The Days of Anna Madrigal

The Days of Anna Madrigal : Tales of the City

  • by Armistead Maupin
  • Narrated by Kate Mulgrew
  • Series: Tales of the City
  • 7 hrs and 13 mins
  • Unabridged Audiobook
4.73 (48
Ratings.
)

Publisher's Summary

Suspenseful, comic, and profoundly moving, the latest novel in Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series follows one of modern literature's most beloved and indelible characters - Anna Madrigal, the transgender landlady of 28 Barbary Lane - as she embarks on a road trip that will take her deep into her complicated past.
Now ninety-two, and committed to the notion of "leaving like a lady," Mrs. Madrigal has seemingly found peace with her "logical family" in San Francisco: her devoted young caretaker, Jake Greenleaf; her former tenant Brian Hawkins and his daughter, Shawna; and Michael Tolliver and Mary Ann Singleton, who have known and loved Anna for nearly four decades.
Some members of Anna's family are bound for the otherworldly landscape of Burning Man, the art community in Nevada's Black Rock Desert where sixty thousand revelers gather to construct a city designed to last only one week. Anna herself has another Nevada destination in mind: a lonely stretch of road outside of Winnemucca where the 16-year-old boy she once was ran away from the whorehouse he called home. With Brian and his beat-up RV, she journeys into the dusty, troubled heart of her Depression-era childhood to unearth a lifetime of secrets and dreams, and to attend to unfinished business she has long avoided.
The ninth and final audiobook in Armistead Maupin's classic Tales of the City series, The Days of Anna Madrigal is the triumphant resolution to a saga of urban family life that has enchanted and enlightened listeners around the world since 1976.

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Customer Reviews

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Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

This is a difficult book to listen to due to the narrator. With so many characters and much of the book being dialogue it is virtually impossible to differentiate between who's supposed to be talking.


What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

It's great to catch up with the Tales of the City characters, although this seems to lack some of the intertwining magic of some of the other books


What didn’t you like about Kate Mulgrew’s performance?

I think Kate is perfectly cast as Anna, and even the narrator. But she can't do voices, so there needed to be a couple of other actors recording other roles to help understand what's going on!


Any additional comments?

As an audiobook with various performers this would have been ideal, but with one reader who can't do accents or voices it was so monotonous that I stopped half way through and got the book

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- Ken

Last hoorah from my old friends from Barbary Lane

What made the experience of listening to The Days of Anna Madrigal the most enjoyable?

It is very hard not to come at this review without impressing my love and many years entanglement with all Maupin's Tales books. I probably can't stand outside it and tell you how it reads as a first timer. You simply have to start at the beginning with Tales of the City and you will see what I mean.
My experience of reading is that I was meeting old friends and discovering secrets that have been kept buried for years.


Who was your favorite character and why?

Anna Madrigal - the landlady of all Tales Fan's souls


Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Maupin is writing of beloved characters that he has been writing about for many many years, you cannot help but see how invested he is in his main characters and they are very real.


Any additional comments?

I have read all Armistead Maupin's Tales books set in the 70s/80s which tell the story of the lives and loves of friends living in San Francisco. I was so pleased when he began writing books set in the present. I believe "The Last Days.." is the last of the series. I will truly miss these people, they have become old friends!

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- Louise

Book Details

  • Release Date: 21-01-2014
  • Publisher: HarperAudio