Evening Class
by Maeve Binchy
Our Price: $86.46
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $43.49 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Maeve BinchyNarrator: Kate Binchy
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Audiobook
Published: 2005-02-03
ISBN: 0752869183
Publisher: Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
Book Reviews of Evening Class
Book Review: Not my genre
Summary: 3 Stars
This was an unusual experience. One of the greatest, most honest hooks I've ever seen, which is how I knew after one short page (out of 551) that this well-written book just wasn't for me. It's an intelligent romance in a scenic setting, and I believe the reviewers who call it witty and literate. I picked that up pretty quickly. But I'm just not a romance reader. And Maeve Binchy, who I'm not saying anything bad about, convinced me to throw my informal "10% rule" right out the window. Okay, who's next in my list of unread authors?
Summary of Evening Class
Maeve Binchy has captured the hearts of readers with her spectacular national bestsellers Circle of Friends, The Glass Lake, and This Year It Will be Different. Now she dazzles us once again with a new novel that is filled with her signature warmth, wit, and unforgettable characters--a powerful, moving tale of ordinary men and women whose quiet lives hide the most unexpected things.Aidan Dunne, a Dublin Latin teacher, always meant to go back to the Italy he visited as a youth. But as the years passed, he concentrated instead on the usual struggles of daily life, like vying for the job of headmaster at his school, keeping memories of Italy in the back corners of his mind. At forty-eight, emotionally distanced from his wife, baffled by his two grown daughters, Aidan Dunne might have given up entirely if it hadn't been for the evening class. His class. A class called Introduction to Italian. A class where people from every walk of life come together. A class where long-buried hopes come alive again.
The teacher is Signora, a vivacious, eccentric woman with an irrepressible nature and a buried past. Her real name is Nora O'Donoghue, a Dublin native who abandoned Ireland decades before to follow her mysterious lover to Italy. Having defied her parents' Catholic conventions, she ended up in a village where tradition dictated everything--including how a woman could love or grieve. Now, as she meets Aidan Dunne and the men and women who come together each Tuesday and Thursday night, Signora begins to learn their secrets and their dreams. And slowly she transforms each of their lives.
Suddenly Aidan Dunne's last chance, his evening class has become a place of intrigue and revelation. Here Bill, a reliable bank clerk, uncovers the hidden source of his fiancee Lizzie's outrageous behavior. Teenage Kathy, slow at day school but bright as a button with Signora, is coming close to realizing a devastating truth about her family. Streetwise Lou, his tuition paid by a crime boss, has his own agenda for the group. And mousy Fiona decides to meddle in a married man's illicit affair--with repercussions for everyone, including Signora and Aidan Dunne.
In writing that is wise and evocative, powerful and moving, Maeve Binchy brings to life a story of families and lovers, of unrealized passions and moments of triumph, of wounds made by caring too much, or not caring at all. And in Evening Class she shows us the power of a??dream to expand horizons, and transform clerks and schoolteachers into heroes.
Maeve Binchy can always be counted on to spin an involving tale about ordinary people that brings out the extraordinary in everyone. In Evening Class, Binchy zooms in on the working-class of Dublin. Schoolteacher Aidan Dunne organizes an evening class in Italian with the help of Nora O'Donoghue, an Irishwoman returning home after 26 years in Sicily. When the somewhat squashed-by-life denizens of the surrounding neighborhood take the unexpected step of enrolling in the class, they find their lives transformed.
Binchy tells her story from the viewpoints of eight different characters and rewards both them and her readers with happy endings after the requisite rocky road. Reading a novel by Maeve Binchy is like catching up with old friends--you know everything will turn out fine in the end, but you're still interested in how things get that way.
General Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in My Favorite Audiobooks, so far
We Are All Welcome HereBrilliance Audio on CD Unabridged; Published: 2006-04-04; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $1.85
Price in other shops:
Vanishing Actsby Jodi Picoult
Recorded Books; Published: 2005-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $27.29
Price in other shops:
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations One School at a TimeTantor Media; Published: 2006-06-01; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $21.62
Price in other shops:
The Story of My Life: An Afghan Girl on the Other Side of the Skyby Farah Ahmedi, Tamim Ansary
Simon Spotlight Entertainment; Published: 2005-04-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.97
Price in other shops:
Once Upon a Dayby Lisa Tucker
Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged; Published: 2006-04-11; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $6.72
Price in other shops:
My Sister's Keeperby Jodi Picoult
Recorded Books; Published: 2005-10; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $17.00
Price in other shops:
The Google Storyby David A. Vise, Mark Malseed
Books on Tape; Published: 2005-12; Audio CD; Book
Price in other shops:
Freakonomics Rev Ed CD: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everythingby Steven D. Levitt
HarperAudio; Published: 2006-10-01; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $15.95
Price in other shops:
Evening Classby Maeve Binchy
Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ); Published: 2005-02-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $35.07
Price in other shops:
The Double Bindby Chris A. Bohjalian
Books on Tape; Published: 2007-05; Audio CD; Book
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Scarlet Featherby Maeve Binchy
Dutton; Published: 2001-02-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.88
Price in other shops:
London Transportsby Maeve Binchy
Dell; Published: 1995-06-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.45
Price in other shops:
This Year It Will Be Differentby Maeve Binchy
Dell; Published: 1997-10-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.20
Price in other shops:
The Return Journeyby Maeve Binchy
Dell; Published: 2007-05-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.82
Price in other shops:
Tara Roadby Maeve Binchy
Dell; Published: 2007-05-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.75
Price in other shops:
Whitethorn Woods (Vintage)by Maeve Binchy
Anchor; Published: 2008-01-29; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.99
Price in other shops:
Echoesby Maeve Binchy
Signet; Published: 2007-03-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.10
Price in other shops:
Light A Penny Candleby Maeve Binchy
NAL Trade; Published: 2007-11-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.19
Price in other shops:
The Copper Beechby Maeve Binchy
Dell; Published: 1993-10-02; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.24
The Glass Lakeby Maeve Binchy
Dell; Published: 1996-03-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.79
Price in other shops: