Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    When the World Was Steady
    When the World Was Steady
    When the World Was Steady
    Audiobook9 hours

    When the World Was Steady

    Written by Claire Messud

    Narrated by Shiromi Arserio

    3/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Life isn't all Emmy and Virginia Simpson anticipated. When Emmy's marriage to an Australian man ends, she flees her home in Sydney to "find herself" on the island of Bali-only to become embroiled with a crew of international misfits and smugglers. Her prim and pious sister, Virginia, meanwhile, has never wandered far outside of London. Struggling to find meaning, she follows her aging mother's advice to vacation on the Isle of Skye. On these two islands halfway around the world, the middle-aged sisters confront the costs of self-knowledge and their destinies with unexpected consequences.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateAug 29, 2017
    ISBN9781681686684
    When the World Was Steady
    Author

    Claire Messud

    Claire Messud was educated at Yale and Cambridge. Her first novel, When the World Was Steady, and her book of novellas, The Hunters , were finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award; her second novel, The Last Life , was a Publishers' Weekly Best Book of the Year; all three books were New York Times Notable Books of the Year. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Radcliffe Fellowship and the Straus Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts with her husband and children.

    More audiobooks from Claire Messud

    Related to When the World Was Steady

    Related audiobooks

    Family Life For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Kevin Barry

      Dec 18, 2020

      Rattling around the house in the County Sligo hills, swinging from bouts of paranoia to moments of strange, demented hilarity, a 900-page doorstopper was just what I needed to stay grounded. The post A Year in Reading: Kevin Barry appeared first on T

      2 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Shipstead, Ryan, Walker, and More

      May 17, 2022

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Maggie Shipstead, Eimer Ryan, Sarai Walker, and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to help The Millio

      5 min read

    • Article

      Interlude

      Mar 28, 2022

      Interlude
      10 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Brandon Taylor

      Dec 8, 2017

      I started the year thinking about plagues and calamities. Like many people, I felt particularly disturbed by the growing gap between what I felt was my lived reality and what was being reported in the news or in print. I read The Plague by Albert Cam

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Lighter Side of Dan Chaon

      Apr 11, 2022

      I had a dystopian idea in the beginning, and in the end the dystopia caught up with me. The post The Lighter Side of Dan Chaon appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Jenny Offill Exerts Herself

      Jan 15, 2020

      I don’t love the language that’s available to talk about this stuff. If you’re not drawn to earnestness, how do you make yourself a more engaged person? The post Jenny Offill Exerts Herself appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Motherhood Makes You Obscene

      Oct 1, 2019

      Motherhood Makes You Obscene
      10 min read

    • Article

      Trouble Brews In Minnesota

      Jul 29, 2019

      Edith and Helen Calder haven’t spoken in decades. The sisters’ rift began after the death of their father, who left all the money from the family’s farm to Helen so she could fulfill her dream of opening a brewery. In J. Ryan Stradal’s The Lager Quee

      1 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Sarah Thankam Mathews

      Dec 18, 2020

      By May I was clenching my teeth so hard when I slept that it eventually cracked a filling. The post A Year in Reading: Sarah Thankam Mathews appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Cherie Jones

      Jan 7, 2021

      Cherie Jones
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Bryan Washington

      Dec 3, 2018

      1. This year, I read a lot on my phone. That’s a habit I’ve picked up from working gigs where you stand a bunch (watching kids on a swingset, watching adult children park their cars). Some folks don’t vibe with that, but those folks don’t pay my bill

      4 min read

    • Article

      About Ed

      Jun 14, 2022

      I walk into the orchid show with Ed. As soon as I see the tumultuous hall I know he won’t last long. Ed walks like an old man though he is forty. After ten minutes on his feet, he vomits on some purple phalaenopsis. I get him outside through a fire e

      18 min read

    • Article

      Sisterly Significance

      Feb 24, 2020

      Sisterly Significance
      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for When the World Was Steady

    3/5

    29 ratings2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      She writes very nicely and everything. It's just that the people are, well, kind of boring. Does that flag me as a reader of juvenile taste (not enough explosions!)? Well, maybe so, but I've got to tell'em as I see'em don't I? And I liked Emperor's Children after all.
    • 3/5
      There is a blurb from the New York Times on the front of 'When the World Was Steady' that states, "Claire Messud is a novelist of unnerving talent". This quote is the most accurate description of Ms. Messud's work that I can think of. Her prose is lyrical and gorgeous. However, this novel failed to engross me in the same way 'The Emperor's Children' did.When the World Was Steady follows two drastically different sisters whose life paths are as divergent as their personalities. While both are British, one sister is living in Bali while trying to move past her divorce from her Austrailian husband and the other is an uptight spinster living with their mother in England. As is the case with all of Messud's novels, what happens plot wise isn't as important as the description of the inner lives of the characters. This is where Messud excels. Her descriptions of the women's thoughts and desires are poignant and true on some fundamental level. Messud's prose is lyrical and beautiful. When the World Was Steady is classic Claire Messud.