
A Map to Paradise
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Narrated by:
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Lisa Flanagan
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By:
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Susan Meissner
About this listen
1956, Malibu, California: Something is not right on Paradise Circle.
With her name on the Hollywood blacklist and her life on hold, starlet Melanie Cole has little choice in company. There is her next-door neighbor, Elwood, but the screenwriter’s agoraphobia allows for just short chats through open windows. He’s her sole confidante, though, as she and her housekeeper, Eva, an immigrant from war-torn Europe, rarely make conversation.
Then one early morning Melanie and Eva spot Elwood’s sister-in-law and caretaker, June, digging in his beloved rose garden. After that they don’t see Elwood at all anymore. Where could a man who never leaves the house possibly have gone?
As they try to find out if something has happened to him, unexpected secrets are revealed among all three women, leading to an alliance that seems the only way for any of them to hold on to what they can still call their own. But it’s a fragile pact and one little spark could send it all up in smoke…
©2025 Susan Meissner (P)2025 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“A beautiful journey that explores the price of choices made in the heat of the moment, the importance of second chances, and the power of finding a place to belong.”–Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost Friends
"A tale both tender and touching, about three complex and damaged women who despite their outward differences are all searching for that elusive thing called a home."–Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Briar Club
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1940, Italy. Lili and Esti have been best friends since they first met at university. When Esti’s son Theo is born, they become as close as sisters. While a war seethes across borders, life somehow goes on—until Germany invades Italy, and the friends suddenly find themselves in occupied territory. Esti, older and fiercely self-assured, convinces Lili to join the resistance efforts. But when disaster strikes, a critically wounded Esti asks Lili to take a much bigger step: To go on the run with Theo. Protect him while Esti can’t.
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I loved it
- By helene vanderhoff on 04-28-25
By: Georgia Hunter
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The Story She Left Behind
- A Novel
- By: Patti Callahan Henry
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Theo Solomon
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1927, eight-year-old Clara Harrington’s magical childhood shatters when her mother, renowned author, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, disappears off the coast of South Carolina. Bronwyn stunned the world with a book written in an invented language that became a national sensation when she was just twelve years old. Her departure leaves behind not only a devoted husband and heartbroken daughter, but also the hope of ever translating the sequel to her landmark work. As the headlines focus on the missing author, Clara yearns for something far deeper and more insatiable: her beautiful mother.
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Outstanding
- By KAH on 05-16-25
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The Nature of Fragile Things
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins, Jason Culp
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Sophie Whalen is a young Irish immigrant so desperate to get out of a New York tenement that she answers a mail-order bride ad and agrees to marry a man she knows nothing about. San Francisco widower Martin Hocking proves to be as aloof as he is mesmerizingly handsome. Sophie quickly develops deep affection for Kat, Martin's silent five-year-old daughter, but Martin's odd behavior leaves her with the uneasy feeling that something about her newfound situation isn't right.
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The Nature of Fragile Things is a 5 star listen!
- By Kathy… send to help my husband to sleep!! on 02-04-21
By: Susan Meissner
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Rooms for Vanishing
- A Novel
- By: Stuart Nadler
- Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy, Bruce Mann, Kathleen Gati, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In Rooms for Vanishing, the violence of war has fractured the universe for the Altermans, a Jewish family from Vienna. Moving across decades, and across the world, the novel finds the Altermans alone in their separate futures, haunted by the loss of their loved ones, each certain that they are the sole survivor of their family.
By: Stuart Nadler
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Lady in Waiting
- A Novel
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Samantha Eggar, Donna Rawlins
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Content in her comfortable marriage of 22 years, Jane Lindsay never expected to watch her husband, Brad, pack his belongings and walk out the door of their Manhattan home. But when it happens, she feels powerless to stop him and the course of events that follow Brad’s departure. Jane finds an old ring in a box of relics from a British jumble sale and discovers a Latin inscription in the band along with just one other word: Jane
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Really no-one else tried to unlock the box
- By Robyn on 07-18-17
By: Susan Meissner
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The Case of the Missing Servant
- By: Tarquin Hall
- Narrated by: Sam Dastor
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In hot and dusty Delhi, Puri's main work comes from screening prospective marriage partners, a job once the preserve of aunties and family priests. But when an honest public litigator is accused of murdering his maidservant, it takes all of Puri's resources to investigate. How will he trace the fate of the girl, known only as Mary, in a population of more than one billion? Who is taking pot shots at him and his prize chilli plants?
