Upstate, James Wood
Upstate, James Wood
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Upstate
A Novel

Author: James Wood

Narrator: Raphael Corkhill

Unabridged: 6 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/05/2018


Synopsis


New Yorker book critic and award-winning author James Wood delivers an audiobook about a family struggling to connect with one another and find meaning in their own lives.

In the years since his daughter Vanessa moved to America to become a professor of philosophy, Alan Querry has never been to visit. He has been too busy at home in northern England, holding together his business as a successful property developer. His younger daughter, Helen—a music executive in London—hasn’t gone, either, and the two sisters, close but competitive, have never quite recovered from their parents’ bitter divorce and the early death of their mother. But when Vanessa’s new boyfriend sends word that she has fallen into a severe depression and that he’s worried for her safety, Alan and Helen fly to New York and take the train to Saratoga Springs.

Over the course of six wintry days in upstate New York, the Querry family begins to struggle with the questions that animate this profound and searching novel: Why do some people find living so much harder than others? Is happiness a skill that might be learned or a cruel accident of birth? Is reflection conducive to happiness or an obstacle to it? If, as a favorite philosopher of Helen’s puts it, “the only serious enterprise is living,” how should we live? Rich in subtle human insight, full of poignant and often funny portraits, and vivid with a sense of place, James Wood’s Upstate is a powerful, intense, beautiful audiobook.

About James Wood

James Wood is a staff writer at The New Yorker and Professor of the Practice of Literary Criticism at Harvard University. He is the author of How Fiction Works, as well as two essay collections, The Broken Estate and The Irresponsible Self, and a novel, The Book Against God.

About Raphael Corkhill

Raphael Corkhill is an award-winning stage, screen and voice actor. Born and raised in the UK, Raphael graduated from Princeton University then gained his MFA in acting from the University of Southern California. Raphael’s film and television credits include the Warner Bros. feature The Goldfinch, independent TV pilot Manny, and Burning at Both Ends alongside Cary Elwes. His extensive voice credits include billion-dollar video game franchises: Uncharted 4 (BAFTA “Best Game” winner), The Elder Scrolls Online and Titanfall 2, as well as the recent blockbuster ESO: Morrowind. Raphael has narrated numerous titles for Macmillan including The Fallon Trilogy and his audiobook performances have been described by Publisher’s Weekly as “terrific.”


Reviews

Goodreads review by Esil

Upstate was a lovely read, in an understated way. Allan is in his 60s and has two adult daughters. He and his daughter Helen travel from the UK to upstate New York to visit his other daughter Vanessa. The trip is made because Allan and Helen are worried about Vanessa, who has a tendency toward depre......more

Goodreads review by Andrew

Alan Querry is in his mid to late sixties and lives in Northumbria, in the north of England. His roots are working class folk made good. He has two grown up daughters and a once strong business that is going through troubling times. One of his daughters, Vanessa (Van), the more fragile one, lives in......more

I came to this book purely due to its author - James Wood, currently both an academic and the literary critic of the New Yorker, a magazine I first picked up due to my monthly trips to the City but have carried on reading due to its in depth essays, not least its sometimes brilliant coverage of book......more

Goodreads review by Meike

Why is it so hard for some people to be happy, while others seem to achieve happiness so easily? When 68-year-old Alan, a divorced widower, is informed that his grown-up daughter Vanessa suffers from another bout of deep depression, he urgently travels from Northern England to Upstate New York, wher......more


Awards

  • Washington Post Best Books of the Year
  • Seattle Times Best Books of the Year