Anybody Out There?: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Marian Keyes (Author)
Key Phrases: great big golden ball, birthing partner, beauty editors, New York, Candy Grrrl, Neris Hemming (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
International bestseller Keyes is back with another quirky, heartwarming story of the Walsh sisters (Angels, etc.). Anna Walsh has returned to the bosom of her family in the Dublin suburbs to recuperate from the horrendous car accident that has left her with multiple fractures and a disfiguring scar across her face. Desperate to go back to New York and resume her normal life, she soon packs up her bags and returns to her job in beauty PR for punk cosmetics brand Candy Grrrl. A lonely and debilitated Anna leaves e-mails and phone messages for her mysteriously absent husband, Aidan, pleading for him to reply. [...] Meanwhile, she reminisces about their courtship and marriage while her kooky family (especially her Mum and hyperactive PI sister Helen) tries to buoy her spirits. Keyes's trademark blend of humor, diverse characters and a warm but unsentimental tone strikes gold. (May 9)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From Booklist
So tantalizing is the mystery behind Anna Walsh's multiple debilitating and disfiguring injuries, it would be criminal to explain why the self-proclaimed owner of the "Best Job in the World" (PR maven for Candy Grrrl cosmetics) has left her trendy New York life to recuperate in the "good front room" of her parents' Dublin cottage, since Keyes herself strings readers along until the end of part 1 before revealing the cause of Anna's broken bones and broken heart. Suffice it to say that readers will be as devastated as Anna is to learn what awaits her when she returns to America and begins the agonizing process of rebuilding her shattered life. Hardly sounds like the stuff of raucous humor, now does it? And yet Keyes' latest madcap escapade starring one of the five wacky Walsh sisters teems with moments of joyous hilarity and laugh-out-loud humor. Anna is the kind of gal every woman would want as her best friend, sister, or daughter. Plucky doesn't begin to describe her approach to life, and her journey of self-discovery can stand as a provocative lesson in how to cope with demoralizing crises. Keyes fans will embrace this as her best yet, and first-time Keyes readers will want to read everything she's written. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition edition (May 9, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060731303
• ISBN-13: 978-0060731304
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.5 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (151 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #419,010 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

103 of 109 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I laughed a lot, cried a lot and really learned that this is real literature hidden in a chick lit wrapping, May 18, 2006

By	Lilly Flora "by Lilo Drandoff" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

I'm not a person who normally reads chick lit, but when I was thirteen years old I went on a kick of only buying books with pastel covers. It was stupid, I know, but it seemed like books with pink and yellow covers are cheerful. This was how I picked up Marian Keyes's book Watermelon. And was introduced to the Walsh family. I liked Watermelon; loved Rachel's Holiday and adored Angels. So I bought this book right away, even though it's in hardcover.

From the start I loved the series-all of the sisters were so different in their perceptions in others and themselves. So when I saw this book was about Anna-the younger, perpetually zoned (and possibly stoned) type 2 sister (small, dark and pretty) I was a little shocked to see that she had a job as a PR girl for a makeup line in New York. I mean, when did she get herself together and stop being zoned?

It takes a while to find out. A great deal of the first half of the book is flashbacks to Anna's first job, her move to New York and meeting Aidan her love of her life husband. But all these flashbacks are taking place when Anna is laid up in Dublin with serious injures and an absent husband. What happened? Well, that's what part two is about. Part three is about...well, that would ruin the surprise. I won't tell. I will say that there is no amnesia in this book-I don't why it said that on the jacket cover. One of the centeral issues of the book is seaking what is lost-no matter what it was, but there is no amnesia going on. Selected memory yeah, but no amnesia.

Like all the Walsh books this novel is more than it seems. Marian Keyes is fantastically talented at taking a very heavy subject and putting into terms everyone understands. In Rachel's Holiday I really thought that Rachel wasn't a drug addict until she finally realized she was. The way Keyes wrote it was so complete in the denial that oozed out of Rachel that the reader felt the same way. In a very clever way Marian Keyes writes about the issues that surround us, impale us, and make us who we are. It's very unfair, and an insult to her talents, to call Keyes a writer of chick lit-she writes books about real issues like grief (such as getting dumped the day you have your baby), drugs suffering, self image and love. She writes real life, and like real life her stories don't always have a happy ending. But they do have family with them in the end.

I LOVED this book. I cried a lot (some parts are very, very sad), laughed a lot (this book is funnier then the others), and truly felt like I was Anna-or at least a good friend. I recommend this book to everyone, but if you're new to Marian Keyes don't read this first-Watermelon, then Rachel's Holiday, then Angels will set you up nice. Reading these books makes me wish for sisters.

