We Spread - Iain Reid Audiobook

Written by Iain Reid
Read by Robin Miles
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Release date: September 27, 2022
Duration: 06:00:16

Penny, an artist, has lived in the same apartment for decades, surrounded by the artifacts and keepsakes of her long life. She is resigned to the mundane rituals of old age, until things start to slip. Before her longtime partner passed away years earlier, provisions were made for a room in a unique long-term care residence, where Penny finds herself after one too many “incidents.”

Initially, surrounded by peers, conversing, eating, sleeping, looking out at the beautiful woods that surround the house, all is well. She even begins to paint again. But as the days start to blur together, Penny—with a growing sense of unrest and distrust—starts to lose her grip on the passage of time and on her place in the world. Is she succumbing to the subtly destructive effects of aging or is she an unknowing participant in something more unsettling?

At once compassionate and uncanny, told in spare, hypnotic prose, Iain Reid’s “exquisite novel of psychological suspense” explores questions of conformity, art, productivity, relationships, and what, ultimately, it means to grow old.

“Robin Miles provides such a commanding performance that she maintains a grip on the listener even as events of this story become less clear. Penny is an artist recently widowed by her prolific partner. After a fall at home, thoughtful and reserved Penny finds herself spirited to an assisted living home, where she finds just a few other residents living under increasingly mysterious circumstances. Events unfold strictly from Penny’s point of view. She appears to be progressively unreliable, continually forgetting key decisions, including the arrangement with the living facility in the first place. Miles’s voice captures Penny’s mounting dread and doubt while seizing opportunities to engage in moments of control, making the impact of this story even more emotional.”— Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award