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Life After Life
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Fenella Woolgar
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
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Publisher's summary
What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?
On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.
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Critic reviews
"A densely layered, century-sprawling work that is a formidable bid for the brass ring of the U.K.'s prestigious Man Booker Prize. Life After Life is a drama of failures and providential rebirths...High-concept premise...A deft and convincing portrayal of an English family's evolution across two world wars...Marvelous...Not only does she bring characters to life with enviable ease, she has an almost offhand knack for vivid scene-setting ...Her storytelling prowess is on fullest display in a gorgeous and nerve-racking novella-length chapter set during the Blitz...It's spellbindingly done." (Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal)
"Life After Life is a masterpiece about how even the smallest choices can sometimes change the course of history. It's wise, bittersweet, funny, and unlike anything else you've ever read. Kate Atkinson is one of my all-time favorite novelists, and I believe this is her best book yet." (J. Courtney Sullivan, best-selling author of Maine and Commencement)
"Life After Life is dark and funny and suspenseful and sad all at the same time." (Emily Ecton, NPR, Great Reads of 2013)
Featured Article: It Was the Best of Scribes—The Best British Authors
With its esteemed history and bold contemporary scene, Britain lays claim to some of the most exciting literature in audio. With the hundreds of incredible British writers throughout the centuries, a person could devote their whole literary life solely to British authors and still never run out of amazing things to listen to. Whether you're an avid Anglophile or just want to discover the best English novelists for yourself, here’s a list of the best for you to choose from!
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- A Novel
- By: Hilary Mantel
- Narrated by: Sandra Duncan
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Ralph and Anna Eldred are an exemplary couple, devoting themselves to doing good. 30 years ago as missionaries in Africa, the worst that could happen did. Shattered by their encounter with inexplicable evil, they returned to England, never to speak of it again. But when Ralph falls into an affair, Anna finds no forgiveness in her heart, and 30 years of repressed rage and grief explode, destroying not only a marriage but also their love, their faith, and everything they thought they were.
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Beautifully written
- By Patricia S. on 10-11-15
By: Hilary Mantel
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Pennies for Hitler
- By: Jackie French
- Narrated by: Humphrey Bower
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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It's 1939, and for Georg, son of an English academic living in Germany, life is full of cream cakes and loving parents. It is also a time when his teacher measures the pupils' heads to see which of them have the most 'Aryan'- shaped heads. But when a university graduation ceremony turns into a pro-Nazi demonstration, Georg is smuggled out of Germany to war-torn London and then across enemy seas to Australia where he must forget his past and who he is in order to survive. Hatred is contagious, but Georg finds that kindness can be, too.
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This could be a Bryce Courtenay novel
- By K Cornwinkle on 07-02-14
By: Jackie French
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Goodnight from London
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Robson
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1940, ambitious young American journalist Ruby Sutton gets her big break: the chance to report on the European war as a staff writer for Picture Weekly newsmagazine in London. She jumps at the chance, for it's an opportunity not only to prove herself, but also to start fresh in a city and country that know nothing of her humble origins. But life in besieged Britain tests Ruby in ways she never imagined.
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Light story
- By Bev Holdgate on 08-10-17
By: Jennifer Robson
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Silver Wattle
- By: Belinda Alexandra
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In fear for their lives after the sudden death of their mother, Adéla and Klára must flee Prague to find refuge with their uncle in Australia. Later, Adéla becomes a film director at a time when the local industry is starting to feel the competition from Hollywood. But even while success is imminent, the issues of family and an impossible love are never far away.
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Groan, Snore and Wince!
- By OrangeWisteria on 02-12-12
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The Woman from Paris
- By: Santa Montefiore
- Narrated by: Tara Ward
- Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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When Lord Frampton dies in a skiing accident, a beautiful young woman named Phaedra appears at his funeral - claiming to be the Lord’s illegitimate daughter. In his will, Lord Frampton has left the priceless Frampton suite of sapphires to this interloper, confirming her claim and outraging his three adult sons and widow. Eventually, however, Phaedra’s sweet nature thaws the frosty relationships. She becomes the daughter that Antoinette Frampton never had and a wise and compassionate granddaughter to the formidable Dowager Lady Frampton.
