A Crooked Tree audiobook

Ooh, a storm is threatening My very life today If I don't get some shelter Ooh yeah I'm gonna fade away - from Gimme Shelter by the Rolling StonesThe 80s, late Spring. Faye Gallagher, a widowed single mother to five, has bloody well had it. Thomas and Ellen will not stop going at each other in the back seat, particularly Ellen, who, although a small 12 year-old, packs a powerful rage, and redirects that weapon at her mother, definitely playing with fire. Mom blows a final gasket and orders her out of the car, five miles from home. Faye then drives on with the rest of her brood, to their house in the Philadelphia suburbs, leaving Ellen to hoof it on her own, just as the sun is setting. This event is the spark that gets the blaze of this story going. Una Mannion - image from her siteWe see the ensuing events through the eyes of 14-year-old Libby. Each of the Gallagher kids has a particular interest. For Libby it is trees, the product of a cherished book her late father had given her for Christmas, The Field Guide to Trees of North America. I grew up on the edge of a hiking trail surrounded by woods and it was deeply formative for me. When I started writing, I found I kept coming back to those woods and trails. For me it is the site of my first yearnings and loss, the home I can never get back to. It is also a geography that resonates with other stories. We were always conscious not just of the Revolutionary War but the Lenape stories connected to the topography. It felt like hallowed ground and we spent an inordinate amount of time in those woods. It became, for me, an imaginative landscape, a place I can still conjure, the turns of the trail, how the light falls through the canopy, the tree roots that break through the surface. - from the Blue Nib interviewMarie, almost 18, is getting ready to leave the nest, heading for school in Philly in the coming term. Dad had given her the two volume Illustrated History of Rock and Roll. Thomas is 16, highest GPA in his class, a card-carrying nerd, who never cries. He got The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Space. Ellen, possessor of a considerable artistic gift, got a book on Art History, and Beatrice, 7, received a book on dog breeds. It might be that she is a half-sister to the others. Libby’s description of her world is rich with woodsy references. Her arboreal lens permeates the novel. …as I walked toward Sage’s, I listened to the click of crickets at the wood’s edge, the slight whisper of trees, the sounds of the mountain, as if there were another frequency to hear and to be moved by. I wondered if one day I would have the same wrenching longing for this place that my father had for the sounds he’d heard growing up. Pop was out of the picture for too much of her life, divorced from her mother, and then dead way too young, but she remembers him very fondly. He is very reminiscent of Mannion’s Da, in origin and profession. My father, as an Irish immigrant in America, loved literature. He was a landscaper and we’d be in his truck and he’s start reciting something. He’d recite lines from The Deserted Village from Oliver Goldsmith. The Song of Wandering Aengus was also one he recited a lot. My father would have such awe of these words and the power of words to transform you emotionally but also words to transform a situation. - from the Dodging the Rain interview Libby has a bff in Sage, who is, unsurprisingly, given her name, wise beyond her years. She is very fond of quoting the literature of her experience, Rolling Stones lyrics to, herself, transform situations, like a religious person who might be able to dredge up the exact right chapter and verse from a different source. Libby and Sage have a special hangout in the woods, The Kingdom, an off-the-path hideout where they can be their truest selves with each other. I walked down Horseshoe Trail toward the Kingdom, a secret fort Sage and I had made several summers before. Ahead of me was the crooked tree, our marker for leaving the path to circle into the Kingdom from the back, a routine we had so that there would never be a trace of track or footfall for anyone else to find. We imagined that the crooked tree was one of the ones Indians had used as signposts along the trail to signal where there was good hunting or soft ground for shelter. It was an oak that had started to grow upright, but suddenly the trunk made a complete right angle for two or three feet and then grew straight again. Before the Kingdom ever existed, Dad showed me the tree. He said it might have been a marker, but it could also have been caused by a bigger tree falling on the oak when it was young and then over time the bigger tree rotted and fell apart. The young tree survived but was left with this strange shape. So, is Libby the crooked tree of the title? Is Ellen? Are we all bent into odd shapes by our experiences growing up? Mom has a tough time of it all, working as an ER receptionist, having to cope with her kids, while also wanting to get some satisfaction in a social life. The children are not always supervised and this presents some cause for concern, as, if anything bad were to happen to them while she was unavailable, her parental rights might be jeopardized. While it is clear that Faye loves her kids, she is also willing to be absent maybe more than is ok, an element of the author’s life that she has incorporated into several of her works of fiction. I often think I write more about being a child and the absence of a mother and wanting a mother. The earth maybe in a way is mothering me. - from the Dodging the Rain interviewAs the family copes with the collateral effects of Ellen’s abandonment, we follow Libby as she goes through ups and downs with her bff, has to contend with the changes in her adolescent world, tries to figure out who she is and where she fits in, gains awareness of some of the hostile actors in the world, learns to identify who to trust, and maybe channels a bit of Harriet the Spy. Pretty classic coming of age material.It is certainly a world in which secrets, lies, and rumors abound. A nearby house is said to be occupied by a member of the Manson family. There is a very large secret in a family for whom Libby babysits. And she recalls another dark tale from an experience with another family. Many stories have attached themselves to Wilson, a motorcycle-driving young friend of Marie’s who seems too old to be hanging about with the likes of the Gallagher kids. He is the Knight errant here, or is it Knight erroneous? Or is he up to something totally not ok? Libby is highly suspicious of him. (What’s puzzling her is the nature of his game)In short, this is a moving novel, rich with the experience of adolescence, but elevated by the use of Libby’s sylvan perspective. You will want answers to the questions that are raised, and will care about Libby, an everygirl even us guy readers can relate to. We all had uncertainties at Libby’s age, who we are, who we want to be, what is possible, how to deal with our parents, with other kids’ parents, who to trust. You may not always be able to get what you want in a novel, but in A Crooked Tree, you will definitely get what you need. Beside us, the shadows of dogwoods blurred in the dark as my mother kept driving, each tree hemmed in a halo of white where the bracts had fallen. Review posted – 12/18/2020Publication dates----------USA - 1/5/2021 - Harper----------UK – 1/21/2021 – Faber and Faber =============================EXTRA STUFFLinks to the author’s personal and Instagram pagesInterviews-----2020 - The Blue Nib Literary Magazine - Una Mannion in conversation with Dave Kavanagh-----2017 – Dodging the Rain - Interview with Una Mannion, Award-Winning Author-----2017 - North West Words - North West Words Interview with Una Mannion - Autumn/Winter Issue 8 - page 39Songs/Music-----Rolling Stones - Jumpin Jack Flash-----Supertramp - The Logical Song Supertramp –plays in Jack’s Datsun as they drive to the towers-----Xray spex - Oh Bondage, Up Yours - Marie and Wilson talk about Poly Styrene-----Rolling Stones - Mother’s Little Helper - re Wilson’s mother’s supply -----Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb - played in a dodgy person’s vehicle-----Rolling Stones - Wild Horses - when Libby goes to see Sage at Sage’s house after the mall run-in with the creep-----AC/DC - You Shook Me All Night Long - at the towers hangout-----Rolling Stones - She’s a Rainbow - on the car radio after they all get ice cream at Guernsey Cow-----Rolling Stones - Paint it Black after Libby has let slip a big secret and feels sooooo guiltyItems of Interest-----Literary Hub - excerpt-----Oliver Goldsmith - The Deserted Village - Libby recalls her father quoting from this poem-----William Butler Yeats - The Song of Wandering Aengus - ditto

