Up Island

By: Anne Rivers Siddons

Narrated by: Dana Ivey

Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Molly Bell Redwine was raised to believe that nothing is more important than "The Family". But everything Molly values is challenged when her domineering mother dies, her husband leaves her for a younger woman, and her Atlanta family scatters to the four winds. She takes refuge by visiting friends in Martha's Vineyard, a very different world that hastens her changing identity. She decides to stay on after the season, living in a small cottage where she cares for her bitter, aging landlady and the woman's ill and estranged son, Dennis. As she watches over Dennis, her landlady, and her newly-widowed father, Molly lets go of her tired notions of family and begins to form a strange, but very real, new one.

©1997 Anne River Siddons (P)1997 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Critic reviews

"One doesn't read Siddons's books; one dwells in them....[Hers] are not characters in a novel, but people living and dying, loving and hating, hungering and scheming in a world made real." (Chicago Tribune)

Wonderful audiobook

Have listened to this several times. One of my favorites.
Wish i knew who the artist was for the wonderful jazz music before each chapter.

Good story

Good story line. Characters were well described and vivid. I felt I could see the area and characters. The camps sounded very cozy. Really enjoyed it despite a few vulgar words.

Shorty but very entertaining

I liked the story. Sometimes made me wish I could escape to a totally different life. I would recommend this to other older women who have had be upended at one time in their life or another. I laughed, shed a few tears and reflected on my own life now and again. A quick 'read', loved the narrator . What I did not care for was the loud harsh music blared at the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. Very annoying

Loved It!

I really love this book. I planned a trip to
Martha's Vineyard for me and my family. I read a couple of books with the Martha's Vineyard setting before I left, this was one of them.

I loved all the characters in this story. It almost seemed like a fairy tale, an unlikely setting for a middle aged, upper class woman to recover from
a betrayal and unlikely characters for her to work for.

I enjoyed all the various family dynamics between the characters. I am all for independent, strong women and it was great to see Molly become just that.

I love this book!

I have heard this book before and loved it just as much the second time. The characters are believable and loveable and I shall miss them. I only wish there was a sequel. It is a story of a woman whose life is suddenly devastated, her journey for fulfillment, and those relationships she acquired along the way. The reader does a great job and adds to the personality of the characters.

Awful Music!!

The story is very sweet and comforting. I’d like to go to a lake and see the Sean’s.

The music at the beginning and ends of each chapter is awful. It’s loud and jazz. You get all good feeling listening and then it just. Blares out at you Edit that music OUT!!

Up Island

thoroughly enjoyable. both humorous and heart wrenching. I will read this author again! what took me so long?

Music was not necessary

I love the stories by Anna Rivers Siddons. I feel as if I know her
Characters She breathes life into them and the narrator is excellent. The only negative about the Audible version is the music between chapters - not only not necessary but ruins the flow of the story.

A good rendition

This narrator does an excellent job with a very good story. She was able to switch between accents smoothly and convincingly. My one criticism is that the musical interludes in between chapters were unexpected and jarring and out of character with the tone of the story. They added nothing and were, for me, a distraction from an excellent story.

Up island

Well told. A story of life’s surprises and how you deal with them. Can a person really change.