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Worth the time...
- By Esther Cunningham on 09-28-16
By: Santa Montefiore
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Daughters of Eden
- By: Charlotte Bingham
- Narrated by: Kim Hicks
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Daughters of Eden focuses on the lives and fortunes of four very different young women at the outbreak of the Second World War. Marjorie, left at a boarding school by her emigrating mother; plain Poppy, pushed into marriage with a mean-spirited aristocrat; Kate, despised by her father, but determined to prove herself; and man-mad Lily, who turns out to be the bravest of them all. That all of them are chosen to work undercover for the espionage unit at Eden Park is a surprise, not least to them.
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An amazing book everyone should read.
- By XX on 09-11-05
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The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
- By: R. A. Dick
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Jasicki
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Burdened by debt after her husband's death, Lucy Muir insists on moving into the very cheap Gull Cottage in the quaint seaside village of Whitecliff, despite multiple warnings that the house is haunted. Upon discovering the rumors to be true, the young widow ends up forming a special companionship with the ghost of handsome former sea captain Daniel Gregg. Lucy finds in her secret relationship with Captain Gregg a comfort and blossoming love she never could have predicted.
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Bias Review Warning
- By Michael on 09-22-19
By: R. A. Dick
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Celia's House
- By: D. E. Stevenson
- Narrated by: Lesley Mackie
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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In name and by birth, Celia was a Dunne. She had inherited the beautiful old family home by the Rydd Water – but was she bound to live her life by the principles of her predecessors? Was there some hidden restraint that compelled her to heed the past? Celia’s house is a moving and poignant story of the struggle between old and young: the older generation anxious to preserve the values they have helped create while their children are determined at all costs to make lives of their own.
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Boarder area of Scotland
- By Jerri C on 03-14-11
By: D. E. Stevenson
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Mr. Fox
- A Novel
- By: Helen Oyeyemi
- Narrated by: Carol Boyd
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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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....
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A Great Novel, just Poor for Audio
- By James A. Dittes on 08-13-16
By: Helen Oyeyemi
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The Mayfair Bookshop
- A Novel of Nancy Mitford and the Pursuit of Happiness
- By: Eliza Knight
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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1938: She was one of the six sparkling Mitford sisters, known for her stinging quips, stylish dress, and bright green eyes. But Nancy Mitford’s seemingly dazzling life was really one of turmoil: with a perpetually unfaithful and broke husband, two Nazi sympathizer sisters, and her hopes of motherhood dashed forever. With war imminent, Nancy finds respite by taking a job at the Heywood Hill Bookshop in Mayfair, hoping to make ends meet, and discovers a new life.
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Perfectly Voices, Upliftingly Fun
- By Syd Young on 04-15-22
By: Eliza Knight
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The Flight of Gemma Hardy
- A Novel
- By: Margot Livesey
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Fate has not been kind to Gemma Hardy. Orphaned then neglected, young Gemma seemed destined for a life of hardship and loneliness. Yet her bright spirit burns strong. Fiercely intelligent, singularly determined, Gemma overcomes each challenge and setback, growing stronger and more certain of her path. Now an independent young woman, she accepts a position as an au pair on the remote and beautiful Orkney Islands. But Gemma’s biggest trial is about to begin....
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f you loved Jane Eyre, you will like this novel.
- By Cecilia on 02-09-12
By: Margot Livesey
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Transcription
- A Novel
- By: Kate Atkinson
- Narrated by: Fenella Woolgar
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In 1940, 18-year-old Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of espionage. Sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist sympathizers, she discovers the work to be by turns both tedious and terrifying. But after the war has ended, she presumes the events of those years have been relegated to the past forever. Ten years later, now a radio producer at the BBC, Juliet is unexpectedly confronted by figures from her past. A different war is being fought now, but Juliet finds herself once more under threat.
