
Back of the Yard
A Great Depression Family Saga
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Sara Moser Bartlett
-
By:
-
Meg Lelvis
About this listen
"Heart-wrenching moments of emotional struggle are presented with insight and compassion... a fascinating read that one will not soon forget." (US Review of Books)
Set during the Depression in the South Chicago neighborhood of Sinclair's The Jungle, Betty O'Leary's family struggles to scrape by in this harsh, foul-smelling, yet compassionate area. The youngest in her Irish Catholic family, Betty is overshadowed by her pretty sister, Maureen, and when tragedy threatens to shatter her world, Betty is sent away to stay with relatives.
As grief and loss take its toll on family members, Betty eventually meets Phil, who offers hope for long-awaited happiness. But secrets begin to unravel, and depression gradually descends on Betty. Is a family history of asylums and madness the cause? And unlike her disturbed mother, will Betty ever find peace and fulfillment?
The story gives voice to those struggling with emotional pain and shows how families can heal with love, courage, and promise. It tells of a unique neighborhood reflecting America's cultural changes and how one's childhood is forever present.
©2021 Black Rose Writing (P)2023 Beacon AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
Call the Canaries Home
- A Novel
- By: Laura Barrow
- Narrated by: Amy Bentley, Sophie Amoss, Janet Metzger, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Savannah was four years old when her twin sister, Georgia, went missing from their small Louisiana town, fracturing their family. Twenty-eight years later, Savannah convinces her estranged older sisters, Rayanne and Sue Ellen, to honor the pact they made as children and retrieve the time capsule they buried in their old backyard. But coming home means confronting old ghosts…and their stubborn grandmother, Meemaw.
-
-
Marginally Interesting
- By M. on 07-06-23
By: Laura Barrow
-
The Midwife of Hope River
- A Novel of an American Midwife
- By: Patricia Harman
- Narrated by: Anne Wittman
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Midwife Patience Murphy has a gift: a talent for escorting mothers through the challenges of bringing children into the world. Working in the hardscrabble conditions of Appalachia during the Depression, Patience takes the jobs that no one else wants, helping those most in need - and least likely to pay. She knows a successful midwifery practice must be built on a foundation of openness and trust - but the secrets Patience is keeping are far too intimate and fragile for her to ever let anyone in.
-
-
Coal Mines, The Depression, and Lots of Babies
- By Debbie on 03-06-19
By: Patricia Harman
-
Hart's Ridge
- Hart's Ridge, Book 1
- By: Kay Bratt
- Narrated by: Mare Trevathan
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the quaint town of Hart's Ridge, Deputy Taylor Gray is a force to be reckoned with. From clawing her way out of poverty and foster care to achieving her dream of being in law enforcement, Taylor is determined to make a difference in her community. When a five-year-old girl named Molly walks into a gas station alone and barely speaking, Taylor's determination is put to the test. As she delves deeper into the investigation, Taylor discovers that even the most idyllic towns have their secrets. But this time, the stakes are higher than ever before.
-
-
Respect!!
- By Dawnna on 02-21-24
By: Kay Bratt
-
October in the Earth
- A Novel
- By: Olivia Hawker
- Narrated by: Jackie Zebrowski
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Del Wensley, wife of the most celebrated preacher in Harlan County, tries to mind her place. Until her husband’s infidelity pushes an already strained marriage to a breaking point. Clinging to her last hope for self-respect, Del turns her back on the rigid life she’s known. A coal train is rolling through the valley. With her eyes wide open to the unfamiliar, and to the freedom she craves, Del takes to the rails.
-
-
Remarkable and Well-Done
- By Kentucky Bohemian on 01-07-24
By: Olivia Hawker
-
The River We Remember
- A Novel
- By: William Kent Krueger
- Narrated by: CJ Wilson
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On Memorial Day in Jewel, Minnesota, the body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast. The investigation falls to Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero who still carries the physical and emotional scars from his military service. Even before Dern has the results of the autopsy, vicious rumors begin to circulate that the killer must be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who has recently returned to Jewel with a Japanese wife.
