The Forever Girl

By: Alexander McCall Smith

Narrated by: Susan Lyons

At the age of four Clover chooses her own name. Aged six, she falls in love with her best friend, James.

But in the adult world, things are not so simple: Clover's mother finds she's fallen out of love with her husband, and realises that James's father is interested in her. As Clover and James, and their parents, navigate their irresistible but baffling mazes of emotion, we are given a beautifully realised tale about how love can shape a life.

©2014 Alexander McCall Smith (P)2014 Recorded Books LLC

Critic reviews

"True to one's experience of life in a way that comparatively few novelists are" (Allan Massie)

McCall Smith on the philosophy of young love

The same fluid writing, beautifully read, takes the listener inside the head of the young protagonist and her unrequited love... a feeling common in the young & inexperienced...

A Dreadful Disappointment

Forever Girl was not wrong. She dragged on and on and on. And on.
Lacking a single scintilla of the usual charm McCall Smith imparts to his characters, one could only wish the main protagonists a timely death to save us all from suffering further. I kept checking to see if this really was by THE McCall Smith, but it was true and there were occasional clues to his pen but it honestly read as if penned by aliens imitating him.