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A Single Thread: A Novel Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Tracy Chevalier (Author), Fenella Woolgar (Narrator), Penguin Audio (Publisher)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 11,069 ratings
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"A buoyant tale about the path to acceptance and joy--beginning, like all journeys, with one brave step." (People)

"The best-selling novelist has done a masterful job of depicting the circumstances of a generation of women we seldom think about: the mothers, sisters, wives and fiances of men lost in World War I, whose job it was to remember those lost but not forgotten." (Associated Press)

1932. After the Great War took both her beloved brother and her fiancé, Violet Speedwell has become a "surplus woman," one of a generation doomed to a life of spinsterhood after the war killed so many young men. Yet Violet cannot reconcile herself to a life spent caring for her grieving, embittered mother. After countless meals of boiled eggs and dry toast, she saves enough to move out of her mother's place and into the town of Winchester, home to one of England's grandest cathedrals. There, Violet is drawn into a society of broderers - women who embroider kneelers for the Cathedral, carrying on a centuries-long tradition of bringing comfort to worshippers.

Violet finds support and community in the group, fulfillment in the work they create, and even a growing friendship with the vivacious Gilda. But when forces threaten her new independence and another war appears on the horizon, Violet must fight to put down roots in a place where women aren't expected to grow. Told in Chevalier's glorious prose, A Single Thread is a timeless story of friendship, love, and a woman crafting her own life.

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  1. Listening Length
    10 hours and 51 minutes
  2. Author
    Tracy Chevalier
  3. Narrator
    Fenella Woolgar
  4. Audible release date
    September 17, 2019
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Penguin Audio
  7. ASIN
    B07QSCQ7L7
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 10 hours and 51 minutes
Author Tracy Chevalier
Narrator Fenella Woolgar
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date September 17, 2019
Publisher Penguin Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B07QSCQ7L7
Best Sellers Rank #29,498 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#1,075 in Literary Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)
#1,288 in Women's Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)
#1,774 in Historical Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
11,069 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers enjoy the book's satisfying story and engaging characters. They find the history interesting and thought-provoking. Readers praise the writing style as beautiful, engaging, and fluid. They appreciate the embroidery aspect and find the story heartwarming and touching. The design is described as charming and hopeful.

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Story qualityThought provokingWriting styleCharacter developmentEmbroideryHeartwarming storyDesignEnjoyment
143 customers mention "Story quality"117 positive26 negative

Customers enjoy the engaging story and its history. They find the fiction written around the history vivid and a worthwhile addition to the plot. The well-crafted prose makes the book an easy read, and the happy ending satisfied them.

"I really enjoyed this storyline. So many things were beyond women's control but they persevered and did wonderful works that we can still see...." Read more

"...didn't write a "happily-ever-after" ending, and the close of the book satisfied me...." Read more

"...along with that of the author’s well crafted prose, makes the story an easy read...." Read more

"...The historical period is well-realized, especially the detailed account of the work of broderers and bell-ringers in an English cathedral--probably..." Read more

49 customers mention "Thought provoking"49 positive0 negative

Customers find the book informative and meaningful. They describe it as an enjoyable, well-researched read with engaging plot lines. The book is a gem for anyone interested in bell ringing, cathedral life, and history.

"...The needle work info was fascinating and the bell ringers were the call to church in the past." Read more

"This is a slow-burn story filled with well-researched details...." Read more

"...A good read, with opportunities for thoughtful discussion that would work well for a book club." Read more

"...not my favorite of Chavalier's books, it was still authentic and meaningful." Read more

48 customers mention "Writing style"39 positive9 negative

Customers enjoy the book's writing style. They find it engaging and realistic. Readers appreciate the author's storytelling voice and the details about the environment and traditions of England. Overall, they describe the book as a charming and realistic novel that reminds them of the difficulties of being a single woman.

