Country Girl
A Memoir
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Narrated by:
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Edna O'Brien
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By:
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Edna O'Brien
About this listen
Edna O'Brien's family encouraged her to attend pharmacy school but she left before finishing, to marry an older writer, give birth to two sons, and publish, in 1960, her first novel. The Country Girls so scandalized the O'Briens' local parish that the book was burned by the priest, her family disgraced. Country Girl comes 21 books later, a rich and heady accounting of the events, people, emotions, and landscape that imprint upon and enliven one lifetime.
Starting with O'Brien's birth in a grand but deteriorating family house in Ireland and the physicality of family life in the country, her story moves on to the crushes and challenges of convent school; elopement, divorce, single-motherhood, and the wild parties of the '60s in London that included people from all walks of life, including such stars as Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, and Paul McCartney. There is love and unrequited love, and the glamour of trips to America as an acclaimed writer who was sought and hosted by Jackie Onassis and invited to the White House by Hillary Clinton. The "broken piano" state of old age is heightened by the intensity of reading, and the drive to write. Brilliant and sensuous, Country Girl is a book that Edna O'Brien was always meant to write.
©2013 Edna O'Brien (P)2013 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Fate has not been kind to Gemma Hardy. Orphaned then neglected, young Gemma seemed destined for a life of hardship and loneliness. Yet her bright spirit burns strong. Fiercely intelligent, singularly determined, Gemma overcomes each challenge and setback, growing stronger and more certain of her path. Now an independent young woman, she accepts a position as an au pair on the remote and beautiful Orkney Islands. But Gemma’s biggest trial is about to begin....
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f you loved Jane Eyre, you will like this novel.
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Behind the Scenes at the Museum
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Ruby Lennox begins narrating her life at the moment of conception, and from there takes us on a whirlwind tour of the 20th century as seen through the eyes of an English girl determined to learn about her family and its secrets.
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Another Kate Atkinson multi-generational story
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By: Kate Atkinson
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Pearl in a Cage
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On a balmy midsummer's evening in 1923, a young woman - foreign, dishevelled and heavily pregnant - is found unconscious just off the railway tracks in the tiny logging community of Woody Creek. The town midwife, Gertrude Foote, is roused from her bed when the woman is brought to her door. Try as she might, Gertrude is unable to save her, but the baby lives.
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Pearl in a Cage
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By: Joy Dettman
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The Star of Kazan
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In 1896, in a pilgrim church in the Alps, an abandoned baby girl is found by a cook and a housemaid. They take her home, and Annika grows up in the servants' quarters of a house belonging to three eccentric Viennese professors. She is happy there but dreams of the day when her real mother will come to find her. One day a glamorous stranger arrives at the door.
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not recommended for pleasure
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Mosaic
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>i>Mosaic is compelling storytelling at its best - from the fascinating details of Polish-Jewish culture and the rivalries and dramas of family life, to its moving account of lives torn apart by war and persecution, this an extraordinary true story of a family, and of one woman's journey to reclaim her heritage.
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Absolutely excellent!
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Light Years
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This exquisite, resonant novel by PEN/Faulkner winner James Salter is a brilliant portrait of a marriage by a contemporary American master. It is the story of Nedra and Viri, whose favored life is centered around dinners, ingenious games with their children, enviable friends, and near-perfect days passed skating on a frozen river or sunning on the beach.
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Unfathomable Font of Blue: Life's Serial Goodbyes
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They Left Us Everything
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After almost 20 years of caring for elderly parents - first for their senile father and then for their cantankerous 93-year-old mother - author Plum Johnson and her three younger brothers have finally fallen to their middle-aged knees with conflicted feelings of grief and relief. Now they must empty and sell the beloved family home, 23 rooms bulging with history, antiques, and oxygen tanks. Plum thought, How tough will that be? I know how to buy garbage bags. But the task turns out to be much harder and more rewarding than she ever imagined.