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A very satisfying two days!
- By Frances on 09-30-18
By: Kate Atkinson
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Case Histories
- A Novel
- By: Kate Atkinson
- Narrated by: Susan Jameson
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Case One: A little girl goes missing in the night. Case Two: A beautiful young office worker falls victim to a maniac's apparently random attack. Case Three: A new mother finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making - with a very needy baby and a very demanding husband - until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape.
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Trippy book
- By mary on 01-20-09
By: Kate Atkinson
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Behind the Scenes at the Museum
- A Novel
- By: Kate Atkinson
- Narrated by: Pearl Hewitt
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Ruby Lennox begins narrating her life at the moment of conception, and from there takes us on a whirlwind tour of the 20th century as seen through the eyes of an English girl determined to learn about her family and its secrets.
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Another Kate Atkinson multi-generational story
- By Satisfied Customer on 11-08-18
By: Kate Atkinson
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Shrines of Gaiety
- A Novel
- By: Kate Atkinson
- Narrated by: Jason Watkins
- Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time. The notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven, whose character has been forged in the crucible of the Somme. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie’s empire faces threats from without and within.
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Rich characters of all stripes
- By Glorious Lorius on 11-09-22
By: Kate Atkinson
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Normal Rules Don't Apply
- Stories
- By: Kate Atkinson
- Narrated by: Paterson Joseph
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A dazzling collection of eleven interconnected stories from the bestselling, award-winning author of Shrines of Gaiety and Life After Life, with everything that listeners love about her novels—the inventiveness, the verbal felicity, the sharp observations on human nature, and the deeply satisfying emotional wallop.
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Brilliant.
- By Troy Mann on 09-22-23
By: Kate Atkinson
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Death at the Sign of the Rook
- A Jackson Brodie Book
- By: Kate Atkinson
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In his sleepy Yorkshire town, ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off boredom and malaise. His only case is the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting. But Jackson soon uncovers a string of unsolved art thefts that lead him down a dizzying spiral of disguise and deceit to Burton Makepeace, a formerly magnificent estate now partially converted into a hotel hosting Murder Mystery weekends.
By: Kate Atkinson
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Transcription
- A Novel
- By: Kate Atkinson
- Narrated by: Fenella Woolgar
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
In 1940, 18-year-old Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of espionage. Sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist sympathizers, she discovers the work to be by turns both tedious and terrifying. But after the war has ended, she presumes the events of those years have been relegated to the past forever. Ten years later, now a radio producer at the BBC, Juliet is unexpectedly confronted by figures from her past. A different war is being fought now, but Juliet finds herself once more under threat.
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A very satisfying two days!
- By Frances on 09-30-18
By: Kate Atkinson
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Case Histories
- A Novel
- By: Kate Atkinson
- Narrated by: Susan Jameson
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Case One: A little girl goes missing in the night. Case Two: A beautiful young office worker falls victim to a maniac's apparently random attack. Case Three: A new mother finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making - with a very needy baby and a very demanding husband - until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape.
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Trippy book
- By mary on 01-20-09
By: Kate Atkinson
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Behind the Scenes at the Museum
- A Novel
- By: Kate Atkinson
- Narrated by: Pearl Hewitt
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Ruby Lennox begins narrating her life at the moment of conception, and from there takes us on a whirlwind tour of the 20th century as seen through the eyes of an English girl determined to learn about her family and its secrets.
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Another Kate Atkinson multi-generational story
- By Satisfied Customer on 11-08-18
By: Kate Atkinson
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Shrines of Gaiety
- A Novel
- By: Kate Atkinson
- Narrated by: Jason Watkins
- Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time. The notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven, whose character has been forged in the crucible of the Somme. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie’s empire faces threats from without and within.
