-
The Paying Guests
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 21 hrs and 29 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $22.50
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Night Watch
- By: Sarah Waters
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 18 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked-out streets, illicit partying, and sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, The Night Watch tells the story of four Londoners - three women and a young man with a past - whose lives, and those of their friends and lovers, connect in tragedy, stunning surprise, and exquisite turns, only to change irreversibly in the shadow of a grand historical event.
-
-
A Captivating Tale of Resilience and War
- By Anonymous User on 12-27-23
By: Sarah Waters
-
The Little Stranger
- By: Sarah Waters
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Little Stranger follows the strange adventures of Dr. Faraday, the son of a maid who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. One dusty postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline - its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at 20 to nine.
-
-
First, pour yourself a mug of hot tea or cocoa
- By Rose on 07-03-09
By: Sarah Waters
-
The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics
- Feminine Pursuits
- By: Olivia Waite
- Narrated by: Morag Sims
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As Lucy Muchelney watches her ex-lover’s sham of a wedding, she wishes herself anywhere else. It isn’t until she finds a letter from the countess of Moth, looking for someone to translate a groundbreaking French astronomy text, that she knows where to go. Showing up at the countess’ London home, she hoped to find a challenge, not a woman who takes her breath away.
-
-
Great F/F Romance
- By Haley on 07-17-20
By: Olivia Waite
-
Forever Amber
- By: Kathleen Winsor
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Jasicki
- Length: 42 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Abandoned pregnant and penniless on the teeming streets of London, 16-year-old Amber St. Clare manages, by using her wits, beauty, and courage, to climb to the highest position a woman could achieve in Restoration England - that of favorite mistress of the Merry Monarch, Charles II. From whores and highwaymen to courtiers and noblemen, from events such as the Great Plague and the Fire of London to the intimate passions of ordinary - and extraordinary - men and women, Amber experiences it all.
-
-
Outstanding. one of the best I've ever listened to
- By Patsyzip on 08-17-20
By: Kathleen Winsor
-
Tipping the Velvet
- By: Sarah Waters
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 19 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nan King, an oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon Kitty Butler, a male impersonator extraordinaire treading the boards in Canterbury. Through a friend at the box office, Nan manages to visit all her shows and finally meet her heroine. Soon after, she becomes Kitty's dresser and the two head for the bright lights of Leicester Square where they begin a glittering career as music-hall stars in an all-singing and dancing double act.
-
-
Did not disappoint!
- By TENA on 01-25-15
By: Sarah Waters
-
Fingersmith
- By: Sarah Waters
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 23 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Orphaned as an infant, Susan Trinder was raised by Mrs. Sucksby, “mother” to a host of pickpockets and con artists. To pay her debt, she joins legendary thief Gentleman in swindling an innocent woman out of her inheritence. But the two women form an unanticipated bond and the events that follow will surprise every listener. Fingersmith was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Booker Prize, and was chosen as book of the year 2002 by more organizations than any other novel. Sarah Waters was named Author of the Year at the 2003 British Book Awards.
-
-
The BEST BOOK I"ve read this year!
- By Avid reader and shopper on 08-30-11
By: Sarah Waters
-
The Night Watch
- By: Sarah Waters
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 18 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked-out streets, illicit partying, and sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, The Night Watch tells the story of four Londoners - three women and a young man with a past - whose lives, and those of their friends and lovers, connect in tragedy, stunning surprise, and exquisite turns, only to change irreversibly in the shadow of a grand historical event.
-
-
A Captivating Tale of Resilience and War
- By Anonymous User on 12-27-23
By: Sarah Waters
-
The Little Stranger
- By: Sarah Waters
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Little Stranger follows the strange adventures of Dr. Faraday, the son of a maid who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. One dusty postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline - its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at 20 to nine.
-
-
First, pour yourself a mug of hot tea or cocoa
- By Rose on 07-03-09
By: Sarah Waters
-
The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics
- Feminine Pursuits
- By: Olivia Waite
- Narrated by: Morag Sims
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As Lucy Muchelney watches her ex-lover’s sham of a wedding, she wishes herself anywhere else. It isn’t until she finds a letter from the countess of Moth, looking for someone to translate a groundbreaking French astronomy text, that she knows where to go. Showing up at the countess’ London home, she hoped to find a challenge, not a woman who takes her breath away.
-
-
Great F/F Romance
- By Haley on 07-17-20
By: Olivia Waite
-
Forever Amber
- By: Kathleen Winsor
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Jasicki
- Length: 42 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Abandoned pregnant and penniless on the teeming streets of London, 16-year-old Amber St. Clare manages, by using her wits, beauty, and courage, to climb to the highest position a woman could achieve in Restoration England - that of favorite mistress of the Merry Monarch, Charles II. From whores and highwaymen to courtiers and noblemen, from events such as the Great Plague and the Fire of London to the intimate passions of ordinary - and extraordinary - men and women, Amber experiences it all.
-
-
Outstanding. one of the best I've ever listened to
- By Patsyzip on 08-17-20
By: Kathleen Winsor
-
Tipping the Velvet
- By: Sarah Waters
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 19 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nan King, an oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon Kitty Butler, a male impersonator extraordinaire treading the boards in Canterbury. Through a friend at the box office, Nan manages to visit all her shows and finally meet her heroine. Soon after, she becomes Kitty's dresser and the two head for the bright lights of Leicester Square where they begin a glittering career as music-hall stars in an all-singing and dancing double act.
-
-
Did not disappoint!
