The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes

By: Anna McPartlin

Narrated by: Caroline Lennon

Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's Summary

Rabbit Hayes loves her life, ordinary as it is, and the extraordinary people in it. She loves her spirited daughter, Juliet; her colourful, unruly family; the only man in her big heart, Johnny Faye. But it turns out the world has other plans for Rabbit, and she's OK with that. Because she has plans for the world too, and only a handful of days left to make them happen.

©2014 Anna McPartlin (P)2014 W F Howes Ltd

Critic Reviews

"What a beautiful book. I cried and smiled my way through" Jane Green

superb

What did you like most about The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes?

took a difficult subject and created a beautiful story

What did you like best about this story?

the way the book was constructed

What about Caroline Lennon’s performance did you like?

her range of voices

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

made me sad at the end but in appositive way

Any additional comments?

Heard Simon Mayo interview with Anna.After a chapter of thinking will I like this getting to know the characters it just got better and better.The final scene which I am sure you can imagine was very cleverly written

What a fab story

A difficult subject matter, but what a fab read. I laughed and cried in equal measure, everybody will be able to relate to this book on some level, I did.

For fans of Mrs Brown's Boys only

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

This book had so much potential. Who doesn't want to have their heart wrenched by the tale of a plucky dying woman and her broken-hearted family who managed to retain their earthy sense of humours with the struggles of trying to come to terms with the loss of their much loved daughter, sister and mother? I cried during the opening paragraphs and was sure that I would love this book. But oh dear, this wore thin pretty quickly as the characters in the book reverted to caricatures and the story line descended into mawkish, saccharine sentimentality, albeit punctuated with some truly fabulous swearing. The prose was clunky and dull, with lots of non-events described in tedious detail and rambling dialogue which just went nowhere. The family members, apart from our doomed heroine, were just too colourful (and I'm not referencing their swearing) to be real. I only stuck with the book because I had a mild curiosity as to what would happen to Rabbit's daughter after her demise. The closing paragraphs made me cry in the same way that the opening ones did. They were raw and felt real but everything in between caused a sensation of my brain cells dying with each exaggerated example of these 'salt of the earth' characters.

What could Anna McPartlin have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

If the author could have reined in the mawkishness and cut out a lot of the unnecessary sentimentality and perhaps lost some of the unnecessary characters, then this would have been a less annoying book. e.g. The addition of the lesbian characters felt like a nod to political correctness and added nothing to the story apart from an obvious attempt by the author to show how fabulous and accepting the family members were.

What aspect of Caroline Lennon’s performance might you have changed?

The book was performed well with changes in the tones of voice depending on who was speaking and the performer did try to inject as much humour and pathos as possible into the reading.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes?

I would have slimmed down the story and the characters. I would have focussed mainly on taking out the dialogue which contributed nothing to the storyline and were just irritaing, such as paragraphs about passing around a plate of biscuits etc. I would have cut out a few of the characters entirely and also reigned in the over the top speeches and behaviour, particularly of Molly.

Reality of life

This book is based very much on family life and how they may deal with all kinds of life situations throughout the generations.

Heartwarming

This isn’t my normal genre of book but I thought I’d give it a go, broaden my horizons and all that, and it was beautiful. I actually laughed out loud, I cried and I empathised. It was a wonderful book.

A beautiful poignant story

I didn’t think I would enjoy a story of someone’s last days, but it was beautifully told gentle and uplifting, I laughed and cried, love the Irish humour

Great read, great insight

I loved this book from beginning to end. So well written and narrated. Such a lovely, warm story. There’s something in this for anyone that has experience of a family member or friend with a critical illness. Didn’t want it to end.

Love this book.

I found this book in paperback on a Turkish holiday hotel book cupboard. I read it and put it back for someone else to read. This book is so many things, a wonderful, bittersweet love story, a story of the importance of family and friends. I am a palliative care nurse, so the telling of hospice care resonated quite profoundly with me. As an audiobook I use it going to sleep, in the gym and ironing. It’s a wonderful story 👏🏻

so moving so realistic. beautifully written

I lost my mum in 6 wks of overian cancer and my dad a yr later . my dad though with cancer for 27yrs . this was so truthfully written it was very sad and made me cry a lot. s0 be warned. it's worth listing to .but plse be warned. this is about a lady dying of cancer and leaving her family behind. I congratulate the author on this amazing work

So so so well done - Goodbye Rabbit

Had put off reading/listening to this but it really is so good. And, have just noticed there’s a sequel! More deaths should be written like this. And why are so many of the best books Irish?