Heft

By: Liz Moore

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne, Keith Szarabajka

Audie Award Nominee, Literary Fiction, 2013

A heartwarming novel about larger-than-life characters and second chances....

Former academic Arthur Opp weighs 550 pounds and hasn’t left his rambling Brooklyn home in a decade. Twenty miles away in Yonkers, seventeen-year-old Kel Keller navigates life as the poor kid in a rich school and pins his hopes on what seems like a promising baseball career - if he can untangle himself from his family drama. The link between this unlikely pair is Kel’s mother, Charlene, a former student of Arthur’s. After nearly two decades of silence, it is Charlene’s unexpected phone call to Arthur - a plea for help - that jostles them into action. Through Arthur and Kel’s own quirky and lovable voices, Heft tells the winning story of two improbable heroes whose sudden connection transforms both their lives. Like Elizabeth McCracken’s The Giant’s House, Heft is a novel about love and family found in the most unexpected places.

©2012 Liz Moore (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“A suspenseful, restorative novel from one of our fine young voices.” (Colum McCann, National Book Award–winning author)

“In Heft, Liz Moore creates a cast of vulnerable, lonely misfits that will break your heart and then make it soar. What a terrific novel!” (Ann Hood, best-selling author of The Red Thread)

“This is the real deal, Liz Moore is the real deal - she’s written a novel that will stick with you long after you’ve finished it.” (Russell Banks, Pulitzer Prize finalist)

Must Read

Any additional comments?

This is definitely one of my favorites. The performance was top notch and the writing...oh so perfect.. I loved all the characters and will miss them very much. They became my friends.

very interesting

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed listening to this book. It really kept me entertained, but the ending left me hanging. I couldn't believe that it was the end, when I heard, "The end"...

Good story but ..

And maybe this is deliberate..it just ends. There is no real ending and many questions are left hanging.!i really wanted to hear about the big Dinner Party and who was Kel's dad after all?we never learn the million dollar question. We learn a lot about shut ins and loneliness which is likely the point. I loved Yolanda in the book who says what comes to mind. She is my favorite but even she is left pregnant....
Will there be a volumne 2 finishing. It ?

Loved the story

I enjoyed every minute of this book. I did not like how abruptly it ended. There were so many unanswered questions.

Huge entree, but no dessert

I enjoyed this story, the characters were mostly likeable and very human. Each one had their own problems; the protagonist battled loneliness and morbid obesity. Other characters battled the stuff life dishes out to all; death, sadness, disease, unexpected pregnancy, disappointment.

I did get fully involved in the storyline. The things we do to ourselves and the things that life does to us are sometimes hard to distinguish, and so it was for these people. I rooted for some, felt bad for others and some made bad choices or had bad luck.

When the somewhat happier denouement was imminent, the story just stopped. It is not that a reader cannot imagine the scenes following the abrupt ending, but a little more from the authoress would have been appreciated. The semi-tragic characters in this story both needed and deserved some happiness, they had earned it and I felt it was snatched from them (and me) at the last second.

One more chapter might have been in order here to leave readers feeling more hopeful that all really would be better for all the characters as their lives went on. The reader is left to wonder how it came out after a lot of time was spent setting up what could have and should have been a wonderful final scene. Lots of story entree, but no dessert in the form of a real ending, leaving me feeling vaguely dissatisfied. (Sometimes even a heavy meal can benefit from just a bite or two of something sweet at the end.) The lack of dessert docks one star from this book.

Performances were excellent and had much to do with allowing involvement with the characters. With two narrators there was never any doubt as to which point of view was being highlighted at any time. Both narrators were great.