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Title details for The Celebrants by Steven Rowley - Available

The Celebrants

by Steven Rowley
Steven Rowley
Audiobook
9 of 10 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
9 of 10 copies available
New York Times Bestseller
A TODAY Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick
A Big Chill for our times, celebrating decades-long friendships and promises—especially to ourselves—by the bestselling and beloved author of The Guncle.
It’s been a minute—or five years—since Jordan Vargas last saw his college friends, and twenty-eight years since their graduation from Berkeley when their adult lives officially began. Now Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle find themselves at the brink of a new decade, with all the responsibilities of adulthood, yet no closer to having their lives figured out. Though not for a lack of trying. Over the years they’ve reunited in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living “funerals,” celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living—that their lives mean something, to one another if not to themselves.
But this reunion is different. They’re not gathered as they were to bolster Marielle as her marriage crumbled, to lift Naomi after her parents died, or to intervene when Craig pleaded guilty to art fraud. This time, Jordan is sitting on a secret that will upend their pact.
A deeply honest tribute to the growing pains of selfhood and the people who keep us going, coupled with Steven Rowley’s signature humor and heart, The Celebrants is a moving tale about the false invincibility of youth and the beautiful ways in which friendship helps us celebrate our lives, even amid the deepest challenges of living.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 30, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593741207
      • File size: 280245 KB
      • Duration: 09:43:50

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 27, 2023
      Rowley (The Guncle) offers another winning story of a friend group held together by an unusual bond. Five friends at U.C. Berkeley are reeling from another friend’s overdose death. Just before graduating in 1995, they make a pact. Each of them may ask for a “living funeral” in a moment of crisis, and their friends will show up to celebrate their life. After college, they drift apart. Then, in 2013, Marielle Holland, now living in Washington, D.C., sounds the alarm, flailing through an impending divorce. In 2016, Naomi Ito’s parents die in a plane crash, pushing the strident Naomi, now a music executive, to drag them all to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. In 2018, Craig Scheffler, who relies on humor to shield his emotions, is facing prison for art fraud when the friends ambush him for his own “funeral” in New York City. Finally in 2023, Jordy Tosic and Jordan Vargas, now husbands in New York City, activate the pact because Jordan’s cancer is back. Faced with an impending real funeral, the quintet, now 50, gathers a final time for a genuinely heartfelt conclusion. Rowley admirably avoids sentimentality along the way, and there’s plenty of fresh and witty dialogue. For anyone needing a reminder about the importance of friendships, this will more than do the trick. Agent: Rob Wiesbach, Rob Wiesbach Creative. (May)Correction: An earlier version of this review misstated the city two characters live in.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      With heart and humor, author and narrator Steven Rowley introduces five college roommates who have remained friends for 28 years. Each time they meet they have a living funeral for one of them because each wants to know what their friends have thought of them over the years. Rowley's voice is insightful and fluid as he creates these characters. Naomi always pays, she's rich; Marielle has a couple of secrets she has told no one until now; Craig committed fraud and served time; and the two Jordans reveal secrets. Rowley embodies each of the characters and expertly performs their ordeals. His insightful presentation will move listeners from laughter to tears. A moving feast not to be missed. E.E.S. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      June 10, 2024

      Rowley (The Guncle) celebrates life's overwhelming beauty and messiness in this heartwarming story of five college friends who become a found family. A group of college roommates forges a bond at University of California, Berkeley, after the sudden death of one of their own. On the brink of beginning their adult lives, they are immobilized by grief and shock. The five make a solemn pact, promising that whenever one of them feels the need, they can call upon the others to gather for a living funeral, celebrating and supporting one another while they are still alive. One by one, the friends call upon each other in moments of crisis--divorce, death, sickness, and even pending criminal charges. No narrator is better suited to tell this story than Rowley himself. A gifted storyteller both on and off the page, he provides a riveting performance, treating listeners to the timing, phrasing, and inflections that he intended from the outset. VERDICT Rowley's deft narration enhances this affecting novel, which stresses the importance of supporting others and finding joy in even the most heartbreaking situations.--Laura Trombley

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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