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Rich characters of all stripes
- By Glorious Lorius on 11-09-22
By: Kate Atkinson
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Normal Rules Don't Apply
- Stories
- By: Kate Atkinson
- Narrated by: Paterson Joseph
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A dazzling collection of eleven interconnected stories from the bestselling, award-winning author of Shrines of Gaiety and Life After Life, with everything that listeners love about her novels—the inventiveness, the verbal felicity, the sharp observations on human nature, and the deeply satisfying emotional wallop.
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Brilliant.
- By Troy Mann on 09-22-23
By: Kate Atkinson
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Death at the Sign of the Rook
- A Jackson Brodie Book
- By: Kate Atkinson
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In his sleepy Yorkshire town, ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off boredom and malaise. His only case is the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting. But Jackson soon uncovers a string of unsolved art thefts that lead him down a dizzying spiral of disguise and deceit to Burton Makepeace, a formerly magnificent estate now partially converted into a hotel hosting Murder Mystery weekends.
By: Kate Atkinson
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Life after Life
- The Investigation of a Phenomenon - Survival of Bodily Death
- By: Raymond A. Moody Jr.
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In Life after Life, Raymond Moody investigates more than 100 case studies of people who experienced "clinical death" and were subsequently revived. First published in 1975, this classic exploration of life after death started a revolution in popular attitudes about the afterlife and established Dr. Moody as the world's leading authority in the field of near-death experiences.
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Good for it's time, but better books currently out
- By ben on 11-03-11
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Life After Life
- A Novel
- By: Jill McCorkle
- Narrated by: Holly Fielding
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Jill McCorkle’s first novel in 17 years is alive with the daily triumphs and challenges of the residents and staff of Pine Haven Estates, a retirement facility now home to a good many of Fulton, North Carolina’s older citizens. Among them, third-grade teacher Sadie Randolph, who has taught every child in town and believes we are all eight years old in our hearts; Stanley Stone, once Fulton’s most prominent lawyer, now feigning dementia to escape life with his son; Marge Walker, the town’s self-appointed conveyor of social status, and many more colorful characters.
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Too Bad
- By Sherry L. Wright on 03-30-13
By: Jill McCorkle
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The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
- By: Claire North
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Harry August is on his deathbed. Again. No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes. Until now. As Harry nears the end of his 11th life, a little girl appears at his bedside. "I nearly missed you, Doctor August", she says. "I need to send a message". This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow.
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Not what I'd feared
- By Isobel on 04-29-16
By: Claire North
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City of Women
- By: David R. Gillham
- Narrated by: Suzanne Bertish
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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It is 1943 - the height of the Second World War. With the men taken by the army, Berlin has become a city of women. And while her husband fights on the Eastern Front, Sigrid Schröder is, for all intents and purposes, the model soldier's wife: She goes to work every day, does as much with her rations as she can, and dutifully cares for her meddling mother-in-law, all the while ignoring the horrific immoralities of the regime. But behind this façade is an entirely different Sigrid, a woman who dreams of her former Jewish lover.
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Foggy, Ungrounded and Vague
- By Sara on 12-29-15
By: David R. Gillham
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The Hand of Ethelberta
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Fenella Woolgar
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
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Opportunistic, shrewd and beautiful, Ethelberta resolves to disguise her humble beginnings and elevate her position in society. Crafting her career as a society poet and staging her family as her servants, she proves admirably adept at sustaining her own web of deceit as she reinvents herself and navigates the attentions of four different suitors. The wealthiest is not the one she loves... what will she do? This is a light-hearted urban tale, offering a different side of Thomas Hardy.
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A pleasant surprise
- By Simon Brodie on 07-31-23
By: Thomas Hardy
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Shine, Pamela! Shine!
