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My Absolute Darling
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Alex McKenna
- Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
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Publisher's summary
A brilliant and immersive, all-consuming audiobook about one 14-year-old girl's heart-stopping fight for her own soul.
Turtle Alveston is a survivor. At 14, she roams the woods along the Northern California coast. The creeks, tide pools, and rocky islands are her haunts and her hiding grounds, and she is known to wander for miles. But while her physical world is expansive, her personal one is small and treacherous. Turtle has grown up isolated since the death of her mother, in the thrall of her tortured and charismatic father, Martin. Her social existence is confined to the middle school (where she fends off the interest of anyone, student or teacher, who might penetrate her shell) and to her life with her father.
Then Turtle meets Jacob, a high-school boy who tells jokes, lives in a big clean house, and looks at Turtle as if she is the sunrise. And for the first time, the larger world begins to come into focus: Her life with Martin is neither safe nor sustainable. Motivated by her first experience with real friendship and a teenage crush, Turtle starts to imagine escape, using the very survival skills her father devoted himself to teaching her. The listener tracks Turtle's escalating acts of physical and emotional courage and watches, heart in throat, as she struggles to become her own hero - and, in the process, becomes ours as well.
Shot through with striking language in a fierce natural setting, My Absolute Darling is an urgently told, profoundly moving book that marks the debut of an extraordinary new writer.
Critic reviews
"Alex McKenna's performance of Tallent's disturbing debut novel is likely to incite goose bumps and nightmares." (AudioFile)
"The word 'masterpiece' has been cheapened by too many blurbs, but My Absolute Darling absolutely is one." (Stephen King)
"My Absolute Darling is a novel that readers will gulp down, gasping.... Tallent [is a] prodigiously talented new writer.” (The Washington Post)
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Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Mel
- 09-08-17
Talented writer that needs direction
What on earth possessed me to read this I'll never know. After spending years in a profession where I had to read patient bio's similar to this story, I might have just drifted into it out of habit; or maybe it was my other habit of reading what the Editors and Critics list as the *Best Of* books. Very profound abuse of a young girl by an eccentric father. The mother has passed away, possibly intentionally -- you'll come to wonder. The psychological manipulations by the father are horrendous, teetering between equally repulsive strategies of treating the girl as a willing lover and as a little girl he wants to protect from a world he believes is coming to an apocalyptic end, interspersed with beatings.
I can't blame anyone for suggesting a book they thought was great...I have to admit Tallent shows promise as a writer far better than most of the debut authors; all the more confusing. He is even poetic at times. But, aside from any leanings toward the poetical...the book is loaded with profanity...loaded. The girl continuously refers to herself (and everyone else) fondly as a *C* word. Sadly, I didn't find the story itself compelling enough to justify the sickening feeling it gave me -- and I'm nowhere near a shrinking violet when it comes to the subject. With such extensive and prolonged abuse, I found myself wondering, where are the responsible adults in this story; where are the red flags and the charging bulls they should be attracting? Without more of a psychological foundation, the story slipped into sensationalism.
If you can take the details of abuse and endure to the end, be prepared for a Deus ex Machina conclusion that eliminated any positive points I may have wanted to give to a new author showing real talent.
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- Cathy
- 09-13-17
Sick, relentlessly brutal.
Any additional comments?
There are many ways to draw attention to sexual, emotional and physical child abuse, and as a therapist I've treated some horror stories, but this book wants to make you squirm, as if poisoned, non-stop -- and I have a fairly high tolerance. This "story" is so disturbingly twisted, it starts to make the listener ill, from the start. The book mixes in intellectual and philosophical "support" to tweak your brain's interests, perhaps to "smooth out" the ravaging plight of the poor protagonist adolescent girl. Even the aspect of "her ambivalent love for her father" gets bathed in the gut wrenching slog through excessive self hatred, that while "sort of" believable, feels gratuitous. I'm an avid audible listener, and varied. I lasted about 2/3'rds. of the way through when I went to the last chapter and listened, hoping for a redeeming ending, but it didn't seem to have one. So when the cruelty aspect reached an EXTREME level, (cutting off a finger of a terrified little 10 yr. old girl, after wounding her with a bullet), I bailed. I recommend the audible folks listen to this and ask themselves what they were thinking in supporting a story so sadistic that it seems to aim to steal or warp the listener's soul. Avoid, unless you like to feel horrible for hours....
