
Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create account
Limited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks!
Nowโs a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Sign up todayThe Snowbirds
This audiobook uses AI narration.
Weโre taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreBookseller recommendation
“This book is a mirror in which I saw myself reflected, for better and for worse, in Kim and Grant and all the colorful side characters I came to fall in love with. The emotional - and physical - journeys had me along for the ride and I was so invested in every peak and valley. I'm writing this on a record-setting cold day in the Midwest (-35 F with windchill!) and dreaming of joining the crew in Palm Springs. Christi Clancy, take me away!”
— Sarah K • Dragonfly Books
The Last Thing He Told Me meets Fleishman Is in Trouble in this engrossing story of a couple who flee winter in the Midwest for Palm Springs, where they find their relationship at a crossroads.
Kim and Grant are at a turning point. A couple for thirty years, their "separate but together" partnership is running up against the realities of late middle age: Grantโs mother has died, the college where he taught philosophy was shuttered, and their twin girls are grown and gone. Escaping the bitter cold of a Midwestern winter for the hot desert sun of Palm Springs seems as good a solution as any to the more intractable problems they face.
When they arrive at Le Desert, a quirky condo community where everyone knows everyoneโs business, Kim immediately embraces the opportunity to make new friends and explore a more adventurous side of her personality. Meanwhile, Grant struggles to find his footing in this unfamiliar landscape, leaving Kim to wonder if their relationship can survive the snowbird season. But when Grant goes missing on a hike in the Palm Springs mountains, Kim is forced to consider two terrifying outcomes: either Grant is truly lost, or this time, heโs really left her.
Is it ever too late to become the person we wanted to beโand is there still time to change into someone better? The exhilarating, but often confusing transitions of midlife are pitched against the promise and glamour of Palm Springs in this tender, honest story of what it takes to commit to someone for a lifetime. With compassion and humor, Clancy explores the redemptive power of finding ourselves, and of being found.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martinโs Press.
Christina Clancy is the author of The Second Home and Shoulder Season. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, The Sun magazine, and in various literary journals. She splits her time between Madison and Palm Springs.
Featured in this playlist...
Audiobook details
Author:
Christina Clancy
Narrators:
Graham Halstead & Karissa Vacker
ISBN:
9781250380005
Length:
9 hours 58 minutes
Language:
English
Publisher:
Macmillan Audio
Publication date:
February 4, 2025
Edition:
Unabridged
Libro.fm rank:
#614 Overall
Genre rank:
#127 in Fiction - Literary
Reviews
"Studded with witty banter and the sparkling glamour of Palm Springs, The Snowbirds is great fun, but what Clancy really gives us is a portrait of a marriage with psychological depth and pathos and characters we canโt help but fall in love with. Stunning." โRufi Thorpe, author of Margo's Got Money Troubles
"The Snowbirds is a beautifully written and propulsive novel, at once a page-turning mystery of a missing man and a moving portrait of a long-term relationship going through a midlife crisis. With humor, honesty, and keen insight, Clancy explores the struggles and joys of reexamining a 30-year relationship and remaking your life in a new community. I couldn't put it down." โAngie Kim, New York Times bestselling author of Happiness Falls
"The Snowbirds is an insightful, propulsive exploration of modern marriage in middle age, equal parts sharp-eyed and heartwarming. Is it possible to commit to a relationship without losing your identity? What epiphanies might we have while getting lost? Christina Clancy's novel ponders these questions and more with humor and warmth. Set against the vivid, zany backdrop of Palm Springs and its Hollywood history, populated by a delightful cast of locals and transplants, The Snowbirds asks whether it's ever too late to find your partnerโand yourself." โChloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists
"The Snowbirds is a harrowing look at all the ways we find ourselves lost in relationships and what it takes to be found. Clancy has harnessed the unyielding sunshine of Palm Springs to shine new light on long-term love. Her observations are astounding." โSteven Rowley, New York Times bestselling author of The Guncle
"In The Snowbirds, Clancy plumbs the depths of love and commitment while spinning a compelling and tantalizing tale about a man who runs away one too many times in the course of a thirty-year relationship. As Kim's new winter community in Palm Springs rallies about her in the search for Grant, who has failed to return from a New Year's Day hike, the reader is shown glimpses of the couple's fraught but passionate past framed by each of his previous flights from home. A totally relatable and completely unforgettable work of literary fiction that, like the best of marriages, manages to be both rich with meaning and insight, sexy and oh-so-fun." โNatalie Jenner, bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society
"This book is a trip! An honest and authentic portrait of love, family and finding yourself told with beautiful writing and rich characters." โByron Lane, author of Big Gay Wedding
"The Snowbirds shines a compassionate light on the complexities of life-long love, and the ways our deepest connections make us deeply vulnerable. It's emotionally wise and beautifully writtenโI'm going to be thinking about this one for a long time." โAnnabel Monaghan, author of Summer Romance
"I loved spending time in Clancyโs Palm Springs, where the local color features a passel of voluble eccentrics as magnificent as the mountain views, and a twisty, harrowing hike of a plot. This life-affirming novel of being lost and found will shake you up." โBonnie Jo Campbell, author of The Waters
"The Snowbirds is a sharp, often tender portrait of middle age: a period of life when weโre told we should know who we are but are often still trying to find ourselves. Against the intoxicating backdrop of Palm Springs, Clancy brings an incredible cast of characters to life with wit, precision, and empathy." โRowan Beaird, author of The Divorcรฉes
"Clancyโs latest features a long-time couple at the precipice of a romantic reckoning who head to Palm Springs, where the dry heat and their quirky neighbors only add to the tightrope tension. The perfect read for a cold winter night, and one that raises the fundamental questions of how well do we know our partner, or even ourselves? An absolute treat." โFiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Stolen Queen
"The Snowbirds is Clancyโs best novel yet, and absolutely impossible to put downโa gripping, immersive story about the importance of community and the unexpressed depths of love within a family." โJ. Ryan Stradal, New York Times bestselling author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest
Praise for Shoulder Season
"A perfect beach read." โBuzzFeed
"A burst of heady independence and excitement [that] develops into a love triangle with tragic results." โNew York Post
"I tore through this vibrant coming-of-age tale. Clancyโs vulnerable characters come roaring to life in full eighties glamour, before spiraling toward a central tragedy that will define their adult lives and the very definition of home." โSteven Rowley, New York Times bestselling author