The Only Girl in the World

A Memoir

By: Maude Julien

Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers

Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

For listeners of Room and The Glass Castle, an astonishing memoir of one woman's rise above an unimaginable childhood.

Maude Julien's parents were fanatics who believed it was their sacred duty to turn her into the ultimate survivor - raising her in isolation, tyrannizing her childhood, and subjecting her to endless drills designed to "eliminate weakness". Maude learned to hold an electric fence for minutes without flinching and to sit perfectly still in a rat-infested cellar all night long (her mother sewed bells onto her clothes that would give her away if she moved). She endured a life without heat, hot water, adequate food, friendship, or any kind of affectionate treatment.

But Maude's parents could not rule her inner life. Befriending the animals on the lonely estate as well as the characters in the novels she read in secret, young Maude nurtured in herself the compassion and love that her parents forbid as weak. And when, after more than a decade, an outsider managed to penetrate her family's paranoid world, Maude seized her opportunity.

By turns horrifying and magical, The Only Girl in the World is a story that will grip you from the first minute and leave you spellbound, a chilling exploration of psychological control that ends with a glorious escape.

©2017 Maude Julien (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"A disturbing, engrossing memoir.... A startling testament of survival." ( Kirkus)

"This is not the umpteenth book about a miraculously saved victim. It is much more, and much better.... One of the most fascinating things about this memoir is the extraordinary resistance Maude developed...her ability to create a world for herself." ( Le Journal du Dimanche)

"A harrowing yet achingly beautiful tale of a girl imprisoned by her brutal, fanatic family, but whose yearning for wonder and love ultimately drives her toward the improbable light of the world.... The Only Girl in the World is a story of resilience unlike any I have ever read." (Mira Bartók, author of the National Book Critics Circle Award Winner The Memory Palace)

Excellent

Emotional read but very well written. Amazing true story about endurance and survival. Must read.

Heartbreaking and Powerful

Great work...one of those that you are truly thankful you read but is difficult given the suffering and pain. This story is right up there with Night by Weisel and the Dairy of Anne Frank....powerful.

Compelling and heartbreaking

Maude’s recollection of her childhood is horrific and devastating even to the listener. Yet I was so amazed by her resilience and hope to seek freedom and life through the whole story. Maude’s experience also adds a lot to the nature vs nurture debate in psychology.

Strength of human spirit

I love that Maude’s spirit was strong enough to endure her parentage and tortured upbringing. I could not stop listening.

Still hard to believe it's an actual memoir

A very authentic and genuine telling of the author's childhood struggles in the hands of a mad father. A story of mental and physical abuse that doesn't feel dramtized or needlessly embellished.

And the beauty of it is that the heroine used the willpower nurtured by her father's "teachings" (and often in spite of them) to break free.

Heartbreakingly Captivating

Was slow getting into this book, but once I began to understand the author and the authenticity of her emotional upbringing, I was truely engaged and appalled. Her life is unique and astounding, and her strength and perseverance through it all is not only admirable, but astonishing. Well written recollections help bring the reading inside the world of Maude and her journey to freedom. HIGHLY reccomend.

Well done.

Well written and extremely well performed.

It’s so sad to realize the long-term suffering that mentally ill parents cause their children. This is one fantastic tale.

Fantastic Book!!!

At first i didn't think this book was gonna be good, but i stuck on listening. it wasn't till almost the end i really enjoyed this book from thr first word till the last. Evan though my life isn't anything like hers, i myself could relate in a way that i was always told what to do. The authir was awesome in making me believe what was really going. on in the girls life. if i could, i would make this a 10!

Difficult to listen and absorb.

Excellent pacing by the narrator. It was extremely difficult to make myself listen to the abuses she endured as an innocent, unprotected child.. I can't say that I enjoyed the book. I am enriched by her triumph over evils.

unbelievable

Kept me interested right from the start to the end !! . The animal cruelty was hard to listen to as well as Maudes daily torture.