Listen free for 30 days
-
City of Girls
- Narrated by: Blair Brown
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Historical Fiction
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £34.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Committed
- A Sceptic Makes Peace With Marriage
- By: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of her bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert fell in love with Felipe - a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship who'd been living in Indonesia when they met. Resettling in America, the couple swore eternal fidelity to each other, but also swore to never, ever, under any circumstances get legally married. (Both survivors of difficult divorces. Enough said.) But providence intervened one day in the form of the U.S. government.
-
-
Catch up .... it's as good as the last one!
- By Jacqueline on 22-01-10
-
Daisy Jones and the Six
- By: Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Narrated by: Sara Arrington, Jennifer Beals, Arthur Bishop, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the whole story, right from the beginning: the sun-bleached streets, the grimy bars on the Sunset Strip, knowing Daisy’s moment was coming. Relive the euphoria of success and experience the terror that nothing will ever be as good again. Take the uppers so you can keep on believing, take the downers so you can sleep, eventually. Wonder who you are without the drugs or the music or the fans or the family that prop you up. Make decisions that will forever feel tough. Find beauty where you least expect it.
-
-
😭 Absolutely amazing!
- By Steph on 24-03-19
-
The Show Girl
- A Novel
- By: Nicola Harrison
- Narrated by: Imani Jade Powers
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1927 when Olive McCormick moves from Minneapolis to New York City determined to become a star in the Ziegfeld Follies. Extremely talented as a singer and dancer, it takes every bit of perseverance to finally make it on stage. And once she does, all the glamour and excitement is everything she imagined and more - even worth all the sacrifices she has had to make along the way.
-
The Signature of All Things
- By: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 21 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everything about life intrigues Alma Whittaker. Her passion for botany leads her far from home, from London to Peru to Tahiti, in pursuit of that rare specimen: knowledge. But as her careful studies draw her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, she meets the man who she will come to love - whose perspective, radically different from her own, will transform the way she understands the world.
-
-
the title IS the book
- By Amazon Customer on 05-05-22
-
Malibu Rising
- By: Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Malibu: August, 1983. It's the day of Nina Riva's annual end-of-summer party and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.
-
-
life is too short to waste it reading this book
- By Anonymous User on 23-07-21
-
The Paper Palace
- The No.1 New York Times Bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Bookclub Pick
- By: Miranda Cowley Heller
- Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a perfect August morning, Elle Bishop heads out for a swim in the pond below 'The Paper Palace'—her family's holiday home in Cape Cod. As she dives beneath the water she relives the passionate encounter she had the night before, against the side of the house that knows all her darkest secrets, while her husband and mother chatted to their guests inside.... So begins a story that unfolds over 24 hours and 50 years, as Elle's shocking betrayal leads her to a life-changing decision—and an ending you won't be able to stop thinking about.
-
-
Don’t waste your life
- By S. Maguire on 10-08-21
-
Committed
- A Sceptic Makes Peace With Marriage
- By: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of her bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert fell in love with Felipe - a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship who'd been living in Indonesia when they met. Resettling in America, the couple swore eternal fidelity to each other, but also swore to never, ever, under any circumstances get legally married. (Both survivors of difficult divorces. Enough said.) But providence intervened one day in the form of the U.S. government.
-
-
Catch up .... it's as good as the last one!
- By Jacqueline on 22-01-10
-
Daisy Jones and the Six
- By: Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Narrated by: Sara Arrington, Jennifer Beals, Arthur Bishop, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the whole story, right from the beginning: the sun-bleached streets, the grimy bars on the Sunset Strip, knowing Daisy’s moment was coming. Relive the euphoria of success and experience the terror that nothing will ever be as good again. Take the uppers so you can keep on believing, take the downers so you can sleep, eventually. Wonder who you are without the drugs or the music or the fans or the family that prop you up. Make decisions that will forever feel tough. Find beauty where you least expect it.
-
-
😭 Absolutely amazing!
- By Steph on 24-03-19
-
The Show Girl
- A Novel
- By: Nicola Harrison
- Narrated by: Imani Jade Powers
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1927 when Olive McCormick moves from Minneapolis to New York City determined to become a star in the Ziegfeld Follies. Extremely talented as a singer and dancer, it takes every bit of perseverance to finally make it on stage. And once she does, all the glamour and excitement is everything she imagined and more - even worth all the sacrifices she has had to make along the way.
