
Lunch with Charlotte
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
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

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:
-
Leon Berger
-
By:
-
Leon Berger
About this listen
Every Friday for the last 25 years of her life, I had lunch with Charlotte and each week she told me more of her extraordinary story. To all appearances, she was a strong and dignified survivor, with old-world courtesies, a twinkling sense of humor, and a lilting Austrian syntax. Yet deep within, she'd been scarred by a profound personal trauma.
Finally, just before she died at the age of 91, she chose to entrust me with this profound secret, and all at once I understood how it had affected her entire adult life. This is a story of friendship and strength, of courage and betrayal. It is an epic tale set against the backdrop of history.
©2012 Leon Berger (P)2013 Leon BergerListeners also enjoyed...
-
A Gypsy in Auschwitz
- How I Survived the Horrors of the ‘Forgotten Holocaust’
- By: Otto Rosenberg
- Narrated by: Richard Trinder
- Length: 4 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The stories of Sinti and Roma suffering in Nazi Germany are all too often lost or untold. In this haunting account, Otto shares his story with a remarkable simplicity. Deeply moving, A Gypsy in Auschwitz is the incredible story of how a young Sinti boy miraculously survived the unimaginable darkness of the Holocaust.
-
-
heart breaking tale on the Sinti and Roma experience during the Holocaust
- By LobsterGirl on 03-12-25
By: Otto Rosenberg
-
The Girl with Seven Names
- A North Korean Defector’s Story
- By: Hyeonseo Lee, David John
- Narrated by: Josie Dunn
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal communist regime. Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. Given the repression, poverty and starvation she witnessed surely her country could not be, as she had been told, 'the best on the planet'?
-
-
Did not like narrator
- By Linda H. Andreae on 10-09-19
By: Hyeonseo Lee, and others
-
Dreams from My Father
- A Story of Race and Inheritance
- By: Barack Obama
- Narrated by: Barack Obama
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a Black African father and a White American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a Black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father - a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man - has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey - first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family.
-
-
Powerful
- By Gene R. on 10-26-21
By: Barack Obama
-
Gravel Heart
- By: Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Narrated by: Damian Lynch
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Salim has always known that his father does not want him. Living with his parents and his adored Uncle Amir in a house full of secrets, he is a bookish child, a dreamer haunted by night terrors. It is the 1970s and Zanzibar is changing. Tourists arrive, the island’s white sands obscuring the memory of recent conflict—the longed-for independence from British colonialism swiftly followed by bloody revolution. When his father moves out, retreating into dishevelled introspection, Salim is confused and ashamed. His mother does not discuss the change.
-
-
So enjoyed this!
- By S. Z. Sykes on 04-26-24
-
The Seven Sisters
- The Seven Sisters, Book 1
- By: Lucinda Riley
- Narrated by: Tuppence Middleton
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Maia D’Aplièse and her five sisters gather together at their childhood home–a fabulous, secluded castle situated on the shores of Lake Geneva–having been told that their beloved adoptive father, the elusive billionaire they call Pa Salt, has died. Each of them is handed a tantalising clue to their true heritage–a clue which takes Maia across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil . . .
-
-
Narration spoil great story
- By Kindle Customer on 05-31-21
By: Lucinda Riley
-
The Prague Sonata
- By: Bradford Morrow
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 18 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the early days of the new millennium, pages of a worn and weathered original sonata manuscript - the gift of a Czech immigrant living out her final days in Queens - come into the hands of Meta Taverner, a young musicologist whose concert piano career was cut short by an injury. To Meta's eye, it appears to be an authentic 18th-century work; to her discerning ear, the music rendered there is commanding, hauntingly beautiful, clearly the undiscovered composition of a master. But there is no indication of who the composer might be.
-
-
Wonderful topic, writer gets in the way
- By Amber's mom on 07-31-18
By: Bradford Morrow
-
A Gypsy in Auschwitz
- How I Survived the Horrors of the ‘Forgotten Holocaust’
- By: Otto Rosenberg
- Narrated by: Richard Trinder
- Length: 4 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The stories of Sinti and Roma suffering in Nazi Germany are all too often lost or untold. In this haunting account, Otto shares his story with a remarkable simplicity. Deeply moving, A Gypsy in Auschwitz is the incredible story of how a young Sinti boy miraculously survived the unimaginable darkness of the Holocaust.
-
-
heart breaking tale on the Sinti and Roma experience during the Holocaust
- By LobsterGirl on 03-12-25
By: Otto Rosenberg
-
The Girl with Seven Names
- A North Korean Defector’s Story
- By: Hyeonseo Lee, David John
- Narrated by: Josie Dunn
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal communist regime. Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. Given the repression, poverty and starvation she witnessed surely her country could not be, as she had been told, 'the best on the planet'?
-
-
Did not like narrator
- By Linda H. Andreae on 10-09-19
By: Hyeonseo Lee, and others
-
Dreams from My Father
- A Story of Race and Inheritance
- By: Barack Obama
- Narrated by: Barack Obama
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a Black African father and a White American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a Black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father - a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man - has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey - first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family.
