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City of Girls

By: Elizabeth Gilbert
Narrated by: Blair Brown
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Publisher's Summary

The blazingly brilliant new novel from Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the international best seller Eat Pray Love: a glittering coming-of-age epic stitched across the fabric of a lost New York.

It is the summer of 1940. Nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris arrives in New York with her suitcase and sewing machine, exiled by her despairing parents. Although her quicksilver talents with a needle and commitment to mastering the perfect hair roll have been deemed insufficient for her to pass into her sophomore year of Vassar, she soon finds gainful employment as the self-appointed seamstress at the Lily Playhouse, her unconventional Aunt Peg's charmingly disreputable Manhattan revue theatre. There, Vivian quickly becomes the toast of the showgirls, transforming the trash and tinsel only fit for the cheap seats into creations for goddesses.

Exile in New York is no exile at all: here in this strange wartime city of girls, Vivian and her girlfriends mean to be free, to get up to no good, to drink the heady highball of life itself to the last drop. And when the legendary English actress Edna Watson comes to the Lily to star in the company's most ambitious show ever, Vivian is entranced by the magic that follows in the wake of this true, true star.

But there are hard lessons to be learned and bitterly regrettable mistakes to be made. Vivian learns that to live the life she wants, she must live many lives, ceaselessly and ingeniously making them new.

'At some point in a woman's life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time. After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is,' she confides. And so Vivian sets forth her story, and that of the women around her - women who have lived as they truly are, out of step with a century that could never quite keep up with them.

©2019 Elizabeth Gilbert (P)2019 Penguin Audio

What listeners say about City of Girls

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I LOVED THIS!

Elizabeth Gilbert you have done it again. I could just imagine myself back in NY in the 30’s the story was like a roller coaster I did not expect it to end the way it did. Heart break, humour, pain, and transformation as I listened to the book, I could feel the characters and experiences with in myself. You are a brilliant writer, I applaud you and WHEN IS THE MOVIE COMING OUT?

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An absolute delight, depth beyond words

Loved it so much! it's a wonderful listen and such rich and full characters 11/10! the vest thing I have read in 12 years

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Great performance, story was good but somewhat predictable

Enjoyed the performance, became a familiar and welcome voice which was a pleasure to listen to.
A beautiful insight into a particular era and place in the world which was really interesting.
Loved the highs/lows and strengths/weaknesses of the very 3 dimensional characters

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Best book of the year

I can’t stop talking to literally everyone about City of Girls. I loved it!
Blair brown was the perfect narrator for the story, she really immerses you in the wild world of 1940s New York.

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Brilliant

Everything about this book was a pleasure. Sensitiv and so real like real life is. No black and white personalities here.

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so well written and narrated.

Really enjoyed this book. Class in the narrative from start to end. Sexy and thoughtful. A reminder of values,morals or lack there of.

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Fantastic book!

A fantastic latest read by Marian, made a million times better being read by the author

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What a beautiful and beautifully told story!

The story was engulfing, fun and thoughtful. A love, a lifetime and such a strong, wonderfully independent central character.

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City of girls

Loved every minute of this book ! Rich in history , spunky characters, life lessons the list goes on . I’ve just finished this and I’m already missing all the characters. Fantastic

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Loved being immersed in the glamour and frivolity

I didn't love the ending but it was still a great story none the less.

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