Daylight Marriage

By: Heidi Pitlor

Narrated by: Xe Sands

Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Over the years, Lovell and Hannah's conversations have become charged with resentments and unspoken desires. She's become withdrawn and directionless. His work affords him a convenient distraction. The children can sense the tension, which they've learned to mostly ignore. Until, after one explosive argument, Hannah vanishes. And Lovell, for the first time, is forced to examine the trajectory of his marriage through the lens of memory - and the eyes of his children.

As he tries to piece together what happened to his wife - and to their lives together - listeners follow Hannah through that single day when the smallest of decisions takes her to places she never intended to go.

With the intensity of The Lovely Bones, the balance of wit and heartbreak of The Descendants, and the emotional acuity of Anne Tyler, The Daylight Marriage is at its heart a novel about what happens when our intuitions override our logic and with a plot that doesn't reveal its secrets until the very end.

©2015 Heidi Pitlor (P)2015 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"Hypnotically readable - I absolutely couldn't put it down. The structure is brilliant, and I turned the pages with increasing dread. This book is terrific." (Stephen King)

"A page-turning exploration of unexpressed love and unnecessary loss. Riveting and heartbreaking." (Geraldine Brooks)

"In The Daylight Marriage, there are two mysteries - the whereabouts of a missing woman, and the vagaries of the human heart. Heidi Pitlor explores both of these enigmas with equal mastery, merging a shocking crime story with an incisive portrait of a failed marriage. The result is a novel that is fast-moving, emotionally complex, and ultimately heartbreaking." (Tom Perrotta)

Very disappointing ending

I enjoyed the book and was interested up until the end. Something happened,. It is almost like the author hurried to finish the book for a deadline.
It completely jumped . No explanation.. No answered questions at the ending. Am I the only one that double checked their audible and rewound it thinking I had missed a part?

story ended too abruptly.

the story was pretty good except for the ending. kinda felt like it was added on for no reason.

Not a suspense book

I chose this book because I'd heard it was I the vein of Gone Girl or Girl on the Train. It's not except that it's about a strained marriage. Totally disappointing and rather dull, and the children characters were not believable. Skip this one.

Great book!

Easy listen... And hard to turn off. The voices were a bit weird but overall, I enjoyed.

Disappointing

I did not feel connected to or invested in any of the characters. Therefore, I found myself not caring what happened to Hannah. Also, while I appreciated the overall message of the book, I do not think that the author created enough suspense. I also found the narrator's voice annoying and "yodel-like" and am disappointed to find that she also narrated the new book I just ordered.

I LOVE THIS BOOK!

I rarely say I love a book, and rarely give five stars, but this book was beautiful. I don't know what is wrong with people who said it was not a suspense novel, because it most certainly was. If they thought it was just about a troubled marriage, they must not have finished the book! However, the troubled marriage is deeply stirring. Nuanced, subtle, beautiful and sad.

It is also about missing people -- primarily the wife, but another as well as the story goes on. I myself have a missing daughter, and again the author captured something here. I have waited to have DNA identification performed on human remains as well, and the description of what Lovell experienced was again right on in an understated and subtle way.

As for the narrator, I wasn't totally in love with her. She reads with a kind of a laid back northern drawl, which was okay for certain characters, but not all. Nevertheless it was less disturbing than many narrations I have had to listen to.

But overall, I highly recommend this book. Thank you, Heidi Sands!

Daylight Marriage

I choose this book several months ago when my husband and I were having marital problems. When I started listening I could not stop. I loved this book the rhythm flowed from the narrator was wonderful.