Noah's Compass

A Novel

By: Anne Tyler

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

From the incomparable Anne Tyler, a wise, gently humorous, and deeply compassionate novel about a schoolteacher, who has been forced to retire at sixty-one, coming to terms with the final phase of his life.

Liam Pennywell, who set out to be a philosopher and ended up teaching fifth grade, never much liked the job at that run-down private school, so early retirement doesn’t bother him. But he is troubled by his inability to remember anything about the first night that he moved into his new, spare, and efficient condominium on the outskirts of Baltimore. All he knows when he wakes up the next day in the hospital is that his head is sore and bandaged.

His effort to recover the moments of his life that have been stolen from him leads him on an unexpected detour. What he needs is someone who can do the remembering for him. What he gets is—well, something quite different.

We all know a Liam. In fact, there may be a little of Liam in each of us. Which is why Anne Tyler’s lovely novel resonates so deeply.©2010 Anne Tyler; (P)2010 Random House

Critic reviews

Praise for Anne Tyler’s Noah’s Compass

“Everyone loves Anne Tyler . . . and her 18th novel will doubtless supply another reason.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“Noah’s Compass is immensely readable. It displays many of Tyler’s finest qualities: her sharp observation of humanity, her wry comedy; the luminous accuracy of her descriptions . . . Hers is a fine-grained art, whose comedy could easily coarsen into the self-consciously quirky. If it does not, this is because her surprises are rooted in character: it is human nature that she evidently finds infinitely fascinating and surprising, with its constantly unforeseeable capacity for change . . . [A] novel by Anne Tyler is cause for celebration.”
—Caroline Moore, The Sunday Telegraph

“Tyler reveals, with unobtrusive mastery, the disconcerting patchwork of comedy and pathos that marks all our lives.”
—Michael Dirda, The Wall Street Journal

“Dazzling . . . A beautifully subtle book, an elegant contemplation of what it means to be happy.”
—Elizabeth Day, The Observer, UK

“Fired from his job, Liam Pennywell moves into a small apartment and wakes up the next morning in the hospital with head injuries he can’t explain. What turns out to have been an attack by a thief leads to unexpected grace, as Liam is forced to engage more deeply with his family and with a woman who finds him irresistible.”
—More magazine

“Pure pleasure”
—Helen W. Mallon, Philadelphia Inquirer

Read the Book

I love Anne Tyler books but this audio version is so dull I had to stop listening and read the book instead. The main character doesn't have much personality as it is, but when his voice carries the lines of the other characters in the book it goes beyond blah.
Once I started reading the book, I liked the story better. I was beginning to wish that the burglar had finished Liam off.

Great bedtime story

I actually have no idea what the story was about. It was a few happenings and family dynamics that could have been told in maybe one or two chapters. At first you think that something like "then Bob closed the cabinet door" is going to mean something later. Nope, just giving you a visual of every single movement that you don't need or want. The narrator was like none I have ever listened to before. I listen to books as I fall asleep and this certainly did the trick faster than most books I've listened to, so there's that.

Very slow and plodding narration

Usually love Anne Tyler but this one was a little hard to get to the end of. Not a bad story but ends very abruptly as far as I'm concerned.

Doesn't measure up

I bought this book the day it became available, because Anne Tyler is one of my favorite authors. I have read everything she's written. I am sad to say this book was disappointing. I found the main character annoying, and was unable to empathize with him, and the other characters were no better. I guess that is the trouble with being a great author...we hold our standards very high. This book doesn't measure up.

good listen

I enjoyed listening to this book despite what I had read in other listeners' reviews. It's not an action-packed story, but Anne Tyler always does a great job developing her characters and this book is no exception. Liam and all of his relatives are typical Tyler: quirky and, for the most part, lovable.