- By TENA on 01-25-15
By: Sarah Waters
-
Fingersmith
- By: Sarah Waters
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 23 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Orphaned as an infant, Susan Trinder was raised by Mrs. Sucksby, “mother” to a host of pickpockets and con artists. To pay her debt, she joins legendary thief Gentleman in swindling an innocent woman out of her inheritence. But the two women form an unanticipated bond and the events that follow will surprise every listener. Fingersmith was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Booker Prize, and was chosen as book of the year 2002 by more organizations than any other novel. Sarah Waters was named Author of the Year at the 2003 British Book Awards.
-
-
The BEST BOOK I"ve read this year!
- By Avid reader and shopper on 08-30-11
By: Sarah Waters
-
The Water Dancer (Oprah’s Book Club)
- A Novel
- By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Joe Morton
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her - but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known. So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North.
-
-
We Must Always Remember
- By Cammie on 09-28-19
By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
-
Watch Me Disappear
- A Novel
- By: Janelle Brown
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith, Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who you want people to be makes you blind to who they really are. It’s been a year since Billie Flanagan — a Berkeley mom with an enviable life — went on a solo hike in Desolation Wilderness and vanished from the trail. Her body was never found, just a shattered cellphone and a solitary hiking boot. Her husband and teenage daughter have been coping with Billie’s death the best they can: Jonathan drinks as he works on a loving memoir about his marriage; Olive grows remote, from both her father and her friends at the all-girls school she attends.
-
-
I really enjoyed this book!
- By Listening Queen on 09-05-17
By: Janelle Brown
-
Half of a Yellow Sun
- By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Narrated by: Zainab Jah
- Length: 18 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adichie illuminates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra’s impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in southeastern Nigeria during the late 1960s. We experience this tumultuous decade alongside five unforgettable characters: Ugwu, a 13-year-old houseboy working for Odenigbo, a university professor full of revolutionary zeal; Olanna, the professor’s beautiful young mistress who's abandoned her life in Lagos for a dusty town and her lover’s charm; and Richard, a shy young Englishman infatuated with Olanna’s willful twin sister Kainene.
-
-
A Little Background Adjustment
- By Perkbrooke on 03-13-18
-
The Round House
- A Novel
- By: Louise Erdrich
- Narrated by: Gary Farmer
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface as Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and 13-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared.
-
-
Heavy in My Heart
- By Mel on 01-02-13
By: Louise Erdrich
-
And the Mountains Echoed
- By: Khaled Hosseini
- Narrated by: Khaled Hosseini, Navid Negahban, Shohreh Aghdashloo
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Khaled Hosseini, the number-one New York Times best-selling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations.
-
-
Does the End Justify the Means
- By FanB14 on 05-24-13
By: Khaled Hosseini
-
The Lager Queen of Minnesota
- A Novel
- By: J. Ryan Stradal
- Narrated by: Judith Ivey
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two sisters, one farm. A family is split when their father leaves their shared inheritance entirely to Helen, his younger daughter. Despite baking award-winning pies at the local nursing home, her older sister, Edith, struggles to make what most people would call a living. So she can't help wondering what her life would have been like with even a portion of the farm money her sister kept for herself.
-
-
Best audiobook ever
- By KayMac on 09-02-19
By: J. Ryan Stradal
-
The Signature of All Things
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 21 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction, inserting her inimitable voice into an enthralling story of love, adventure and discovery. Spanning much of the 18th and 19th centuries, the novel follows the fortunes of the extraordinary Whittaker family as led by the enterprising Henry Whittaker - a poor-born Englishman who makes a great fortune in the South American quinine trade, eventually becoming the richest man in Philadelphia.
-
-
Don't miss this one
- By Molly-o on 12-27-13
-
The Secret Keeper
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England, 1959: Laurel Nicolson is 16 years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.
-
-
Kate Morton (and Caroline Lee) does it again!
- By Maria on 10-20-12
By: Kate Morton
-
The Senator's Wife
- The Senator's Wife Series Book 1
- By: Jen Lyon
- Narrated by: Abby Craden
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When professional soccer player Alex Grey goes on a vacation to the local South Carolina islands, she isn't anticipating any life-changing events. Just a relaxing weekend to prepare for the upcoming season. But that quickly changes when she finds herself the lone witness to a sailing accident and makes the decision to risk her own life to save a drowning woman—unwittingly coming to the rescue of a US senator's wife, Catharine Cleveland.
-
-
WOW!
- By Aisley Deymonaz on 09-19-23
By: Jen Lyon
-
Cutting for Stone
- A Novel
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
- Length: 23 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution.
-
-
An Epic Medical Novel
- By Audiophile on 07-11-09
By: Abraham Verghese
-
The Lake House
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 21 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Living on her family’s gorgeous lakeside estate in Cornwall, England, Alice Edevane is a bright, clever, inquisitive, innocent, and precociously talented fourteen-year-old who loves to write stories. But the mysteries she pens are no match for the one her family is about to endure ...One midsummer’s eve, after a beautiful party drawing hundreds of guests to the estate has ended, the Edevanes discover that their youngest son, Theo, has vanished without a trace.
-
-
Enjoyed the writing, but oy vey, this book
- By Jennifer S on 12-28-18
By: Kate Morton
-
The Husband's Secret
- By: Liane Moriarty
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret - something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive....
-
-
Soap Opera Digest
- By FanB14 on 02-06-14
By: Liane Moriarty
Publisher's summary
From the best-selling author of The Little Stranger, an enthralling novel about a widow and her daughter who take a young couple into their home in 1920s London.
