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The Cove
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Merritt Hicks
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
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Publisher's summary
The New York Times best-selling author of Serena returns to Appalachia, this time at the height of World War I, with the story of a blazing but doomed love affair caught in the turmoil of a nation at war....
Deep in the rugged Appalachians of North Carolina lies the cove, a dark, forbidding place where spirits and fetches wander, and even the light fears to travel. Or so the townsfolk of Mars Hill believe - just as they know that Laurel Shelton, the lonely young woman who lives within its shadows, is a witch. Alone except for her brother, Hank, newly returned from the trenches of France, she aches for her life to begin.
Then it happens - a stranger appears, carrying nothing but a beautiful silver flute and a note explaining that his name is Walter, he is mute, and is bound for New York. Laurel finds him in the woods, nearly stung to death by yellow jackets, and nurses him back to health. As the days pass, Walter slips easily into life in the cove and into Laurel's heart, bringing her the only real happiness she has ever known. But Walter harbors a secret that could destroy everything - and danger is closer than they know.
Though the war in Europe is near its end, patriotic fervor flourishes thanks to the likes of Chauncey Feith, an ambitious young army recruiter who stokes fear and outrage throughout the county. In a time of uncertainty, when fear and ignorance reign, Laurel and Walter will discover that love may not be enough to protect them.
This lyrical, heartrending tale, as mesmerizing as its award-winning predecessor Serena, shows once again this masterful novelist at the height of his powers.
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By: Hannah Tinti
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The Underground River
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- By: Martha Conway
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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It's 1838, and May Bedloe works as a seamstress for her cousin, the famous actress Comfort Vertue - until their steamboat sinks on the Ohio River. Though they both survive, both must find new employment. Comfort is hired to give lectures by noted abolitionist Flora Howard, and May finds work on a small flatboat, Hugo and Helena's Floating Theatre, as it cruises the border between the northern states and the southern slave-holding states.
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Excellent historical fiction audiobook
- By LindaJS on 10-03-17
By: Martha Conway
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Chasing the North Star
- By: Robert Morgan
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free, Carra Patterson
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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On a moonless night in the spring of 1851, a young slave makes a bid for freedom with only the North Star to guide him. Best-selling novelist and historian Robert Morgan returns with a stunning new work of historical fiction.
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Not what we thought
- By bds on 05-07-19
By: Robert Morgan
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Two Roads
- By: Joseph Bruchac
- Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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It's 1932, and 12-year-old Cal Black and his pop have been riding the rails for years after losing their farm in the Great Depression. Cal likes being a "knight of the road" with Pop, even if they're broke. But then Pop has to go to Washington, DC - some of his fellow veterans are marching for their government checks, and Pop wants to make sure he gets his due - and Cal can't go with him. Pop tells Cal something he never knew before: Pop is actually a Creek Indian, which means Cal is, too. And Pop has decided to send Cal to a government boarding school for Native Americans in Oklahoma.
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Amazing story
- By Sandra Cavender on 05-11-23
By: Joseph Bruchac
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The Twelve-Mile Straight
- A Novel
- By: Eleanor Henderson
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 17 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Cotton County, Georgia, 1930: In a house full of secrets, two babies - one light-skinned, the other dark - are born to Elma Jesup, a white sharecropper's daughter. Accused of her rape, field hand Genus Jackson is lynched and dragged behind a truck down the Twelve-Mile Straight, the road to the nearby town. In the aftermath, the farm's inhabitants are forced to contend with their complicity in a series of events that left a man dead and a family irrevocably fractured.
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Great read!
- By S. Clay on 11-01-17
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The Plague of Doves
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- Narrated by: Peter Francis James, Kathleen McInerney
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- Unabridged
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The unsolved murder of a farm family haunts the small, white, off-reservation town of Pluto, North Dakota. The vengeance exacted for this crime and the subsequent distortions of truth transform the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation and shape the passions of both communities for the next generation.
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Avoid this Plague
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By: Louise Erdrich
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The Wettest County in the World, or Lawless
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- By: Matt Bondurant
- Narrated by: Erik Steele
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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The Bondurant Boys were a notorious gang of roughnecks and moonshiners who ran liquor through Franklin County during Prohibition and after. The brothers played a central role in a major conspiracy trial and its violent end. In 1935, Sherwood Anderson, working on a magazine story, finds himself driving along the dusty red roads trying to find the brothers and break the silence that shrouds Franklin County.
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Just outstanding!
- By Rich on 08-18-12
By: Matt Bondurant
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Varina
- A Novel
- By: Charles Frazier
- Narrated by: Molly Parker
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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With her marriage prospects limited, teenage Varina Howell agrees to wed the much-older widower Jefferson Davis, with whom she expects a life of security as a landowner. He instead pursues a career in politics and is eventually appointed president of the Confederacy, placing Varina at the white-hot center of one of the darkest moments in American history - culpable regardless of her intentions. The Confederacy falling, her marriage in tatters, and the country divided, Varina and her children escape Richmond and travel south on their own, now fugitives.