-
-
This book makes me believe that there are good books written by good authors.
- By Va on 09-15-23
-
A Hundred Summers
- By: Beatriz Williams
- Narrated by: Kathleen McInerney
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the 1938 hurricane approaches Rhode Island, another storm brews in this New York Times best-selling beach listen from the author of Her Last Flight and The Golden Hour. Lily Dane has returned to Seaview, Rhode Island, where her family has summered for generations. It’s an escape not only from New York’s social scene but from a heartbreak that still haunts her. Here, among the seaside community that has embraced her since childhood, she finds comfort in the familiar rituals of summer.
-
-
Here We Go - the '13 Best Summer/Beach Reads...
- By Mel on 06-11-13
By: Beatriz Williams
-
Call the Canaries Home
- A Novel
- By: Laura Barrow
- Narrated by: Amy Bentley, Sophie Amoss, Janet Metzger, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Savannah was four years old when her twin sister, Georgia, went missing from their small Louisiana town, fracturing their family. Twenty-eight years later, Savannah convinces her estranged older sisters, Rayanne and Sue Ellen, to honor the pact they made as children and retrieve the time capsule they buried in their old backyard. But coming home means confronting old ghosts…and their stubborn grandmother, Meemaw.
-
-
Marginally Interesting
- By M. on 07-06-23
By: Laura Barrow
-
The Midwife of Hope River
- A Novel of an American Midwife
- By: Patricia Harman
- Narrated by: Anne Wittman
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Midwife Patience Murphy has a gift: a talent for escorting mothers through the challenges of bringing children into the world. Working in the hardscrabble conditions of Appalachia during the Depression, Patience takes the jobs that no one else wants, helping those most in need - and least likely to pay. She knows a successful midwifery practice must be built on a foundation of openness and trust - but the secrets Patience is keeping are far too intimate and fragile for her to ever let anyone in.
-
-
Coal Mines, The Depression, and Lots of Babies
- By Debbie on 03-06-19
By: Patricia Harman
-
Hart's Ridge
- Hart's Ridge, Book 1
- By: Kay Bratt
- Narrated by: Mare Trevathan
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the quaint town of Hart's Ridge, Deputy Taylor Gray is a force to be reckoned with. From clawing her way out of poverty and foster care to achieving her dream of being in law enforcement, Taylor is determined to make a difference in her community. When a five-year-old girl named Molly walks into a gas station alone and barely speaking, Taylor's determination is put to the test. As she delves deeper into the investigation, Taylor discovers that even the most idyllic towns have their secrets. But this time, the stakes are higher than ever before.
-
-
Respect!!
- By Dawnna on 02-21-24
By: Kay Bratt
-
October in the Earth
- A Novel
- By: Olivia Hawker
- Narrated by: Jackie Zebrowski
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Del Wensley, wife of the most celebrated preacher in Harlan County, tries to mind her place. Until her husband’s infidelity pushes an already strained marriage to a breaking point. Clinging to her last hope for self-respect, Del turns her back on the rigid life she’s known. A coal train is rolling through the valley. With her eyes wide open to the unfamiliar, and to the freedom she craves, Del takes to the rails.
-
-
Remarkable and Well-Done
- By Kentucky Bohemian on 01-07-24
By: Olivia Hawker
-
The River We Remember
- A Novel
- By: William Kent Krueger
- Narrated by: CJ Wilson
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On Memorial Day in Jewel, Minnesota, the body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast. The investigation falls to Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero who still carries the physical and emotional scars from his military service. Even before Dern has the results of the autopsy, vicious rumors begin to circulate that the killer must be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who has recently returned to Jewel with a Japanese wife.
-
-
This book makes me believe that there are good books written by good authors.
- By Va on 09-15-23
-
A Hundred Summers
- By: Beatriz Williams
- Narrated by: Kathleen McInerney
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the 1938 hurricane approaches Rhode Island, another storm brews in this New York Times best-selling beach listen from the author of Her Last Flight and The Golden Hour. Lily Dane has returned to Seaview, Rhode Island, where her family has summered for generations. It’s an escape not only from New York’s social scene but from a heartbreak that still haunts her. Here, among the seaside community that has embraced her since childhood, she finds comfort in the familiar rituals of summer.