It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa, a large silent house now bereft of brothers, husband, and even servants, life is about to be transformed, as impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers.
With the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the "clerk class", the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. Little do the Wrays know just how profoundly their new tenants will alter the course of Frances' life - or, as passions mount and frustration gathers, how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be.
Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize three times, Sarah Waters has earned a reputation as one of our greatest writers of historical fiction, and here she has delivered again. A love story, a tension-filled crime story, and a beautifully atmospheric portrait of a fascinating time and place, The Paying Guests is Sarah Waters' finest achievement yet.
Critic reviews
"Awesome, full-bodied novel. 'It's like she's saying, hey dudes, this is how you do it'." (Stephen King, via Twitter)
“Superb, bewitching.... Forget about Fifty Shades of Grey; this novel is one of the most sensual you will ever read, and all without sacrificing either good taste or a 'G' rating.... [The Paying Guests] is a magnificent creation, a book that doubles as a time machine, flinging us back not only to postwar London, but also to our own lost love affairs, the kind that left us breathless.” (NPR)
“A beautifully observed tale of murder, suspense, crumbling class distinctions and steamy lesbian love in post-Edwardian London. Like something Virginia Woolf might have written if she’d been racier.” (People)
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
The Secret Keeper
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England, 1959: Laurel Nicolson is 16 years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.
-
-
Kate Morton (and Caroline Lee) does it again!
- By Maria on 10-20-12
By: Kate Morton
-
The Unseen
- A Novel
- By: Katherine Webb
- Narrated by: Clare Wille
- Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A vicar with a passion for nature, the Reverend Albert Canning leads a happy existence with his naive wife, Hester, in their sleepy Berkshire village in the year 1911. But as the English summer dawns, the Cannings' lives are forever changed by two new arrivals: Cat, their new maid, a disaffected, free-spirited young woman sent down from London after entanglements with the law; and Robin Durrant, a leading expert in the occult, enticed by tales of elemental beings in the water meadows nearby.
-
-
Great book!
- By Dana on 09-03-12
By: Katherine Webb
-
Dying in the Wool
- A Kate Shackleton Mystery, Book 1
- By: Frances Brody
- Narrated by: Nicola Barber
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bridgestead is a peaceful spot: a babbling brook, rolling hills, and a working mill at its heart. Pretty and remote, nothing exceptional happens...until the day that Master of the Mill Joshua Braithwaite goes missing under dramatic circumstances, never to be heard of again. Now Joshua's daughter is getting married and wants to make one last attempt at finding her father. Kate Shackleton has always loved solving puzzles. So who better to get to the bottom of Joshua's mysterious disappearance?
-
-
Fluff & Nonsense
- By Sara on 01-03-15
By: Frances Brody
-
The Shifting Fog [also published under the alternate title The House at Riverton]
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 18 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Summer 1924: On the eve of a glittering society party, by the lake of a grand English country house, a young poet takes his life. The only witnesses, sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford, will never speak to each other again. Winter 1999: Grace Bradley, 98, one-time housemaid of Riverton Manor, is visited by a young director making a film about the poet's suicide. Ghosts awaken and memories, long consigned to the dark reaches of Grace's mind, begin to sneak back through the cracks.
-
-
Alternate title for "The House at Riverton"
- By Karen on 12-22-13
By: Kate Morton
-
A Share in Death
- By: Deborah Crombie
- Narrated by: Michael Deehy
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A week's holiday in a luxurious hotel is just what Scotland Yard's Superintendent Duncan Kincaid needs. But his vacation ends dramatically with the discovery of a dead body in the whirlpool bath. Despite a suspicious lack of cooperation from the local constabulary, Kincaid's keen sense of duty won't allow him to ignore the heinous crime, impelling him to send for his enthusiastic young assistant, Sergeant Gemma James. But the stakes are raised significantly when a second murder occurs....
-
-
series readers, start here
- By connie on 02-09-13
By: Deborah Crombie
-
Except the Dying
- A Murdoch Mystery, Book 1
- By: Maureen Jennings
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the cold Toronto winter of 1895, the naked body of a servant girl is found frozen in a deserted laneway. The young victim was pregnant when she died. Detective William Murdoch soon discovers that many of those connected with the girl's life have secrets to hide. Was her death on attempt to cover up a scandal in one of the city's influential families?
-
-
If you like the show - don't buy
- By Sarah on 06-09-16
By: Maureen Jennings
-
The Secret Keeper
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England, 1959: Laurel Nicolson is 16 years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.
-
-
Kate Morton (and Caroline Lee) does it again!
- By Maria on 10-20-12
By: Kate Morton
-
The Unseen
- A Novel
- By: Katherine Webb
- Narrated by: Clare Wille
- Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A vicar with a passion for nature, the Reverend Albert Canning leads a happy existence with his naive wife, Hester, in their sleepy Berkshire village in the year 1911. But as the English summer dawns, the Cannings' lives are forever changed by two new arrivals: Cat, their new maid, a disaffected, free-spirited young woman sent down from London after entanglements with the law; and Robin Durrant, a leading expert in the occult, enticed by tales of elemental beings in the water meadows nearby.
-
-
Great book!
- By Dana on 09-03-12
By: Katherine Webb
-
Dying in the Wool
- A Kate Shackleton Mystery, Book 1
- By: Frances Brody
- Narrated by: Nicola Barber
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bridgestead is a peaceful spot: a babbling brook, rolling hills, and a working mill at its heart. Pretty and remote, nothing exceptional happens...until the day that Master of the Mill Joshua Braithwaite goes missing under dramatic circumstances, never to be heard of again. Now Joshua's daughter is getting married and wants to make one last attempt at finding her father. Kate Shackleton has always loved solving puzzles. So who better to get to the bottom of Joshua's mysterious disappearance?
