Songs Without Words

Songs Without Words: Ann Packer's debut novel, The Dive from Clausen's Pier, was a nationwide best-seller that established her as one of our most gifted chroniclers of the interior lives of women. Now, in her long-awaited second novel, she takes us on a journey into a lifelong friendship pushed to the breaking point. Expertly, with the keen introspection and psychological nuance that are her hallmarks, she explores what happens when there are inequities between friends and when the hard-won balances of a long relationship are disturbed, perhaps irreparably, by a harrowing crisis. Liz and Sarabeth were childhood neighbors in the suburbs of Northern California, brought as close as sisters by the suicide of Sarabeth's mother when the girls were just 16. In the decades that followed - through Liz's marriage and the birth of her children, through Sarabeth's attempts to make a happy life for herself despite the shadow cast by her mother's act, their relationship remained a source of continuity and strength. But when Liz's adolescent daughter enters dangerous waters that threaten to engulf the family, the fault lines in the women's friendship are revealed, and both Liz and Sarabeth are forced to reexamine their most deeply held beliefs about their connection. Songs Without Words is about the sometimes confining roles we take on in our closest relationships, about the familial myths that shape us, both as children and as parents, and about the limits, and the power, of the friendships we create when we are young.

"A richly nuanced meditation on the place of friendship in women's lives." (Publishers Weekly)

• Songs Without Words (Vintage Contemporaries) - Paperback

  Price

  $14.95 $0.83 (94% Off) Buy from Amazon.com
  (as of 2013-06-15 1:45 PDT)

  Rating

  3.0 (64 reviews)

  Publisher

  Vintage

  Shop

  Amazon

  Format

  Paperback

  Publish Date

  Jul 29, 2008

  Sales Rank

  954655

  ISBN

  0375412816

  ISBN-13

  9780375412813

  Edition

  Reprint

  Pages

  384

  Search best deal and alternate versions of "Songs Without Words" in US (United States), UK (United Kingdom) and CA (Canada)

  • Songs Without Words (Vintage Contemporaries) (Paperback)
  • Songs Without Words (Kindle Edition)
  • Songs Without Words (Hardcover)
  • Songs Without Words - A Novel (Hardcover)
  • Songs Without Words (Audio CD)
  • Songs Without Words (Unknown Binding)
  • Songs Without Words (Audio Cassette)

  Product Description / Editorial Review

  Liz and Sarabeth were girlhood neighbors in the suburbs of Northern California, brought as close as sisters by the suicide of Sarabeth's mother. In the decades that followed, their relationship remained a source of continuity and strength. But when Liz's adolescent daughter enters dangerous waters, the women's friendship takes a devastating turn, forcing Liz and Sarabeth to question their most deeply held beliefs about their connection. From the bestselling author of The Dive from Clausen's Pier, Songs Without Words is the gripping story of a lifelong friendship pushed to the breaking point. — Source: Amazon

  

• Songs Without Words - Paperback

  Price

  $14.95 $12.78 (15% Off) Buy from Barnes & Noble
  (as of 2013-06-16 23:40 PDT)

  Rating

  2.5 (22 reviews)

  Publisher

  Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

  Shop

  Barnes & Noble

  Format

  Paperback

  Publish Date

  Jul 2008

  Sales Rank

  443506

  ISBN

  0375727175

  ISBN-13

  9780375727177

  Pages

  384

  Edition Description

  Reprint

  Series

  Vintage Contemporaries Series

  Alternate Versions

  • eBook - $9.8
  • Hardcover - $19.9
  • Paperback - Large Prin - Large Print - $19.9
  • Compact Disc - Unabridged, 11 CDs, 12 hours - $31.4
  • MP3 Book - Unabridged - $18.6

  Biography

  Ten years in the writing, Ann Packer's debut novel -- the critically acclaimed The Dive From Clausen's Pier -- was well worth the wait. According to Scott Turow, it's "one of those small miracles that reinforce our faith in fiction."

  From the Publisher

  Ann Packer’s debut novel, The Dive from Clausen’s Pier, was a nationwide best seller that established her as one of our most gifted chroniclers of the interior lives of women. Now, in her long-awaited second novel, she takes us on a journey into a lifelong friendship pushed to the breaking point. Expertly, with the keen introspection and psychological nuance that are her hallmarks, she explores what happens when there are inequities between friends and when the hard-won balances of a long relationship are disturbed, perhaps irreparably, by a harrowing crisis.
  
