Hello Beautiful cover art

Hello Beautiful

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
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.

Hello Beautiful

By: Ann Napolitano
Narrated by: Maura Tierney
Try for £0.00

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

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
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.
Cancel

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Dear Edward comes a beautifully tender, heartbreaking, and moving story of four sisters over three decades.

Meet the Padvano girls. Best friends and sisters, they are thought of as inseparable by everyone in their close-knit Chicago neighbourhood. Julia, the eldest, is the "rocket" of the family - she always has a destination in mind and clear plans for how to get there. Sylvie, the dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book and imagines a life for herself other than the expected path of wife and mother. Cecelia and Emmeline, the twins, are the artist and the caregiver. From childhood, the four sisters complete each other, expecting that their family will always be intact.

When Julia falls in love with William Walters, a history student and college sports star, she's delighted by the way her plans for adulthood are coming together. A husband, a house, a family. But when darkness from William's past begins to block the light of his future, it is Sylvie, not Julia, who steps in to help. Suddenly, things shift. Dynamics and relationships, priorities and secrets - everything that was once a given no longer is.

Rich and vivid, heartbreaking and heart-mending, Hello Beautiful captures the joy, tragedy, trust, and betrayal to ask: what does it mean to be a family? And once shattered, can it be pieced back together?

©2023 Ann Napolitano (P)2023 Penguin Audio
Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Women's Fiction Marriage Heartfelt Tear-jerking
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Covenant of Water cover art
The Rachel Incident cover art
Lucky Girl cover art
Two Thousand Minnows cover art
The Things We Do for Love cover art
I Came to Say Goodbye cover art
It Ends with Us cover art
The Urgent Life cover art
Olive Kitteridge cover art
Forgiving Paris cover art
The Things We Cannot Say cover art
Winter Garden cover art
The Fixed Stars cover art
When We Believed in Mermaids cover art
Between Sisters cover art
What My Mother and I Don't Talk About cover art

Critic reviews

"A rich, complex family saga, Hello Beautiful is a portrait of love and grief in equal measure. Napolitano's prose is so lovely, so keenly perceptive, that it held me captive until I finished. A lot of people are going to love this story." (Mary Beth Keane, New York Times bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes)

"Like great jazz, Hello Beautiful takes a melody and transforms it. This is a richly-woven story about family, but it's also a unique take on Little Women. There are no heroes or villains here, only people--flawed and loving and striving like the rest of us. Generosity is the word that comes to mind when I reflect on this gorgeous novel." (Allegra Goodman, New York Times bestselling author of The Cookbook Collector and Sam)

"Ann Napolitano's writing is astonishing." (Marian Keyes, Sunday Times bestselling author of Again, Rachel)

What listeners say about Hello Beautiful

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    229
  • 4 Stars
    76
  • 3 Stars
    35
  • 2 Stars
    12
  • 1 Stars
    9
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    234
  • 4 Stars
    65
  • 3 Stars
    25
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    7
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    216
  • 4 Stars
    66
  • 3 Stars
    31
  • 2 Stars
    15
  • 1 Stars
    9

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

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

Amazing!

Highly recommend, beautiful book, amazing characters. I ended up almost binging this audiobook, which rarely happens.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A beautiful book .Gentle and a wonderful story.

I loved listening to this book .Wonderfully narrated.Such a pleasure to listen to .Didn't want it to end .

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful listen. Sad it was over

Some beautiful descriptive ideas. Gentle story told with a gentle style of narration. Really loved how the lives entwined.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved this book!

Excellent story line and brilliant narrator. I have bought this book for Christmas presents! One of my best books of 2023.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful listen!

A most intriguing listen. Complex characters who somehow managed to pull it together and live with the consequences.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing

I loved this book from the off. The story is brilliant and it is so well written. It makes you want to be. Better person and wish you had sisters.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautifully written and narrated.

Great read. Wasn’t sure what to expect at the beginning, absolutely enjoyed it. Couldn’t put it down.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Heartbreaking and uplifting

This is a slow burn at the very start but quickly warms up and absorbs you. Makes me miss my sisters especially.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I wish I’d had sisters

I listened to this book simply because Maura Tierney was the narrator and was not disappointed. Her voice suited the story and did not get in the way of a tender story beautifully told.

The continual chapter reminders that it was set in the 80s were always surprising as the feeling it gave was more like the 50s, in the innocence of a time longer ago.

Flawed characters that were still sympathetic drew me in and I now miss them as I enjoyed spending time in their company. Even though the book included hard topics and difficult life choices the resulting story was positive and hopeful.

I’m going straight to look for more books by this author.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Exquisite

A beautiful, emotionally satisfying read with a pleasing nod to Little Women. I will miss all theses characters, flawed and fully realised.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!