-
-
Fluff & Nonsense
- By Sara on 01-03-15
By: Frances Brody
-
The Shifting Fog [also published under the alternate title The House at Riverton]
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 18 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Summer 1924: On the eve of a glittering society party, by the lake of a grand English country house, a young poet takes his life. The only witnesses, sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford, will never speak to each other again. Winter 1999: Grace Bradley, 98, one-time housemaid of Riverton Manor, is visited by a young director making a film about the poet's suicide. Ghosts awaken and memories, long consigned to the dark reaches of Grace's mind, begin to sneak back through the cracks.
-
-
Alternate title for "The House at Riverton"
- By Karen on 12-22-13
By: Kate Morton
-
A Share in Death
- By: Deborah Crombie
- Narrated by: Michael Deehy
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A week's holiday in a luxurious hotel is just what Scotland Yard's Superintendent Duncan Kincaid needs. But his vacation ends dramatically with the discovery of a dead body in the whirlpool bath. Despite a suspicious lack of cooperation from the local constabulary, Kincaid's keen sense of duty won't allow him to ignore the heinous crime, impelling him to send for his enthusiastic young assistant, Sergeant Gemma James. But the stakes are raised significantly when a second murder occurs....
-
-
series readers, start here
- By connie on 02-09-13
By: Deborah Crombie
-
Except the Dying
- A Murdoch Mystery, Book 1
- By: Maureen Jennings
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the cold Toronto winter of 1895, the naked body of a servant girl is found frozen in a deserted laneway. The young victim was pregnant when she died. Detective William Murdoch soon discovers that many of those connected with the girl's life have secrets to hide. Was her death on attempt to cover up a scandal in one of the city's influential families?
-
-
If you like the show - don't buy
- By Sarah on 06-09-16
By: Maureen Jennings
-
Crooked Heart
- A Novel
- By: Lissa Evans
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Noel Bostock - aged 10, no family - is evacuated from London to escape the Nazi bombardment, he lands in a suburb northwest of the city with Vera Sedge - a 36-year-old widow drowning in debts and dependents. Always desperate for money, she's unscrupulous about how she gets it.
-
-
Surviving The Blitz In WWII Great Britain
- By Sara on 04-24-16
By: Lissa Evans
-
The Nurses of Steeple Street
- By: Donna Douglas
- Narrated by: Penelope Freeman
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to the district nurses' home on Steeple Street, where everyone has a secret.... Ambitious young nurse Agnes Sheridan had a promising future ahead of her until a tragic mistake cost her the love and respect of everyone around her. Now she has come to Leeds for a fresh start as a trainee district nurse. But Agnes finds herself facing unexpected challenges as she is assigned to Quarry Hill, one of the city's most notorious slums.
-
-
What a delightful story
- By Delores DeMaria on 10-17-23
By: Donna Douglas
-
Life Class
- By: Pat Barker
- Narrated by: Russell Boulter
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 1914, a group of young students gather in an art studio for a life-drawing class. Paul Tarrant and Elinor Brooke are two components of a love triangle, and at the outset of the war, they turn to each other. After volunteering for the Red Cross, Paul must confront the fact that life, love, and art will never be the same for him.
-
-
In Love and War
- By Cariola on 07-28-09
By: Pat Barker
-
The Nightingale Girls
- By: Donna Douglas
- Narrated by: Penelope Freeman
- Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Three very different girls sign up as trainee nurses at a big London teaching hospital in 1934. Dora leaves her overcrowded, squalid working-class home for a better life. But has she got what it takes to keep up with other, better-educated girls? And will her hated stepfather ever let her go? Helen is born for the job; her brother is a doctor, her all-powerful mother a hospital trustee. But will Helen’s secret misery be her downfall? An aristocratic rebel, Millie’s carefree attitude will find her up in front of Matron again and again. Will she ever care enough to make a nurse? Or will she go back to the glamorous life she was born to?
-
-
For young girls
- By deborah jernigan on 12-31-16
By: Donna Douglas
-
Secrets of Nanreath Hall
- A Novel
- By: Alix Rickloff
- Narrated by: Lauren Irwin, Laura Waddell
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cornwall, 1940. Back in England after the harrowing evacuation at Dunkirk, WWII Red Cross nurse Anna Trenowyth is shocked to learn her adoptive parents, Graham and Prue Handley, have been killed in an air raid. She desperately needs their advice, as she's been assigned to the military hospital that has set up camp inside her biological mother's childhood home - Nanreath Hall. Anna was just six years old when her mother, Lady Katherine Trenowyth, died. All she has left are vague memories that tease her with clues she can't unravel.
-
-
Well done both narrators and Author !
- By Andover Meadow on 09-17-16
By: Alix Rickloff
-
Evergreen Falls
- By: Kimberley Freeman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Vuletic
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A long-forgotten secret, a scandalous attraction and a place where two women's lives are changed forever. 1926: Violet Armstrong is one of the few remaining members of staff working at the grand Evergreen Spa Hotel as it closes down over winter. Only a handful of guests are left, including the heir to a rich grazing family, his sister and her suave suitor. When a snowstorm moves in, the hotel is cut off and they are all trapped. No-one could have predicted what would unfold.