- Out of Line collection
- By: Kate Atkinson
- Narrated by: Gwendoline Christie
- Length: 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Pamela is a newly retired teacher with time on her hands. She’s finding it hard to muster enthusiasm for what’s ahead: exhausting postdivorce dating rituals and an uneasy relationship with her emotionally stunted, live-at-home son. But for Pamela, there’s a surprise in store that could challenge the status quo and, against all expectations, make life interesting again.
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Really terrible
- By Teatime2 on 09-13-20
By: Kate Atkinson
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The Time Traveler's Wife
- By: Audrey Niffenegger
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Clare and Henry have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was 36. They were married when Clare was 23 and Henry was 31. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing.
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One of my favorite books
- By Joey on 01-13-08
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Meet Me in Another Life
- A Novel
- By: Catriona Silvey
- Narrated by: Kristin Atherton
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Two strangers in a foreign city, Thora and Santi meet in a chance encounter. At once, they recognize in each other a kindred spirit - someone who is longing for more in life than the cards they’ve been dealt. Before their friendship can blossom, though, a tragic accident cuts their story short.
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Half way through, it’s an arduous read.
- By coppercent7 on 07-29-21
By: Catriona Silvey
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Possession
- By: A. S. Byatt
- Narrated by: Virginia Leishman
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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As a pair of young scholars research the lives of two Victorian poets, they uncover their letters, journals, and poems and track their movements from London to Yorkshire - from spiritualist seances to the fairy-haunted far west of Brittany. What emerges is an extraordinary counterpoint of passion and ideas.
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Absolutely Excellent
- By Loujujoe on 05-12-09
By: A. S. Byatt
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Doomsday Book
- By: Connie Willis
- Narrated by: Jenny Sterlin
- Length: 26 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
For Oxford student Kivrin, traveling back to the 14th century is more than the culmination of her studies - it's the chance for a wonderful adventure. For Dunworthy, her mentor, it is cause for intense worry about the thousands of things that could go wrong.
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Timely, beautiful, terrible and haunting
- By mudcelt on 11-02-09
By: Connie Willis
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Time After Time
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Grunwald
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
On a clear December morning in 1937, at the famous gold clock in Grand Central Terminal, Joe Reynolds, a hardworking railroad man from Queens, meets a vibrant young woman who seems mysteriously out of place. Nora Lansing is a Manhattan socialite and an aspiring artist whose flapper clothing, pearl earrings, and talk of the Roaring Twenties don’t seem to match the bleak mood of Depression-era New York. Captivated by Nora from her first electric touch, Joe despairs when he tries to walk her home and she disappears. Finding her again will become the focus of his love and his life.
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The promise of the premise wasn't met
- By J on 02-18-20
By: Lisa Grunwald
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Life After Death, Powerful Evidence You Will Not Die
- By: Stephen Hawley Martin
- Narrated by: Michael Bowen
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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What happens when we die? This new edition of Life After Death adds to powerful evidence consciousness which continues the author presented in his 2015 release. He spent two years gathering information that demonstrates this and along the way interviewed more than a hundred experts in a number of different fields. Among them were parapsychologists, medical doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, quantum physicists, and researchers into the true nature of reality.
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Promises to be agnostic but quotes Christ often
- By STS95 on 02-21-22
What listeners say about Life After Life
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Sara
- 11-02-15
Strange & Fascinating
I am shocked by how much I ended up enjoying this book. It took about 10 hours--really about two thirds of the way through the story--before I was won over and caught up in it all. I was absolutely determined to finish the book and not give up. I will also admit that I was completely disappointed and confused up until this 10 hour point in the story. I have to stress that when other positive reviewers caution that you need to stick with the book and give it time--they mean it. I join them in this warning. This book takes lots of patience. The listener needs to keep an open mind and pay attention. To me, in the end, it was more than worth it. I grew to love the characters. I loved the exploration of concepts of time, war, and the impact of personal choice.
