The House of Lincoln

A Novel

By: Nancy Horan

Narrated by: Sarah Welborn

An unprecedented view of Lincoln's Springfield from the acclaimed and bestselling author of Loving Frank.

Nancy Horan returns with a sweeping historical novel, which tells the story of Abraham Lincoln's ascendance from rumpled lawyer to U.S. president to the Great Emancipator through the eyes of a young asylum-seeker who arrives in Lincoln's home of Springfield from Madeira, Portugal.

Showing intelligence beyond society's expectations, fourteen-year-old Ana Ferreira lands a job in the Lincoln household assisting Mary Lincoln with their boys and with the hostess duties borne by the wife of a rising political star. Ana bears witness to the evolution of Lincoln's views on equality and the Union and observes in full complexity the psyche and pain of his bold, polarizing wife, Mary.

Along with her African American friend Cal, Ana encounters the presence of the underground railroad in town and experiences personally how slavery is tearing apart her adopted country. Culminating in an eyewitness account of the little-known Springfield race riot of 1908, The House of Lincoln takes listeners on a journey through the historic changes that reshaped America and that continue to reverberate today.

©2023 Nancy Horan (P)2023 Tantor

Poor narrator

This seemed like it would be a very interesting book, but I can’t get past the poor narration. The narrator should have at least glanced at the book before trying to read it. Lots of mispronounce words and the inflections used changed the meanings of the author’s words very very poor narration.

Good story but the narration could have been much better.

The narrator was very robotic and at times it was hard to stay engaged. However, the story was very interesting.

Stilted staid and robotic narration

Honestly, I was interested in the story and I very well might read the physical book, but the narration on this was crazy making because they over annunciated, over, pronounced the dialogue…it was like listening to a fourth grade kid, trying to impress a teacher with their great reading. Really wish I could get my credit back on this one!

Average

Didn’t care for reader. Story & style were average. I did learn some new information from it though

So sad

I loved the story, however the narrator was the worst I’ve ever heard. So sad that a historical Novak that had great potential was spoiled by the narrator. I will have to pay attention to narratives from now on