-
-
Soooo Boring
- By Merford on 10-09-19
-
There'll Be Blue Skies
- By: Ellie Dean
- Narrated by: Annie Aldington
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When sixteen-year-old Sally is evacuated to the English south coast, she is terrified by what lies ahead of her. All she knows are the sights and sounds of London's East End – but Sally swallows her tears as they leave the familiar landmarks behind, knowing that she has to be a Grown-Up Girl and play mother to her six-year-old brother Ernie. Playing mother is nothing new for Sally – their real mother Florrie, a good-time girl, hasn't even come to the station to wave them off and Ernie, crippled at an early age by polio, is used to depending on his older sister.
-
-
The audible reading was poor
- By Connie Palla on 03-02-19
By: Ellie Dean
-
Laughter in the Dark
- By: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Albinus, a respectable, middle-aged man and aspiring filmmaker, abandons his wife for a lover half his age: Margot, who wants to become a movie star. When Albinus introduces her to Rex, an American movie producer, disaster ensues. What emerges is an elegantly sardonic and irresistibly ironic novel of desire, deceit, and deception, a curious romance set in the film world of Berlin in the 1930s.
-
-
Death is often the point of life's joke
- By Darwin8u on 05-19-13
By: Vladimir Nabokov
-
Mr. Fox
- A Novel
- By: Helen Oyeyemi
- Narrated by: Carol Boyd
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fairy-tale romances end with a wedding and the fairy tales don't get complicated. In this book, celebrated writer Mr. Fox can't stop himself from killing off the heroines of his novels, and neither can his wife, Daphne. It's not until Mary, his muse, comes to life and transforms him from author into subject that his story begins to unfold differently....
-
-
A Great Novel, just Poor for Audio
- By James A. Dittes on 08-13-16
By: Helen Oyeyemi
-
A Great Deliverance
- Inspector Lynley, Book 1
- By: Elizabeth George
- Narrated by: Donada Peters
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Into Keldale's pastoral web of old houses and older secrets comes Scotland Yard Inspector Thomas Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton. Along with the redoubtable Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, Lynley has been sent to solve a savage murder that has stunned the peaceful countryside. For fat, unlovely Roberta Teys has been found in her best dress, an ax in her lap, seated in the old stone barn beside her father's headless corpse. Her first and last words were "I did it. And I'm not sorry".
-
-
good debut novel
- By Stevon on 11-11-19
By: Elizabeth George
-
Death in Berlin
- By: M. M. Kaye
- Narrated by: Kate Udall
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miranda Brand is visiting Germany for what is supposed to be a month's vacation. But from the moment that Brigadier Brindley relates the story about a fortune in lost diamonds - a story in which Miranda herself figures in an unusual way - the vacation atmosphere becomes transformed into something more ominous. And when murder strikes on the night train to Berlin, Miranda finds herself unwillingly involved in a complex chain of events that will soon throw her own life into peril.
-
-
Why these narrators
- By Rhian on 09-01-13
By: M. M. Kaye
-
Lights Out Liverpool
- By: Maureen Lee
- Narrated by: Maggie Ollerenshaw
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As Britain stands alone against a monstrous enemy, the inhabitants of Pearl Street face hardship and heartbreak with courage and humour. The war touches each of them in a different way: for Annie Poulson, a widow, it means never-ending worry when her twin boys are called up and sent to France; Sheila Reilly's husband, Cal, faces the terror of U-Boat attacks; Eileen Costello is liberated from a bitter, loveless marriage when her husband is sent to Egypt.
-
-
Wonderful
- By Tansy Adderley on 10-03-18
By: Maureen Lee
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Little Stranger
- By: Sarah Waters
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Little Stranger follows the strange adventures of Dr. Faraday, the son of a maid who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. One dusty postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline - its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at 20 to nine.
-
-
First, pour yourself a mug of hot tea or cocoa
- By Rose on 07-03-09
By: Sarah Waters
-
Tipping the Velvet
- By: Sarah Waters
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 19 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nan King, an oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon Kitty Butler, a male impersonator extraordinaire treading the boards in Canterbury. Through a friend at the box office, Nan manages to visit all her shows and finally meet her heroine. Soon after, she becomes Kitty's dresser and the two head for the bright lights of Leicester Square where they begin a glittering career as music-hall stars in an all-singing and dancing double act.
-
-
Did not disappoint!
- By TENA on 01-25-15
By: Sarah Waters
-
Affinity
- By: Sarah Waters
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Named Author of the Year at the 2003 British BookAwards, Sarah Waters is the author of Tipping the Velvet, a New York Times Notable Book. Once inside the concrete walls of Millbank Prison, Margaret Prior, hired to speak with the female inmates, becomes all too aware that what she perceives to be reality may not be so. Bringing new ideas to her mind is the beautiful, but dangerous criminal Selina Dawes.
-
-
Fascinating and Rich in Detail
- By Ilana on 02-20-15
By: Sarah Waters
-
The Night Watch
- By: Sarah Waters
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 18 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked-out streets, illicit partying, and sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, The Night Watch tells the story of four Londoners - three women and a young man with a past - whose lives, and those of their friends and lovers, connect in tragedy, stunning surprise, and exquisite turns, only to change irreversibly in the shadow of a grand historical event.
-
-
A Captivating Tale of Resilience and War
- By Anonymous User on 12-27-23
By: Sarah Waters
-
Fingersmith
- By: Sarah Waters
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 23 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Orphaned as an infant, Susan Trinder was raised by Mrs. Sucksby, “mother” to a host of pickpockets and con artists. To pay her debt, she joins legendary thief Gentleman in swindling an innocent woman out of her inheritence. But the two women form an unanticipated bond and the events that follow will surprise every listener. Fingersmith was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Booker Prize, and was chosen as book of the year 2002 by more organizations than any other novel. Sarah Waters was named Author of the Year at the 2003 British Book Awards.