Just when I thought I had my top five reads of 2020 well-established, A Crooked Tree came along and foiled all of my plans. One evening, while driving home, a tired single mother of five makes a rash decision that will have profound consequences: She forces her twelve year old daughter, Ellen, out of the car and tells her to walk home the rest of the way.I adored this book. The emotions it conjured were powerful and the story had me fully intrigued from start to finish. Libby, who was fifteen when the incident occurred, narrates. Her voice, with all its worry, guilt, and sadness, felt overwhelmingly real. The observations she described grasped my heart and made it ache in raw, familiar ways. This is a deeply reflective novel. It’s haunting honesty examines the mess even the most pristine in appearance can be. This book’s tone reminded me of Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger, another book I loved and struggled to put down. One defining difference between the two for me was that the ending in this didn’t feel rushed or overly explained. That had been my only disappointment with Krueger’s book (though still a favorite) and I was grateful to find A Crooked Tree satisfied all the way through. Having seen a few misconceptions about this novel noted by other readers, I will warn that this is not a thriller. It is literary fiction with a hint of suspense. Some have also stated that it is a coming-of-age novel. It isn’t that either. We look only at the one summer of Libby’s life. I know how expectations can ruin one’s experience while reading and I want everyone to go in with the right ones. This book deserves no less. A Crooked Tree is a mesmerizing and heart wrenching look at a broken family. I will be very disappointed if it doesn’t win or, at the very least, get nominated for an award in 2021. I’m sad that it’s a debut, as I’m craving more from Una Mannion and there’s no backlist for me to dive into. At the same time, I know I have so much to look forward to, for if a debut is this exceptional, whatever she brings us in the future will surely be magnificent. Thank you to the publisher for my review copy. All opinions are my own.

I genuinely cannot believe this is a debut. Mannion’s writing is so beautiful and atmospheric, not to mention the amazing ability to ground this story in such a vivid reality. A Crooked Tree is a character driven contemporary that felt so raw and real. This is a story of family, belonging, friendship and resilience narrated through the mind of fifteen-year-old, middle child, Libby as her and her single parent family manage a tumultuous period in their lives. The character growth in this is so well handled. Libby’s interactions with those around her, from her siblings to her best friend to the single mum she babysits for are so fascinating and truthful. The unsettling moments felt even more riveting and haunting due to this. I absolutely adored the 80s setting and it really helped ground the characters, especially with the references to popular music of the time. I found this most compelling because in our formative years music really is how we relate to the world and it is such a core part of our identities. I’ll be looking out for the next book from Mannion and trusting that I’ll be taken on a magical, dark journey.ARC provided through Edelweiss for an honest review

A mother is in the car driving home with her four bickering children, she stops the car and demands that 12 year old Ellen gets out of the car. She drives away leaving her on a dark road 5 miles from home.What happens next when Ellen hitches a lift, sets of a disastrous chain of events that will change this family forever. A great story about family and friendship. I loved how the characters came to life, seeing the connection between the siblings and how they look after each other.An author I will be looking out for. I can’t wait to read her next book.Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

Rating: Very GoodGenre: Literary FictionThe story is set in the 1980s about a family consisting of a mother, her four daughters, and her son. One night while driving home and due to a fight between the siblings the mother pulls over the car and orders one of the sisters (12-year-old Ellen) to walk home in that darkness. Once the family reached their house, hours pass, and Ellen still doesn’t show up. This triggers the consequent events that disturb this family’s life. There are trigger warnings in this story so be cautious getting into it. The first thing that really impressed me about the story is the 1980s atmosphere. Una Mannion has created a wonderful atmosphere and set up with all its nostalgia. I think the 1980s’ generation will appreciate the world that the author has created here. The plot itself sometimes got repetitive specifically when it was about the present. However, the author tried to break this repetitiveness by bringing up some of the past events mainly those that involved the deceased father. The story is narrated from Libby’s point of view. This gave the author more space to change the narrator’s way of looking at things and life. I think it was quite interesting the way Libby looked at some of the other characters and changed her opinion about them. Overall, I liked most of the characters especially Wilson! Every one of them added something colorful to the story. This coming-of-age literary fiction has the needed elements making it a very good atmospheric reading experience.

A Crooked Tree focuses on one summer in the early 1980s in a rural town in Pennsylvania. The narrator is Libby, fifteen years old. Her three sisters and one brother live with their mother, who works as a receptionist in a hospital. The father is deceased.One evening driving home, the mother kicks out the squabbling twelve-year-old Ellen and tells her to find her own way home. This triggers a series of unfortunate events, amplified by the fact that it was kept secret from the adults in charge, something that was made easy by the fact that the mother was either at work or sneaking out to meet with her lover, a mystery man that none but the youngest child knew who he was. This is a coming of age novel that deals with family, growing up, grief, friendship in a very realistic way. The writing is straight forward as you'd expect from a fifteen-year-old.I've received this eARC in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to Faber and Faber for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

This is the story of a mother who, overwhelmed by loss and stress, mistreats her children. She leaves her 12-year-old daughter on the side of the road, miles away from home, with darkness falling. That's how the book starts, and in the pages that follow, I became engrossed in the teenage narrator's life. It's impossible not to be moved by struggles this family experiences, but the bond between the siblings as well as the unity of a small-town community help balance the dysfunction.

"Everything was beautiful, and for a moment we were held together by our longing to be what we once had been."Gawdddd, this book is gorgeous. I honestly didn't know what I was getting into when I started this one. I thought I was going to be reading a mystery about a missing girl and what I got was an amazingly well-written, beautiful book about a family in the 70s. Libby is the protagonist of the story, which starts with a fateful car ride. It is the last day of school and Libby's mom is driving Libby and her four siblings home. Twelve year old Ellen is being a pain in the ass (as twelve year olds tend to do) and her mother finally pulls over on the side of the highway and tells her to walk home. Ellen gets out of the car, and her siblings watch in astonishment as their mother drives away. Ellen does make it home, but the events of that night leave the family forever changed.I'm not sure what to say about A Crooked Tree except that is touching and intense and made me nostalgic, even though I didn't grow up in the 70s. The writing is beautiful and it is hard to believe this is a debut novel. If you enjoy coming-of-age novels you MUST add this to your list. This is my first five star read in awhile and I will be keeping an eye on Mannion as I would love to read anything she writes--grocery lists included. *Please note that the quoted material is from an uncorrected proof and is subject to change.

Per tutti quelli che hanno nostalgia di casa e della loro infanzia, facile o difficile che fosse.

Una, you got me with the first sentence: "The night we left Ellen on the road, we were driving north up 252 near where it meets 2020 and then crosses the Pennsylvania Turnpike." I knew instantly this was going to be a page turner and would be about either a dog or a girl. Either way, I was ready. Oh, and it probably would be taking place in the mountains, and it would take place outdoors. Una Mannion, how can this be your debut novel? It's got so much depth to it, yet it's like an old familiar story. Suspenseful, yes. Empathetic, yes that too. Admiration for nature, totally. Spending time with this small community of young people who are witness to family dysfunctions based on fears and deep needs for privacy is like reading about any neighborhood, USA. The bonds and the bitterness, the grief and anger, the secrets . . . all these emotions are so tenderly expressed — in the voice of coming-of-age teenagers who could have been me or my brothers or my friends. Well done Una.

I couldn't put this one down. Beautifully written with a great sense of setting including 80s song lyrics, this coming of age/thriller portrays a summer in 15 year old Libby's life. Like the adults in a Peanuts cartoon, her mother is barely seen, an obstacle to get around. Her best friend may have betrayed her and the adults are not what they seem. Can't wait to read what Mannion writes next.

A Crooked Tree is a sonorous ode to youth with all its innocence, angst, disillusionment, and unfiltered honesty. Author Una Mannion tells a coming-of-age story in its full expression as told by clear-eyed, 15-year-old Libby Gallagher, the third of five siblings born to a family most would call dysfunctional, yet with Mannion’s deft handling, we experience the family as normal; we accept as plausible the frame of reference in this heart-tugging cause and effect story.Full review in the New York Journal of Books:https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book...

Good book that involved family, friendship, adultery, death, dysfunction and the world as a whole.The book was well paced, and kept me wanting more.A solid ⭐⭐⭐⭐ .

A coming-of-age story centring on 14-year-old Libby and the events of one summer. Her widowed mother has her five squabbling children aged 17 to 6 packed into the car heading for home when, frazzled and at the end of her rope, still five miles from home and with night falling, she orders tiny 12-year-old Ellen out of the car to walk the rest of the way home. (She’s quite irresponsible as a mother, but talk about the Worst Decision Ever). Of course Ellen doesn’t make it home unscathed, and it’s what happens next that forms the backbone of the novel, as her siblings decide to keep things from their mother and handle everything themselves. Very engaging characters, though you do want to give them a hard shake as they demonstrate teenage bad judgement and one poor decision is piled on another.