'''Shortlisted for the 2016 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction'''
''The Green Road'' is the story of a family. If the author was anyone other than Anne Enright it would be stereotypically Irish, with all the appropriate characters in place: the boy who goes off to be a priest, the daughter who likes the bottle far too much, the son who does good works and the woman who stays back where she was born and marries a local man, the dead husband who was perhaps just a little bit beneath the wife who plays the ''grande dame'' and is perfect at being needy, whilst all the while maintaining that she needs nothing. But, of course, it ''is'' Anne Enright.
I listened to an audio download of the book, narrated by Caroline Lennon and it was superb. She delivered each voice perfectly and her timing was excellent. With more literary books I occasionally worry that interposing a narrator adds interpretations which the author might not have intended, but the thought never crossed my mind as I listened. This is the point at which I normally thank the publishers for sending a copy of the book to the Bookbag - but I bought the download myself and it was worth every penny.
For another 2015 Costa-shortlisted book, which I also listed listened to as an audio download, we can recommend [[A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson]]. For a very-much-lighter read we can recommend [[Mistletoe on 34th Street by Lisa Dickenson]]. [[The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild]] was also shortlisted for the 2016 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. {{amazontext|amazon=0099539799}}