

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
Categories: Fiction, Literary Fiction
Author: Karen E. Bender
Narrator: Tanya Eby
Unabridged: 10 hr 43 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Recorded Books
Published: 09/23/2016
Categories: Fiction, Literary Fiction
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.
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
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
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
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
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