Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Bright, Precious Days cover art

Bright, Precious Days

By: Jay McInerney
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Brightness Falls cover art
Talking It Over cover art
Bright Lights, Big City cover art
While We Were Watching Downton Abbey cover art
A Changed Man cover art
The Awesome Girl's Guide to Dating Extraordinary Men cover art
A House Among the Trees cover art
Outtakes from a Marriage cover art
The Copenhagen Affair cover art
New York Echoes cover art
Walking The Perfect Square cover art
Forever Is the Worst Long Time cover art
All the Difference cover art
God-Shaped Hole cover art
Repeat cover art
Younger cover art

Summary

From the best-selling author of Bright Lights, Big City: a sexy, vibrant, cross-generational New York story - a literary and commercial triumph of the highest order. 

Even decades after their arrival, Corrine and Russell Calloway still feel as if they’re living the dream that drew them to New York City in the first place: book parties or art openings one night and high-society events the next; jobs they care about (and in fact love); twin children whose birth was truly miraculous; a loft in TriBeCa and summers in the Hamptons. But all of this comes at a fiendish cost. Russell, an independent publisher, has superb cultural credentials yet minimal cash flow; as he navigates a business that requires, beyond astute literary judgment, constant financial improvisation, he encounters an audacious, potentially game-changing - or ruinous - opportunity. Meanwhile, instead of chasing personal gain in this incredibly wealthy city, Corrine devotes herself to helping feed its hungry poor, and she and her husband soon discover they’re being priced out of the newly fashionable neighborhood they’ve called home for most of their adult lives, with their son and daughter caught in the balance.

Then Corrine’s world is turned upside down when the man with whom she’d had an ill-fated affair in the wake of 9/11 suddenly reappears. As the novel unfolds across a period of stupendous change - including Obama’s historic election and the global economic collapse he inherited - the Calloways will find themselves and their marriage tested more severely than they ever could have imagined.

©2016 Jay McInerney (P)2016 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"McInerney is best at reflecting the lives of the beautiful people of Manhattan. [Narrator Edoardo] Ballerini matches the tone of these sketches with a sharply honed delivery." ( AudioFile)

What listeners say about Bright, Precious Days

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Disappointing to the point of embarrassment

What disappointed you about Bright, Precious Days?

I'm a great fan of McInerney, and it pains me to say that this book greatly damages his reputation as a respected fiction writer. The plot was thin to non-existent, the prose overly precious, with a bland journalistic tone. Cringeworthy descriptions of intercourse are deserving of a bad sex award. A failed, flacid satire whereby the author lacks the necessary vigour to skewer the Manhattan elite. The manuscript should have been binned to protect the author's reputation. The worst book of the year.

What will your next listen be?

Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Simpering and effete, it was a strain to tolerate Ballerini for the entire course of the novel.

What character would you cut from Bright, Precious Days?

It was difficult to like or sympathize with any of the characters. Cut them all and start again.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful