Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    One True Thing
    One True Thing
    One True Thing
    Audiobook9 hours

    One True Thing

    Written by Anna Quindlen

    Narrated by Christina Moore

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    For years, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Anna Quindlen has been admired for her extraordinary intelligence, insight, and honesty. A young woman sits in jail, accused of the mercy killing of her dying mother. She didn't do it, but she thinks she knows who did. In the last months of her life, Ellen Gulden's mother revealed startling secrets that challenged everything Ellen believed about her family. Now, in jail, Ellen believes those secrets will tell her who had the courage to end her mother's suffering.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateFeb 25, 2008
    ISBN9781436112642
    One True Thing
    Author

    Anna Quindlen

    Anna Quindlen is a novelist and journalist whose work has appeared on fiction, nonfiction, and self-help bestseller lists. She is the author of nine novels: Object Lessons, One True Thing, Black and Blue, Blessings, Rise and Shine, Every Last One, Still Life with Bread Crumbs, Miller’s Valley, and Alternate Side. Her memoir Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, published in 2012, was a #1 New York Times bestseller. Her book A Short Guide to a Happy Life has sold more than a million copies. While a columnist at The New York Times she won the Pulitzer Prize and published two collections, Living Out Loud and Thinking Out Loud. Her Newsweek columns were collected in Loud and Clear.

    More audiobooks from Anna Quindlen

    Related to One True Thing

    Related audiobooks

    Literary Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Romantic Entanglements Bring Humor And Heartache To Small Town

      Jun 21, 2021

      Katherine Heiny’s novel transplants readers to Boyne City, Michigan, through the keen eyes of the town’s new schoolteacher.

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Overlapping Worlds Of Amor Towles

      Oct 1, 2021

      The Overlapping Worlds Of Amor Towles
      4 min read

    • Article

      Crimes of the Heart

      Nov 5, 2016

      Like many of his novels, Spanish author Javier Marías’ new book, Thus Bad Begins, isn’t exactly a mystery, though it is mysterious. Here, the 65-year-old perennial Nobel favorite tells the story of Juan de Vere, a young man working for a film directo

      1 min read

    • Article

      Home Before Dark

      Apr 2, 2020

      Home Before Dark
      1 min read

    • Article

      In A Land ‘Shaped By Water,’ A Family Tale Of Persistence

      Jul 17, 2023

      “The Covenant of Water,” the latest novel from bestselling author Abraham Verghese, delivers a magnificent saga. Bursting with myriad characters, well-braided plotlines, politics, history, faith, and geography, the story centers on a young Christian

      3 min read

    • Article

      Top 10 Books

      Feb 5, 2021

      Top 10 Books
      1 min read

    • Article

      Speedboat

      Mar 24, 2022

      Nobody died that year. Nobody prospered. There were no births or marriages. Seventeen reverent satires were written – disrupting a cliché and, presumably, creating a genre. That was a dream, of course, but many of the most important things, I fi nd,

      14 min read

    • Article

      A Room in August Town

      Sep 12, 2023

      A Room in August Town
      25 min read

    • Article

      The Posting

      Jun 27, 2023

      The Posting
      35 min read

    • Article

      Nugrybauti

      Apr 24, 2019

      Nugrybauti
      8 min read

    • Article

      It’s Come to This

      Sep 1, 2021

      It’s Come to This
      16 min read

    • Article

      Life In The past Lane

      Aug 27, 2021

      Life In The past Lane
      5 min read

    • Article

      J. Jezewska Stevens

      Dec 15, 2017

      The party was a failure. I can’t even tell you what a failure it was. There are no words. Only a great pain in my chest when I wake up. On the veranda. It’s better when I sit in the chair. Oh, but then I can see around. The gauzy curtains, pushed by

      15 min read

    • Article

      A Puzzle Of Nostalgia

      Aug 26, 2022

      A Puzzle Of Nostalgia
      5 min read

    • Article

      Allegiance

      Nov 6, 2023

      Allegiance
      12 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      Quantum Radio

      Feb 22, 2023

      Quantum Radio
      5 min read

    • Article

      Your Poetry

      May 28, 2021

      Email your poems to: (editorial@choicemag.co.uk) or post to Your Poetry, Choice, 4 Milnyard Square, Orton Southgate, Peterborough PE2 6GX There’s a train that runs on barren track, along the side & at the back,of the caravan. The children laugh & sho

      3 min read

    • Article

      Come with Me

      Dec 1, 2022

      Come with Me
      12 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for One True Thing

