The English Teacher: A Novel
Lily King
Apr 2026 · Simon and Schuster · Narrated by Carlotta Brentan
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8 hr 32 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
“[A] domestic drama with the adrenalin-fueled beating heart of a thriller.”—Elle
“Beautifully written and carefully observed . . . King is a wildly talented writer.” —Chicago Tribune
Fifteen years ago Vida Avery arrived alone and pregnant at elite Fayer Academy. She has since become a fixture and one of the best English teachers Fayer has ever had. Living on campus, on an island off the New England coast, Vida has cocooned herself and her son, Peter, from the outside world and from an inside secret. For years she has lived largely through the books she teaches, but when she accepts the impulsive marriage proposal of ardent widower Tom Belou, the prescribed life Vida has constructed is swiftly dismantled.
Peter, however, welcomes the changes. Excited to move off campus, eager to have siblings at last, Peter anticipates a regular life with a “normal” family. But the Belou children are still grieving, and the memory of their recently dead mother exerts a powerful hold on the house. As Vida begins teaching her signature book, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, a nineteenth-century tale of an ostracized woman and social injustice, its themes begin to echo eerily in her own life and Peter sees that the mother he perceived as indomitable is collapsing and it is up to him to help.
“Beautifully written and carefully observed . . . King is a wildly talented writer.” —Chicago Tribune
Fifteen years ago Vida Avery arrived alone and pregnant at elite Fayer Academy. She has since become a fixture and one of the best English teachers Fayer has ever had. Living on campus, on an island off the New England coast, Vida has cocooned herself and her son, Peter, from the outside world and from an inside secret. For years she has lived largely through the books she teaches, but when she accepts the impulsive marriage proposal of ardent widower Tom Belou, the prescribed life Vida has constructed is swiftly dismantled.
Peter, however, welcomes the changes. Excited to move off campus, eager to have siblings at last, Peter anticipates a regular life with a “normal” family. But the Belou children are still grieving, and the memory of their recently dead mother exerts a powerful hold on the house. As Vida begins teaching her signature book, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, a nineteenth-century tale of an ostracized woman and social injustice, its themes begin to echo eerily in her own life and Peter sees that the mother he perceived as indomitable is collapsing and it is up to him to help.
“[A] domestic drama with the adrenalin-fueled beating heart of a thriller.”—Elle
“Beautifully written and carefully observed . . . King is a wildly talented writer.” —Chicago Tribune
Fifteen years ago Vida Avery arrived alone and pregnant at elite Fayer Academy. She has since become a fixture a...
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About the author
Lily King is the New York Times bestselling author of six novels—Heart the Lover, Writers & Lovers, Euphoria, Father of the Rain, The English Teacher, and The Pleasing Hour—as well as the story collection Five Tuesdays in Winter. Her work has won numerous prizes and awards, including the Kirkus Prize, the New England Book Award, the Maine Book Award, and a Whiting Award; has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Story Prize; and has been longlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. Her books have been translated into thirty-two languages. She lives in Portland, Maine.
Lily King is the New York Times bestselling author of six novels—Heart the Lover, Writers & Lovers, Euphoria, Father of the Rain, The English Teacher, and The Pleasing Hour—as well as the story collection Five Tuesdays in Winter. Her work has won numerous prizes and awards, including the Kirkus P...
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