Evening Class - Hardcover

Binchy, Maeve

4.02

43,276 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0752804510 ISBN 13: 9780752804514

Publisher: Orion, 1996

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A group of people, all looking for something more in their lives, and all they have in common is their Italian evening class...

The Italian evening class at Mountainview School is like hundreds of others starting up all over the city. But this class has its own special quality - as the focus for the varied hopes and dreams of teacher and pupils alike.

Aidan Dunne needs his new evening class project to succeed almost as much as his pupils do. They too are looking for something more: Bill to find a way to keep spendthrift Lizzie at his side, and Fran to make sure that young Kathy finds her way out from behind the kitchen sink.

The key to their success lies with the Signora. Her passion has drawn her from Ireland to Italy and back home again with a burning desire to share her love of all things Italian - and a secret hidden in her heart...

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Review:

It's the perfect gift: Laughter, the best medicine! From beloved author Maeve Binchy, who has captured the hearts of millions with her spectacular national bestsellers, including Circle of Friends and Tara Road. In Evening Class, she applies her signature warmth, wit and understanding to something new--a wickedly funny book for anyone who's checked into the hospital, headed for an operation or convalesced at home. Maeve Binchy can always be counted on to spin an involving tale about ordinary people that brings out the extraordinary in everyone. Here, she zooms in on the working-class of Dublin. Schoolteacher Aidan Dunne organises an evening class in Italian with the help of Nora O'Donoghue, an Irishwoman returning home after 26 years in Sicily. When the somewhat squashed-by-life denizens of the surrounding neighbourhood take the unexpected step of enrolling in the class, they find their lives transformed.

Binchy tells her story from the viewpoints of eight different characters and rewards both them and her readers with happy endings after the requisite rocky road. Reading a novel by Maeve Binchy is like catching up with old friends--you know everything will turn out fine in the end, but you're still interested in how things get that way.

Review:

The Italian evening class starting at a Dublin school appears like any other. But those involved are desperate for a new life, and by the time they reach Italy at the end of the course their lives are changed forever. Another winner from Binchy (PRIMA)

Reading Maeve Binchy has always acted as therapy of a sort. Her witty, literate small-town tales exude a rosy glow to ease the troubled mind (THE TIMES)

EVENING CLASS is a deliciously gossipy read ... it will not disappoint (DAILY MAIL)

Binchy, as always, treats her characters with a generous empathy and an intense affection. By the time the book closes with the group enjoying a longed-for holiday in Italy, the story seems to gurgle with joy. EVENING CLASS is a wonderfully enjoyable tale of moral evolution, guaranteed to produce a run on every Italian class in the country (IRISH TIMES)

It's a grand read ... EVENING CLASS will keep endless readers happy as the nights draw in and swell many a Christmas stocking (IRISH INDEPENDENT)

Warm, witty and with a deep understanding of what makes us tick, it's little wonder that Maeve Binchy's bewitching stories have become world-beaters (OK MAGAZINE)

Gripping (WOMAN'S JOURNAL)

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