

The Weight of Him
Author: Ethel Rohan
Narrator: Tim Gerard Reynolds
Unabridged: 11 hr 13 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Published: 02/14/2017
Categories: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Family Life
Author: Ethel Rohan
Narrator: Tim Gerard Reynolds
Unabridged: 11 hr 13 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Published: 02/14/2017
Categories: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Family Life
Ethel Rohan is the author of two story collections, Goodnight Nobody and Cut through the Bone, both finalists for major short-story prizes.
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.
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
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
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
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
“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