-
-
Powerful
- By Gene R. on 10-26-21
By: Barack Obama
-
Gravel Heart
- By: Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Narrated by: Damian Lynch
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Salim has always known that his father does not want him. Living with his parents and his adored Uncle Amir in a house full of secrets, he is a bookish child, a dreamer haunted by night terrors. It is the 1970s and Zanzibar is changing. Tourists arrive, the island’s white sands obscuring the memory of recent conflict—the longed-for independence from British colonialism swiftly followed by bloody revolution. When his father moves out, retreating into dishevelled introspection, Salim is confused and ashamed. His mother does not discuss the change.
-
-
So enjoyed this!
- By S. Z. Sykes on 04-26-24
-
The Seven Sisters
- The Seven Sisters, Book 1
- By: Lucinda Riley
- Narrated by: Tuppence Middleton
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Maia D’Aplièse and her five sisters gather together at their childhood home–a fabulous, secluded castle situated on the shores of Lake Geneva–having been told that their beloved adoptive father, the elusive billionaire they call Pa Salt, has died. Each of them is handed a tantalising clue to their true heritage–a clue which takes Maia across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil . . .
-
-
Narration spoil great story
- By Kindle Customer on 05-31-21
By: Lucinda Riley
-
The Prague Sonata
- By: Bradford Morrow
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 18 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the early days of the new millennium, pages of a worn and weathered original sonata manuscript - the gift of a Czech immigrant living out her final days in Queens - come into the hands of Meta Taverner, a young musicologist whose concert piano career was cut short by an injury. To Meta's eye, it appears to be an authentic 18th-century work; to her discerning ear, the music rendered there is commanding, hauntingly beautiful, clearly the undiscovered composition of a master. But there is no indication of who the composer might be.
-
-
Wonderful topic, writer gets in the way
- By Amber's mom on 07-31-18
By: Bradford Morrow
-
Diary of a Dead Man on Leave
- A Novel
- By: David Downing
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson, David de Vries
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In April 1938, a man calling himself Josef Hofmann arrives at a boarding house in Hamm, Germany, and lets a room from the widow who owns it. Fifty years later, Walter Gersdorff, the widow's son, who was 11 years old in the spring of 1938, discovers the carefully hidden diary the boarder had kept during his stay, even though he should never have written any of its contents down. What Walter finds is a scathing chronicle of one the most tumultuous years in German history, narrated by a secret agent on a deadly mission.
-
-
Quietly Enthralling.
- By Greg on 04-17-19
By: David Downing
-
The Time In Between
- A Novel
- By: Maria Duenas
- Narrated by: Zilah Mendoza
- Length: 21 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The thrilling, internationally bestselling novel about a haute couture seamstress who becomes an undercover spy for the British Secret Service during World War II. #1 bestseller in Spain with more than 1.5 million copies sold, The Time In Between has taken readers by storm with its unforgettable tale of adventure, tragedy, love, and war. Readers will fall in love with MarÍa DueÑas’s dazzlingly inspiring heroine, Sira Quiroga.
-
-
terrible narration
- By Sarah A. Peyronnin on 05-18-12
By: Maria Duenas
-
The Good Liar
- A Novel
- By: Nicholas Searle
- Narrated by: Matthew Brenher
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Veteran con artist Roy spots an obvious easy mark when he meets Betty, a wealthy widow, online. In no time at all, he's moved into Betty's lovely cottage and is preparing to accompany her on a romantic trip to Europe. Betty's grandson disapproves of their blossoming relationship, but Roy is sure this scheme will be a success. He knows what he's doing. As this remarkable feat of storytelling weaves together Roy's and Betty's futures, it also unwinds their pasts.
-
-
Hope the movie is better than the book?
- By S. Smith on 10-17-19
By: Nicholas Searle
-
Shadow of a Century
- By: Jean Grainger
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mary Doyle arrives in Dublin in 1913, doomed, she fears, to a life of domestic service. Instead, however, she finds herself deeply affected by the social and political turmoil of a fledgling nation struggling for independence. Suddenly, all that was once inevitable is no longer a certainty as she is embroiled in the very heart of the Easter Rising.
-
-
Loved this book!
- By Amazon Customer on 11-14-20
By: Jean Grainger
-
Dancing with the Enemy
- My Family's Holocaust Secret
- By: Paul Glaser
- Narrated by: James Anderson Foster, Christa Lewis
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The gripping story of the author's aunt, a Jewish dance instructor who was betrayed to the Nazis by the two men she loved, yet managed to survive WWII by teaching dance lessons to the SS at Auschwitz. Her epic life becomes a window into the author's own past and the key to discovering his Jewish roots.
-
-
Amazing Unique
- By Nordic Artisan on 05-11-19
By: Paul Glaser
-
Without a Country
- By: Ayşe Kulin, Kenneth Dakan - translator
- Narrated by: Kathleen Gati
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As Hitler’s reign of terror begins to loom large over Germany, Gerhard and Elsa Schliemann - like other German Jews - must flee with their children in search of sanctuary. But life elsewhere in Europe offers few opportunities for medical professor Gerhard and his fellow scientists. Then they discover an unexpected haven in Turkey, where universities and hospitals welcome them as valuable assets. But despite embracing their adopted land, personal and political troubles persist.