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Thought provoking
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Silver Wattle
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In fear for their lives after the sudden death of their mother, Adéla and Klára must flee Prague to find refuge with their uncle in Australia. Later, Adéla becomes a film director at a time when the local industry is starting to feel the competition from Hollywood. But even while success is imminent, the issues of family and an impossible love are never far away.
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Groan, Snore and Wince!
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A Change of Climate
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Ralph and Anna Eldred are an exemplary couple, devoting themselves to doing good. 30 years ago as missionaries in Africa, the worst that could happen did. Shattered by their encounter with inexplicable evil, they returned to England, never to speak of it again. But when Ralph falls into an affair, Anna finds no forgiveness in her heart, and 30 years of repressed rage and grief explode, destroying not only a marriage but also their love, their faith, and everything they thought they were.
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Beautifully written
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Annie Dunne
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It is 1959 in Wicklow, Ireland, and Annie and her cousin Sarah are living and working together to keep Sarah’s small farm running. Suddenly, Annie’s young niece and nephew are left in their care. Unprepared for the chaos that two children inevitably bring, but nervously excited nonetheless, Annie finds the interruption of her normal life and her last chance at happiness complicated further by the attention being paid to Sarah by a local man with his eye on the farm.
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Splendid
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East of the Sun
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Autumn 1928. Three young women are on their way to India, each with a new life in mind. Rose, a beautiful but naive bride-to-be, is anxious about leaving her family and marrying a man she hardly knows. Victoria, her bridesmaid couldn't be happier to get away from her overbearing mother, and is determined to find herself a husband. And Viva, their inexperienced chaperone, is in search of the India of her childhood, ghosts from the past and freedom.
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Indian history takes a back seat to 3 young women
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The Postcard
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2002, Australia. When Melissa discovers a postcard addressed to 'Desmond' among her recently deceased father's effects, she is determined to discover this person's identity and his relationship to her father. She soon embarks on a journey that will take her across oceans and into the past...
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Meh
- By Summer Layne on 03-06-15
By: Leah Fleming
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What listeners say about Country Girl
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jessica Zoby
- 08-25-24
Beautiful life
I really enjoyed this book. The writing and reflection are intriguing. Being read by the author offers a feeling and authenticity that I am not sure I would have experienced otherwise.
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- Grace O'Malley
- 05-14-13
Scheherazade
Would you consider the audio edition of Country Girl to be better than the print version?
Yes...but you will also want the print version to underline and note beautiful phrases and passages..
What did you like best about this story?
Her openness to life and what she calls, "the trampoline of love"
Which scene was your favorite?
Impossible to choose...many ties for first place.
Any additional comments?
I heartily recommend this book. At first, I was distracted by O'Brien's noisy S's, but that would be a silly reason not to dive into this book. She's a wonderful reader/storyteller. Her love of place (and not just Ireland) and her love for people both draw out her powerful gifts of description. Although there are many stories including famous people, I did not pick up any sense that O'Brien considers herself superior. In fact, some of the small cameos of nameless people are the most wonderful, like the night watchman in an Irish castle who passes the time by reciting classical soliloquies. You will catch yourself cringing, thinking, "Don't do it!" as the author makes mistakes that seem predictable, but she conveys the fog of love so well, you realize we've all made mistakes like this.
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2 people found this helpful
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- CLD
- 08-15-13
Needs a Professional Narrator
I bought this book, looking forward to listening to it on a long plane ride. At first, I blamed the flight noise for my inability to clearly hear the book but then once home, I had the same difficulty. Ms. O'Brien's soft voice, while charming, is too low and deep to make this a pleasant listening experience. I switched to the Kindle version and am very happily reading now. The story itself is quite good.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Elizabeth72
- 04-10-16
A Feast -- of Time and Place
"Country Girl" by Edna O'Brien is such a pleasure -- particularly to hear it read by the author in her very own, lovely voice.
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1 person found this helpful
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- quiltbrain
- 07-14-23
Excessive name dropping.
The first tenth of this was lovely. But all the name dropping robbed the story.
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