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Title: Happenstance
Subtitle: Two Novels in One about a Marriage in Transition
Author: Carol Shields
Narrator: Eva Kaminsky, Christopher Kipiniak
Format: Unabridged
Length: 16 hrs and 11 mins
Language: English
Release date: 12-12-14
Publisher: Audible Studios
Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 7 votes
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:
Two novels in one, Happenstance tells the story of a marriage from the individual perspectives of a husband and wife at a turning point in their relationship.
When we meet Brenda Bowman in "The Wife's Story", the 40-year-old mother of two is preparing to fly to Philadelphia to attend a craft convention that will feature one of her quilts. She already has the flight memorized: leaving Chicago at 8:35 , arriving at Philadelphia at 1:33 . This will be her first trip solo, her first time away from her husband, Jack, in their decades-long marriage. She's nervous, excited... and tempted when she meets an intriguing stranger.
"The Husband's Story" introduces Jack Bowman, a historian who is left at home with his troubled son and overweight daughter while his wife, Brenda, attends a craft convention. Not used to coping on his own, he's suddenly confronted with domestic calamities, including the disintegration of his best friend's marriage. And when he learns that an old flame has published a book on the same topic that Jack has been laboring on for years, Jack's self-doubt reaches crisis proportions.
Happenstance is an intimate portrait of a marriage in transition. "History," to Jack, is "not the story itself. It's the end of the story."

Members Reviews:
the story of a marriage
This is one of my favourite books. It tells, with great tenderness, the story of a marriage and explores the inexplicability of a long term relationship. Although the two characters love one another deeply, their memories and understandings are widely divergent, revealing how we never really understand even those closest to us. A story to treasure and read over and over.

Boring
This was chosen for our book club by one of our members. I personally did not really know any of the author's books nor had I ever heard of her either. I started out excited due to the synopsis. I was so wrong, in fact in my almost 50 years of reading, there are very few books I start and Fail to finish...
This was one of them. It was boring from beginning to middle (because that is as far as I got).
I mean , I could not take any more of her descibing how she sewed her quilts and how she came up with the patterns and designs. I guess it will appeal to you if you sew quilts and go the quilt conventions....
Other than that, I would not recommend it. Not one person in our Book Club finished reading it.
In fact even the person who chose the book, sent an email out, that she withdrew her choice and we could skip over her book, she could not continue reading it.

bummer
Happenstance was the selected book for our book club...first it took a couple of weeks to get it from Amazon then I had to power thru it. Cool concept of having a man's version and flip it over and you get the woman's version but you are kept waiting...and waiting...and
Wouldn't recommend this book.

he said/she said
this is not one of carol shields best efforts. however,it is immensely readable.the story of a marriage from two points of view is a triumph.it would make an excellent movie.

Should be a classic in the "relationship novel" genre
I'm surprised at the way the Kirkus review above mischaracterizes this wonderful novel. I read the husband's half of the story first, since Shields wrote that one first.