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Read it rather than listen
- By Anonymous on 08-31-18
By: Charles Frazier
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I Will Send Rain
- A Novel
- By: Rae Meadows
- Narrated by: Emily Sutton-Smith
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Annie Bell can't escape the dust. It's in her hair, covering the windowsills, coating the animals in the barn, and in the corners of her children's dry, cracked lips. It's 1934, and the Bell farm in Mulehead, Oklahoma, is struggling as the earliest storms of the Dust Bowl descend. The wheat harvests are drying out, and people are packing up their belongings as storms lay waste to the Great Plains.
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We've seen pictures of the Dust Bowl
- By Henwhisperer on 10-12-16
By: Rae Meadows
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Fallen Angels
- By: Patricia Hickman
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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During the Great Depression, Jeb Nubey is running from the law when he meets three abandoned children. With nowhere else to go the group passes a stormy night in a comforting church. When they are discovered, a case of mistaken identity ensues. It seems the congregation has been waiting for their new pastor, a widower with three kids. Looks like more trouble for Jeb. Yet the chance for a steady job and three squares a day is too good to turn down.
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Touching
- By Christina on 11-11-04
By: Patricia Hickman
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Walk on Earth a Stranger
- By: Rae Carson
- Narrated by: Erin Mallon
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Lee Westfall has a strong, loving family. She has a home she loves and a loyal steed. She has a best friend - who might want to be something more. She also has a secret.
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Better than expected
- By elenne on 10-11-15
By: Rae Carson
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The Last Ballad
- A Novel
- By: Wiley Cash
- Narrated by: Karen White, Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Twelve times a week, 28-year-old Ella May Wiggins makes the two-mile trek to and from her job on the night shift at American Mill No. Two in Bessemer City, North Carolina. The insular community considers the mill's owners - the newly arrived Goldberg brothers - white but not American and expects them to pay Ella May and other workers less because they toil alongside African Americans like Violet, Ella May's best friend. While the dirty, hazardous job at the mill earns Ella May a paltry nine dollars for 72 hours of work each week, it's the only opportunity she has.
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Dryer than a popcorn fart
- By Scott Wilson on 02-11-18
By: Wiley Cash
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What listeners say about The Cove
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Scarlatti's Muse
- 05-08-13
Intriguing story distorted by bad narration
Would you try another book from Ron Rash and/or Merritt Hicks?
Ron Rash-yes. Merritt Hicks-NO
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Merritt Hicks?
Merritt Hicks' interpretation of western North Carolina dialect was an auditory caricature which signified that she was altogether unfamiliar with the mellifluous, indigenous speech of that area. Her attempt with a German accent was even worse suggesting that she did not receive any coaching in the pronunciation of a foreign alphabet. If The Cove is recorded again, Cynthia Darlow would do an excellent job.
Was The Cove worth the listening time?
Until The Cove is recorded with a different narrator, I would not recommend it.
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3 people found this helpful
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- FanB14
- 05-23-12
Absorbing Backwoods Mystery
Where does The Cove rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
I rank this book among the top 5 I've listened to in the past 2 yrs.
What did you like best about this story?
The haunting and simple prose is remniscent of Carson McCullers' style. Characters are richly developed and you can feel their loneliness and longing. Detailed descriptions of the surroundings bring the settings to life.
What does Merritt Hicks bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
I was impressed with how fluidly she moved between different voices; seemless transition between male, female, old, and young.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
I felt breathless for the last 20 minutes. Surprising ending to the eerie mystery introduced at the beginning. Don't want to add a spoiler alert.
Any additional comments?
Beautifully written prose where backwoods mystery mixes deeply developed & flawed characters with anti-immigrant sentiment from WWI and desire to find a place to fit in. Well worth the credit.
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43 people found this helpful
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- kelly
- 07-02-14
Parallel themes in the Shelton Laurel Massacre
Would you try another book from Ron Rash and/or Merritt Hicks?
Yes
Did The Cove inspire you to do anything?
Read more Ron Rash books
Any additional comments?
To fully understand the meaning of the story (after you've listened to it), do an internet search for the Shelton Laurel Massacre. A different war; same issues.
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- josie exner
- 09-01-21
he's done it again
loved the story, his work is so beautiful. I didn't like the narrator. she does not have a grasp of the southern dialect and it was very distracting.
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- Haley Harris
- 08-07-23
Love this Author
Although not my favorite Ron Rash writing, still a good read. The narrator seemed a little robotic at first, but I loved how her accent flowed with the story. I wish there was more emphasis on the plot, but altogether a good story to listen to while I work.
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- Jodi
- 06-04-12
Love Ron Rash!
Ron Rash tells a sad, beautiful story about World War II era Appalachia. This was a great listen.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jean
- 06-25-15
Interesting historical fiction
I liked it a lot. It was especially interesting for me because I live in North Carolina. It gives a historical view of what it might have been like at the beginning of the last century.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mollie
- 08-15-12
Good start, very poor ending
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
I think people who also like Sharyn McCrumb's ballad series might find it enjoyable as its setting is the same.
What do you think your next listen will be?
I have not yet listened to Wolff Hall or Bring Up the Bodies, so probably Wolff Hall.
Which scene was your favorite?
I don't think I had one.
You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
This book could've been great, but the conclusion ruins it.
Any additional comments?
Not worth the time
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