-
The Signature of All Things
- By: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 21 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everything about life intrigues Alma Whittaker. Her passion for botany leads her far from home, from London to Peru to Tahiti, in pursuit of that rare specimen: knowledge. But as her careful studies draw her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, she meets the man who she will come to love - whose perspective, radically different from her own, will transform the way she understands the world.
-
-
the title IS the book
- By Amazon Customer on 05-05-22
-
Malibu Rising
- By: Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Malibu: August, 1983. It's the day of Nina Riva's annual end-of-summer party and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.
-
-
life is too short to waste it reading this book
- By Anonymous User on 23-07-21
-
The Paper Palace
- The No.1 New York Times Bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Bookclub Pick
- By: Miranda Cowley Heller
- Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a perfect August morning, Elle Bishop heads out for a swim in the pond below 'The Paper Palace'—her family's holiday home in Cape Cod. As she dives beneath the water she relives the passionate encounter she had the night before, against the side of the house that knows all her darkest secrets, while her husband and mother chatted to their guests inside.... So begins a story that unfolds over 24 hours and 50 years, as Elle's shocking betrayal leads her to a life-changing decision—and an ending you won't be able to stop thinking about.
-
-
Don’t waste your life
- By S. Maguire on 10-08-21
-
The Vanishing Half
- By: Brit Bennett
- Narrated by: Shayna Small
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, Southern black community and running away at age 16, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same Southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white and her white husband knows nothing of her past.
-
-
An Important Read
- By Steph on 23-06-20
-
The Godmothers
- A Novel
- By: Camille Aubray
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan, Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An irresistible, suspenseful novel about four women who marry into an elegant, prosperous Italian family and then must take charge of the family’s business when their husbands are forced to leave them during the war.
-
-
I enjoyed this
- By Kindle Customer on 03-10-21
-
The Fire Blossom
- The Fire Blossom Saga, Book 1
- By: Sarah Lark, Kate Northrop - translator
- Narrated by: Katherine Littrell
- Length: 22 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1837, and immigrating to a small New Zealand fishing village is an opportunity for Ida Lange’s family to build a better future. Yet for Ida, raised in a strict, religious, tight-knit German community, so much is still forbidden to a woman. Yearning for the poor day laborer she shared books with as a child, Ida is now trapped in a dire marriage to a man of her father’s choosing.
-
Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
- By: Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo, Julia Whelan, Robin Miles
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.
-
-
A mixed bag ..
- By J. James on 12-10-21
-
Big Magic
- Creative Living Beyond Fear
- By: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Listeners of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration from Elizabeth Gilbert's books for years. Now this beloved author shares her wisdom and unique understanding of creativity, shattering the perceptions of mystery and suffering that surround the process - and showing us all just how easy it can be. By sharing stories from her own life as well as from her friends and the people who have inspired her, Elizabeth Gilbert challenges us to embrace our curiosity....
-
-
Big Magic indeed!
- By Andy F. on 01-12-15
-
One True Loves
- By: Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her 20s, Emma Blair marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse. They build a life for themselves, far away from the expectations of their parents and the people of their hometown in Massachusetts. They travel the world together, living life to the fullest and seizing every opportunity for adventure. On their first wedding anniversary, Jesse is on a helicopter over the Pacific when it goes missing. Just like that, Jesse is gone forever.
-
-
Adorable moments and heartbreak
- By RosePetal86 on 15-05-22
-
Olga Dies Dreaming
- By: Xochitl Gonzalez
- Narrated by: Almarie Guerra, Armando Riesco, Inés del Castillo
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 2017, and Olga and her brother, Pedro 'Prieto' Acevedo, are bold-faced names in their hometown of New York. Prieto is a popular congressman representing their gentrifying, Latinx neighbourhood in Brooklyn, while Olga is the tony wedding planner for Manhattan's power brokers. Despite their alluring public lives, behind closed doors things are far less rosy. Sure, Olga can orchestrate the love stories of the one per cent, but she can't seem to find her own...until she meets Matteo, who forces her to confront the effects of long-held family secrets.
-
-
insight into US puerto rican experience + history
- By Georgina Hirsch on 14-03-22
-
Where the Crawdads Sing
- By: Delia Owens
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For years, rumors of the 'Marsh Girl' have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life - until the unthinkable happens.
-
-
Oh my word...
