A Long Time Gone

By: Karen White

Narrated by: Pilar Witherspoon, Jennifer Ikeda, Susan Bennett

Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

"We Walker women were born screaming into this world, the beginning of a lifelong quest to find what would quiet us. But whatever drove us away was never stronger than the pull of what brought us back...."

When Vivien Walker left her home in the Mississippi Delta, she swore never to go back, as generations of the women in her family had. But in the spring, nine years to the day since she' d left, that' s exactly what happens - Vivien returns, fleeing from a broken marriage and her lost dreams for children. What she hopes to find is solace with "Bootsie", her dear grandmother who raised her, a Walker woman with a knack for making everything all right. But instead she finds that her grandmother has died and that her estranged mother is drifting further away from her memories. Now Vivien is forced into the unexpected role of caretaker, challenging her personal quest to find the girl she herself once was. But for Vivien things change in ways she cannot imagine when a violent storm reveals the remains of a long-dead woman buried near the Walker home, not far from the cypress swamp that is soon to give up its ghosts. Vivien knows there is now only one way to rediscover herself - by uncovering the secrets of her family and breaking the cycle of loss that has haunted her them for generations.

©2014 Harley House Books, LLC (P)2014 Recorded Books

Great

Wonderful, touching story. I loved it! Performances were excellent and easy to follow. It was fun to listen to.

GReat mystery and human interest story

Karen White does a great job of presenting a mystery, wrapped into the stories of 4 generations of women in one family, and how secrets and others' actions can totally affect the next generation. I really like the way she slowly introduced more information about the mystery as the story progressed...... and that while there is some romance, that was by far not the main theme of the book. The narration was excellent and the story kept me wanting to get back on and listed any time I could. Well worth full credits and 5 stars.

Entertaining Listen

I listened to this story over several months while waiting for walking weather to come back to Minnesota. After all that time it kept my interest. It was a good mystery and well told. I did wonder why Vivian didn’t have a southern accent.

A long time gone.

I enjoyed this reading. It's a time told story of life & it's ups & downs throughout generations.

Worth the patience....

The beginning starts slow. BUT be patient because the story unfolds beautifully. I could not stop listening wanting to hear more and more of the story as it unfolded. Ending with tears and ready to re listen.

Five generations of southern women

Really good story! Well written and read. Great read for a book club!
Highly recommend. No gratuitous language or sex. Lots of secrets kept...too well!

Loved it

This is not really my typical book genre that I like but this book was wonderful.
I thought the narration was perfect, although, I'm not from Mississippi so that may be why I liked the mild accents.
I wish that there would be a follow up with where they all went from the end of this one. I'd like to know they all lived happily ever after.

Hard to start

It took a while to get into the story. I even started to think that I was disappointed because I had always liked Karen White books. But I stuck with all the whining and complaining about their lives. Glad I did because the story got better and it was really worth it.

great story

Loved this book so much, I listened to it twice! It's made me think of things from my childhood and how we have to forgive people of our past. We have to let go of the bitterness that tries to rule us.

Very Good

Really enjoyed. Narration was right on and story was very good especially how it went back and forth between time. Worth a credit.