"...A Single Thread is a very human book, with a tenderness that kept me reading. Recommended." Read more

"...While not my favorite of Chavalier's books, it was still authentic and meaningful." Read more

"...a lot more about bell ringing than I cared to know, the writing is very readable and the modern twist of plot at the end is satisfying." Read more

"I’ve enjoyed other writings of this author. WHAT a story she “wove”, along with the furnishings of an historic cathedral!" Read more

47 customers mention "Character development"41 positive6 negative

Customers enjoy the characters' development. They say the author ties them together nicely, making for an enjoyable read. The book is character-driven about life in England in the aftermath of World War 1. Readers appreciate the heroine's triumph with dignity and courage.

"...painted the protagonist, her love interest, and some of the secondary characters so well that I went for 4 stars...." Read more

"...I absolutely fell in love with the characters (both good and bad), and I was fascinated by the bell-ringing details and the embroidery details...." Read more

"Violet, this book’s plucky protagonist, is an appealing character whose presence, along with that of the author’s well crafted prose, makes the..." Read more

"...but mostly because in the moment the book ended, the heroine triumphed with dignity and great courage...." Read more

28 customers mention "Embroidery"24 positive4 negative

Customers find the book interesting. They enjoy learning about embroidery and needlework. The author provides good descriptions of bell ringing and embroidery cultures.

"...and I was fascinated by the bell-ringing details and the embroidery details. Loved it!" Read more

"...past with interesting tidbits of knowledge about bell ringing and embroidery, with characters that made one rethink how we impact on others through..." Read more

"A lovely, quiet novel that introduced me to the small, refined world of cathedral broderers...." Read more

"...she is able to develop with other women and delights in her discovery of embroidery...." Read more

20 customers mention "Heartwarming story"20 positive0 negative

Customers find the book touching and emotionally engaging. They enjoy learning about another person's life during that period of history. The story is described as sweet, poignant, and tender. It also touches on friendship and how we support each other.

"...A Single Thread is a very human book, with a tenderness that kept me reading. Recommended." Read more

"...The bonds Violet makes give her a network of support and friendships. She learns many men's lives have been ruined by war as well...." Read more

"...Thank you Tracy Chevalier for this touching book!" Read more

"...It is also a story about friendship and how we support each other, yet at the same time, become independent...." Read more

18 customers mention "Design"18 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book's design. They find it charming and hopeful, with a real look at society in the early 1930s. The setting and timeline are enjoyable, with characters to like and admire. The book provides a glimpse of English culture during that time period.

"...is all of the characters, with their flaws and fears, are people to like and admire...." Read more

"A lovely, quiet novel that introduced me to the small, refined world of cathedral broderers...." Read more

"This is a charming and skillfully written story focusing on Violet, a British woman grieving the loss of both her brother and fiance in World War I...." Read more

"...Just a charming, historically rich book I kept wishing might go on and on..." Read more

26 customers mention "Enjoyment"12 positive14 negative

Customers have differing views on the book. Some found it engaging and enjoyable, saying it kept their interest from beginning to end. Others felt it was dull and disappointing, with a slow start but worth the wait.

"I am a fan of Chevalier's books, but this book was incredibly sad and boring...." Read more

"...making kneeler cushions for a local cathedral and finds great satisfaction in this pastime, even finding an opportunity to share it within her own..." Read more

"...during a time where following the rules made for an easier, but less fulfilling life. An inspiring tale well worth the read." Read more

"...It made me appreciative of the work involved with all the. handwork that is in a church or cathedral...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Lauree
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Facts
    Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    I really enjoyed this storyline. So many things were beyond women's control but they persevered and did wonderful works that we can still see. The needle work info was fascinating and the bell ringers were the call to church in the past.
    One person found this helpful
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  • NLBHorton
    4.0 out of 5 stars Fulfilling Read
    Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    (Rounded up from 3.5 stars)

    The very slow pacing at the beginning of the book, plus the mindboggling details about embroidery and bell-ringing, almost compelled my to give this a three-star rating. But Chevalier painted the protagonist, her love interest, and some of the secondary characters so well that I went for 4 stars. I particularly like the fact that Chevalier didn't write a "happily-ever-after" ending, and the close of the book satisfied me. A Single Thread is a very human book, with a tenderness that kept me reading.