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55 people found this helpful
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- saw
- 05-03-18
Painful
Beautifully written but I’m not sure the pain is worth it in the end. While reading the harrowing details of Turtle’s life I felt anxious and depressed but I pushed through for the payoff of happy or meaningful ending or at least lessons learned. I didn’t get any of that—maybe I just didn’t get it. I really want to like this book but not sure I could recommend it w a clear conscious.
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33 people found this helpful
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- Dustin C. Manning
- 10-10-17
What an awful book
I’ve never read a book with more repetition since Dr. Seuss. Such a slog getting through what should have been a harrowing read. And while the material was written poorly the narration didn’t help : whiny and irritating. my Absolute disappointment.
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28 people found this helpful
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- Sanders Clay
- 09-10-17
HORRIBLE
No where in the description of this book does it warn that within the first hour of the book readers will have to witness the graphic description of a daughter being sexually assaulted by her father. DO NOT download this book.
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28 people found this helpful
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- A. Sparks
- 11-29-17
Want my money back
After reading rave reviews from authors and reviewers I hold deep respect for, I downloaded this book.
After listening to 5 chapters I am so done.
I think the phrase "engorged pussy" from the mind of a 14 year old just sexually assaulted by her own father was the straw for me. I think that was used in chapter one.
Besides the gruesome and disgusting descriptions of Turtle's abuse, I thought the detailed descriptions of nature, the house, the guns were clumsy, bloated, annoying and out of place with "the voice" of the author.
I thought I'd try to keep going, and I like dark books, but this one just plain sucks!
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26 people found this helpful
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- Chris
- 10-10-17
Weird and completely underwhelming
This was a weird book. I kept waiting for it to hook me but it never did. I had to force myself to finish but honestly was never really interested.
The characters are not relatable, the graphic scenes feel gratuitous and don't really add anything, and the story as a whole feels disjointed. I had to keep skipping back to see if I missed something because the transitions were so abrupt.
That being said, the narrator did a great job and her voice was perfect for this book.
1/10 would not read again.
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21 people found this helpful
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- bungalabode
- 01-23-18
Not impressed
The narrator does a great job reading, and the authors environmental descriptions are beautiful. But the actual story moves pretty slow and is rather violent & depressing.
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18 people found this helpful
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- Katherine S.
- 01-13-18
Precious meets Misery meets Die Hard
I bought this book on Stephen King’s much touted endorsement: “a masterpiece,” he called it. Overall an enjoyable but dark read which loses its way in the last quarter of the book when it moves from a tight psychological thriller to basically Die Hard 3 in an instant. I think the author was aiming to secure a film option — over-the-top machine-gun violence at a prom on a beach. Really?
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17 people found this helpful
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- Bella
- 08-30-17
The narrator needs to get over her cold first
What would have made My Absolute Darling better?
After reading a glowing review in the New York Times, I pre ordered this audio book, super excited to listen. Within the first second, I thought "What's up with the narrator's voice?" A few minutes later... "Does she have a cold? Ok, I have no idea what the story is about because I'm so distracted by this voice. Is this her real voice?"
Rewind and start again.
About a minute in: NOPE. I am not doing this. I hate the narrator's voice. She sounds like she has had a cold for 3 days. I've heard so many great things about this novel, and I have no doubt they're true. The publishers made a poor choice in the production of the audio book. I'm definitely returning it and I'll plan to read the physical book instead.
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- By Barbara on 10-20-04
By: David Hajdu
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Scenes from Village Life
- By: Amos Oz, Nicholas de Lange - translator
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Strange things are happening in Tel Ilan, a century-old pioneer village. A disgruntled retired politician complains to his daughter that he hears the sound of digging at night. Could it be their tenant, that young Arab? But then the young Arab hears the digging sounds, too. Where has the mayor's wife gone, vanished without a trace, her note saying "don't worry about me"?
By: Amos Oz, and others
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Days Without End
- A Novel
- By: Sebastian Barry
- Narrated by: Aidan Kelly
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Thomas McNulty, having fled the Great Famine in Ireland and now barely 17 years old, signs up for the US Army in the 1850s and with his brother in arms, John Cole, goes to fight in the Indian Wars - against the Sioux and the Yurok - and, ultimately, in the Civil War. Orphans of terrible hardships themselves, they find these days to be vivid and alive, despite the horrors they see and are complicit in. Moving from the plains of Wyoming to Tennessee, Sebastian Barry's latest work is a masterpiece of atmosphere and language.
