The English Wife

By: Adrienne Chinn

Narrated by: Katy Sobey, Helen Keeley

Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's Summary

Two women, a world apart. A secret waiting to be discovered....

VE Day, 1945: as victory bells ring out across the country, war bride Ellie Burgess’ happiness is overshadowed by grief. Her charismatic Newfoundlander husband Thomas is still missing in action.

Until a letter arrives explaining Thomas is back at home on the other side of the Atlantic recovering from his injuries.

Travelling to a distant country to live with a man she barely knows is the bravest thing Ellie has ever had to do. But nothing can prepare her for the harsh realities of her new home.... 

September 11th 2001: Sophie Parry is on a plane to New York on the most tragic day in the city’s history. While the world watches the news in horror, Sophie’s flight is rerouted to a tiny town in Newfoundland and she is forced to seek refuge with her estranged aunt Ellie.

Determined to discover what it was that forced her family apart all those years ago, newfound secrets may change her life forever.... 

This is a timeless story of love, sacrifice and resilience perfect for fans of Lorna Cook and Gill Paul.

©2020 Adrienne Chinn (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic Reviews

"An emotive and engaging read." (Rosanna Ley)

"Rich, evocative and utterly immersive, this beautifully written book swept me away." (Jenny Ashcroft)

Excellent story

This was a surprise for me. Can’t really say why but just not exactly what I expected which made me enjoy even more

4 Timelines Woven into a Mishmash

This is one of those books that works along different timelines at the same time. Occasionally this is done well, but is always a little bit of a pain in my opinion. And while the writer does have skill with the story and the dialogue, I just found it too tedious about 2/3 of the way through the book. I just lost interest.

The other thing I found distracting was the fact that the time line also didn’t quite work. The story occurs at the start of WWIi, at the end of WWII and continues with those peoples children on 9/11 and 10 years after 9/11. That is a 60 - 70 year spread yet the characters in the later time seem to be fairly young. This should have been about their grandchildren, not their children. When you are sitting down with pencil and paper to see if that makes sense, you have a bit of a problem.

Also, I just never felt a lot of empathy for the characters.

The narrator was pretty good except I didn’t buy her idea of a Néw Foundler accent. I have only known two Néw Foundlers, but they sure didn’t sound like that.

Good, but not great........

The whole story is a bit of a cliche— it is pretty easy to guess the ending by the end of the first chapter. Some characters are well-drawn, but others seem one-dimensional. The main character, Ellie, is totally sweet, kind and likable. Her sister, Dottie, is thoroughly detestable and behaves badly throughout.......not really believable. All the secret-keeping and mis-communication needed to move the plot forward also becomes hard to swallow. An interesting story line, but not well-enough written to rate more than 3 stars. However, the story is easy to listen to and probably works better in Audible than in Print.

Interesting story

Found this story of the English side of ww2 and its connection with Newfoundland (Canada) very interesting. It stretched my curiosity. It was well narrated with unexpected twists towards the end. However I did get confused at times with the constant back & forth in time.