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A Fifty-Year Silence
- Love, War, and a Ruined House in France
- Narrated by: Miranda Richmond Mouillot
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
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Publisher's summary
A young woman moves across an ocean to uncover the truth about her grandparents' mysterious estrangement and pieces together the extraordinary story of their wartime experiences
In 1948, after surviving World War II by escaping Nazi-occupied France for refugee camps in Switzerland, the author's grandparents, Anna and Armand, bought an old stone house in a remote, picturesque village in the South of France. Five years later, Anna packed her bags and walked out on Armand, taking the typewriter and their children. Aside from one brief encounter, the two never saw or spoke to each other again, never remarried, and never revealed what had divided them forever.
A Fifty-Year Silence is the deeply involving account of Miranda Richmond Mouillot's journey to find out what happened between her grandmother, a physician, and her grandfather, an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials, who refused to utter his wife's name aloud after she left him. To discover the roots of their embittered and entrenched silence, Miranda abandons her plans for the future and moves to their stone house, now a crumbling ruin; immerses herself in letters, archival materials, and secondary sources; and teases stories out of her reticent, and declining, grandparents. As she reconstructs how Anna and Armand braved overwhelming odds and how the knowledge her grandfather acquired at Nuremberg destroyed their relationship, Miranda wrestles with the legacy of trauma, the burden of history, and the complexities of memory. She also finds herself learning how not only to survive but to thrive - making a home in the village and falling in love.
With warmth, humor, and rich, evocative details that bring her grandparents' outsize characters and their daily struggles vividly to life, A Fifty-Year Silence is a heartbreaking, uplifting love story spanning two continents and three generations.
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Marina Willett, MD, has a problem. Her husband, Charlie, has become obsessed with H. P. Lovecraft, in particular with one episode in the legendary horror writer's life: In the summer of 1934, the "old gent" lived for two months with a gay teenage fan named Robert Barlow, at Barlow's family home in central Florida. What were the two of them up to? Were they friends - or something more? Just when Charlie thinks he's solved the puzzle, a new scandal erupts, and he disappears.
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Frustratingly Uneven Due to Clumsy Plot Structure
- By Adam on 06-15-17
By: Paul La Farge
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Secrets of a Charmed Life
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Current day, Oxford, England. Young American scholar Kendra Van Zant, eager to pursue her vision of a perfect life, interviews Isabel McFarland just when the elderly woman is ready to give up secrets about the war that she has kept for decades...beginning with who she really is. What Kendra receives from Isabel is both a gift and a burden--one that will test her convictions and her heart.
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Rare 5-Star Across the Board!
- By Imamomof4 on 06-14-15
By: Susan Meissner
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The Cut Out Girl
- A Story of War and Family, Lost and Found
- By: Bart van Es
- Narrated by: Bart van Es
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Bart van Es left Holland for England many years ago, but one story from his Dutch childhood never left him. It was a mystery of sorts: A young Jewish girl named Lientje had been taken in during the war by relatives and hidden from the Nazis, handed over by her parents. The girl had been raised by her foster family as one of their own, but then, well after the war, they were no longer in touch. What was the girl's side of the story, Bart wondered? What really happened during the war and after? So began an investigation that would consume Bart van Es's life and change it.
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a powerful & unique work on the Holocaust
- By D. Littman on 03-06-19
By: Bart van Es
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The Patriots
- A Novel
- By: Sana Krasikov
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren, George Guidall
- Length: 22 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Florence Fein grows up in Brooklyn in the 1930s, in a family that is gaining a foothold in the middle class. At City College she becomes engaged politically with the left-leaning student groups, and eventually, in the midst of the Depression, she takes a job with a trade organization that has a position for her in Moscow. There, she falls in love with another expatriate American and has a son. Soon after, Florence is sent to a work camp and her son to an orphanage.
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Point of View of characters, past and present collide
- By Angela Adams on 01-29-19
By: Sana Krasikov
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One Amazing Thing
- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Narrated by: Purva Bedi, Soneela Nankani, Neil Shah
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Winner of a Pushcart Prize for poetry and an American Book Award for her short stories, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni explores themes of women, immigration, and her vibrant Indian culture to great effect. Divakaruni expands on these ideas in One Amazing Thing, a project long in the making and full of electric prose.
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An ok way to kill some time
- By R.Reader on 11-07-12
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The Women in the Castle
- By: Jessica Shattuck
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Set at the end of World War II, in a crumbling Bavarian castle that once played host to all of German high society, a powerful and propulsive story of three widows whose lives and fates become intertwined - an affecting, shocking, and ultimately redemptive novel from the author of the New York Times notable book The Hazards of Good Breeding.