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This is about love of two men
- By KEITH on 08-26-17
By: Sebastian Barry
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After You’d Gone
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Elle Newlands
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Alice Raikes takes a train from London to Scotland to visit her family, but when she gets there she witnesses something so shocking that she insists on returning to London immediately. A few hours later, Alice is lying in a coma after an accident that may or may not have been a suicide attempt. Alice’s family gathers at her bedside and as they wait, argue, and remember, long-buried tensions emerge. The more they talk, the more they seem to conceal. Alice, meanwhile, slides between varying levels of consciousness, recalling her past and a love affair that recently ended.
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Very well written.
- By Audible Fan on 02-24-21
By: Maggie O'Farrell
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Dark Horses
- A Novel
- By: Susan Mihalic
- Narrated by: Alex Allwine
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Fifteen-year-old equestrian prodigy Roan Montgomery has only ever known two worlds: inside the riding arena and outside of it. Both, for as long as she can remember, have been ruled by her father, who demands strict obedience in all areas of her life. The warped power dynamic of coach and rider extends far beyond the stables, and Roan's relationship with her father has long been inappropriate. She has been able to compartmentalize that dark aspect of her life, ruthlessly focusing on her ambitions as a rider heading for the Olympics, just as her father had done.
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Incredible but Very Dark.
- By Erin M. Bleier on 02-18-21
By: Susan Mihalic
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Shadow Is a Colour as Light Is
- By: Michael Langan
- Narrated by: Matt Addis
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Over a century after Cézanne’s death his art still obsesses and enraptures. And for the characters in this multifaceted novel, the painter’s work is of crucial significance. In Hong Kong, will billionaire art collector Walter and his son ever be reconciled? In Liverpool, will artist Nick find peace? In New York, can Joel and Sophie mend their relationship with the help of Cézanne’s work in the Metropolitan Museum? Through these multiple narratives Michael Langan deftly explores human relationships and asks: can art ever save us?
By: Michael Langan
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Positively 4th Street
- By: David Hajdu
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Positively 4th Street is a mesmerizing account of how four young people (Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mimi Baez Farina, and Richard Farina) gave rise to a modern-day bohemia and created the enduring sound and style of the 1960s.
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Lousy reader ruins otherwise interesting history
- By Barbara on 10-20-04
By: David Hajdu
-
Scenes from Village Life
- By: Amos Oz, Nicholas de Lange - translator
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Strange things are happening in Tel Ilan, a century-old pioneer village. A disgruntled retired politician complains to his daughter that he hears the sound of digging at night. Could it be their tenant, that young Arab? But then the young Arab hears the digging sounds, too. Where has the mayor's wife gone, vanished without a trace, her note saying "don't worry about me"?
By: Amos Oz, and others
-
Days Without End
- A Novel
- By: Sebastian Barry
- Narrated by: Aidan Kelly
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas McNulty, having fled the Great Famine in Ireland and now barely 17 years old, signs up for the US Army in the 1850s and with his brother in arms, John Cole, goes to fight in the Indian Wars - against the Sioux and the Yurok - and, ultimately, in the Civil War. Orphans of terrible hardships themselves, they find these days to be vivid and alive, despite the horrors they see and are complicit in. Moving from the plains of Wyoming to Tennessee, Sebastian Barry's latest work is a masterpiece of atmosphere and language.
-
-
This is about love of two men
- By KEITH on 08-26-17
By: Sebastian Barry
-
After You’d Gone
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Elle Newlands
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alice Raikes takes a train from London to Scotland to visit her family, but when she gets there she witnesses something so shocking that she insists on returning to London immediately. A few hours later, Alice is lying in a coma after an accident that may or may not have been a suicide attempt. Alice’s family gathers at her bedside and as they wait, argue, and remember, long-buried tensions emerge. The more they talk, the more they seem to conceal. Alice, meanwhile, slides between varying levels of consciousness, recalling her past and a love affair that recently ended.
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-
Very well written.
