Terrace Story

A Novel

By: Hilary Leichter

Narrated by: Xe Sands

Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

From the author of the acclaimed novel Temporary, an intimate exploration of time, a fable about love, an epic daydream for a broken-hearted world

Annie, Edward, and their young daughter, Rose, live in a cramped apartment. One night, without warning, they find a beautiful terrace hidden in their closet. It wasn’t there before, and it seems to only appear when their friend Stephanie visits. A city dweller’s dream come true! But every extra bit of space has a hidden cost, and the terrace sets off a seismic chain of events, forever changing the shape of their tiny home, and the shape of the world.

Terrace Story follows the characters who suffer these repercussions and reverberations: the little family of three, their future now deeply uncertain, and those who orbit their fragile universe. The distance and love between these characters expands limitlessly, across generations. How far can the mind travel when it’s looking for something that is gone? Where do we put our loneliness, longing, and desire? What do we do with the emotions that seem to stretch beyond the body, beyond the boundaries of life and death?

Based on the National Magazine Award-winning story, Hilary Leichter’s profound second novel asks how we nurture love when death looms over every moment. From one of our most innovative and daring writers, Terrace Story is an astounding meditation on loss, a reverie about extinction, and a map for where to go next.

©2023 Hilary Leichter (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

The strangest most lovely thing I’ve encountered in awhile

I started crying when it was over.
Yeah, the tale’s end is poignant, but I realized I was crying because I wanted to stay in the world that had been created more than I was impacted by the ending. I didn’t want it to be the closing.

The performance was spot on. The reader and content seemed perfectly matched. I had the chance to wonder whether authors get to listen to hundreds of different voices as they determine who reads their work. Is the process like choosing the cover of their book? Was the selection of the reader a wonderful editorial choice, the author’s selected reader, a happy accident of late capitalism, an AI pairing? Would love to learn the answer…

The story is a tied-together poetic wonder, that at specific moments might initially feel to be a disjointed puzzle. But stay with it if you feel your loosing the thread - the narrative arc totally works. Real Kudos to all involved.

Surprising paradigm shifts evoked similar mental and emotional shifts in me.

I wasn’t sure about the narration for the first 15-20 minutes but it was immediately clear that it was a fresh take on how to deliver a story. Then I grew fond of her voice and delivery which seemed perfectly suited to this strangely unfolding story. The language and plot keep echoing and folding in on themselves in a really beautiful way. It was a sad, glorious, small symphony on life and loss. I was so surprised and moved by how I felt it took me places I hadn’t been taken by an audiobook in some time or ever. I wonder how much of my experience I’d feel with just the text.

Lovely story, didn’t love the narration

I was not a fan for the first half of this book, but it wove together beautifully at the end. The first half felt clunky and, honestly, pretty dull. But I’m glad I waited it out as the ending tied everything together. The narrator wasn’t quite right for the audible version, and that was part of the problem.

Unfortunate narration, dull story

I found this story to be both dull and sad. The storyline felt loose and messy and the characters unlikeable. I had to finish it based on other reviews promising a surprise ending. It wasn’t. I regret the time I spent. If you can’t tolerate vocal fry, especially avoid this narrator.

A mad hatter ride

Puzzling in its entirety
Connections not clearly made
Words painted pictures of places I would not go willingly