All that said, the story does require the willingness on the part of the listener to suspend disbelief. Also, be aware that the writing has a dark side and at times can be very dour. The experience of the horrors of the Blitzkrieg or "lightening war" waged on the United Kingdom during WWII--in all its gruesome detail is difficult listening.
I already have the next book in my library and unlike other reviews I do think that there is more to say with this story. I can't wait to see what happens next.
Recommended if you are willing to give the story time to unfold. A captivating listen.
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139 people found this helpful
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- Diane
- 04-08-13
Life after life after life after life after life..
The intriguing premise of this novel tackles some rather weighty existential questions. How much control do we have over our own fates? Would we, if we had some premonition of their significance, alter some of the seemingly inconsequential decisions and happenstances of our lives which later turn out to have tremendous impact on the courses our lives take? How much would it matter in the end even if we were able to make such alterations?
These questions are explored through the many lifetimes of the protagonist, Ursula Todd, each lifetime beginning anew on the same snowy day in February 1910. In succeeding lifetimes, Ursula retains some shadowy sense of major traumas from previous lifetimes and is able to take some steps to avert future tragedy, although she can hardly explain her own motives in so acting. All too often, these actions have little or no impact on the ultimate course of her history--and even when they do, it's hard to keep from wondering after a while if it really matters one way or the other.
The book starts out well enough and held my interest for some time but would have far better at about 1/2 the length. I had no trouble following the storyline (just remember that everything starts all over with each February 1910 "birth" although some events might repeat themselves), but the novel's conceit grows tedious in the extreme after about a dozen lifetimes (I didn't keep count, but my guess is that there were in excess of 20). Paradoxically, I grew to care less and less about Ursula's fate(s) and came to just wish for an end to the interminable cycle of rebirth long before the book itself ended. I'm not sure if it was the author's intention, but I have never before so much appreciated the Hindu desire for the end of samsara and the liberation of moksha.
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75 people found this helpful
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Overall
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- Amanda
- 04-06-13
Extremely Well Done
"Life After Life" is both the examination of one woman's life, experiences, and destiny, and also a larger vision of how our lives can take substantial turns based on very small decisions or actions. It's beautifully written, and the narration is excellent.
I had a surprisingly easy time following the time jumps and re-sets; if you note in the beginning that Ursula is born in 1910, it's a nice even number to judge the years and her age by, as the story goes along. Every time jump/reset is prefaced by a a clarification of exactly when and where you are.
Along with everything else the book has to offer, it's set in a fascinating time that covers both the first and second world war, and the story highlights what a woman's life was like during that time in England. Ursula's character was extremely well defined and presents you with an authentic, genuine person with a full family life, history, and personality. I enjoyed spending time with her.
There's one sub-plot that the book starts out with and picks up again towards the end that could be considered a bit of an overreach, and in my opinion the book would have stood up will without it. I found it's sensationalism at odds with what was otherwise an intimate and believable portrayal of a woman that could be any one of us, dealing with the extraordinary situation of repeated lives. If I had a vote, I would have left it out; but it did not ultimately hinder my deep enjoyment of the story and the people found within it.
As has been noted by another reviewer, this is not the story of a grand adventure; it instead takes your hand and allows you to step in and view the story of a family, and one member in particular; Ursula. I loved the relationships they all had with each other; they were true to life; an authentic family.
I recommend this book.
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72 people found this helpful
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- Kareol
- 08-13-15
Exhilarating, breathtaking book
I could not put this fascinating book down. I was breathless when I came to the end of it. I quickly downloaded the companion novel, A God in Ruins, and was moved to tears by it as well.
I'm now going back to listen to this novel again, something I never do so soon after the first reading. There is so much technique and so much heart, I need to experience it again.
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57 people found this helpful
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- Pamela J
- 04-09-13
A few lives too many...
UGH! I'm so confused. It's good, not great. It's boring and fascinating. It's clever but kind of cheats to be smart. You should take your time, but hurry along.