Five stars. There's one sister to go-will the next book be about Helen Walsh the unfeeling possibly sociopath P.I.? I hope so-but I would love a book from Mammy Walsh's view too- but for now I can only imagine it and wait for the next book.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marian Keyes at her best!, May 11, 2006

By	CoffeeGurl (MA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

I don't read "chick-lit" all that much anymore (well, at least not the single-in-the-city, whining-over-being-unmarried-at-twenty-nine kind), but there are authors of the aforementioned genre that will forever remain on my must-buy list, and Marian Keyes is one of them. She and a few others take this tried and true genre and add special twists that make the novels substantial, emotionally moving and dark around the edges. Also, Keyes always deals with some serious subject matter in her books and she combines it with lighthearted humor. Anybody Out There? is, in my opinion, Keyes's best work since Last Chance Saloon. This is another installment in the Walsh family saga and it deals with Anna, the second youngest of the sisters. The book opens with Anna recuperating at her parents' home in Ireland after suffering from a serious accident in which she has little recollection. While she puts up with her overbearing mother and her eccentric younger sister Helen, Anna wonders about her husband Aidan. She wants to return to New York and regain her perfect job and her old life, but more important she wants to know what had caused the accident and where Aidan is. I won't go into details because I don't want to ruin things for the reader (like a thoughtless reviewer below had done), but there are many twists in this novel and Anna goes through a rough journey toward self-discovery.

This novel floored me. I was almost in tears in some parts and some of the twists took me completely by surprise. The prologue foreshadows the aforementioned surprise, something the author has done in her other novels, but this time she creates something truly unique and riveting. But amid all of the serious stuff and the unexpected turns this novel takes, we get a big dose of humor that comes in part by the Walsh family, especially Helen. There is a lot of emphasis on Helen and her personal life in this installment and I could only assume that Helen's story will be next. That should be interesting! I was also reacquainted with other characters from previous books and I loved knowing that they've turned out well. Anna is a great heroine. This is funny to me because Anna was the most underdeveloped character in all of the books and her portrayal here is somewhat different than in the other books. Then again, it has been years since I've read a Walsh book (Angels) and my memory is a little fuzzy. There are the signature Keyes style of writing that are less savory to me. She likes to stereotype nationalities and I've always found that annoying and at times offensive. Thank goodness it doesn't happen so much here. I wish I could bring up the main storyline and its twists and make this review longer by pointing the things I loved about those scenes and why I loved them, but that would be giving things away. You'll just have to read the novel for yourself. Anybody Out There? is a roller coaster ride of emotions that will move you and surprise you to the core. You will love this gem from beginning to end. Keyes has outdone herself this time with this novel. She has created something that stands out among the rest and I cannot recommend this gem enough. This is one so-called "chick-lit" author that I won't give up on any time soon!

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marian Keyes Brings Back the Wacky Walshes: Spotlight on Anna, June 13, 2006

By	Antoinette Klein (Hoover, Alabama USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The Walsh family of Dublin must be the funniest family in contemporary lit. To date, Marian Keyes has gifted us with stories about Claire (Watermelon), Maggie (Angels), and Rachel (Rachel's Holiday). In her newest novel, it is time for Anna to take center stage. The fourth of the five sisters, Anna has appeared peripherally in the other stories. Always a minor character, slightly spaced-out, and a flamboyant dresser, Anna has somehow lucked into what she describes as the best job in the world.

Convincing her best friend Jackie to move with her, Anna establishes a life in New York City. She has a job she loves doing promotions for a cosmetics company, shares a tiny Manhattan studio with Jackie, and pals around with her sister Rachel and an assortment of New Yorkers. And then Anna meets Aidan, the love of her life. Their romance is central to the story though told mainly in flashbacks since the story opens with Anna back in Dublin and recuperating from some very serious injuries. Where is Aidan? Anna calls his cell and emails him daily, but there is no response. When she is better, she flies back to New York and continues to try and contact him.

In this novel, Marian gives Anna a bigger mountain to climb than she had given any of the other sisters. Anna faces the worst hardship imaginable and a trauma that will leave the reader thunderstruck. But even this tragedy is punctuated with Marian's trademark humor and the reader will be laughing as well on each page. The writing is superb with an overwhelming shocker at the end of part one and another shocking twist at the end of part two. Perhaps the most deeply riveting of her novels thus far and the most emotionally-charged, this will be a welcome addition for fans of Marian Keyes and a wonderful introduction to her for those not yet acquainted with her writing.