-
-
Here We Go - the '13 Best Summer/Beach Reads...
- By Mel on 06-11-13
By: Beatriz Williams
-
The Five Wishes of Mr. Murray McBride
- By: Joe Siple
- Narrated by: Martin Landry
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With all his family and friends gone except an estranged grandson, retired Major League ballplayer Murray McBride is looking for a reason to live. He finds it in Jason Cashman, a spirited 10-year-old boy with a terminal heart defect and a list of five things he wants to do before he dies. Murray is determined to help Jason fulfill his dreams. Together, they race against the limited time each has left, ticking off Jason's wishes one by one.
-
-
GREAT STORY - poorly read
- By Margery R. Deemer on 02-09-21
By: Joe Siple
-
The Dressmakers of Prospect Heights
- A Novel
- By: Kitty Zeldis
- Narrated by: Karen Gundersen
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Brooklyn, 1924. As New York City enters the jazz age, the lives of three very different women are about to converge in unexpected ways. Recently arrived from New Orleans, Beatrice is working to establish a chic new dress shop with help from Alice, the orphaned teenage ward she brought north with her. Down the block, newlywed Catherine is restless in her elegant brownstone, longing for a baby she cannot conceive.
-
-
Piece of garbage.
- By Deb on 06-18-23
By: Kitty Zeldis
-
The Invincible Miss Cust
- A Novel
- By: Penny Haw
- Narrated by: Lucy Rayner
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aleen Cust has big dreams. And no one―not her family, society, or the law―will stop her. Born in Ireland in 1868 to an aristocratic English family, Aleen knows she is destined to work with animals, even if her family is appalled by the idea of a woman pursuing a veterinary career. Going against their wishes but with the encouragement of the guardian assigned to her upon her father’s death, Aleen attends the New Veterinary College in Edinburgh, enrolling as A. I. Custance to spare her family the humiliation they fear.
-
-
Unassuming
- By Candace Bank on 04-19-23
By: Penny Haw
-
The Book Woman's Daughter
- A Novel
- By: Kim Michele Richardson
- Narrated by: Katie Schorr
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the ruggedness of the beautiful Kentucky mountains, Honey Lovett has always known that the old ways can make a hard life harder. As the daughter of the famed blue-skinned Troublesome Creek packhorse librarian, Honey and her family have been hiding from the law all her life. But when her mother and father are imprisoned, Honey realizes she must fight to stay free, or risk being sent away for good.
-
-
Good read!
- By Oh Sugar on 09-12-22
-
The Dutch House
- A Novel
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Tom Hanks
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves. The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother.
-
-
Not my favorite Patchett
- By Regina on 12-07-19
By: Ann Patchett
-
The Echo of Old Books
- A Novel
- By: Barbara Davis
- Narrated by: Vanessa Johansson, Steve West, Sarah Zimmerman
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rare-book dealer Ashlyn Greer’s affinity for books extends beyond the intoxicating scent of old paper, ink, and leather. She can feel the echoes of the books’ previous owners—an emotional fingerprint only she can read. When Ashlyn discovers a pair of beautifully bound volumes that appear to have never been published, her gift quickly becomes an obsession. Not only is each inscribed with a startling incrimination, but the authors, Hemi and Belle, tell conflicting sides of a tragic romance.
-
-
Couldn’t finish it
- By Lady Chaps on 03-31-23
By: Barbara Davis
-
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
- An Oprah’s Book Club Novel
- By: Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo, Karen Chilton, Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 29 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The great scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois, once wrote about the problem of race in America, and what he called “Double Consciousness,” a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. Since childhood, Ailey Pearl Garfield has understood Du Bois’s words all too well. Bearing the names of two formidable Black Americans—the revered choreographer Alvin Ailey and her great grandmother Pearl, the descendant of enslaved Georgians and tenant farmers—Ailey carries Du Bois’s problem on her shoulders.
