Where'd You Go, Bernadette: A Novel: Booktrack Edition

By: Maria Semple

Narrated by: Kathleen Wilhoite

Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Where'd You Go, Bernadette: A Novel: Booktrack Edition adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience!*

A whip-smart, hysterical dramedy about a family in crisis after the disappearance of its brilliant, misanthropic matriarch.

Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle - and people in general - has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence - creating a compulsively listenable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.

*Booktrack is an immersive format that pairs traditional audiobook narration to complementary music. The tempo and rhythm of the score are in perfect harmony with the action and characters throughout the audiobook. Gently playing in the background, the music never overpowers or distracts from the narration, so listeners can enjoy every minute. When you purchase this Booktrack edition, you receive the exact narration as the traditional audiobook available, with the addition of music throughout.

©2012 Maria Semple (P)2018 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"[A] cracklingly smart family dramedy.... [I was] stunned and transported by this extraordinarily powerful and intelligent novel."(Lev Grossman, Time)

"Intertwined with the funny stuff is the heartfelt story of a personal crisis of a creative talent who's slipped off the rails.... Bernadette's journey is fresh, funny, and thought provoking." (Anne Payne, The Florida Times-Union)

"Semple's epistolary novel satirizes Seattle, Microsoft, helicopter parents, the elite, and the overeducated - while revealing truths about family, genius, ambition, and resilience." (Gillian Flynn, GQ)

Overall impression muddled by music and narration

The overall story is unusual due to the way it’s told. Not that great and lacking depth based on my opinion after I tried to peel off the background distractions. My overall impression of the book was greatly impacted by the awful and off pace background music, so beware. The music is continuous, and doesn’t match the mood of the book or the voice of the narrator. The voice, tone and intonation of the narrator were all completely wrong, it was as if the narration was for a kids’ book. The voices were all wrong and almost screamed for all characters except for the main one. The whole experience is bad and does a great dis-service for the book. I recommend getting the version without music and, unless the narrator is changed, just read the book. You will surely like it a lot better.

Why Add Background Music?

Enjoyed the storytelling and the narrator did a good job... but the music in the background was distracting, sometimes annoying, and unnecessary.

HAAAAAATE the music playing in the background!!!

I am returning this book. Great story, but I just cannot handle the horrible music playing in the background of the entire story. Terribly distracting. Cannot enjoy the story.

Enjoyable story and characters

at first I was taken aback by all of the reading emails back and forth, but it got into a rhythm and became less noticeable. I enjoyed the narrators interruption and knowledge of accents. I enjoyed the story also

An enjoyable read

It was engaging, light hearted, and fun to listen to. The characters were likable and quirky.

Uninteresting.

it might not be fair to label this book uninteresting, as I just could not get past the narration. It was cartoonishly stupid and grating.

I can’t handle the narrator’s voice

I seriously don’t know if I can’t finish this. The sample wasn’t long enough for me to fully grasp this.

overall really good

really liked the book and the narrator, but the incessant music playing the entire time drove me crazy! Very distracting...

Narration OK, background annoying

I am at a loss to understand why they felt the need to add music to the background. So distracting and annoying!

Highly Recommend!

What a fun refreshing story! Listening to it was a pure joy! The narrator did amazing as well... liked the music in there background.