  Liz and Sarabeth were childhood neighbors in the suburbs of northern California, brought as close as sisters by the suicide of Sarabeth’s mother when the girls were just sixteen. In the decades that followed—through Liz’s marriage and the birth of her children, through Sarabeth’s attempts to make a happy life for herself despite the shadow cast by her mother’s act—their relationship remained a source of continuity and strength. But when Liz’s adolescent daughter enters dangerous waters that threaten to engulf the family, the fault lines in the women’s friendship are revealed, and both Liz and Sarabeth are forced to reexamine their most deeply held beliefs about their connection. Songs Without Words is about the sometimes confining roles we take on in our closest relationships, about the familial myths that shape us both as children and as parents, and about the limits—and the power—of the friendships we create when we are young.
  
  Once again, Ann Packer has written a novel of singular force and complexity: thoughtful, moving, and absolutely gripping, it more than confirms her prodigious literary gifts.

  Publishers Weekly

  Packer follows her well-received first novel, The Dive from Clausen's Pier, with a richly nuanced meditation on the place of friendship in women's lives. Liz and Sarabeth's childhood friendship deepened following Sarabeth's mother's suicide when the girls were 16; now the two women are in their 40s and living in the Bay Area. Responsible mother-of-two Liz has come to see eccentric, bohemian Sarabeth, with her tendency to enter into inappropriate relationships with men, as more like another child than as a sister or mutually supportive friend. When Liz's teenage daughter, Lauren, perpetuates a crisis, Liz doubts her parenting abilities; Sarabeth is plunged into uncomfortable memories; and the hidden fragilities of what seemed a steadfast relationship come to the fore. Packer adroitly navigates Lauren's teen despair, Sarabeth's lonely longings and Liz's feelings of guilt and inadequacy. Although Liz's husband, Brody, and other men in the book are less than compelling, Packer gets deep into the perspectives of Liz, Sarabeth and Lauren, and follows out their conflicts with an unsentimental sympathy. (Sept.)

  Starr E. Smith - Library Journal

  In her second novel, Packer sticks with the themes of kinship and loss that helped The Dive from Clausen's Pier become a best seller. Here, full-time mom Liz enjoys life in northern California with Brody, her reliable if staid husband, and their children. Sometimes Liz must counsel and console Sarabeth, her flighty best friend, but overall things are good. Neither is prepared for the shock when Liz's teenage daughter Lauren tries to kill herself after a carefully hidden depression overwhelms her. Craving support from her childhood pal, Liz is stunned when Sarabeth stays away, numbed by recollections of her mother's suicide, and their long friendship seems doomed. The family's despair and gradual moves toward coping unfold in precise, graceful language that creates a contemporary setting with plenty of references to current fads and fashions. Individual characters, particularly most of the adults, are less vividly realized, though the author has a knack for capturing the inner lives of adolescents, making Lauren's sections memorable and poignant. Recommended for most collections of popular fiction. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/07.

  Synopsis

  Ann Packer's debut novel, The Dive from Clausen's Pier, was a nationwide best seller that established her as one of our most gifted chroniclers of the interior lives of women. Now, in her long-awaited second novel, she takes us on a journey into a lifelong friendship pushed to the breaking point. Expertly, with the keen introspection and psychological nuance that are her hallmarks, she explores what happens when there are inequities between friends and when the hard-won balances of a long relationship are disturbed, perhaps irreparably, by a harrowing crisis.Liz and Sarabeth were childhood neighbors in the suburbs of northern California, brought as close as sisters by the suicide of Sarabeth's mother when the girls were just sixteen. In the decades that followed—through Liz's marriage and the birth of her children, through Sarabeth's attempts to make a happy life for herself despite the shadow cast by her mother's act—their relationship remained a source of continuity and...