-
-
Wonderful story of living in a different coutry
- By Lars on 12-05-19
By: Ayşe Kulin, and others
-
The Last Year of the War
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 16 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa 14-year-old in 1943 - aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal US resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity. The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles.
-
-
Historical Fiction at its Best!
- By KAT M K on 04-06-19
By: Susan Meissner
-
A History of Loneliness
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Propelled into the priesthood by a family tragedy, Odran Yates is full of hope and ambition. When he arrives at Clonliffe Seminary in the 1970s, it is a time in Ireland when priests are highly respected, and Odran believes that he is pledging his life to "the good."
-
-
A Profound and Moving Listen
- By Kathy in CA on 09-12-17
By: John Boyne
-
A Southern Girl
- A Novel
- By: John Warley
- Narrated by: Paul McClain, Tiffany Morgan, Ann Marie Gideon, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With two biological sons and a promising career, Coleman Carter seems set to fulfill his promise as a resourceful trial lawyer, devoted husband, and dutiful father until his wife, Elizabeth, champions their adoption of a Korean orphan. This seemingly altruistic mission estranges Coleman's conservative parents and demands that he now embrace the unknown as fully as he has always entrenched himself in the familiar.
-
-
The book Pat Conroy wished he had written
- By Leah on 03-06-17
By: John Warley
-
The Garment Maker’s Daughter
- By: Hillary Adrienne Stern
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a multigenerational saga of immigrant dreams and sweatshop realities, labor strikes and women's rights. It is the story of Lena Rothman, a shirtwaist maker and active suffragette whose plans get derailed when she falls in love with her best friend's boyfriend - Jake Brenner, a passionate labor organizer determined to lead the shirtwaist makers on a high-stakes strike - and Daniel Cowan, a brilliant and ambitious night-school student hobbled by a shameful past. Fate draws them together. Emotions bind them to each other. But secrets will tear them apart.
-
-
Loved this book!
- By Amazon Customer on 09-22-23
-
Zoo Station
- John Russell WWII Spy, Book 1
- By: David Downing
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By 1939, Anglo-American journalist John Russell has spent over a decade in Berlin, where his son lives with his mother. He writes human-interest pieces for British and American papers, avoiding the investigative journalism that could get him deported. But as World War II approaches, he faces having to leave his son as well as his girlfriend of several years, a beautiful German starlet. When an acquaintance from his old communist days approaches him to do some work for the Soviets, Russell is reluctant, but he is unable to resist the offer.
-
-
Overall great listen!
- By Patricia on 02-28-24
By: David Downing
-
Our American Friend
- A Novel
- By: Anna Pitoniak
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paris, 1974. Lara Orlov and her family arrive from Moscow at the height of the Cold War, thanks to her father’s position as a diplomat. The years pass, and Lara becomes more and more enamored with the City of Lights. As a teenager in Paris, she falls deeply in love with a fellow Russian expat: the passionate, intellectual Sasha, who opens her eyes to the ills of the Soviet Union.
-
-
Awesome
- By Anonymous User on 11-30-23
By: Anna Pitoniak
What listeners say about Lunch with Charlotte
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marsha Marks
- 01-02-16
Riveting
The most gripping story I've ever heard on audible. Suspenseful and engaging. Held me in its grip.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- deebuff
- 01-08-16
A Well-told, Heart-wrenching Novel
This novel is excellent and I gave it five stars overall. I cannot find fault with this novel on any level. I gave the novel five stars for performance. The novel is narrated by the author and he clearly knows where every voice nuance is necessary to carry the story where he wants it. The story is a horror story, a piece of our world history, an international romance. This is a part of our history that should never be repeated. This is a story that should be read by all.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Janine
- 05-22-23
Charlotte’s heart and soul
Leon Berger put as much of his own soul into writing and narrating this story as he put of Charlotte’s. This is a book of great historical significance, but more than that, it is the deeply human story of one woman’s life through political and personal tragedy. Sadly, both Charlotte and Leon have now left us, but their deep love and respect for one another live on through this audiobook.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- paula wright
- 08-08-19
Not worthy of my time or credit
The writing was good. As was the performance. But it was basically a story of a self absorbed woman who always saw the glass almost empty. She suffered very little under Nazi rule cause she was on kinder transport before the war even started. She never really feared for HER life like six million Jews and others did. I’ve listened to numerous true stories of ww2 survivors and this lady was not heroic. Never reached out to anyone to help she couldn’t get outside her own head and I wish this author would write about the true heroes of ww2. It was always about her. I don’t see how the author could stand listening to her wine on about the same Hangup till she died at 91 nothing special here. If you want to take issue with me go ahead. Wrightinspectionservice@yahoo.com. Look forward to others view point
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!