Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Grand

By: Noelle McCarthy
Narrated by: Noelle McCarthy
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

'I’ll be grand, girl, I’ve great faith.'—Mammy, just before she died

Funny, charismatic and generous; angry, vicious and hurt; in pub lounges all over Cork City, Noelle McCarthy’s mother Carol rages against her life and everything she’s lost.

As soon as she can, Noelle runs away. All the way to New Zealand, to make a new, different kind of life. But then Mammy gets sick, and it’s time to face everything that’s waiting back home.

From Catholic Ireland in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s to sparkling Auckland in the first years of the new millennium, Grand is a story of the invisible ties that bind us, of bitter legacies handed down through the generations, and of the leap of faith it takes to change them.

©2022 Noelle McCarthy (P)2022 Penguin Random House New Zealand
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Poor cover art
Rough Beast cover art
So Late in the Day cover art
The Rachel Incident cover art
There's Something I Have to Tell You cover art
Don’t Ask Me About My Dad cover art
A Lesson in Malice cover art
Without Warning and Only Sometimes cover art
The Consequences of Love cover art
Still Water cover art
Home Is Where the Start Is cover art
The Mash House cover art
Here Comes the Miracle cover art

Critic reviews

"Derry Girls meets An Angel at My Table is an improbable combination. Yet here it is, and it is perfect. Desperately funny, hysterically sad, so beautiful and so humane. All of life is in it. I utterly adored it." (Meg Mason, author of Sorrow and Bliss)

"In this stunning reckoning with demons, McCarthy’s mammy, Carol, lands on the page with a hilarious, indelible, appalling vivacity, stealing every scene. The trajectory of their relationship–intense, literally tooth and claw, barely survivable—takes them, in the nick of time, to something fierce and unbreakable. Grand will have you reassessing the power of love; the deep and painful channels it can cut." (Diana Wichtel, author of Driving to Treblinka)

"A howl of anguish and love." (Steve Braunias)

What listeners say about Grand

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    11
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    12
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    10
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Heartfelt memoir, charming & witty

Noelle’s beautiful lyrical Cork accent brings her story to life. The exchanges between herself & her mother are such a treat. I cried in the end. Brilliant book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

This book spoke to me it was meant for me

Great writing delivers the unsaid, the complexity of a mother daughter relationship that can only truly be understood by few. Bravo!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

loved this

I loved this book. It is ridiculously honest. The dry Cork wit makes what could have been a hard read into something beautiful and moving. I finished this book a few hours ago and I am still teary eyed.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautifully written and narrated memoir

I enjoyed every minute of this beautifully written and narrated memoir. I laughed, cried and reminisced about my own troubled relationship with my mother.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it

A perfect and poignant listen and wonderful in Noelle’s native Cork accent.

I cried at the end. Can’t recommend enough

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Gorgeous

A beautiful, engaging, witty, emotional and nostalgic account of the complicated and ever changing mammy daughter relationship so many of us have.
My only fault with this audible was that I didn't want it to end!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

loved every minute of this

the detailed description of everything is spot on and it feels like she was just telling me the story. So honest

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I’m devastated it’s over

This was very compulsive listening. A complex , difficult and beautiful story- lyrical descriptions all being read in such a gorgeous way. The way she reads really brings the narrative to life, the rhythm and flow of cork city. It is one of the best audiobooks I’ve ever listened to from that perspective alone.
Gorgeous

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!