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A Complete Surprise
- By Deborah Jacob on 12-13-16
By: Tarquin Hall
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Widows & Orphans
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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When attorney Rachael Flynn learns her bighearted younger brother has been arrested, she at first takes it in stride; Joshua has been in trouble before when his zeal for helping the downtrodden and disadvantaged pitted him against the law. But this time, the charge is murder and he's confessed to the crime. Certain that he's innocent, Rachael begs Joshua to let her represent him, but her brother refuses her offer of counsel.
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disappointing
- By jenh on 05-13-21
By: Susan Meissner
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A Fall of Marigolds
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries...and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions she's made. Will what she learns devastate her or free her?
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Beautiful!
- By R. Burnham on 03-29-15
By: Susan Meissner
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Only the Beautiful
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Xe Sands, Jorjeana Marie
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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California, 1938—When she loses her parents in an accident, sixteen-year-old Rosanne is taken in by the owners of the vineyard where she has lived her whole life as the vinedresser’s daughter. She moves into Celine and Truman Calvert’s spacious house with a secret, however—Rosie sees colors when she hears sound. She promised her mother she’d never reveal her little-understood ability to anyone, but the weight of her isolation and grief prove too much for her. Driven by her loneliness she not only breaks the vow to her mother, but in a desperate moment lets down her guard and ends up pregnant.
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Seeing the world in colors…
- By Bridgeman Family on 03-04-24
By: Susan Meissner
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A Window to the World
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Here is the dramatic story of two young girls, Megan and Jen, who meet in first grade and quickly become inseparable friends. Inseparable, that is, until one of them is snatched away by kidnappers as the other young girl watches helplessly. The remaining child grows up with the haunting memory of her friend's abduction...and absence from her life. Then, 16 years later, the stunning truth of the disappearance is revealed. And once again, lives are changed forever.
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PERFECT❣️ WONDERFUL BOOK❣️
- By Marie G. on 08-04-23
By: Susan Meissner
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Jane and Dan at the End of the World
- By: Colleen Oakley
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Jane and Dan have been married for nineteen years, but Jane isn’t sure they’re going to make it to twenty. The mother of two feels unneeded by her teenagers, and her writing career has screeched to an unsuccessful halt. Her one published novel sold under five hundred copies. Worse? She’s pretty sure Dan is cheating on her. When the couple goes to the renowned upscale restaurant La Fin du Monde to celebrate their anniversary, Jane thinks it’s as good a place as any to tell Dan she wants a divorce.
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Jane and Dan at the End of the World
- By Cheryl Simmons on 05-05-25
By: Colleen Oakley
She never lets me down.
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I learned a lot from this book about the Hollywood Blacklist and the fear that spurred it. I was born in 1961 — too little to really know much about the whole thing as I was growing up. I’m sure my MOTHER remembers. I definitely want to discuss this time period with her and the feelings Americans had about what was happening and why. I do remember hearing a lot about “Macarthy-ism,” when I was growing up, but I didn’t understand what it all meant back then (it seems so tame compared to the problems our world faces today).
I have just two small complaints about the book: In the beginning, when Melanie mets June, and her agoraphobic brother-in-law Elwood, June tells Melanie repeatedly that her business is not open to Melanie, but Melanie continues to be overly intrusive. Melanie just would NOT take “No, please mind your own business!” alone. June should have put her in her place, but I suppose that if she had, the rest of the story would have changed.
My second complaint: During a large fire when the women have five minutes to evacuate (per fire personnel), Eva spends the entire five minutes trying to get Melanie dig up a dead body and trying to tell Melanie they can dig it up, move it and re-bury it all in five minutes or less. Ridiculous! I wanted to scream, “JUST SHUT UP AND GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!”
I would have enjoyed the story more if the women had not spent so much time going over the same things (a dead body and the argument of whether what June had done out of love was morally right or wrong. It was a done deal — it didn’t MATTER if what was done was right or wrong. The women knew it was wrong; beating a dead horse would not change the situation. They also spent too much time discussing what they would do if they possessed a Time Machine. No such thing exists, so why devote so much time to it?br />
I know I sound critical, but that’s not my intention. I enjoyed the book (the narrator was excellent). Despite my complaints, I am a huge Susan Mejssner and will gladly read/listen to anything she writes!
Although I did not enjoy this book as much as I have other Susan Meissner books, I would still recommend it.
THREE WOMEN WITH SOME BIG SECRETS…
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Wonderful story and twists.Loved the historical setting.
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Time frame was interesting
Average
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Not my favorite from my favorite author.
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