Three Junes

A novel

By: Julia Glass

Narrated by: John Keating

Three Junes is a vividly textured symphonic novel set on both sides of the Atlantic during three fateful summers in the lives of a Scottish family. In June of 1989, Paul McLeod, the recently widowed patriarch, becomes infatuated with a young American artist while traveling through Greece and is compelled to relive the secret
sorrows of his marriage. Six years later, Paul’s death reunites his sons at Tealing, their idyllic childhood home, where Fenno, the eldest, faces a choice that puts him at the center of his family’s future. A lovable, slightly repressed gay man, Fenno leads the life of an aloof expatriate in the West Village, running a shop filled with books and birdwatching gear. He believes himself safe from all emotional entanglements—until a worldly neighbor presents him with an extraordinary gift and a seductive photographer makes him an unwitting subject. Each man draws Fenno into territories of the heart he has never braved before, leading him toward an almost unbearable loss that will reveal to him the nature of love.

Love in its limitless forms—between husband and wife, between lovers, between people and animals, between parents and children—is the force that moves these characters’ lives, which collide again, in yet another June, over a Long Island dinner table. This time it is Fenno who meets and captivates Fern, the same woman who captivated his father in Greece ten years before. Now pregnant with a son of her own, Fern, like Fenno and Paul before him, must make peace with her past to embrace her future. Elegantly detailed yet full of emotional suspense, often as comic as it is sad, Three Junes is a glorious triptych about how we learn to live, and live fully, beyond incurable grief and betrayals of the heart—how family ties, both those we’re born into and those we make, can offer us redemption and joy.Producers: Laura Wilson/ Dan Zitt
Directed by Paula Parker
Jacket photographs: Johner/Photonica: (sky) Jennifer Rocholl
Jacket design by Archie Ferguson
©2002 by Julia Glass
(P)2002 by Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Julia Glass's talent just sends chills up my spine; her novel, Three Junes, is a marvel."
--Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls

"Three Junes has the rich pleasures of a ninetenth-century novel and the rush of New York life of the last ten years. I'm amazed it's a first novel--it is a mature, captivating work of fiction."
-- John Casey

"Three Junes almost threatens to burst with all the life it contains. Glass' ability to locate the immense within the particular, and to simultaneously illuminate and deepen the mysteries of her characters' lives, would be marvelous in any novelist. In a first-time novelist, it's extraordinary."
--Michael Cunningham

Great Performance, Wonderful Book

I so much enjoyed listening to the "Three Junes". The narrator was excellent and really added to the pleasure of the text. He used multiple voices, accents and intonations that helped to give each character distinct identity and personality in the way that maintained a good deal of interest in a book containing a significant amount of dialogue.

The story itself is a fascinating one with multiple levels and complexities that made it suspenseful even without much of a plot--it's more of a character and issue study and a rumination on fate. Yet I continually looked forward to getting into the car to hear more. The Three 'Junes' are three separate views of the same family/experiences/perspectives narrated by three different individuals whose lives and fates are interwoven at three different instances in time, always in June.

I highly recommend this book whose literary quality is rare among books published today for its discussion of major moral issues in a way that suggests the original purpose of the novel as it developed to its height in the 19th century. It provides multiple ways of seeing the same issue among parents and children, siblings and friends, and pushes one to step into the shoes of another on 'big issues' in such a way as to sympathize with even the most disagreeable character. Unlike much modern literature stuck at being a text about a text, the book addresses the moral issues of our time as they are lived by normal people who nonetheless live the 'examined' life.

A true modern classic

Three Junes is hands down one of my favorite books of all time. My paper copy of it is worn form being reread, and I was excited to experience it in audio form. I'm so happy I did - the narration was perfect, and added such a great new depth to Glass' writing. Mal is my favorite character in the book, and I found myself anxiously listening for him to show up often extending my listening past my commute to take in more of the story. It's a wonderful listen, and a life-changing book - I can't recommend it enough!

Excellent book, iffy reader....

While a little confusing in its backing and forthing over time, this is a well written book dealing with complex family and other relationships in a subtle way.But the narrator's accent almost made me give up near the beginning(I'm glad I didn't...) The accent, intended to be scottish, constantly slithers into irish and back again, with frequent anomalies that seem to be neither. I'm English with a Scottish son-in-law and Irish friends; if you're not well acquainted with either accent, the narrator may not bother you (he reads well apart from the accent prob.) If you are, however, listen to the sample first to ensure this won't drive you mad!

Mind What Ypu Loves

A rich narrative of complex people whose stories overlap. Life is not simple; it is complicated, sad, unfair, funny, serendipitous, hard, lonely, and punctuated by moments of joy and undercurrents of sincere love. I look forward
to reading more about these wonderful characters.

Beautiful Narration of a Wonderful Story!

Delightfully written, true to life & completely believable characters make this the best "read" I've had in a long time. The narration with the brogue really completes it. My only complaint is that the book goes from past to present & back again very frequently & can be hard to follow (especially at first, till you figure out what's going on). It doubtlessly would have been easier to follow on paper.

Honestly, this has been my best find here, I highly recommend it!