
Shrines of Gaiety
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Jason Watkins
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By:
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Kate Atkinson
About this listen
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The award-winning author of Life after Life transports us to a restless London in the wake of the Great War—a city bursting with money, glamour, and corruption—in this spellbinding tale of seduction and betrayal.
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: WASHINGTON POST, TIME, THE GUARDIAN, BOOKLIST
"Set during Jazz Age London, in all its fizzy madness and desperation.... As dark as [Atkinson's] stories can get, within them always shines a beacon of humanity.”—Gillian Flynn, bestselling author of Dark Places
1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time.
The notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven, whose character has been forged in the crucible of the Somme. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie’s empire faces threats from without and within. For beneath the dazzle of Soho’s gaiety, there is a dark underbelly, a world in which it is all too easy to become lost.
With her unique Dickensian flair, Kate Atkinson gives us a window in a vanished world. Slyly funny, brilliantly observant, and ingeniously plotted, Shrines of Gaiety showcases the myriad talents that have made Atkinson one of the most lauded writers of our time.
©2022 Kate Atkinson (P)2022 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
A Best Book of the Year: The Guardian • BookBrowse • Slate
One of TIME Magazine’s Must-Read Books of the Year • A Top Ten Washington Post Best Books of the Year • A Kirkus Best Book of the Year
A Top Ten Washington Post’s Best Books of the year
"If Dickens had lived to write about The Jazz Age, he would have produced a novel much like Kate Atkinson’s Shrines of Gaiety. A sprawling and sparkling tale set in London in 1926...A smartly entertaining read that captures the excitement of Roaring 20s London."—Washington Post
"[Atkinson] takes on London in the 1920s, masterfully capturing both its shimmer and its seediness...It’s a deliciously fun, absorbing read."—Time
"Atkinson vividly conjures the post-Great War London of a century ago...Tangible warmth suffuses her storytelling...A cocktail of fizz and melancholy, generously poured."—The New York Times Book Review
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Story
Orphaned during her passage from Ireland, young, white Lavinia arrives on the steps of the kitchen house and is placed, as an indentured servant, under the care of Belle, the master's illegitimate slave daughter. Lavinia learns to cook, clean, and serve food while guided by the quiet strength and love of her new family. In time Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, caring for the master's opium-addicted wife and befriending his dangerous yet protective son. She attempts to straddle the worlds of the kitchen and big house, but her skin color will forever set her apart.
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Captivating read!
- By Gottalookgoodwhenyouwkout on 10-18-17
By: Kathleen Grissom
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The Whalebone Theatre
- A Novel
- By: Joanna Quinn
- Narrated by: Olivia Vinall
- Length: 18 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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One blustery night in 1928, a whale washes up on the shores of the English Channel. By law, it belongs to the King, but twelve-year-old orphan Cristabel Seagrave has other plans. She and the rest of the household—her sister, Flossie; her brother, Digby, long-awaited heir to Chilcombe manor; Maudie Kitcat, kitchen maid; Taras, visiting artist—build a theatre from the beast’s skeletal rib cage. Within the Whalebone Theatre, Cristabel can escape her feckless stepparents and brisk governesses, and her imagination comes to life.
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Unbelievable Debut Novel!
- By NTexHiker on 10-13-22
By: Joanna Quinn
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The Great Believers
- By: Rebecca Makkai
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico's funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister.
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A story for all time
- By Carla jo Thompson on 08-06-18
By: Rebecca Makkai
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Thistlefoot
- A Novel
- By: GennaRose Nethercott
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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The Yaga siblings—Bellatine, a young woodworker, and Isaac, a wayfaring street performer and con artist—have been estranged since childhood, separated both by resentment and by wide miles of American highway. But when they learn that they are to receive an inheritance, the siblings agree to meet—only to discover that their bequest isn’t land or money, but something far stranger: a sentient house on chicken legs.
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I can't decide if I liked it
- By Lorraine Cannon on 11-03-22
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The People We Keep
- By: Allison Larkin
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Little River, New York, 1994: April Sawicki is living in a motorless motorhome that her father won in a poker game. Failing out of school, picking up shifts at a local diner, she’s left fending for herself in a town where she’s never quite felt at home. When she “borrows” her neighbor’s car to perform at an open mic night, she realizes her life could be much bigger than where she came from. After a fight with her dad, April packs her stuff and leaves for good, setting off on a journey to find a life that’s all hers.
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Absolutely loved this book!
