Goliath, Susan Woodring
Goliath, Susan Woodring
List: $24.95 | Sale: $17.47
Club: $12.47

Goliath

Author: Susan Woodring

Narrator: Clarinda Ross

Unabridged: 15 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/24/2012

Categories: Fiction, Women

Synopsis

When Percy Harding, Goliath’s most important citizen, is discovered dead by the railroad tracks outside of town one perfect autumn afternoon, no one can quite believe it’s really happened. Percy, the president of the town’s world-renowned furniture company, had seemed invincible. Only Rosamond Rogers, Percy’s secretary, may have had a glimpse of how and why this great man has fallen, and that glimpse tugs at her, urges her to find out more.Percy isn’t the first person to leave Rosamond—everybody seems to, from her husband, Hatley, who walked out on her years ago, to her complicated daughter Agnes, whose girlhood bedroom was papered with maps of the places she wanted to escape to. The town itself is Rosamond’s anchor, but it is beginning to quiver with the possibility of change. The high school girls are writing suicide poetry, the town’s young, lumbering sidewalk preacher is courting Rosamond’s daughter, a troubled teenage boy plans to burn Main Street to the ground, and the furniture factory itself—the very soul of Goliath—threatens to close.In the wake of the town’s undoing, Rosamond seeks to reunite the grief-shaken community. Goliath—a story of loss and love, of forgiveness and letting go—is a lyrical swoon of a novel by an exceptionally talented newcomer.

About Susan Woodring

Susan Woodring grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina. She also lived in California, Alabama, Illinois, and Indiana as a child. After graduating from Western Carolina University, she spent a year teaching English as a foreign language in Vologda, Russia. When she returned, she spent a few years teaching middle school in Lenoir, North Carolina, before resigning to begin a family with her husband and to spend more time on her writing. She has an MFA in creative writing from Queens University, and in September 2007 her first novel, The Traveling Disease, was published by Main Street Rag. Her short-story collection, Springtime on Mars, was published in May 2008.

About Clarinda Ross

Clarinda Ross graduated from Appalachian State University with a BA in theater. She has worked at many major regional theaters and spent several years as a leading lady with the Atlanta Shakespeare Company. Her film and television credits include Blue Sky, View from the Top, Judging Amy, ER, United States of Tara, Medium, and many more. She and her family split their time between California and North Carolina.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Tami

I haven't received my copy yet, just received notice I had won. 3/5/12 Received yesterday and hope to start soon. I have 10 more plus my current read in front. 3/16/12 Started 4/21/12 Goliath is a small town based on the Harding Furniture Factory. It is full of a fun mix of characters and follows them......more

Goodreads review by Stacy

I didn't mind this book, but it tries to be existential in this wordy way you forget what this book is about. In fact, you're never really quite sure what the point is because it says it's about the death of this guy, but really, that's just the catalyst to get a sad, morose, inside-look at these pe......more

Goodreads review by Sandy

I have mixed thoughts about this book, it was a slow, calm read but yet it gave a lot of details about the town of Goliath and how one event can trigger or seem to set off other events. It all started with Vincent, a normal teenager who stumbles across the owner of the town’s furniture manufacturin......more

Quotes

“Like a contemporary Winesburg, Ohio, Susan Woodring’s Goliath brings small town life beautifully, achingly alive. Sprinkled with marching bands, baseball, and parades, and a cast of southern characters who will charm the pants off you, Goliath is a memorable novel, written in a memorable new voice.” Ann Hood, bestselling author of The Knitting Circle

“When a Goliath-like man from a small town dies under unexpected, mysterious circumstances, his life, death, and legacy leave the town alternating between grief and despair, hope and innovation…Woodring’s latest is melodious, deliberate, surprising, and full of those essential little moments that make up entire lifetimes. Readers who enjoy sinking into the layered details of small-town life should enjoy this rich portrait.” Booklist

“Goliath is a careful, contemplative study of the rhythms of collective grief. Woodring’s sense of the constraints and hard-earned pleasures of home rings as true and pure as a train whistle in the night.” Michael Parker, author of The Watery Part of the World

“Woodring’s writing is so clear and moving that the reader often feels, as she says of one of her characters, as if ‘the world had been sucked clear of true sound.’ This beautiful portrait of a place and its people, rendered so quietly and intimately, shuts out the world outside its pages as you read. Only the best novels can make you forget yourself as reader. Goliath is the kind of book you don’t want to put down or to end.” Brad Watson, author of The Heaven of Mercury

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List