-
-
The BEST BOOK I"ve read this year!
- By Avid reader and shopper on 08-30-11
By: Sarah Waters
-
The King at the Edge of the World
- A Novel
- By: Arthur Phillips
- Narrated by: Euan Morton
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year is 1601. Queen Elizabeth I is dying, childless. Her nervous kingdom has no heir. It is a capital crime even to think that Elizabeth will ever die. Potential successors secretly maneuver to be in position when the inevitable occurs. The leading candidate is King James VI of Scotland, but there is a problem. The queen’s spymasters - hardened veterans of a long war on terror and religious extremism - fear that James is not what he appears.
-
-
What a trip!
- By BK on 04-03-20
By: Arthur Phillips
-
The Little Stranger
- By: Sarah Waters
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Little Stranger follows the strange adventures of Dr. Faraday, the son of a maid who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. One dusty postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline - its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at 20 to nine.
-
-
First, pour yourself a mug of hot tea or cocoa
- By Rose on 07-03-09
By: Sarah Waters
-
Tipping the Velvet
- By: Sarah Waters
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 19 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nan King, an oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon Kitty Butler, a male impersonator extraordinaire treading the boards in Canterbury. Through a friend at the box office, Nan manages to visit all her shows and finally meet her heroine. Soon after, she becomes Kitty's dresser and the two head for the bright lights of Leicester Square where they begin a glittering career as music-hall stars in an all-singing and dancing double act.
-
-
Did not disappoint!
- By TENA on 01-25-15
By: Sarah Waters
-
Affinity
- By: Sarah Waters
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Named Author of the Year at the 2003 British BookAwards, Sarah Waters is the author of Tipping the Velvet, a New York Times Notable Book. Once inside the concrete walls of Millbank Prison, Margaret Prior, hired to speak with the female inmates, becomes all too aware that what she perceives to be reality may not be so. Bringing new ideas to her mind is the beautiful, but dangerous criminal Selina Dawes.
-
-
Fascinating and Rich in Detail
- By Ilana on 02-20-15
By: Sarah Waters
-
The Night Watch
- By: Sarah Waters
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 18 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked-out streets, illicit partying, and sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, The Night Watch tells the story of four Londoners - three women and a young man with a past - whose lives, and those of their friends and lovers, connect in tragedy, stunning surprise, and exquisite turns, only to change irreversibly in the shadow of a grand historical event.
-
-
A Captivating Tale of Resilience and War
- By Anonymous User on 12-27-23
By: Sarah Waters
-
Fingersmith
- By: Sarah Waters
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 23 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Orphaned as an infant, Susan Trinder was raised by Mrs. Sucksby, “mother” to a host of pickpockets and con artists. To pay her debt, she joins legendary thief Gentleman in swindling an innocent woman out of her inheritence. But the two women form an unanticipated bond and the events that follow will surprise every listener. Fingersmith was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Booker Prize, and was chosen as book of the year 2002 by more organizations than any other novel. Sarah Waters was named Author of the Year at the 2003 British Book Awards.
-
-
The BEST BOOK I"ve read this year!
- By Avid reader and shopper on 08-30-11
By: Sarah Waters
-
The King at the Edge of the World
- A Novel
- By: Arthur Phillips
- Narrated by: Euan Morton
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year is 1601. Queen Elizabeth I is dying, childless. Her nervous kingdom has no heir. It is a capital crime even to think that Elizabeth will ever die. Potential successors secretly maneuver to be in position when the inevitable occurs. The leading candidate is King James VI of Scotland, but there is a problem. The queen’s spymasters - hardened veterans of a long war on terror and religious extremism - fear that James is not what he appears.
-
-
What a trip!
- By BK on 04-03-20
By: Arthur Phillips
-
Rubyfruit Jungle
- A Novel
- By: Rita Mae Brown
- Narrated by: Anna Paquin
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In bawdy, moving prose, Rita Mae Brown tells the story of Molly Bolt, the adoptive daughter of a dirt-poor Southern couple who boldly forges her own path in America. With her startling beauty and crackling wit, Molly finds that women are drawn to her wherever she goes - and she refuses to apologize for loving them back.
-
-
Worth Every Moment
- By Kristena C on 01-02-23
By: Rita Mae Brown
-
The Golden Notebook
- By: Doris Lessing
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 27 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author Anna Wulf attempts to overcome writer’s block by writing a comprehensive "golden notebook" that draws together the preoccupations of her life, each of which is examined in a different notebook. Anna’s struggle to unify the various strands of her life – emotional, political, and professional – amasses into a fascinating encyclopaedia of female experience in the ‘50s.
-
-
Transcendent narration of a masterpiece.
- By @vmarinelli on 07-03-12
By: Doris Lessing
-
House of Names
- By: Colm Tóibín
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson, Charlie Anson, Pippa Nixon
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"I have been acquainted with the smell of death." So begins Clytemnestra's tale of her own life in ancient Mycenae, the legendary Greek city from which her husband, King Agamemnon, left when he set sail with his army for Troy. Clytemnestra rules Mycenae now, along with her new lover, Aegisthus, and together they plot the bloody murder of Agamemnon on the day of his return after nine years at war.
-
-
Power. Control. Restraint.
