The Truth According to Us

A Novel

By: Annie Barrows

Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee, Tara Sands, Julia Whelan, Arthur Morey, Danny Campbell, Mark Deakins, Kimberly Farr, Kirby Heyborne, Lincoln Hoppe, Paul Michael, Linda Montana

Length: 18 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

From the coauthor of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society comes a wise, witty, and exuberant novel, perfect for fans of Lee Smith, that illuminates the power of loyalty and forgiveness, memory and truth, and the courage it takes to do what's right.

Annie Barrows once again evokes the charm and eccentricity of a small town filled with extraordinary characters. Her new novel, The Truth According to Us, brings to life an inquisitive young girl, her beloved aunt, and the alluring visitor who changes the course of their destiny forever.

In the summer of 1938, Layla Beck's father, a United States senator, cuts off her allowance and demands that she find employment on the Federal Writers' Project, a New Deal jobs program. Within days Layla finds herself far from her accustomed social whirl, assigned to cover the history of the remote mill town of Macedonia, West Virginia, and destined, in her opinion, to go completely mad with boredom. But once she secures a room in the home of the unconventional Romeyn family, she is drawn into their complex world and soon discovers that the truth of the town is entangled in the thorny past of the Romeyn dynasty.

At the Romeyn house, 12-year-old Willa is desperate to learn everything in her quest to acquire her favorite virtues of ferocity and devotion - a search that leads her into a thicket of mysteries, including the questionable business that occupies her charismatic father and the reason her adored aunt Jottie remains unmarried. Layla's arrival strikes a match to the family veneer, bringing to light buried secrets that will tell a new tale about the Romeyns. As Willa peels back the layers of her family's past and Layla delves deeper into town legend, everyone involved is transformed - and their personal histories completely rewritten.

©2015 Annie Barrows (P)2015 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

" The Truth According to Us is an irresistible novel, a sly charmer of a story about a small town in Depression-era West Virginia whose history is rewritten by a debutante on the run. Family histories, too, are unraveled, but mended by the fierce, strong women who dominate this delightful page-turner, a tribute to the power of love and forgiveness to heal even the most heartbreaking betrayals." (Melanie Benjamin, author of The Aviator's Wife)

"Core narrators Ann Marie Lee, Tara Sands, and Julia Whelan offer clear and consistent character readings that steer listeners through the novel's varied voices, while also highlighting the characters' diversity of experience. Another nine actors provide added depth and color." ( AudioFile)

Great read!

I laughed and I cried. The characters were very entertaining! Narration was excellent and very believable.

There Is One Word For This Story

And that is "slow"! I did finish it and the most enjoyable aspect was the West Virginia twangy voice of sweet little Willa.

Well written and well read.

The best book I have read in a long time. The author weaves characters, plot, and subplots together into a smooth cohesive whole.
The readers were excellent as well.

Great story and great narration

I have a long commute and listen to a lot of audio-books. My last two were just so-so and the narration was seriously lackluster so I was really happy to come across this one and remember what good narration was. The characters were so well written and it would have been a shame if the narrators hadn’t been able to “bring them to life” but they clearly did. This could have been any small town with a host of interesting and believable characters and the small town mysteries were intriguing and kept you guessing. Makes the commute go extra fast. I’d love a second book to follow up on some of the younger characters as they get older.

Great book!

This was a great book! I expected it to be good, but it exceeded my expectations. It has mystery, romance, humor. The characters were so well drawn that I felt like I knew them.

The only thing I felt was a little jarring was the transition between narrators, but the story was so good that I consider that a minor point.

After listening to the book, I'm going to read the print version. I hardly ever do that. I either listen or read - that's how good this book is!

Not bad... not great, but not bad

Got this for my book club. Would have never bought this for myself, but it wasn't too bad. There was a bit of a mystery, which I liked, and the different voices for the characters made it very interesting for me to listen to. After listening, I am glad I got it, but also glad I didn't pay full price (thank you Audible for credits!). No interest in a sequel, but someday I might listen to it again... possibly.

Wonderful Story

I loved it and hated for their stories to end! The readers were fabulous! I've already purchased more books by this author!

A Beautiful Story

The time is summer 1938, the heart of the depression and a young socialite, Layla Beck, is being tossed from her home after refusing to marrying a man she repulsed and did not love. Miss Beck who never worked a day in her life finds herself working for the WPA (Federal’s Writers Project) writing the history of a small town in West Virginia.

Miss Layla Beck soon learns that the list of people the City Council wants her to speak to versus the citizens of Macedonia who have a very different version of the historical events, brings laugh out loud parts of this books.

What I learned along with Miss Beck was I didn’t want to leave Macedonia at the end of the book. 😢. But all good things come to an end.

The narrators were pitch perfect. The author will have me looking for more of her books. Bravo.

An enjoyable story

I saw a couple of reviews of this audio performance before getting the book myself, with criticisms of the voice artist who read Willa’s chapters. This was a good example of not believing other reviews, because I thought that Willa’s chapters were read with just the right mixture of near-adult inflection. I loved the story, and the unveiling of the secret was very suspenseful (in a somewhat benign way compared to most “suspenseful” books these days!). A good read, about simple times.

Loved this audibook - the narration was excellent!

Would you listen to The Truth According to Us again? Why?

I'm not one to read a book more than once generally so probably not, but I enjoyed it enough that if I were to choose one to listen to a second time, this would be it.

What did you like best about this story?

You came to care about the characters and the mystery was engrossing. I loved the perspectives of the child and the outsider.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, but I would again.