    Recommended.
    49 people found this helpful
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  • Priscilla Bettis
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Historical Women's Fiction Novel
    Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    This is a slow-burn story filled with well-researched details. I absolutely fell in love with the characters (both good and bad), and I was fascinated by the bell-ringing details and the embroidery details. Loved it!
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Avid Reader
    3.0 out of 5 stars A Story About Embroidery with a Subplot About Bell Ringing
    Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Violet, this book’s plucky protagonist, is an appealing character whose presence, along with that of the author’s well crafted prose, makes the story an easy read. However, the narrative is burdened by long and too detailed passages explaining the intricacies of both embroidery and of the art of ringing church bells. After the novel’s final paragraph, the author lets the reader know that when people of that era talked about embroidery, what they were actually talking about is what we know today as needlepoint. Well. A bit late, but that certainly answered my doubts about whether embroidered kneeling cushions would last a year, much less decades. But it’s odd that the author would be a perfectionist on this particular bit of historical accuracy, when she casts a rather golden glow of a late 1930’s society’s seemingly easy acceptance of both a same sex couple and an unwed mother in their midst. Such widespread tolerance would’ve been unlikely in a setting 50 years later, and even today in many places around the world (including communities in the US), such individuals are not widely accepted. The happy communal embrace portrayed in this novel diminishes the very real struggles to achieve both legal and social acceptance that many have gone through to get to where they are today. And note to the father of Violet’s baby: thanks for ringing the church bell, but when are the child support payments going to start?
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Anne W.
    4.0 out of 5 stars engaging story, illuminating historical details
    Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    While I did not find "A Single Thread" as compelling as Chevalier's "Remarkable Creatures," this story of a 30s-something English woman seeking a full life in the period between the World Wars is engrossing. The historical period is well-realized, especially the detailed account of the work of broderers and bell-ringers in an English cathedral--probably known to relatively few readers, and certainly a revelation to me. I found the novel's ending both tough-minded and satisfyingly positive. A good read, with opportunities for thoughtful discussion that would work well for a book club.
    11 people found this helpful
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  • Miss Fix it
    5.0 out of 5 stars Spellbinding Spinster’s tale after WWWI. Tracy Chevalier ! WOW!
    Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2025
    Verified Purchase
    Violet is brilliant intelligent woman trapped by her Mother’s drama into her sole support. A common thread when there was always one girl kept home to care for the elders.
    Yet there is so much more to Violet, a fiancé she lost in WW1, and her father, who favored her.
    When she does the unthinkable, and moves out on her own, she has a shocking awakening into the narrow openings for work for a woman. A typist and poverty.

    Until she connects with a whole community of women who are the embroiders of all the seat cushions and kneeling pads of Winchester Cathedral.