- By Audible Fan on 02-24-21
By: Maggie O'Farrell
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Dark Horses
- A Novel
- By: Susan Mihalic
- Narrated by: Alex Allwine
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fifteen-year-old equestrian prodigy Roan Montgomery has only ever known two worlds: inside the riding arena and outside of it. Both, for as long as she can remember, have been ruled by her father, who demands strict obedience in all areas of her life. The warped power dynamic of coach and rider extends far beyond the stables, and Roan's relationship with her father has long been inappropriate. She has been able to compartmentalize that dark aspect of her life, ruthlessly focusing on her ambitions as a rider heading for the Olympics, just as her father had done.
-
-
Incredible but Very Dark.
- By Erin M. Bleier on 02-18-21
By: Susan Mihalic
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The Villa
- A Novel
- By: Rachel Hawkins
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Kimberly M. Wetherell, Shiromi Arserio
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend.
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like Gillian Flynn's version of Eat pray love
- By Patricia on 01-04-23
By: Rachel Hawkins
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La nuova moglie
- By: Jane Corry
- Narrated by: Alessandra De Luca
- Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Ci sono cose che non racconteresti a nessuno. Tantomeno a tuo marito. È successo molto in fretta per Lily ed Ed: si sono conosciuti, innamorati, sposati, tutto nel giro di pochi mesi, e ora che sono tornati a Londra dal loro viaggio di nozze in Italia non ci sono più scuse: è il momento di dare inizio alla vita vera. E Lily è più che decisa a cominciare da zero, a concedersi un nuovo inizio, e a lasciarsi alle spalle tutto ciò che del suo passato ancora la tormenta.
By: Jane Corry
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Bitter Roots
- Bitter Root Mysteries, Book 1
- By: C. J. Carmichael
- Narrated by: Andrew Eiden
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Dispatcher Zak Waller prefers working behind the scenes in the sheriff’s office of Lost Trail, Montana, but when a newcomer to the sparsely populated town is brutally murdered, and the sheriff is quick to pin the death on an unknown outsider, Zak starts his own private sleuthing.
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Good Story!
- By Nancy on 11-30-19
By: C. J. Carmichael
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The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls
- A Novel
- By: Anton DiSclafani
- Narrated by: Adina Verson
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
It is 1930, the midst of the Great Depression. After her mysterious role in a family tragedy, passionate, strong-willed Thea Atwell, age 15, has been cast out of her Florida home, exiled to an equestrienne boarding school for Southern debutantes. High in the Blue Ridge Mountains, with its complex social strata ordered by money, beauty, and girls' friendships, the Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls is a far remove from the free-roaming, dreamlike childhood Thea shared with her twin brother on their family's citrus farm - a world now partially shattered.
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Dreadful!
- By Audie on 06-10-13
By: Anton DiSclafani
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Her Deepest Fear
- Rosemary Run Series, Book 1
- By: Kelly Utt
- Narrated by: Chelsea Stephens
- Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Cate Brady almost had it all. Until a knock on her front door brought news that her beloved husband had been in a terrible accident. He was pronounced dead on the scene. Reeling from the shock and suspecting she's being followed, Cate must question everything she thinks she knows.
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Secrets always come out
- By Chris Abernathy on 02-06-22
By: Kelly Utt
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The Shadow of the Wind
- By: Carlos Ruiz Zafón
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 18 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Barcelona, 1945: Just after the war, a great world city lies in shadow, nursing its wounds, and a boy named Daniel awakes on his 11th birthday to find that he can no longer remember his mother's face. To console his only child, Daniel's widowed father, an antiquarian book dealer, initiates him into the secret of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library tended by Barcelona's guild of rare-book dealers as a repository for books forgotten by the world, waiting for someone who will care about them again.
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Have the book handy
- By Rebecca on 07-17-05
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Birds of California
- A Novel
- By: Katie Cotugno
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Former child actor Fiona St. James dropped out of the spotlight after a spectacularly public crash and burn. The tabloids called her crazy and self-destructive and said she'd lost her mind. Now in her late twenties, Fiona believes her humiliating past is firmly behind her. She's finally regained a modicum of privacy, and she won't let anything—or anyone—mess it up.
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Does anyone edit books anymore?
- By Audrey Fine on 07-05-22
By: Katie Cotugno
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The Weird Sisters
- By: Eleanor Brown
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall