A Town of Empty Rooms, Karen E. Bender
A Town of Empty Rooms, Karen E. Bender
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A Town of Empty Rooms

Author: Karen E. Bender

Narrator: Tanya Eby

Unabridged: 10 hr 43 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 09/23/2016

Synopsis

A Town of Empty Rooms presents the story of Serena and Dan Shine, estranged from one another as they separately grieve over the recent loss of Serena's father and Dan's older brother. Serena's actions cause the couple and their two small children to be banished from New York City, and they settle in the only town that will offer Dan employment: Waring, North Carolina. There, in the Bible belt of America, Serena becomes enmeshed with the small Jewish congregation in town led by an esoteric rabbi, whose increasingly erratic behavior threatens the future of his flock. Dan and their young son are drawn into the Boy Scouts by their mysterious and vigilant neighbor, who may not have their best intentions at heart. Tensions accrue when matters of faith, identity, community, and family all fall into the crosshairs of contemporary, small-town America. A Town of Empty Rooms presents a fascinating insight into the lengths we will go to discover just where we belong.

About Karen E. Bender

Karen E. Bender is the author of Refund, a finalist for the National Book Award for fiction, short-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and long-listed for the Story Prize. She is also the author of the novels Like Normal People and A Town of Empty Rooms. She is the Visiting Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at Hollins University.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Barbara on June 30, 2013

3.5 stars: Bender writes “Everyone lived in the empty rooms of their own longing, wrangling with their own versions of love and grief; sometimes, if they were lucky, they stepped out of their rooms to meet another person, to try, for a moment, to live in the precious room of another.” This novel is......more

Goodreads review by Anne on April 24, 2013

This would be a great novel for a book group. It is both an insightful, literary novel and a suspenseful page-turner-- if you find real people, real marriage, real psychological drama to be suspenseful. The characters are so well-painted, you feel as though they are your friends and you are terribly......more

Goodreads review by Pmcdnld2 on February 25, 2013

Great book. Serena and Dan have moved to a small NC town from NY due to Serena getting herself in some trouble. She becomes obsessed with the Temple and the Rabbi, who has his own issues. Her husband gets hung up on the Boy scouts as they pretty much ignore each other. Some of the other characters a......more

Goodreads review by Jim on May 02, 2013

A very deep novel written with great insight. It took a little while to start developing and much of he dialogue occurred within the primary's mind. As you get into the book you begin to realize she is thinking of times and events that we all experience and never say a word about out loud. I have no......more

Goodreads review by Ben on September 18, 2015

This is a novel about the walls we put up, around ourselves, and around our trusted cliques of like-minded people to keep out those who aren't like us. It's lonely, and some of the story lines are awkwardly shoehorned in or trail off without satisfaction, but it's a decent read.......more

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