    4/5

    573 ratings17 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      I’m probably one of the few males to review this book if the names on the Amazon reviews are true reflections of the gender of the writers. And it stands to reason that many people would consider this book a book that appeals to women rather than men. After tall, the two main characters are women. The focus of the story is the mother/daughter relationship. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, mainly because, as I’ve said in other Anna Quindlen book reviews, she could write down the alphabet and I would read and enjoy it. My first introduction to Quindlen was as a journalist many years ago. I taught high school English for 40 years, and for many of those years, I taught Quindlen’s Newsweek magazine column “The Quilt of a Country,” a beautiful essay she wrote a week after the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers. She is a wonderful writer with much to say, whether it’s in the back of a weekly news magazine or in a 300-page novel. So I’ll be glad to be counted among the majority audience for “One True Thing” even though I’m probably in the minority.
    • 4/5
      I love the ways she writes. This was a wonderful story about love, misunderstanding and understanding.
    • 5/5
      This was a difficult “read”. .. the storyline was a little to close to home. Complex characters, flowing intelligent dialogue and beautifully narrated. I enjoyed this book from beginning to end.
    • 5/5
      Simply brilliant!
    • 5/5
      I've never really wanted to read this book, mainly because I thought the trailer for the movie looked so incredibly stupid. I know, I know. I'm not even really sure where the recommendation to read it came from this time; I think it showed up in the "new ebooks" section on my library's website a couple of months ago and I slapped a request on it without really thinking, so when I got the notice that it was available I went ahead and checked it out. And I loved it. It reminded me of the women's fiction I used to like to read in the 80s and 90s, about the time this book was published--the kind of thing my book group used to read. I stayed up way too late for a couple of days in a row. My family couldn't pry my Nook away from me.

      I didn't like the characters much, except for the mother and one of the brothers (although I had a hard time telling the brothers apart; maybe that was the point). I think that actually made it a more effective story; it's easy to read about relationships between likable people. The ones between people who aren't necessarily very likable are more interesting. I loved the way Quindlen explored the dynamic between parents and their adult children, and what happens when their respective roles change--it was like probing an achy tooth with your tongue. It hurts, but you just... can't... stop.
    • 5/5
      I’m probably one of the few males to review this book if the names on the Amazon reviews are true reflections of the gender of the writers. And it stands to reason that many people would consider this book a book that appeals to women rather than men. After tall, the two main characters are women. The focus of the story is the mother/daughter relationship. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, mainly because, as I’ve said in other Anna Quindlen book reviews, she could write down the alphabet and I would read and enjoy it. My first introduction to Quindlen was as a journalist many years ago. I taught high school English for 40 years, and for many of those years, I taught Quindlen’s Newsweek magazine column “The Quilt of a Country,” a beautiful essay she wrote a week after the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers. She is a wonderful writer with much to say, whether it’s in the back of a weekly news magazine or in a 300-page novel. So I’ll be glad to be counted among the majority audience for “One True Thing” even though I’m probably in the minority.
    • 5/5
      I have to say that I had started watching the 1998 movie that came on television the other night when Mareena reminded me that I had the book hidden somewhere around the house. I decided to dig it out and read it because I love sad books. When a homemaker mother gets cancer, her daughter quits her top dog job to take care of her. The husband is a college professor who is remote and leaves the care of his wife to his daughter.I enjoyed this book; it was well-written and an easy read. It was very interesting as I love books about the dynamics of families. I give it an A+!
    • 5/5
      I have this thing about very popular books--I tend to avoid what everybody else is raving about. Sometimes I'm utterly wrong.I should have read and appreciated One True Thing years ago. Anna Quinlen is adept at conveying the truth about ambivalence, even with people you love the most dearly. In this story, I found all the ambivalence I felt about taking care of my own mother as she was aging and dying. She tells the truth. Quinlen's writing is superb, her characters have depth and are interesting people. There's everything in there about how, even when you love your parent, you want to have your own life, too. Wonderful book. I'll be going on an Anna Quindlen binge soon.
    • 4/5
      Ellen Gulden is a 23-year-old up-and-coming magazine writer living in New York City, when her mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer. On a visit home her father tells her that she simply must leave her job and return to help her mother. Kate has always been the quintessential homemaker – excelling at cooking, decorating, sewing, stenciling, needlepoint – every craft and skill to make her house a loving and welcoming home. Ellen has been more like her father – driven and ambitious, given to literary analysis and harsh judgment – but as she spends times with her mother and begins to recognize the hard work and dedication required to be the homemaker Kate is, Ellen arrives at some different conclusions about who she is, who her parents are, and their relationships to one another.

      This is a thought-provoking read for several reasons. On the surface it deals with death and dying and the way in which our society treats the terminally ill. When the book opens, Ellen is in jail, accused of the mercy killing of her mother. So the reader immediately knows what the pivotal event will be. Ellen then begins to recall the previous months.

