All's Well

Written by Mona Awad

Narrated by Sophie Amoss

From the author of Bunny, which Margaret Atwood hails as “genius,” comes a “wild, and exhilarating” (Lauren Groff) novel about a theater professor who is convinced staging Shakespeare’s most maligned play will remedy all that ails her—but at what cost?

Miranda Fitch’s life is a waking nightmare. The accident that ended her burgeoning acting career left her with excruciating chronic back pain, a failed marriage, and a deepening dependence on painkillers. And now, she’s on the verge of losing her job as a college theater director. Determined to put on Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, the play that promised and cost her everything, she faces a mutinous cast hellbent on staging Macbeth instead. Miranda sees her chance at redemption slip through her fingers.

That’s when she meets three strange benefactors who have an eerie knowledge of Miranda’s past and a tantalizing promise for her future: one where the show goes on, her rebellious students get what’s coming to them, and the invisible doubted pain that’s kept her from the spotlight is made known.

With prose Margaret Atwood has described as “no punches pulled, no hilarities dodged…genius,” Mona Awad has concocted her most potent, subversive novel yet. All’s Well is a “fabulous novel” (Mary Karr) about a woman at her breaking point and a formidable, piercingly funny indictment of our collective refusal to witness and believe female pain.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Aug 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781797126098

Mona Awad

Mona Awad is the author of the novels All’s Well, Bunny, and 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl. Bunny was a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award and the New England Book Award. It was named a Best Book of 2019 by Time, Vogue, and the New York Public Library. It is currently being developed for film with Bad Robot Productions. All’s Well was a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award. 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl was shortlisted for the Giller Prize. Awad’s forthcoming novel Rouge, is being adapted for film by Fremantle and Sinestra. This spring, Margaret Atwood named Awad her “literary heir” in The New York Times’s T Magazine. She teaches fiction in the creative writing program at Syracuse University and is based in Boston.

Reviews for All's Well

[Mary Marin · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Miranda suffers from chronic pain. She is a college theatre professor tasked with putting on the annual Shakespeare play, but this year things are a little different. Since her accident, things haven’t been easy for her. She struggles with debilitating pain that no one takes seriously. What if the people who rolled their eyes at her limp when she walked could take a stroll in her shoes? Would they learn empathy?

All’s Well masterfully mixes the fantastical with every day life to the point that you’re not sure what is real and what is imagined. It is told from Miranda’s perspective. We get to take a peek inside her thought processes, her fears, her pain, her hopes, her dreams, her desires. It is easy to make the assumption that she is entirely self involved, but who wouldn’t be if you listened to their thoughts?

I couldn’t stop listening to this audiobook. The narrator did a wonderful job of keeping me interested, and I felt that her voice acting was spot on in 99% of the book.

[Chelsea Platas · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The depth the author takes you into the mind of Miranda is astounding. The writing is impeccable. The description of her pain had me feeling it in my own legs, or was it my back? The Easter eggs left in the names of her therapists lead the reader to think biblically, imagining the angels and demons fighting for Miranda’s soul. You begin to root for Miranda even though you know, that she knows, her actions are turning sinister.

Thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book, am I right?

[lorindearing · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a bit too quirky for me, maybe? Feeling a bit “so what” at the end. It’s also a sloooogggggg until the last 25% or so.

[kate · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It was ok
As little slow. But interesting concept & characters

[Kellie Mc Carthy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really liked the book a lot. I really did.

[Readerette · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another hut from Mona Awad. I love this author and her strange story telling. Very fluid writing. Great story. Very wild. I'll have to buy this one, too. Highly recommend!

[Elena · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Intelligent humor and sarcasm, brilliant introspection and supernatural events, i liked the narration a lot

[Arlene Conboy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interacting with Shakespeare’s “problem play” All’s Well That Ends Well causes both Miranda Fitch’s downfall and uplift.