- By David on 06-27-17
By: Colm Tóibín
-
The Crimson Petal and the White
- By: Michel Faber
- Narrated by: Jill Tanner
- Length: 41 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
NOW A MAJOR BBC DRAMA starring Romola Garai, Chris O'Dowd, Gillian Anderson, Richard E. Grant, Shirley Henderson and Mark Gatiss. 'Watch your step. Keep your wits about you; you will need them....' So begins this irresistible voyage into the dark side of Victorian London. Amongst an unforgettable cast of low-lifes, physicians, businessmen, and prostitutes, meet our heroine Sugar, a young woman trying to drag herself up from the gutter any way she can.
-
-
Loved this Book!!
- By anniepaints on 06-16-11
By: Michel Faber
-
This House Is Haunted
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Alison Larkin
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When she arrives at the hall, shaken by an unsettling disturbance that occurred during her travels, she is greeted by the two children now in her care, Isabella and Eustace. There is no adult present to represent her mysterious employer, and the children offer no explanation. Later that night in her room, another terrifying experience further reinforces the sense that something is very wrong. From the moment Eliza rises the following morning, her every step seems dogged by a malign presence that lives within Gaudlin's walls.
-
-
Well Read - Not Very Scary, Had Promise
- By Dorothy on 03-24-14
By: John Boyne
-
Once Upon a River
- By: Diane Setterfield
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A body always tells a story - but this child’s was a blank page. Rita reached for the lantern. She trained its light on the child’s face. "Who are you?" she murmured, but the face said as little as the rest of her. It was impossible to tell whether, in life, these blunt and unfinished features had borne the imprint of prettiness, timid watchfulness, or sly mischief. If there had once been curiosity or placidity or impatience here, life had not had time to etch it into permanence. Only a very short time ago, the body and soul of this little girl had still been securely attached.
-
-
Enjoyed thoroughly... one minor glitch
- By Jen817 on 12-27-18
-
The Whalebone Theatre
- A Read with Jenna Pick
- By: Joanna Quinn
- Narrated by: Olivia Vinall
- Length: 18 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One blustery night in 1928, a whale washes up on the shores of the English Channel. By law, it belongs to the King, but twelve-year-old orphan Cristabel Seagrave has other plans. She and the rest of the household—her sister, Flossie; her brother, Digby, long-awaited heir to Chilcombe manor; Maudie Kitcat, kitchen maid; Taras, visiting artist—build a theatre from the beast’s skeletal rib cage. Within the Whalebone Theatre, Cristabel can escape her feckless stepparents and brisk governesses, and her imagination comes to life.
-
-
Unbelievable Debut Novel!
- By NTexHiker on 10-13-22
By: Joanna Quinn
-
The Thirteenth Tale
- A Novel
- By: Diane Setterfield
- Narrated by: Bianca Amato, Jill Tanner
- Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All children mythologize their birth... So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's beloved collection of stories, long famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale. The enigmatic Winter has always kept her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and ailing, she summons a biographer to tell the truth about her extraordinary life: Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth remains an ever-present pain.
-
-
Simply Amazing Story--2 missing chapters
- By JE on 01-28-10
-
The Piano Tuner
- A Novel
- By: Daniel Mason
- Narrated by: Richard Matthews
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In October 1886, Edgar Drake receives a strange request from the British War office: he must leave his wife and his quiet life in London to travel to the jungles of Burma, where a rare Erard grand piano is in need of repair. On his journey to Burma, Edgar encounters prophets and thieves, soldiers and tale-spinners, and an enchanting woman as elusive as the surgeon-major who owns the piano will turn out to be. Edgar encounters a place more mysterious and dangerous than he could ever have imagined.
-
-
The absolute best in reading, a true classic!
- By David on 10-09-03
By: Daniel Mason
-
Held
- A Novel
- By: Anne Michaels
- Narrated by: Anne Michaels
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1917. On a battlefield near the River Escaut, John lies in the aftermath of a blast, unable to move or feel his legs. Struggling to focus his thoughts, he is lost to memory as the snow falls—a chance encounter in a pub by a railway, a hot bath with his lover on a winter night. 1920. John has returned from war to North Yorkshire, near a different river. He is alive but still not whole. Reunited with Helena, an artist, he reopens his photography business and tries to keep on living. But the past erupts insistently into the present, as ghosts begin to surface in his pictures.
-
-
Poetry of the Heart
- By Delphine C. Lucas on 04-29-24
By: Anne Michaels
-
Hamnet
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Ell Potter
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Agnes is a wild creature who walks her family’s land with a falcon on her glove and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer, understanding plants and potions better than she does people. Once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose career on the London stage is taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to sudden fever.
-
-
A masterpiece
- By Molly-o on 08-03-20
By: Maggie O'Farrell
-
The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock
- A Novel
- By: Imogen Hermes Gowar
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 17 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1780s London, a prosperous merchant finds his quiet life upended when he unexpectedly receives an unusual creature - and meets a most extraordinary woman - in this much-lauded, atmospheric debut that examines our capacity for wonder, obsession, and desire. One September evening in 1785, Jonah Hancock hears an urgent knocking on his front door near the docks of London. The captain of one of Jonah’s trading vessels is waiting eagerly on the front step, bearing shocking news. On a voyage to the Far East, he sold the Jonah’s ship for something rare and far more precious: a mermaid.
-
-
Gave up
- By Isabella Piestrzynska on 10-27-18
Love Books? You'll Love Audible.
Transform your day
Replace endless scrolling with endless listening. Chores can be fun.
Listen everywhere
Download titles to listen offline, wherever you are in the world.