    And unknown to her, the best is yet to come…
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  • LaLise F
    5.0 out of 5 stars What a beautiful story
    Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    I truly like novels by Tracy Chevalier. I just finished reading "A Single Thread" and it was a wonderful read. It has been a very long time since I sat down and read a novel in less than a day. I never fully understood how difficult it was for women after the end of WWI. The novel takes place 14 years after the end of WWI, the heroine having lost both her fiancée and older brother in the war. It takes place in Britain, where a generation of young men died, both during the war and the Spanish flu epidemic after the war. These spinster women, now in their mid to late 30s, are referred to as "surplus" women. Very few husbands their age available to marry, the economy still not going strong and many of the women not married are either working menial jobs as typists or remaining at home to care for elderly parents (in this book, the heroine's elderly mother lost her oldest son to the war and later her husband to illness). So much happens in this novel that all I can say is all of the characters, with their flaws and fears, are people to like and admire. I found the last page to be so uplifting that I cried - I think because the country was getting closer to WWII and the horrors awaiting, but mostly because in the moment the book ended, the heroine triumphed with dignity and great courage. My only hope is that the author will consider writing a second book with these same characters that carry them through WWII.
    79 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Danielle Esposito
    5.0 out of 5 stars Pas le tout meilleur roman de Tracy Chevalier mais un plaisir réel de lecture!
    Reviewed in France on January 26, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Tracy Chevalier a la spécialité de lier l'histoire de ses héroïnes à l'histoire d'une oeuvre d'art, et elle nous fait ainsi voyager à travers les siècles. C'est dans l'entre deux guerres que se déroule "A Single Thread" et la romancière nous fait découvrir le destin d'une génération de femmes dont les fiancés sont morts pendant la première guerre mondiale et qui se retrouvent désespérément seules. "Spinsters", des "vieilles filles" comme on disait alors.
    L'une d'entre elles, Violet, va réussir à s'affranchir de sa mère, tyrannique, possessive, aigrie, éternellement insatisfaite, en déménageant pour Winchester où elle va découvrir la joie de la broderie ! J'avoue que j'ai moins été captivée par ls coussins de la cathédrale de Winchester que par les tapisseries de "la Dame à la Licorne" ou que par "la Jeune Fille à la Perle", mais le personnage de Violet est attachant, et la description de la. vie quotidienne rend particulièrement vivante cette période charnière de notre histoire. Mais Violet va croiser le chemin d'un sonneur de cloches : Arthur, un homme beaucoup plus âgé qu'elle et...marié, qui s'adonne à cette passion "so British" de faire sonner les cloches des églises pour offrir aux habitants des villes ou des villages de véritables concerts. Leurs deux passions, la broderie et les sonneries de cloches vont se répondre pendant tout le roman.
    Un autre aspect intéressant est le regard de l'époque sur l'homosexualité féminine. Car si Violet et Arthur sont attirés l'un par l'autre, c'est pour une autre femme que bat le coeur de Gilda, l'amie de Violette.
    Tout cela fait un roman passionnant que j'ai lu en trois jours !
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  • Dipl. Ing. Elisabeth Werner
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Single Thread
    Reviewed in Germany on June 12, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    Very interesting! Like it very much!
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  • Paula Ney
    5.0 out of 5 stars A single thread
    Reviewed in Canada on September 23, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    Such a lovely story. Endearing characters. A look into what life was like for some women after World War II. Loved this book. Highly recommend it.
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  • Anniefromlondon.
    5.0 out of 5 stars A beautifully wriiten novel, with a great central character.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 10, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    I loved this novel!
    On the surface, a story about an embroidery loving 1930s spinster does not sound promising, but Tracy Chevalier overturns every stereotype.
    The background is beautifully created; loved the descriptions of Winchester. The 1930s are also well delineated, an era between two devastating wars, when grief for those lost in WW1 was still so raw.
    In Violet, the writer has described a a fascinating person, with a multi-layered character.
    She is certainly not the meek, cowed spinster - despite the put-downs of her scary, but pitiable, mother!
    I don't know a lot about ecclesiastical embroidery, but I do now. The descriptions are never boring, as the personalities of the 'Broderers' are both amusing and accurate.
    The author covers the the prejudices of the era, but always with a light touch. The objects of this narrow minded world view are the ultimate winners in the novel.
    I absolutely recommend 'A Single Thread'- definitely one to re-read.
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Mujeres solteras a principios del siglo XX muy similar un siglo después
    Reviewed in Spain on June 11, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Relata la situación de un grupo muy numeroso de mujeres en la Historia entre guerras, sentimientos, experiencias y situaciones que son muy actuales de mujeres solteras que buscan su propio proyecto vital alejado de la familia de origen, viviendo independientemente, con su trabajo, amistades, relaciones sexuales, y tratando de buscar su sitio con valentía, superando miedos, aprovechando oportunidades, atentas a lo que la vida les ofrece. El lenguaje, en mi opinión, es quizá un poco anticuado o incluso sofisticado, ofrece también explicaciones detalladas de lenguaje musical cuando doblan las campanas, de paisajes campestres y de la técnica del bordado. Me gusta, diferente e interesante.
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