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Skating On The Thin Ice Of Life
- By Sara on 04-29-17
By: Jessica Shattuck
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A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True
- By: Brigid Pasulka
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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The novel opens on the eve of World War II. In the mountain village of Half-Village, a young man nicknamed the Pigeon, under the approving eyes of the entire village, courts the beautiful Anielica Hetmanska. But the war's arrival wreaks havoc in all their lives and delays their marriage for six long years.
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The Old & New Worlds Converge & Transcend Time
- By Sara on 11-22-16
By: Brigid Pasulka
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The Magic of Ordinary Days
- A Novel
- By: Ann Howard Creel
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Olivia Dunne, a studious minister's daughter who dreams of being an archaeologist, never thought that the drama of World War II would affect her quiet life in Denver. An exhilarating flirtation reshapes her life, though, and she finds herself banished to a rural Colorado outpost, married to a man she hardly knows. Overwhelmed by loneliness, Olivia tentatively tries to establish a new life, finding much-needed friendship and solace in two Japanese American sisters who are living at a nearby internment camp.
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I purchased this audio book not 15 minutes ago...
- By Kim on 09-15-16
By: Ann Howard Creel
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The Lake House
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 21 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Living on her family’s gorgeous lakeside estate in Cornwall, England, Alice Edevane is a bright, clever, inquisitive, innocent, and precociously talented fourteen-year-old who loves to write stories. But the mysteries she pens are no match for the one her family is about to endure ...One midsummer’s eve, after a beautiful party drawing hundreds of guests to the estate has ended, the Edevanes discover that their youngest son, Theo, has vanished without a trace.
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Enjoyed the writing, but oy vey, this book
- By Jennifer S on 12-28-18
By: Kate Morton
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Nearly Normal
- Surviving the Wilderness, My Family and Myself
- By: Cea Sunrise Person
- Narrated by: Cea Sunrise Person
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In her best-selling memoir North of Normal, Cea wrote with grace about her unconventional childhood - her early years living in a tipi in Alberta with her pot-smoking, free-loving counterculture family. But her struggles do not end when she leaves her family at the age of 13 to become a model. Honest and daring, Nearly Normal reveals the many ways that Cea's unconventional childhood continues to reverberate through the years.
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This one is just not for me
- By Pamela Plimpton on 03-15-19
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The Girl in the Blue Beret
- A Novel
- By: Bobbie Ann Mason
- Narrated by: Fred Sullivan
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Inspired by a true story, the best-selling author of In Country offers a gorgeous, haunting novel about an airline pilot coming to terms with his past, and searching for the people who saved him during World War II. After Marshall Stone's B-17 bomber was shot down in occupied Europe in 1944, people in the French Resistance helped him escape to safety.
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Needs a woman narrator for female characters
- By Patricia A Gallagher on 02-23-21
By: Bobbie Ann Mason
What listeners say about A Fifty-Year Silence
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Deborah Freitag
- 01-22-16
An Amazing Story
What made the experience of listening to A Fifty-Year Silence the most enjoyable?
Such a personal account
What other book might you compare A Fifty-Year Silence to and why?
None
What about Miranda Richmond Mouillot’s performance did you like?
I loved the way she imitated her Grandmother's accent.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The whole book was moving
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- Anonymous User
- 03-31-22
bio and auto biography in one
excellent story of reality and strength and growth. wow! captivating.. as if I were just waiting for the very ending and gifts the grandchild was due.
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- G E Jeffries
- 06-06-22
Excellent historical fiction
I loved the character development of Anna and Armand by the author so much I wanted to believe it was true. What started out as a Fairy Tail became much deeper as their grandaughter (the author ) delved into their personal experiences during World War II. I highly recommend this book if you enjoy history, romance and fiction.
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- Connie
- 02-05-15
So what happened?
This is the true story of what happened to the author's maternal grandparents, who were Holocaust survivors, who got married, bought a house, had two children, and who then didn't talk again. Thus the title, A Fifty-Year Silence. Anna, the grandmother, had a joyous outlook on life till the day she died, and who called the war (WWII) "her instruction book on life". Armand, the grandfather, hated the cards life had dealt him and became a mean-spirited atheist, although it was obvious he loved Miranda, his granddaughter. I greatly enjoyed this book, about love and loss, about how love can be so precarious and easily crushed when trampled. It was the story of a journey, a how-did-this-happen? expedition. You'll have to read it yourself to find out if there's a tidy answer or a sense of "Ah, I understand".
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2 people found this helpful
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- L.W.
- 07-15-15
Oh, how I loved this story..
What did you love best about A Fifty-Year Silence?
This brilliant author could have made this so morose. It is serious history and most of these books are horrible memoirs of man's inhumanity. But she gave this book a life or several lives of it's own. She intrigues you with the mystery then intermingles it with her life and the growth of relationship. My great grandmother had the same essence as her grandmother, oh, the flood of memories I experienced. This book has good writing, heart, hurt, love, change, mystery, and love. I have listened to it twice. Yes there were very sad parts but the hand of destiny gives that magical and tempers the things we can roll with or bury our feet in cement.
