The World Below

Unabridged
Author: Sue Miller
Narrator: Judith Ivey
Genres: Fiction
Publisher: Random House (Audio)
Date: October 2001
Length: 10 hours
Ratings:
Formats:
  • CD

Overview

From the author of While I Was Gone, a magnificent new novel that showcases Sue Miller's singular talent for exposing the nerves that lie hidden in marriages, families, and the lives of women.

Maine, 1919. Georgia Rice, who has cared fro her father and two siblings since her mother's death, is diagnosed, at 19, with tuberculosis and sent away to a sanitarium. Freed from the burdens of caretaking, she discovers a nearly lost world of youth and possibility, and meets the doomed young man who will become her lover.

Vermont, the present. On the heels of a divorce, Catherine Hubbard, Georgia's granddaughter, takes up residence in Georgia's old house. Sorting through her own affairs, Catherine stumbles upon the true story of Georgia's life and marriage, and the misunderstanding upon which she build a lifelong love.

In the stories of these two women—linked by bitter disappointments, compromist, and powerful grace—Sue Miller offers us a novel of astonishing richness and emotional depth. The World Below captures the shadowy half-truths of the visible world, and the beauty and sorrow submerged beneath the surfaces of our lives—the lost world of the past, our lost hopes for the future. An extraordinary novel from one of our finest storytellers.

Reviews (3)

Enjoyable, mellow, introspective

Written by Julie from Auburndale, MA on May 10th, 2006

  • Book Rating: 4/5

I find Sue Miller's characters to feel so real and understandable despite their complexities (or perhaps because of). This is no exception.

World Below

Written by Anonymous from Portland, OR on January 17th, 2006

  • Book Rating: 5/5

This is the 2nd Sue Miller book that I have listened to and believe me; I will listen to all of her books. I just love the depth and detail that she goes through in her character development. I love how I become attached to all her characters, giving me insight in how they think and their story. My mom had TB as a child just as Georgia did and it lead me to talk to my mother about her 6 months that she spent in the sanitarium as well as other questions about her past. I am about the same age as the central character in this book and it made me pause and evaluate my history and think about my story as well. Excellent book and I am looking forward to the next one....

The World Below

Written by Angela Jones from Chalmette, LA on March 31st, 2005

  • Book Rating: 4/5

This was a good listen, It was relaxing. I found that it made me reflect on my lilfe as I am growing older, the loves lost and won and my relationships with my family.

Author Details

Author Details

Miller, Sue

Sue Miller was born in Chicago in 1943, the second of four children in an academic and ecclesiastical family. She grew up reading, writing, and dancing to 50's rhythm and blues in Hyde Park, and went to college at Harvard. She was married at twenty, shortly after she graduated, and held a series of odd jobs until her son Ben was born in 1968. She separated from her first husband in 1971, and for thirteen years was a single parent in Cambridge, Massachusetts, working in day care, taking in roomers, studying the piano, and writing with increasing focus.

Sue Miller's first story was published in 1981. Since then, she has taught in various writing programs in the Boston area. In 1983-84 Sue Miller had a Bunting Fellowship at Radcliffe, which led her to the publication of her first novel, THE GOOD MOTHER. She finished the novel in 1985, it was published 1986, and was quickly followed by a collection of short stories. In the 90s she published FAMILY PICTURES, FOR LOVE, THE DISTINGUISHED GUEST, and WHILE I WAS GONE. She is currently writing a memoir about her father's death from Alzheimer's disease.

Sue Miller was married in 1985 to the writer Douglas Bauer. They are now divorced. After living in Boston for 12 years, Sue Miller returned this spring to Cambridge, which she refers to as the land of many bookstores.