Carry your entire Library
Your stories go where you go. Audiobooks don’t weigh a thing.
Listen and learn
Discover stories that can change your mind, your well-being, and your life.
Reach your reading goals
You can’t turn pages while you drive—but you can press play.
Find your niche
WIth thousands of titles to explore, there’s something for everyone.
What listeners say about The Paying Guests
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Pita
- 09-22-14
Superior historical fiction/romance/suspense
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I was eagerly awaiting this offering by Sarah Waters, one of my favorite writers of literary/historical fiction. I enthusiastically recommend it to anybody that is willing to read at a leisurely pace, at least for the first half of the novel. Sara Waters makes beautiful use of language to fully develop her characters and construct her meticulously researched settings. This particular piece takes place in post World War I England. As it is typical of Waters, she has the ability to take the reader to the period of her choice and immerse the reader in it but this is not accomplished in 5 pages. The narrative picks up speed during the second half of the book.
Some of the themes that frequently appear in Water's other works are present here. The division of classes in Britain, the strong female characters who are struggling to grow and survive and the lesbian romance are all part of this books but, fear not, this work is in no way repetitious or formulaic. Crime and suspense are added here, and there are even courtroom scenes (which I really enjoyed). Waters works very well with the element of suspense. The reader gets involved not only in the courtroom drama but also in the human drama....although we know who did what from the beginning, we do not know how the court verdict will turn out or how the two main characters will evolve emotionally after the specific event. The end took me by surprise and I liked that (I had figured it out quite differently).
What did you like best about this story?
I was really taken by the fact that the two protagonist and their behavior and responses to certain events are unpredictable in a way that makes them very human. They may at times behave in ways that do not necessarily make the reader sympathize with them but they remain real. The characters in this book were indeed very alive.
Have you listened to any of Juliet Stevenson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I have listened to other narrations by Juliet Stevenson. She was superb in this book. She helped make each character and individual entity. I can sincerely say that this is one of the best narrations I have heard.
Any additional comments?
Towards the end of the book there is a scene in the courtroom, right before the verdict is read that is masterful. The writer does a wonderful job of building up the suspense. It is a relatively short thing but it proves without question that Sara Waters is one of the authors of literary fiction writing today.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
22 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- TTaylor
- 10-02-14
Juliet Stevenson is a genius
Where does The Paying Guests rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
One of the most amazing and moving performances I've ever heard. Maybe the best ever!
What did you like best about this story?
The performance
Have you listened to any of Juliet Stevenson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
This is the best of all of them. She's masterful.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Toby
- 09-19-14
A perfect literary novel with suspense
If you could sum up The Paying Guests in three words, what would they be?
A great read.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Frances, as the protagonist, was clearly my favorite, but I also liked Lillian. Frances perhaps the most as the the voice of the novel and the one we are most intimate with as she goes about her life.
Have you listened to any of Juliet Stevenson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Not sure as I listen to so many books. Ms. Stevenson was excellent. I will look for her again, most certainly.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
My reaction was visceral. The prose was captivating as was the sense of place and times. There was an intimacy with the character that deeply moved me.
Any additional comments?
I am telling all my friends who love to read GREAT books to read this one. Ms. Waters is a rare and exceptionally talented writer. Brava!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- E Grant-Gibson
- 03-03-21
Brilliant Narration of an Excellent Story
Juliet Stevenson is certainly one of the great narrators of British literature. This novel by three-time Booker Prize Nominee Sarah Waters offers is glimpse into a time and place, post-WWI London, and into the lives of a group mostly of women. Suffrage, post-war trauma, women’s changing roles, economic shifts, and a loosening of social class rigidity all play a part in this ever-changing, engrossing novel. Waters is a masterful storyteller, and she reveals information piece-by-piece with a deft hand and a sharp eye. I highly recommend The Paying Guests.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ginger 3701
- 06-10-18
Once again.
Sarah Waters is such an amazing writer. Her writing puts the reader right in the middle of the story. As if one is on the sidelines watching every scene, hearing every word spoken by such wonderful characters. The mystery of it all,the feelings, the depth of emotion is simply incredible. Not one wasted word. How very rare is that?The performance was wonderful. The perfect voice for a perfect story. Perhaps the best performance I have heard. Overall fantastic.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Claudia Leme
- 10-14-19
Feel bad
It is very well written. You can’t let it down but it is a major downer, all the way.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jess Hooks
- 04-26-20
perfect quarentine distraction
This was a perfect thing to listen to while I did housework and pass the time during lockdown. It was a nice balance of romance, politics of the time, I'm very good descriptions of London during the era.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Genevieve
- 08-20-15
Not Historical Fiction
Seems as though most people are one of two minds on this - I was one that did not enjoy this being billed as historical fiction when it really should have been listed as romance. The story is very, very slow to start and doesn't get much better. The main issue, as other reviewers have written, is merely laid into the historical context, with no real commentary or perspective. The characters could have been written in a way that would have offered this perspective, but were not. It was a murder mystery without the whodunit aspect. It was a romance with real, but created drama, not the sort that naturally occurs in society and culture but manufactured by the characters. I kept waiting for a twist or some sort of resolution and did not get it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- ariel
- 04-30-15
Unique and satisfying
Reminiscent of a Sherlock mystery but omniscient and without lull.
Definitely recommend for bored mystery lovers.
Awesome fun. Read or
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- MarieJ
- 05-26-15
Amazing
Another wonderful surprise by Sarah Waters. Don't miss this treat!
Love, murder, and a British accent!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!