The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley

By: Hannah Tinti

Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley

Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

A father protects his daughter from the legacy of his past - and the truth about her mother's death - in this thrilling new novel from the prize-winning author of The Good Thief.

After years spent living on the run, Samuel Hawley moves with his teenage daughter, Loo, to Olympus, Massachusetts. There, in his late wife's hometown, Hawley finds work as a fisherman, while Loo struggles to fit in at school and grows curious about her mother's mysterious death. Haunting them both are twelve scars Hawley carries on his body, from twelve bullets in his criminal past - a past that eventually spills over into his daughter's present, until together they must face a reckoning yet to come. This father-daughter epic weaves back and forth through time and across America, from Alaska to the Adirondacks. Both a coming-of-age novel and a literary thriller, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley explores what it means to be a hero, and the cost we pay to protect the people we love most.

©2017 Hannah Tinti (P)2017 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved

Odd choice for narrator

This book is about a young teenage girl and her father, but the narrator sounds like a mature woman. It was hard to get into the story because the narrator did not seem to fit in with the story at all. I know that sounds petty, but it was a really random distraction for me in this book.

A literary work with a plot line

It took me a little while to get into this book, and it doesn't have the "gotcha" of a Stephen King, but I prefer great writing to plot twists, anyway.
If you're always looking for a "good book," don't pass this one by
Not a classic contender for Great American novel, but good enough to spend your time with if you prefer a literary fiction.

Not for me

Not sure why, but this book was really a chore to listen to. The story never engaged me, and I didn't relate to any of the characters. I tried to stay with it but couldn't finish.

Love, love, love

I love this story, the father daughter adventure and the unconventional hero and love story. Love, love, love.

Even bad guys have redeeming qualities.

Sam Hawley made lots of money doing bad things. Then he lost his wife. He struggles to redeem himself by keeping their daughter safe and raising her to be smart and strong. Their relationship is surprisingly touching. The organization of the book alternates between Sam's story, told one gunshot wound at a time, and his daughter, Lu's. Both voices are compelling.

Murder is okay

I found this book to be a little strange in that the main character kills people but is portrayed as a good guy. The ending was hard to believe and it was probably done so a sequel could be written. There were a number of sub plots that eventually tied together but until the end it was difficult to understand how it would be done.

Very good book

It's a partial love story with quite a bit of violence to go along with it. It captures the story of one man's life before and after his daughter was born and then they meet at the end and everything comes together. I really enjoyed it.

Decent performance of pedestrian story

Elizabeth Wiley puts in a decent performance here. My qualm is her male voices. Scratchy and indistinguishable. Otherwise she enacted the parts, was sensitive to inflection and tone, and changed her pace appropriately. It wasn't a boring performance. It was just that the story lacked compression. When it seemed it had found its legs and was going to get compelling, it fell back and sauntered forward. It had so much potential but seemed diluted in the writing process, workshopped to death, as indicated by the acknowledgements at the end of the book. There is good writing here but not any courageous writing, not any art. This is a character driven novel. In such a novel the characters better be ones readers care about. I just couldn't find a real compelling reason to care for a murderer and thief who'd never been caught by the law living on the run with his daughter, and lamenting his dead wife who he was responsible for getting shot and drowning. Nor could I find any capacity to care for a teenage girl's problems. This isn't Les Miserables and I don't read teen fiction.

Great writer

I enjoyed this book but it is not good for those that are squeamish or sensitive. The writing is top notch. It was wonderfully descriptive without over doing it. The relationship between the father and daughter is special and complicated as most are.

Great listen in ~1 hr segments

I had a 1-1.5 hr commute, and each chapter fit nicely into that time period. An engaging story, performed well, that made for easy listening.