Noah's Compass

A Novel

By: Anne Tyler

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

From the incomparable Anne Tyler, a wise, gently humorous, and deeply compassionate novel about a schoolteacher, who has been forced to retire at sixty-one, coming to terms with the final phase of his life.

Liam Pennywell, who set out to be a philosopher and ended up teaching fifth grade, never much liked the job at that run-down private school, so early retirement doesn’t bother him. But he is troubled by his inability to remember anything about the first night that he moved into his new, spare, and efficient condominium on the outskirts of Baltimore. All he knows when he wakes up the next day in the hospital is that his head is sore and bandaged.

His effort to recover the moments of his life that have been stolen from him leads him on an unexpected detour. What he needs is someone who can do the remembering for him. What he gets is—well, something quite different.

We all know a Liam. In fact, there may be a little of Liam in each of us. Which is why Anne Tyler’s lovely novel resonates so deeply.©2010 Anne Tyler; (P)2010 Random House

Critic reviews

Praise for Anne Tyler’s Noah’s Compass

“Everyone loves Anne Tyler . . . and her 18th novel will doubtless supply another reason.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“Noah’s Compass is immensely readable. It displays many of Tyler’s finest qualities: her sharp observation of humanity, her wry comedy; the luminous accuracy of her descriptions . . . Hers is a fine-grained art, whose comedy could easily coarsen into the self-consciously quirky. If it does not, this is because her surprises are rooted in character: it is human nature that she evidently finds infinitely fascinating and surprising, with its constantly unforeseeable capacity for change . . . [A] novel by Anne Tyler is cause for celebration.”
—Caroline Moore, The Sunday Telegraph

“Tyler reveals, with unobtrusive mastery, the disconcerting patchwork of comedy and pathos that marks all our lives.”
—Michael Dirda, The Wall Street Journal

“Dazzling . . . A beautifully subtle book, an elegant contemplation of what it means to be happy.”
—Elizabeth Day, The Observer, UK

“Fired from his job, Liam Pennywell moves into a small apartment and wakes up the next morning in the hospital with head injuries he can’t explain. What turns out to have been an attack by a thief leads to unexpected grace, as Liam is forced to engage more deeply with his family and with a woman who finds him irresistible.”
—More magazine

“Pure pleasure”
—Helen W. Mallon, Philadelphia Inquirer

Another Tyler Classic

Anne Tyler makes the mundane interesting and gives us yet another opportunity for an introspective adventure after which we come away with a new group of friends, some of whom we are very fond and others, not so much!

Great book

This is a wonderful book. The sound quality was not that good on my Kindle, so I would download an enhanced version. The narrator is good though. Humorous and touching.

Very slow and plodding narration

Usually love Anne Tyler but this one was a little hard to get to the end of. Not a bad story but ends very abruptly as far as I'm concerned.

Low key and thought provoking

Most of Anne Tyler's work seem to have little "action".This one is no exception, but that's not a bad thing. The main character in this book is almost an observer in his own life. There ae many points where he could make a definitive move, but he is somehow incapable. Instead, he complacently seems to accept what life hands him. I disagree with other reviewers who found the narrator lacking. His voice fit this character well and helped illustrate Noah's lack of curiosity about the world he lives in. The book was very engaging, perhaps becasue I deserately wanted this man to break free of his lassitude and make a bold move.

good listen

I enjoyed listening to this book despite what I had read in other listeners' reviews. It's not an action-packed story, but Anne Tyler always does a great job developing her characters and this book is no exception. Liam and all of his relatives are typical Tyler: quirky and, for the most part, lovable.