highly recommend!

Excellent story of second chances

This sweet rambling story made me smile throughout. Adventure, new settings and situations, plus fascinating people over a broad spectrum of life stories. Never a dull moment even if it is in a slow moving boat along a map work of canals in rural England.
I loved each character along this journey and was eager to see how all these new things for each of them would turn out. It more than met my hopeful expectations.
A crazy old woman, owner and sole captain of the narrow boat #1 has a health issue, but has to take the boat for inspection to get it relicensed. Two middle aged women looking for change to happen in their lives to come together by the boat just when a decision must be made by the captain.
After quick instructions on how to operate it, they agree to take the boat 6-weeks away through a maze of canals to get it fixed while the owner goes to hospital for surgery.
The story is mostly theirs and their experiences and people they meet on the long lazy but physically active trip. At the end a multiple of decisions must be made of where each will go next.
Very satisfying. And there's a dog too, a rascally one.

A Pleasant Journey

Like the author’s other book, Meet me at the Museum, this novel is about the journey rather than the destination. If you’re in the mood for a lyrical story with characters in whose company you enjoy spending time, this is that kind of book. Superbly performed.

All around wonderful

The story is delightful and Helen Lloyd is a joy to listen to. This has become a favorite for me.

Memorable

Audible reports that I have downloaded more than 1000 books, and this one is one of my favorites. It is original and beautifully written. The narration was perfect. I truly did not want it to end.

Pleasant read

Nice story. A bit predictable but nice to have a pleasant ending. Is there a sequel?

Feel good and a good story, too

The Narrowboat Summer is a treat for those of us old enough to understand what we have learned about life and open to understanding what we have yet to learn. The setting is wonderful - I have traveled on English narrowboats myself - the characters well drawn, it is well paced, and offers an evolving plot that keeps one intrigued. 2 middle aged women, strangers, & fresh from momentous life changes, spontaneously take on a lengthy narrowboat trip to help it's owner, also a stranger and facing unwanted life changes. They review life, grow, change, retreat, endure ... and rediscover themselves in their shared and individual journeys. Loved it.

An original story!

This story was something completely different and the characters became real for me. It’s a story about life changes that are relatable. I throughly enjoyed the book and the narration was great.

ehhh

Didn't care for the narration .
I started to read the hardcover then switched over to audible . maybe, that was my mistake as I had already I visited the characters and now they didn't match up in the audio version.

The book dragged

It wasn’t that the characters in this book were unlikable, it’s that I didn’t find them particularly believable. They lacked dimension, and the story didn’t gel like I hoped it would. The whole book was disappointing, which was sad because the subject matter (longboats/travel/adventure) is interesting. Expecting a lazy, relatable ‘read’ while traveling alone across country, I was instead bored and sometimes actually annoyed. Not a fan.