The Grammarians

A Novel

By: Cathleen Schine

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

"This listen is for lovers of words, lovers of a great story, and lovers of a great narration. Hillary Huber does a fantastic job capturing this wonderful novel about twin girls, their love for each other, and their eventual rivalry." -- AudioFile Magazine

An enchanting, comic love letter to sibling rivalry and the English language.

From the author compared to Nora Ephron and Nancy Mitford, not to mention Jane Austen, comes a new audiobook celebrating the beauty, mischief, and occasional treachery of language.

The Grammarians are Laurel and Daphne Wolfe, identical, inseparable redheaded twins who share an obsession with words. They speak a secret “twin” tongue of their own as toddlers; as adults making their way in 1980s Manhattan, their verbal infatuation continues, but this love, which has always bound them together, begins instead to push them apart. Daphne, copy editor and grammar columnist, devotes herself to preserving the dignity and elegance of Standard English. Laurel, who gives up teaching kindergarten to write poetry, is drawn, instead, to the polymorphous, chameleon nature of the written and spoken word. Their fraying twinship finally shreds completely when the sisters go to war, absurdly but passionately, over custody of their most prized family heirloom: Merriam Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition.

Cathleen Schine has written a playful and joyful celebration of the interplay of language and life. A dazzling comedy of sisterly and linguistic manners, a revelation of the delights and stresses of intimacy, The Grammarians is the work of one of our great comic novelists at her very best.

Puzzled

The book had my full attention until the last two-three chapters. The author’s conclusion was fast, tidy, and unsatisfying.

Worth a credit

A good story, well written that promoted the universal theme: Relationships are messy but ultimately worth it. Schine does a great job of creating likeable characters who do the wrong thing and need to be forgiven. This reader truly enjoyed every chapter of this book.

Great listen!

Great narrator, awesome entertaining story, lovely ending. The book got better and better from start to finish.

A beautiful unsentimental masterpiece

This touched me so much. The way this family is presented isn't particularly unusual but the language, the words , a religion as much as an obsession and the clear, unsentimental writing makes it a joy to listen to. Fantastic reader also !

Schine shines again!

A devotional to words, grammar & language, shared with biting wit and sharp humor. Characters are rendered lovingly, but not romanticized.
A look at the familial that in unsentimental, but not unkind, (someone forgive me the double negative!). Interesting, imperfect, entertaining family members that tell the story of what is really important in the end - family.