Kobo Audiobooks is a great ecosystem, especially if you use their e-readers. Their app works well on phones too. They frequently offer coupons and promotions. I've built up a nice library there over the years, and the selection is comparable to Audible's storefront.
Wait, 9 hours and 48 minutes is so specific. I wonder how they calculate that. Is it to the exact second? Do they round? It's always interesting to me what gets listed as the 'official' runtime. It must be an average of a few recordings or something.
Yep, unabridged. I have the CD set from years ago, and it's the complete novel. Sometimes older audiobooks get re-released in condensed forms, but that's not the case here. The packaging and liner notes for my set explicitly say 'unabridged' on them.
If you're streaming or downloading, the product details should state it clearly. If you're unsure, look for the ISBN associated with the audiobook edition and search it online. For this title, the common commercial audio release is absolutely the full-length story, preserving all of Picoult's detailed prose and shifting narratives.
Richard Ferrone narrates the lawyer Campbell's chapters. He's got this fantastic, gravelly voice that perfectly suits a cynical, wounded man. But he also nails the softer, more vulnerable moments, especially in the flashbacks and with Julia.
He doesn't just read the romantic subplot; he makes you believe in it. His performance adds a layer of romance and hope that balances the heavier medical ethics plot.
The strength of the multi-narrator approach here is its refusal to judge. Each narrator performs their character with full commitment, without winking at the audience or subtly suggesting their character is in the wrong. Sara's narrator delivers her lines with 100% conviction. Anna's does the same. This places the moral weight entirely on the listener. You're given all these passionately argued, emotionally true perspectives and left to sit with the dissonance. A lesser production might have had the narrators subtly color their performances to guide you toward Anna, the apparent protagonist. This one doesn't. It presents the cacophony of love and need in its full, conflicting glory and lets you wrestle with it.
Man, the ending of that book haunted me for weeks. I read the physical copy. The idea of listening to it... I don't think my heart could take it. Knowing it's the same ending in audio form just confirms I made the right choice to not listen. Some things are brutal enough on the page; giving them a voice might be too much. I'm glad they kept it faithful, though. Changing it for audio would have been a betrayal of the story's core conflict.