      The book then begins to deals with the complicated relationships between adult children and their parents. Ellen is a young woman who has always sought her father’s approval, and diminished the contributions of her mother. Living with them again as an adult, in a difficult and trying situation, she slowly awakens to the truth about herself, her parents and siblings. She develops a much closer relationship with her mother, even though she still resents having to be her caregiver. At the end I always did what she asked, even though I hated it … I tried to do it all without screaming, without shouting, “I am dying with you.”

      Ellen comes to recognize the value of true friendship, and how she has held people at bay (and why). She learns that she must forgive – her father, her mother, the townspeople, and, most importantly, herself.

      I found this a very compelling read. I was interested and engaged from beginning to end. That being said, there are some scenes which are difficult to read, because Quindlen is brutally honest about what it means to be a caregiver to a terminally ill loved one. Several scenes reminded me of my own efforts to help my mother when she was still at home; her Alzheimer’s having progressed to where she needed constant attention to ensure her safety. Kate’s behavior mirrored my own mother’s resistance to being helped – because she did NOT want to be thought helpless. She had always been the caregiver, she did not want to be the one being cared for.
    • 4/5
      One True Thing could have easily been maudlin and sentimental, but it wasn't. The story of Ellen Gulden finding herself through the crucible of caring for her mother with terminal cancer, dealing with the emotionally unavailable father she once adored, and being accused of giving her mother a killing dose of morphine was emotional, yet tenderly written. For me the books' main theme was about thinking one knows one true thing and then finding out that thing isn't true at all. Very thought provoking.
    • 5/5
      This is the best, the most carefully written, of all Quindlen's books I've read so far.
    • 5/5
      Ellie Gulden had a fairly normal life. The very gifted and successful daughter of an English professor and a dutiful housewife, she and her two brothers wanted for very little, other than more attention from their constantly occupied father and always busy mother. Their home is a welcoming place filled with their mother Kate’s craftwork and the smells of her wonderful cooking and baking.As a stark contrast we are introduced to Ellie as she is in jail, accused of killing her mother who had terminal cancer.When Kate was diagnosed, and it became clear that she did not have long to live, Ellie’s father George requests that she leave her successful career in the city, her flat and her boyfriend to move herself back home to care for her mother. It is delivered as a “fait accompli” and leaves Ellie with little choice, even though she has never had a great relationship with her mother. She wonders how she will cope.However, during the next five months, Ellie and Kate form a relationship they never thought possible. The pair start a two woman club called the Gulden Girls’ Book and Cook Club and rediscover old classic books which enable Kate to tell Ellie the things she never told her growing up. The charismatic George, on the other hand, seems to do everything he can to avoid helping his wife, believing that this should be done by a woman. Ellie struggles to understand why he is so distant and believes him to have been frequently unfaithful to his wife. As if Kate did not know?As Kate’s health worsens, so Ellie becomes closer to her and when the end does come, Ellie suspects that George has overdosed her mother’s morphine. But it is Ellie who is arrested and we are left in disbelief as she “covers” for her father. This novel is profoundly sad and uncompromising. It deals with illness and death, love and loss in devastating detail. I found it compelling and deeply emotional. It is a story I will not forget easily.“Death is so strange, so mysterious, so sad, that we want to blame someone for it. And it was easy to blame me.”This book was made available to me, prior to publication, for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      Daughter takes care of her dying mother.
    • 4/5
      In the prologue, 24-year-old Ellen Gulden is in jail, accused of giving her dying mother an overdose of morphine. Part One of the book are the events leading up to that situation. Ellen, who is a journalist in New York City, is back for a visit at the end of the summer in the small college town where she grew up and where her father, George, is a professor. Her 46-year-old mother, Kate, is diagnosed with cancer, and George, who Ellen practically worships, insists that Ellen move back home to care for her.This is the strongest part of the book, showing Ellen's growing respect, admiration, and love for the homemaker mother she used to dismiss and take for granted, and her correspondingly increasing disgust for her father, who continues to envelop himself with work and sexual encounters while his wife is dying. Ellen and her mother start the "Gulden Girls Book and Cook Club," reading and discussing classics, while Ellen learns cook and participates in her mother's community Christmas activities. Kate's pain and disability increase, and Part One ends with her death in February of the following year.Part Two is the aftermath, Ellen's arrest and the appearance before the grand jury. I won't spoil the end of the book, as it really doesn't matter. The story's strength is in the mother-daughter relationship. Quindlen took time off from college to nurse her own mother through her death from ovarian cancer at age 40, when Quindlen was 19.
    • 4/5
      A better book than I imagined it would be. A distant daughter returns home to care for the mother she's always secretly judged herself superior too. In the process, she discovers that the life of a stay-at-home mom is more complex and demanding than it first appears. Potentially trite subject matter is handled in a thoughtful way.
    • 4/5
      Finally got up the nerve to read this. A lovely book after all.
    • 4/5
      read with a box of tissues