- By Private on 09-05-20
-
Sorrow and Bliss
- By: Meg Mason
- Narrated by: Emilia Fox
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone tells Martha Friel she is clever and beautiful, a brilliant writer who has been loved every day of her adult life by one man, her husband Patrick. So why is everything broken? Why is Martha - on the edge of 40 - friendless, practically jobless and so often sad? And why did Patrick decide to leave? Maybe she is just too sensitive, someone who finds it harder to be alive than most people. Or maybe - as she has long believed - there is something wrong with her.
-
-
depressing and pointless
- By Anonymous User on 23-10-21
-
Magpie
- By: Elizabeth Day
- Narrated by: Tanya Reynolds
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Jake, Marisa has found everything she’s ever wanted. Then their new lodger, Kate, arrives. Something about Kate isn’t right. Is it the way she looks at Marisa’s boyfriend? Sits too close on the sofa? Constantly asks about the baby they are trying for? Or is it all just in Marisa’s head? After all, that’s what her Jake keeps telling her, and she trusts him - doesn’t she? But Marisa knows something is wrong. That the woman sleeping in their house will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Marisa just doesn’t know why.
-
-
Good read
- By Muireall A. Urchadan on 07-09-21
-
Violeta
- By: Isabel Allende
- Narrated by: Yareli Arizmendi
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first daughter in a family of five boisterous sons. From the start, her life is marked by extraordinary events, for the ripples of the Great War are still being felt, even as the Spanish flu arrives on the shores of her South American homeland almost at the moment of her birth. Through her father's prescience, the family will come through that crisis unscathed, only to face a new one as the Great Depression transforms the genteel city life she has known.
-
-
Good story...
- By "walespab" on 01-02-22
-
Maybe in Another Life
- By: Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the age of 29, Hannah Martin still has no idea what she wants to do with her life. She has lived in six different cities and held countless jobs since graduating college. On the heels of leaving another city, Hannah moves back to her hometown of Los Angeles and takes up residence with her best friend, Gabby. Shortly after, Hannah goes out to a bar one night with Gabby and meets up with her high school boyfriend, Ethan.
-
-
If I have to hear the words Cinnamon Roll again…
- By Kirstin Cooper on 17-05-22
Summary
The blazingly brilliant new novel from Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the international best seller Eat Pray Love: a glittering coming-of-age epic stitched across the fabric of a lost New York.
It is the summer of 1940. Nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris arrives in New York with her suitcase and sewing machine, exiled by her despairing parents. Although her quicksilver talents with a needle and commitment to mastering the perfect hair roll have been deemed insufficient for her to pass into her sophomore year of Vassar, she soon finds gainful employment as the self-appointed seamstress at the Lily Playhouse, her unconventional Aunt Peg's charmingly disreputable Manhattan revue theatre. There, Vivian quickly becomes the toast of the showgirls, transforming the trash and tinsel only fit for the cheap seats into creations for goddesses.
Exile in New York is no exile at all: here in this strange wartime city of girls, Vivian and her girlfriends mean to be free, to get up to no good, to drink the heady highball of life itself to the last drop. And when the legendary English actress Edna Watson comes to the Lily to star in the company's most ambitious show ever, Vivian is entranced by the magic that follows in the wake of this true, true star.
But there are hard lessons to be learned and bitterly regrettable mistakes to be made. Vivian learns that to live the life she wants, she must live many lives, ceaselessly and ingeniously making them new.
'At some point in a woman's life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time. After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is,' she confides. And so Vivian sets forth her story, and that of the women around her - women who have lived as they truly are, out of step with a century that could never quite keep up with them.
More from the same
What listeners say about City of Girls
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- taylors2002
- 21-06-19
One of my favourite ever audibles
I bought this book without reading what it was about, just because I adore Elizabeth Gilbert from her social media pages - even though admittedly I'd only read Eat, Pray, Love and Big Magic previously. I expected Elizabeth to be narrating and thought it was likely a positive inspiration or guidance type of book, so I was a bit taken back to hear a different voice. I find it so difficult to connect with narrators- either loving or hating it. Well I LOVE Blair Brown, I can't even imagine Elizabeth narrating it, Blair is incredible with all the different accents and characters, I wouldn't have picked this book of the shelf but I'm so glad I downloaded it - it's definitely one that should be 'listened' to so you can really take in the surroundings and especially the characters. It's kind of slow-paced but deliberately - between Elizabeth and Blair you are taken back in time to 1940's New York City and I honestly felt like I was there, witnessing a snap shot in time, a life so different from my own but one I would jump at to live in for a while. You don't understand the person she is writing to until towards the end of the book but this one way letter format is perfect. It sounds much less self-obsessed and you really connect with the main character; Vivian. I must confess I put audible on whilst I do boring jobs or the school run to make that time more enjoyable - but I would listen to this every chance I got, it's more about feeling like you are there living it more than a story of dramas, I think there IS only 1 major drama half way through, the rest is just experiencing and enjoying, it's so plausible that this was someones life I wondered a few times if it was a true story, there are certainly true parts about the war in it - whilst the war is always kind of background anyway. When it ended I had that book-grief , a hole you're not sure how to fill because there'll not be anything quite the same but you're not ready for something new or different yet. Like you get with series-binging too. It was FABULOUS, Elizabeth & Blair have created a masterpiece between them in my eyes (or ears)
40 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Christina
- 30-11-19
Chick Lit at its worst.
