The Weight of Him, Ethel Rohan
The Weight of Him, Ethel Rohan
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The Weight of Him

Author: Ethel Rohan

Narrator: Tim Gerard Reynolds

Unabridged: 11 hr 13 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/14/2017

Synopsis

At four hundred pounds, Billy Brennan can always count on food. From his earliest memories, he has loved food’s colors, textures, and tastes. The way flavors go off in his mouth. How food keeps his mind still and his bad feelings quiet. Food has always made everything better, until the day Billy’s beloved son Michael takes his own life.In Michael’s memory, Billy determines to make a difference and undertakes a public weight-loss campaign to raise money for suicide prevention—his first step in an ambitious plan to save himself and others. However, Billy’s dramatic crusade appalls his family, who simply want to get on with their lives. Despite his crushing detractors, Billy garners welcome allies: his community, a coworker who lost his father to suicide, and a filmmaker with his own dubious agenda, as well as a secret, miniature kingdom that Billy populates with the sub-quality dolls and soldiers he rescues from disposal at the local toy factory where he works. But it is only if Billy can confront the truth of his pain and suffering and the brokenness around him that he and others will see the change they need.Set in rural, contemporary Ireland, The Weight of Him is an unforgettable, bighearted novel about loss and reliance that moves from tragedy to recrimination to what can be achieved when we truly decide to take a stand.

About Ethel Rohan

Ethel Rohan is the author of two story collections, Goodnight Nobody and Cut through the Bone, both finalists for major short-story prizes.

About Tim Gerard Reynolds

Tim Gerard Reynolds is an established audiobook narrator who has won several AudioFile Earphones Awards and was a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for Best Fantasy Narration. He trained for the stage at the Samuel Beckett Center at Trinity College in Dublin and the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center in New London, Connecticut.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Suzanne on April 07, 2017

Billy Brennan has worked as an inspector at a toy manufacturing company for twenty years. His family is grieving the recent suicide of their eldest son Michael. He was only seventeen years old when he took his own life and he did not leave a note. Billy weighs 401 pounds and has had difficulty with......more

Goodreads review by Roxane on April 16, 2017

The Weight of Him is a deeply moving novel about a grieving family and in the center of that grieving family, Billy Brennan, the patriarch, over four hundred pounds and struggling with his oldest child's suicide, the body he lives in, and food that has long been his comfort and companion. To raise a......more

Goodreads review by Karen on February 06, 2017

Billy Brennan, severely obese, is on a mission after the suicide of his son Michael. He wants to to lose over 200lbs and begins a public weight loss campaign, to raise money for suicide prevention. We follow him through this crusade of his, and also how he and his family deal with the aftermath of hi......more

Goodreads review by Esil on January 05, 2017

The Weight of Him was a nice surprise. The book's description makes it sound like somewhat of a humorous book, but it's actually quite meaty and emotionally charged -- in a good way. Billy lives in a small village in Ireland with his wife and children. He weighs 400 pounds and his family has recentl......more

Quotes

“An achingly sad, achingly lovely novel that speaks to the essential core of our shared human experience.” Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize–winning author

“Ethel Rohan is a writer of great courage and emotional intelligence. She can also tell a damn good story.” Tom Barbash, New York Times bestselling author

“Rohan’s tender, generous, and inspiring debut novel The Weight of Him deserves our full appreciation and absorption.” San Francisco Chronicle

“This painstakingly beautiful debut novel is emotional and thought-provoking…Readers will find themselves rooting for Billy, his sanity, and his family.” RT Book Reviews (4 stars)

“Shows impressive acuity in portraying the many facets of Billy’s and his family’s grief.” Booklist

“Captures a blend of comedy and tragedy that is entirely true to family, hometown, and our own private struggles.” Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow Child

“Tim Gerard-Reynolds’ understated and measured narration portrays a grieving Irish family…with his natural reading style, which proves all the more rewarding when Rohan depicts genuine grief. Gerard-Reynolds’ voicing of each grieving family member as he or she struggles to cope with the suicide of the eldest child is varied and consistently full of realistic humanity. The core tension in the story comes from the different ways the husband and wife handle grief. Gerard-Reynolds’ sensitivity to the stoicism of one and the dogged determination of the other is a sure achievement that brings out the strengths of Rohan’s novel.” AudioFile

Awards

  • Amazon Best Book of the Month
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