- By chatteycathi on 08-09-21
By: Allison Larkin
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There Are Rivers in the Sky
- A Novel
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Olivia Vinall, Elif Shafak
- Length: 16 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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In the ancient city of Nineveh, on the bank of the River Tigris, King Ashurbanipal of Mesopotamia, erudite but ruthless, built a great library that would crumble with the end of his reign. From its ruins, however, emerged a poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, that would infuse the existence of two rivers and bind together three lives. In 1840 London, Arthur is born beside the stinking, sewage-filled River Thames. With an abusive, alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother, Arthur’s only chance of escaping destitution is his brilliant memory.
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I am 81 years old. Profoundly moved from this book. Plan to get my first tattoo.
- By mary e hennessy on 10-21-24
By: Elif Shafak
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Just an Ordinary Day
- Stories
- By: Shirley Jackson
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter, Mark Deakins, Kimberly Farr, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Acclaimed in her own time for her short story “The Lottery” and her novel The Haunting of Hill House - classics ranking with the work of Edgar Allan Poe - Shirley Jackson blazed a path for contemporary writers with her explorations of evil, madness, and cruelty. Soon after her untimely death in 1965, Jackson’s children discovered a treasure trove of previously unpublished and uncollected stories, many of which are brought together in this remarkable collection.
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Captures a Bygone Era
- By Anonymous User on 11-11-22
By: Shirley Jackson
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The Incorrigibles
- A Novel
- By: Meredith Jaeger
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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1890, San Francisco. Seduced by her employer’s nephew, Annie Gilmurray, an Irish maid, is accused of stealing the ring he promised her. Sentenced to one year in San Quentin, Annie is heartbroken and frightened among the inmates of the women’s ward: prostitutes, murderers, and pickpockets. But Annie finds beauty and friendship in a brutal place, where the women look out for one another, dreaming of a better life after release. But their world inside San Quentin's walls is a dangerous one, and when the unthinkable happens, Annie makes a choice that will alter the course of her future forever.
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A page-turner following strong women finding their agency imbued with rich, local SF history
- By S. Brett on 06-04-24
By: Meredith Jaeger
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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
- By: Junot Díaz
- Narrated by: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Karen Olivo
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fuku: the curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim.
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Lin-Manuel Miranda's performance is perfect
- By Alison on 02-27-18
By: Junot Díaz
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Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes
- By: Kathleen West
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Isobel Johnson has spent her career in Liston Heights sidestepping the community’s high-powered families. But when she receives a threatening voicemail accusing her of anti-Americanism and a liberal agenda, she’s in the spotlight. Meanwhile, Julia Abbott, obsessed with the casting of the school’s winter musical, makes an error in judgment that has far-reaching consequences for her entire family.
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Julia Whelan makes all books great!
- By Ellen Zelda on 02-19-20
By: Kathleen West
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Transcription
- A Novel
- By: Kate Atkinson
- Narrated by: Fenella Woolgar
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1940, 18-year-old Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of espionage. Sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist sympathizers, she discovers the work to be by turns both tedious and terrifying. But after the war has ended, she presumes the events of those years have been relegated to the past forever. Ten years later, now a radio producer at the BBC, Juliet is unexpectedly confronted by figures from her past. A different war is being fought now, but Juliet finds herself once more under threat.
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A very satisfying two days!
- By Frances on 09-30-18
By: Kate Atkinson
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The Paris Bookseller
- By: Kerri Maher
- Narrated by: Lauryn Allman
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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When bookish young American Sylvia Beach opens Shakespeare and Company on a quiet street in Paris in 1919, she has no idea that she and her new bookstore will change the course of literature itself. Shakespeare and Company is more than a bookstore and lending library: Many of the prominent writers of the Lost Generation, like Ernest Hemingway, consider it a second home.
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a little much on the intimate details
- By LuckyL42 on 02-07-22
By: Kerri Maher
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The Circus Train
- By: Amita Parikh
- Narrated by: Imogen Church
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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1938. Lena Papadopoulos has never quite found her place within the circus, even as the daughter of the extraordinary headlining illusionist, Theo. Brilliant and curious, Lena—who uses a wheelchair after a childhood bout with polio—yearns for the real-world magic of science and medicine, her mind stronger than the limitations placed on her by society. Then her unconventional life takes an exciting turn when she rescues Alexandre, an orphan with his own secrets and a mysterious past.
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Beautiful
- By Lisa M. Jolley on 03-19-23
By: Amita Parikh
A Different kind of Kate Atkinson Novel
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I may wait a week or to & begin this book again.
Magnificent
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Loved it all until the abrupt ending
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5
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Very enjoyable
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Critics have complained about the ending. But for me, it matched much of that tone of the novel. I highly recommend.
Improves as you go
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Kate does it again.
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Disappointing book
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Wonderful story, Phenomenal narration
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Weaving of so many characters
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