Juvenile prose. I do not believe this would have been published if it was a first novel.
24 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kindle Customer
- 10-08-19
Enchanting I lived every minute of this book
I love the way Elizabeth Gilbert writes. I feel I witnessed every moment of Vivienne’s life . Very humbling a lesson to be learned not to be judgemental about how people live their lives.Thank you
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- holly bird
- 11-06-19
Enjoyable but doesnt hit the mark.
Elizabeth Gilbert has done, as usual, a whole load of research in order to write this novel. It was very a very entertaining story and at times, thought provoking, but ultimately it left me feeling unsatisfied. Listen to her previous novel The Signature of All Things. Fabulous book.
14 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- R
- 21-07-20
Entertaining and easy
The narration to this story is superb, her accents are very real and transport you straight to Manhattan. An entertaining story about the fast paced party life of a young woman. I really enjoyed it.
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 01-10-19
Sinfully witty, delightful and profound!
I have been dreading the end of this book. I wanted to postpone it but here we are. It’s an entire world on its own and the characters are are more real than you can imagine ! It is nothing short of an absolute masterpiece which will touch your soul in a thousand different ways. Also, It’s def a book you can reread and discover new things every single time. Elizabeth Gilbert, we are in your depth. Thank you!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Kay
- 29-09-20
Couldn't finish
Sooooo bad. So many books! So little time to waste reading trash such as this.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Clairerio
- 07-08-20
Didn't really go anywhere,
I was overall, disappointed with this book. the start was promising and I loved the background and the building if the characters. Half way through I forgot that we were waiting to find out the 'truth' behind Vivienne and Angela's father's relationship.
then it started to get rushed, very little detail on the new characters, whole decades were described in a couple of sentences.
when we were introduced to Frank, it was more disappointment and a very rushed ending, it was almost as though the author had reached her word count and had to stop.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mrs Karen Munro
- 08-06-20
struggled with it
I'm not sure if it was the readers voice or the fact it was supposed to represent a letter (the longest letter ever!!)
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- sophie
- 24-10-19
Stuck with it
I was unsure for quite a while but loved it in the end. One of my favourite authors.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Jennifer
- 11-06-19
Brimming with wisdom and throughly entertaining
This book lived up to my every expectation. I'm devastated that I've finished it, but feel so enriched.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Annabel Roberts
- 20-08-19
A delight
What a light and joyful yet significant story. It was stunningly read. I loved it!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- KeziaLivesLegendary
- 15-06-19
Such a Beautiful story
Loved, loved, loved. Elizabeth Gilberts books are always amazing. Perfect choice on the narrators. Didn't stop listening.
I really enjoyed the character's
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Andries
- 09-06-19
Exception
I have found this story telling so sublime and real without hesitation of facts that society always try to cover up.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Francisca
- 22-01-20
Meandering
I found this story disjointed and meandering- lots of under developed relationships and characters. Feels like she was trying to do too much with this book. The reading and performance however was fantastic
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Tala!
- 19-04-22
So raw and powerful
Friendship, lust, joy, guilt, grief and just life in a story … a beautiful, story well told too… I loved every chapter and every character in it…
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Amazon Customer
- 30-06-21
Delightful!
This story is just delightful! Full of life, joy and colourful lessons in one the saddest times the world has ever known. The reader brings the story, in the form of a letter, to life and made me wish I was part of her ‘family’.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- heken
- 10-01-21
Great book not too heavy not too light
Great read; first half abit slow but there were some great moments and dialogues. Loved it towards the end.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Amazon Customer
- 24-08-20
fantastic!!!
I really enjoyed the story and the performance was subperb. I totally recommend this book.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 25-04-20
Review
Loved it.... Couldn't wait to come back to it and hear that warm soothing voice 👍