What was one of the most memorable moments of A Fifty-Year Silence?
When she tried to tell her grandmother how she felt about her and the reaction of her grandmother could have been perceived with pain, hurt but it is shown to be the way she says, "I know, I know, lighten up,". That is not exactly it but maybe you get it. My great grandmother would have reacted exactly like that and I adored her. She and I were connected. Maybe that is the theme here. Her grandfather and her found that relationship that could of just as easily not happened. Awe but the grandmother just seems to see a little further down the road than the rest of us. Beautiful.
Which scene was your favorite?
Oh, I see this entire book as a scene. But the finding of the photo of her grandparents stands out. Amazing what we can see in a moment captured.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
What is a tag line? The title would work, this is real, while the time in history is not happening now. there is always a place in world in which there is war and terror and certainly we are at no lack of family difficulties.
Any additional comments?
Thank you so much. This book was a meteor in my head, touch my heart, and is now a part of me forever. I love it. Thank you
*The author's narration was beautiful also, her voice is a teaser though. I felt I had heard it before. Reminded me of young Ellen Burstyn.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Friend in NYC
- 06-15-21
Not enough France, mystery, or answers.
This book is an historical mystery but as the mystery is researched, the author is on her own journey of healing and self-discovery. Her own journey and love story are interesting and carry life lessons. The story of her grandparents (which appears to be the point of the book) is poignant and inspiring and powerful. Her grandparents unwillingness to just either tell her to stop asking questions or conversely to just sit down and frankly and directly answer her questions creates several rather tedious chapters. But alas, we can suspend logic for a good story.
While I definitely enjoyed the book, the writer's love of France is only sporadically conveyed in its pages. For me, the placement of the story in rural France is the reason I bought the book. So I wanted more old stone house renovation sagas or happy picnics with the stray cats, dodging mistral winds and harmless scorpions. Even laughable anecdotes of dealing with french bureaucracy or old divorce property laws would have been entertaining. But we Francophiles were not indulged during nor at the end of this book.
The middle third of the book was a tangle of voices, facts and ideas and it was hard to grasp the mystery we were trying to solve. Did she want us to solve Why her grandparents got married ? Why they separated ? Were they in love ? When did they break apart ? Where did they live ? What are the life-lessons we were supposed to learn ? Most mysteries have one question we are trying to deduce. This was much muddier. And also during the middle third, the mix of supposed possibilties was hard to separate from the thread that was loosely sewing factual tidbits together. As I write this now, I'm left wondering how much of what I believe was the grandparents story was fact and how much was the authors conjecture. Is that the point ?
I found that the questions that I wanted answered were left unanswered: what happened to her grandmother's house in France ? Who owns it now ? Will it every be renovated ? Why did the author and her capable husband emotionally abandon it ?
Although it was not a favorite book, it was worth a read. To the author, thanks for sharing your grandparent's story (and yours.)
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- NanaD
- 03-29-18
What she learned, brought her closer to family.
She set out to learn why her Grandparents were not together, why they hadn't spoken to each other in 50 yrs. and was hoping to uncover their story of romance and what caused her Grandmother to leave him. The story she uncovers, with Grandmother's approval, is one which takes place during WW2 and they are a Jewish family, however the struggles this young couple face are much more than you could possibly imagine. I have read several books regarding family struggles of this time period, however I must say this is the best. Read/listen to the book, you won't be sorry.
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- Daryl
- 03-30-15
A Great read
Any additional comments?
I enjoyed this book. The coming-of-age of the author as she tries to understand why her grandparents refused to speak to each other for over 50 years was both moving and unique. I laughed and cried in places, and loved that the author narrated this book herself. I could picture Both of Miranda's grandparents, their feisty desire for her to both remember and let go, to love and to hold at arm's length. The dilapidated house was a terrific symbol of hope, of ruin, of renewal and disappointment.
A well-written, well-read biography, both of the author and of her grandparents themselves.
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- Julia
- 03-22-15
Very interesting and reflective
This documents a past we should never ever forget and Miranda does an excellent job making readers feel like they are right there with her through every conversation she has with her grandparents. Nicely written and brilliantly narrated.
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- Pam
- 02-14-15
Great listen and wonderful history angle
The author does a lovely job of capturing history through the eyes of personal experience. I was often anxious to begin a new listening series in order to find out further events. However, the story is not told in a specifically sequential manner, and activities are often enumerated outside of a logical timeframe to the listener. It was not revealed until the very end of the book the specific reason as to the estrangement, and the reader/listener would often find themselves wondering "why don't you ask ________?" The narration was extremely well done and it was never questioned as to who is speaking due to the narrator's great ability to distinguish characters' voices.
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