The Lifeguards

A Novel

De: Amanda Eyre Ward

Narrado por: Hillary Huber, Marin Ireland, Kirby Heyborne, Karissa Vacker

“A book that is at once riveting and relevant as it unpeels the various meanings of motherhood, family, and loyalty. I tore through it.”—Miranda Cowley Heller, author of The Paper Palace

The bonds between three picture-perfect—but viciously protective—mothers and their close-knit sons are tested during one unforgettable summer in a gripping novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Jetsetters.

Austin’s Zilker Park neighborhood is a wonderland of greenbelt trails, live music, and moms who drink a few too many margaritas. Whitney, Annette, and Liza have grown thick as thieves as they have raised their children together for fifteen years, believing that they can shelter them their children from an increasingly dangerous world. Their friendship is unbreakable—as safe as the neighborhood where they've raised their sweet little boys.

Or so they think.

One night, the three women have been enjoying happy hour when their boys, lifeguards for the summer, come back on bicycles from a late-night dip in their favorite swimming hole. The boys share a secret—news that will shatter the perfect world their mothers have so painstakingly created.

Combining three mothers’ points of view in a powerful narrative tale with commentary from entertaining neighborhood listservs, secret text messages, and police reports, The Lifeguards is both a story about the secrets we tell to protect the ones we love and a riveting novel of suspense filled with half-truths and betrayals, fierce love and complicated friendships, and the loss of innocence on one hot summer night.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“A polyphonic story . . . Ward, with her keen eye for detail and a terrific sense of exactly when to deliver a punchline, knows her characters well. . . . She allows her characters to be petty and myopic, to make the wrong choices again and again, to fail badly, then dust themselves off and try again. Her people are resilient, with a deep longing to do better—particularly for their children.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Shake up a margarita and light a citronella; you’ll be in this one for awhile.”—Good Housekeeping

“Ward expertly weaves together each woman’s point of view as well as commentary from entertaining neighborhood listservs, secret text messages, and police reports for one of the first true beach reads of the year.”—E! ONLINE

“[A]s a commentary on privileged, suburban America, Ward packs a mean punch, delivering crystalline observations with a hearty side of wit and tongue-in-cheek humor.”—Bookreporter

“This thriller will keep you turning pages and longing for your own dip in Barton Springs.”—Austin Monthly

“At once a love letter to my favorite city and a tense interrogation of the bonds of motherhood, The Lifeguards places three very different women in the pressure cooker of one Austin summer and watches the sparks ignite. I love a carefully crafted mystery where all the tricky pieces fit just so. . . . A masterclass.”—Chandler Baker, New York Times bestselling author of The Husbands

“The Lifeguards combines dark intrigue with complex family dynamics and witty social observation. It’s a highly charged, compelling page-turner that kept me guessing till the end. Sun, secrets, tequila, and twists—what’s not to like?!”—Sophie Kinsella, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Party Crasher

“Insanely addictive, deliciously propulsive, and wholly unpredictable . . . will take your breath away. Big Little Lies meets Mare of Easttown in this masterful, explosive suspense novel set against the backdrop of sun-drenched Austin. A tense and taut thriller brimming with secrets, complex, twisty female friendships, and whiplash plot twists, this is the perfect summer read best devoured with a strong margarita.”—May Cobb, author of The Hunting Wives

“Amanda Eyre Ward brings all the thrills of Big Little Lies to the privileged, sun-dappled private patios of Austin’s ‘rich mom’ set. The result is a juicy and irresistible roller coaster of a read.”—Allyson Lynn, author of Bread

“Arresting . . . Like a cool lake on a hot day, this story hits the spot.”—Publishers Weekly

One of the best books in five years!

I LOVED this story! It builds slowly toward an immensely intricate and surprising ending. Truly well-written an read by multiple narrators! I want more Amanda Eyre Ward!

Extremely superficial.

I went for it because I will listen to anything that Marin Ireland deems worth her time. I have to say, this was the first time I was disappointed. I have never left an audible review, but this was just that disappointing. It was difficult to follow at parts and seemed to be exploiting a number of stereotypes without ever making you like any of the characters in particular. It’s hard to focus on a story where there is no real focus. In just a few hours it attempts to cover addiction, doomsday, pretty much all of the potentially difficult aspects of parenting from the female perspective, all the stereotypes of “bad” male parent figures (absent, overbearing, aggressive, aloof/grieving), classism, racism, ageism… it goes on, but the only thing that it did was inspire me to want to visit Austin. I hate to be so critical, but the narration was so good that I just kept waiting for the story to evolve and capture my interest.

I enjoyed this!

I enjoyed the story but one of the narrators sounds like a robot. Her voice was annoying to listen to. The others were good.

WTF… what happened ???

Would’ve loved an actual ending instead of whatever that junk was… it’s like the author ran out of time and threw the last 3 sub chapters together… would’ve liked to have known what happened to some of the characters

What would you do?

Wow! “The Lifeguards” by Amanda Eyre Ward is a story about motherhood and loyalty, and an event that tests the bonds of friendships.

The story is told by three mothers of fifteen-year-old lifeguards, with chapters peppered with the voices of: their teen sons, a recently widowed detective, and the chorus of the “Barton Hills Mamas”, an Austin TX group chat. Barton Hills is an affluent suburb of Austin TX. It’s the summer of 2019 when a college-aged female is found dead near the swimming hole where the boys (lifeguards) work. Through unexpected circumstances, the boys are linked to the death, and these mama-bears lawyer-up. Prior to this summer, the women have enjoyed a tight relationship, to the point that the boys feel that this friendship supersedes everything, including them. Once the boys are under scrutiny, the mothers become fearful for their own boy.

Meanwhile the widowed detective trudges through his new lot of single parenthood. He follows the clues, under pressure to find the reason the girl died.

While I really enjoyed the story, I think Ward tried to cover too many issues: immigration, infertility, alcoholism, trauma, loneliness, estrangement, single-parenting, and queer identity. What I did like was the realistic portrayal of the three mothers. These mothers are recognizable; we’ve all encountered them.

Ward exposes what being a “good” mother means. Given our world with increasingly younger violent offenders, especially regarding gun violence, how do we “protect” our child if they are arrested? Is protecting a child not making that child have meaningful consequences for violent actions? When a mother has a nagging feeling that their child is troubled, is cloaking them being a good mother?

How far would you go if you thought your child could be involved in a crime??

I listened to the audio narrated by Hillary Huber, the amazing Marin Ireland, Kirby Heyborne, and Karissa Vacker. Any project that Ireland works, I know I’ll enjoy!