  The Washington Post - Carrie Brown

  Packer solidifies the reputation she established in the enormously successful The Dive from Clausen's Pier as an uncannily observant chronicler of contemporary American domestic life. Songs Without Words touches every nerve exposed by the solidly middle-class dilemmas of today's parents and children, husbands and wives, friends and lovers…Packer is no ironist; she is not Claire Messud or Zadie Smith, whose most recent novels unspool under the cool panoramic gaze of a social critic. The characters in Packer's novels are not so much exposed as they are understood…Packer is devoted to her characters, and it is her pleasure as a novelistand ours as her readersto watch these people move through the intensely familiar and intimate hours of their days and nights…her pursuit is so unnervingly attentive that it becomes revelatory. Middle-of-the-night readers…who cannot put down Songs Without Words will surely look up at the darkest hour with the sense that they are being watched.

  
  — Source: Barnes & Noble

  

• Songs Without Words (Unabridged) - iTunes Audiobook

  Price

  $23.95 Download on iTunes
  (as of 2013-06-16 23:40 PDT)

  Publisher

  Random House Audio

  Shop

  Apple iTunes Store

  Format

  iTunes Audiobook

  Publish Date

  Sep 4, 2007

  Length

  13 hours 57 minutes

  Narrator

  Cassandra Campbell

  Presented by

  Audible.com

  Product Description / Editorial Review

  Ann Packer's debut novel, The Dive from Clausen's Pier, was a nationwide best-seller that established her as one of our most gifted chroniclers of the interior lives of women. Now, in her long-awaited second novel, she takes us on a journey into a lifelong friendship pushed to the breaking point. Expertly, with the keen introspection and psychological nuance that are her hallmarks, she explores what happens when there are inequities between friends and when the hard-won balances of a long relationship are disturbed, perhaps irreparably, by a harrowing crisis. Liz and Sarabeth were childhood neighbors in the suburbs of Northern California, brought as close as sisters by the suicide of Sarabeth's mother when the girls were just 16. In the decades that followed - through Liz's marriage and the birth of her children, through Sarabeth's attempts to make a happy life for herself despite the shadow cast by her mother's act, their relationship remained a source of continuity and strength. But when Liz's adolescent daughter enters dangerous waters that threaten to engulf the family, the fault lines in the women's friendship are revealed, and both Liz and Sarabeth are forced to reexamine their most deeply held beliefs about their connection. Songs Without Words is about the sometimes confining roles we take on in our closest relationships, about the familial myths that shape us, both as children and as parents, and about the limits, and the power, of the friendships we create when we are young.
  
  "A richly nuanced meditation on the place of friendship in women's lives." (Publishers Weekly) — Source: Apple iTunes Store

  

• Songs Without Words (Unabridged) - Digital Download

  Price

  $34.95 $24.47 (30% Off) Buy from Audible.com
  (as of 2010-06-09 0:00 PDT)

  Publisher

  Random House Audio

  Shop

  Audible

  Format

  Digital Download

  Publish Date

  Aug 31, 2007

  ISBN-13

  9780739354681

  Length

  14 hours 1 minute

  Narrator

  Cassandra Campbell

  Preview

  mwprealmp3

  Promotion

  Sign up AudibleListener® Gold and Download Songs Without Words (Unabridged) for Special Offer Price: $7.49

  Product Description / Editorial Review

  Ann Packer's debut novel, The Dive from Clausen's Pier, was a nationwide best-seller that established her as one of our most gifted chroniclers of the interior lives of women. Now, in her long-awaited second novel, she takes us on a journey into a lifelong friendship pushed to the breaking point. Expertly, with the keen introspection and psychological nuance that are her hallmarks, she explores what happens when there are inequities between friends and when the hard-won balances of a long relationship are disturbed, perhaps irreparably, by a harrowing crisis. Liz and Sarabeth were childhood neighbors in the suburbs of Northern California, brought as close as sisters by the suicide of Sarabeth's mother when the girls were just 16. In the decades that followed - through Liz's marriage and the birth of her children, through Sarabeth's attempts to make a happy life for herself despite the shadow cast by her mother's act, their relationship remained a source of continuity and strength. But when Liz's adolescent daughter enters dangerous waters that threaten to engulf the family, the fault lines in the women's friendship are revealed, and both Liz and Sarabeth are forced to reexamine their most deeply held beliefs about their connection. Songs Without Words is about the sometimes confining roles we take on in our closest relationships, about the familial myths that shape us, both as children and as parents, and about the limits, and the power, of the friendships we create when we are young. — Source: Audible