Circle of Friends

A Novel

By: Maeve Binchy

Narrated by: Fionnula Flanagan

Length: 2 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

It began with Benny Hogan and Eve Malone, 2 inseparable young Irish women, growing up in the village of Knockglen. Benny, an only child, yearning to break free from her adoring parents and Eve, an orphan, abandoned to be raised by nuns, seemed an unlikely pair. Together, Eve and Benny knew the sins and secrets behind every villager's lace curtains...except their own.

The pair becomes a circle when Benny and Eve leave for university in Dublin, and meet beautiful Nan Mahon and Jack Foley, a doctor's handsome son. But heartbreak and betrayal would bring the worlds of Knockglen and Dublin into explosive collision. Long-hidden lies would emerge to test the meaning of love and the strength of ties held within the fragile gold bands of a...Circle Of Friends.

©1991 Maeve Binchy (P)1991 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

“[An] irresistible invitation to share the lives of people who believe in enduring values.” (Detroit Free Press)

“A rare pleasure... at terrific tale, told by a master storyteller.” (Susan Isaacs, The New York Times Book Review)

“Circle of Friends welcomes you in.” (The Washington Post)

An excellent book, but ...

This is one of my favorite books, and I couldn't find the audio version anywhere but here. The audio would be perfect but the sound quality is the lowest possible. This audio tape only came out in 1999 - I wonder why they weren't able to clean it up any more than that?
I still bought and enjoyed it, though - just be aware it's got really poor quality audio.

Terrible audio

The story is wonderful, but the quality of the audio is terrible. It's hard to hear, muffled and staticky at times.

circle of fruends

This book is a wonderful story, Unfortunately, the audible was so fuzzy, the performance was not good.

Quality production

After purchasing but before listening, I read many reviews that this production was poorly done; sound quality was bad, music made hearing the story difficult. I had none of these problems. It was a fantastic production and I encourage you to give it a go of your a Circle of Friends fan.

A bit of an old favorite

I wish it was the whole novel. so much of the richness was lost here.

Not as good as her other books.

I thought the story here was a little weak. The characters were difficult to understand as they developed. Mostly I wasn’t happy with the performance. It was difficult to understand and the volume was way too low

abridged!

One of my favorite Binchy books but this abridged version is overly produced and poorly abridged. I wish there was a full length audio version of this delightful book.

Come on Audible!!

This lovely author is gone. I have read her books....before Audible. The richness of each character and words she used to let us see her wonderful locations, every word should be read. I want to buy more of her stories, but the ABRIDGED versions I have bought just do not make the grade!

Fionnula Flanagan is wonderful!

Abridged but not clear from description

I bought this unaware it is the abridged addition! It is one of my favorites and although it has the essential story line it leaves out a lot of the details that develops each character!

Good, but abridged.

I really wish Audible would clearly label when a title is abridged. I kept feeling like I was missing parts of the story, which, it turns out, I was because they'd been cut out. I ended up buying and reading the book, which is waaaay better than the audio book. Contrary to others, I really liked the narrator. I thought she was good and easy to understand. The recording quality was subpar. I think I'll return this as the story is extremely abridged. Too bad as I liked the narrator and it's such a great story.