Tenderness

By: Alison MacLeod

Narrated by: Antonia Beamish, Tim Treloar, Sophie Aldred, Bill Hope, Elliot Fitzpatrick

Bloomsbury presents Tenderness by Alison MacLeod, read by Antonia Beamish, Tim Treloar, Sophie Aldred, Bill Hope and Elliot Fitzpatrick.

"Powerful, moving, brilliant . . . an utterly captivating read, and I came away from it with this astonished thought: There’s nothing this writer can’t do." —Elizabeth Gilbert

For fans of A Gentleman in Moscow and Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, an ambitious, spellbinding historical novel about sensuality, censorship, and the novel that set off the sexual revolution.

On the glittering shores of the Mediterranean in 1928, a dying author in exile races to complete his final novel. Lady Chatterley’s Lover is a sexually bold love story, a searing indictment of class distinctions, and a study in sensuality. But the author, D.H. Lawrence, knows it will be censored. He publishes it privately, loses his copies to customs, and dies bereft.

Booker Prize-longlisted author Alison MacLeod brilliantly recreates the novel’s origins and boldly imagines its journey to freedom through the story of Jackie Kennedy, who was known to be an admirer. In MacLeod’s telling, Jackie—in her last days before becoming first lady—learns that publishers are trying to bring D.H. Lawrence’s long-censored novel to American and British readers in its full form. The U.S. government has responded by targeting the postal service for distributing obscene material. Enjoying what anonymity she has left, determined to honor a novel she loves, Jackie attends the hearing incognito. But there she is quickly recognized, and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover takes note of her interest and her outrage.

Through the story of Lawrence’s writing of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, the historic obscenity trial that sought to suppress it in the United Kingdom, and the men and women who fought for its worldwide publication, Alison MacLeod captures the epic sweep of the twentieth century from war and censorship to sensuality and freedom. Exquisite, evocative, and grounded in history, Tenderness is a testament to the transformative power of fiction.

©2021 Alison MacLeod (P)2021 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

On and On and On

Excellent story. Great narration. Book went from here to there and back again at breakneck speed, and though I REALLY wanted to love it…kind-of just didn’t. Had I been reading instead of listening, I never would have finished it.

Tedious and monotonous

This book just lacks interest. the story goes on and on tediously pulling in Jackie Onassis (who everyone loves) for interest but in the most uninteresting way possible. Sorry, I wanted to like this but I really just could not get through it.