-
-
The Great American Novel is finally inclusive.
- By Margaret on 12-28-21
-
The House of Eve
- By: Sadeqa Johnson
- Narrated by: Ariel Blake, Nicole Lewis, Sadeqa Johnson
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1950s Philadelphia: fifteen-year-old Ruby Pearsall is on track to becoming the first in her family to attend college. But a taboo love affair threatens to pull her back down into the poverty and desperation that has been passed on to her like a birthright. Eleanor Quarles arrives in Washington, DC, with ambition and secrets. When she meets the handsome William Pride at Howard University, they fall madly in love. But William hails from one of DC’s elite wealthy Black families, and his parents don’t let just anyone into their fold.
-
-
This could've been good...
- By Speedreader on 10-13-23
By: Sadeqa Johnson
-
The Shenandoah Road
- A Novel of the Great Awakening
- By: Lynne Tagawa
- Narrated by: Stuart Gauffi
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Russell's heart aches from the loss of his wife, but the Shenandoah Valley frontiersman needs to marry again for his daughter's sake. At first he believes he has found the right young woman, despite their differences, but his faith falters when time reveals she isn't quite what she seemed. Can he truly love her? Unlike her disgraced sister, Abigail Williams obeys the Commandments. At least, she thinks herself a Christian until a buckskin-clad newcomer courts her. He treats her kindly but also introduces her to a sermon by the controversial preacher, George Whitefield.
-
-
The Amazing Road To Christian Life
- By Jayde on 03-04-20
By: Lynne Tagawa
-
A Living Remedy
- A Memoir
- By: Nicole Chung
- Narrated by: Jennifer Kim
- Length: 5 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nicole Chung couldn’t hightail it out of her overwhelmingly white Oregon hometown fast enough. As a scholarship student at a private university on the East Coast, no longer the only Korean she knew, she found community and a path to the life she'd long wanted. But the middle class world she begins to raise a family in–where there are big homes, college funds, nice vacations–looks very different from the middle class world she thought she grew up in, where paychecks have to stretch to the end of the week, health insurance is often lacking, and there are no safety nets.
-
-
Beautiful and heartfelt
- By Sandra on 04-23-23
By: Nicole Chung
-
It All Comes Back to You
- By: Beth Duke
- Narrated by: Amy McFadden
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1947. War's over, cherry-print dresses, parking above the city lights, swing dancing. Beautiful, 17-year-old Violet lives in a perfect world. Everybody loves her. In 2012, she's still beautiful, charming, and surrounded by admirers. Veronica "Ronni" Johnson, licensed practical nurse and aspiring writer, meets the captivating Violet in the assisted living facility where Violet requires no assistance, just lots of male attention. When she dies, she leaves Ronni a very generous bequest - only if Ronni completes a book about her life within one year.
-
-
Don't waste your time
- By carolynn on 02-10-20
By: Beth Duke
-
Life and Other Inconveniences
- By: Kristan Higgins
- Narrated by: Barbara Caruso, Dion Graham, Suzy Jackson, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Emma London never thought she had anything in common with her grandmother Genevieve London. The regal old woman came from wealthy and bluest-blood New England stock, but that didn't protect her from life's cruelest blows. Genevieve rose from the ashes of grief and built a fashion empire that was respected the world over, even when it meant neglecting her other son. When Emma's own mother died, her father abandoned her on his mother's doorstep. Genevieve took Emma in and reluctantly raised her - until Emma got pregnant her senior year of high school.
-
-
Another KH Winner
- By S. Plemmons on 08-23-19
By: Kristan Higgins
Listener received this title free
Great Family History Audiobook....very entertainin
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Listener received this title free
Great Chicago Depression Novel!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Listener received this title free
Captivating Audiobook.....Filled With Emotions....
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Listener received this title free
Great Family Trauma Story
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Listener received this title free
Great Story Of Family Trauma
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Listener received this title free
Excellent Audiobook
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.