This well written, but overly long book has such a clever premise that the actuality of it is a bit of a disappointment. And even with that criticism, the heart of this book is smart and well written, but just requires a lot of patience. I did have more than a few times when I felt like this was a cheat being able to start over just as your character is painted into the proverbial corner, but then she does a wonderful job transmitting the agony of war and loss you're so curious about how our hero's life will be different. This is definitely a long car ride, meandering vacation, listen, but then again, if you put it down for too long you forget where you are when life replays itself.
This is a TRULY BRITISH book. If you're an Anglophile (or entranced with British history shows), you may have more patience with this one than I had.
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46 people found this helpful
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- Carolyn
- 11-19-15
Thought provking premise well executed
First of all, the performance was terrific. Well done, Fenella. The premise of the story is evocative, however, in audible form, you WILL get lost in the story and wonder where the heck you are...perhaps ebookmarks could help, I didn't try them. Sometimes a rebirth droned on and some situations were uninteresting, others were quite good. I think the book would have benefited from more editing out, making it a shorter book with more impact. Then again, some lives are quite dull. I'm sure I would have enjoyed the book more had I not gotten lost so many times. It is a long book, so the potential to get lost is high.
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- Lynne F
- 04-08-13
Stick with it
Ursula's lives become engrossing - what small decision or trick or turn of fate will change the course of things this time round? As the book unfolds most characters take a place on center stage, and some are more endearing than others! The story is partly a reflection on the British social structure in the first half of the 20th century - always entertaining - but also a reflection on the journeys our lives take. It made me reflect on the small decisions I have made that have resulted in big changes in my world! I thoroughly enjoyed both the book and the narration.
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- Lisa
- 04-04-13
Not what I was expecting
This book is more of a life story rather than an adventure. We follow Ursala through her lives and see the way she tries to change things for the better ( with only intuitive feelings of her past lives). Each life gets a little longer and she retains more of her past memories with them towards the end.
I really enjoyed the story all though it is not action packed. My only problem with the story is that is was often confusing as it jumped from life to life, I had to pay very close attention or re-listen often to figure out what was going on. It may be less confusing in written form. I was also left wondering at some of the changes in her lives that she did not cause such as the adoption of a certain baby, did someone else in her family also repeat lives and change things or was it just a random happening. The ending of the book left me a little disappointed as I am not sure what was done to keep someone alive and also the very last sentences of the book were about a person who only had a few words mentioned about them prior and I never really understood their part in the story at all. It may be that I missed something that I would have understood if I read the book. I think the narrator gave a good performance. Over all I would rate my enjoyment of the book a 4 to 5 star but my satisfaction at a 3.
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- Rebecca
- 04-08-13
SOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!
This book was a surprise! Like nothing I have heard before. The narration was one of the best parts for me, I know it wouldn't have been the same if I had read it myself. That is my favorite thing about Audible... the stories come to life like they could never have done with me just reading!! (I may never READ a book again!!)
Life after Life had me on the edge from first word to last. A story of the never ending do-over even if you don't want to do it over. What a concept! All I can say is give it a chance, I'm so glad I did. 5 star all around!!
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- Kindle Customer
- 11-24-15
Not for my taste
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
I didn't feel like I ever got into this. It was a series life possibilities but I never got to feel like I knew the characters. Way too far fetched in some instances.
What was most disappointing about Kate Atkinson’s story?
Got a bit old and was easy to see what was going to happen as each scenario unfolded. The change of outlook prevented the depth of character development. Some scenarios were very brief and others contained so much detail that the story line (lines) didn't seem to run fluidly.
What about Fenella Woolgar’s performance did you like?
She was an excellent narrator. Did a good job of differentiating the voices. I will see what else she has narrated and if the subject intrigues me, I would certainly enjoy listening to her again.
If this book were a movie would you go see it?
no
Any additional comments?
Just not thrilled with this rendering of an interesting premise. I chose it based on other reviews - but we all don't have the same taste even if we read many of the same books.
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18 people found this helpful