The Family Ship Audiobook By Sonja Yoerg cover art

The Family Ship

A Novel

Preview
Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Family Ship

By: Sonja Yoerg
Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $25.00

Buy for $25.00

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

From the Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestselling author of True Places comes a disarming and emotional novel about a family in distress and a daughter’s mission to keep it from going under.

Chesapeake Bay, 1980. Eighteen-year-old Verity Vergennes is the captain of the USS Nepenthe, and her seven younger siblings are her crew. The ship - an oyster boat transformed into a make-believe destroyer - is the heart of the Vergennes family, a place both to play and to learn responsibility. But Verity’s had it with being tied to the ship and secretly applies to a distant college. If only her parents could bear to let her go.

Maeve and Arthur Vergennes already suffered one loss when, five years earlier, their eldest son, Jude, stormed out and never returned. Now Maeve is pregnant again and something’s amiss. Verity yearns to follow her dreams, but how can she jump ship now? The problem, and perhaps the answer, lies with Jude.

When disaster strikes and the family unravels, Verity must rally her sibling crew to keep the Nepenthe and all it symbolizes afloat. Sailing away from home, she discovers, is never easy - not if you ever hope to find your way back.

©2021 by Sonja Yoerg. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Coming of Age Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Women's Fiction Transportation Heartfelt
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_T1_webcro805_stickypopup

Critic reviews

“This richly-drawn and insightful story demonstrates an exceptionally deep understanding of family relationships.”Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Families, like ships at sea, sometimes founder on hidden rocks and begin to break apart. Which is exactly what happens to the Vergennes family in Sonja Yoerg’s luminous The Family Ship. Only a heart of stone would be immune to the charm of the Vergennes children, all nine of them. Yoerg offers this large, disparate crew to the reader with the wisdom and compassion of a consummate storyteller. And she tops off the tale with one of the most exciting finales I’ve read in years. I recommend this book with my whole heart.”—William Kent Krueger, New York Times bestselling author of This Tender Land

“With both wit and wonder, Sonja Yoerg navigates The Family Ship through choppy waters. This novel is completely immersive and highlights the enduring power of story in both our lives and our families. Yoerg’s prose and imagination are the strong currents that bring this fabulous tale to life.”—Patti Callahan, New York Times bestselling author of Becoming Mrs. Lewis

Engaging Storyline • Well-written Novel • Excellent Narrator • Interesting Twists • Talented Author • Beautiful Writing
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
I fell in love with every character. The children each had unique personalities and blended together to form a loving family. I can't say more without giving the story away. I was sorry to see this book end.

A book to remember

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Loved the family involvement with the children and the way life twists and turns. Beautiful family story and enjoyed the new twists.

Family Dynamics

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Loved the narrator,engaging. Storyline kept me interested and wanting to read more on how people interact with each other and overcome and deal with life’s challenges, trials, and relationships. Highly recommend. Will read again.

Very engaging story of a large family and all its joys and trials.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

very well written! a story of family and their dynamics, with interesting twists.
narrator good job!

well done !

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

First off, this narrator does an absolutely amazing job — one of the top 5-10 I’ve heard, and that includes Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks.

I also really loved the story. It is compelling and unpredictable, but what I liked most is that it is heartfelt without being sappy, which is rare.

Love, love, loved this!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Well written story about a very interesting family. Great character development. Hard to put down. I would love a sequel to find out what happens to the siblings, especially Verify and Jude.

Interesting story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

It was a charming story but for me there were several things that detracted from it. First, there was way too much “telling” rather than “showing” as in the basic rule of character writing, “show don’t tell,” and too much telling us the meaning of the events via the characters’ internal dialog. And without including a spoiler, the dad’s trajectory was highly unrealistic. There was another very unrealistic detail but I can’t mention it without revealing too much. Those criticisms aside, it was a good easy listen for a long drive and I mostly enjoyed it.

I also want to mention that the narrator did an excellent job of creating distinct voices for each of the many characters, which is not an easy thing to do, so I appreciated that.

Heartwarming but leaning sentimental excess

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This book starts off quite slow but really picks up at the middle end. The author did a good job of weaving each of the characters together. It is a story about a large family and how each person contributes to the dynamics of their family life. I found myself cheering for the good times, feeling sorrow for their trials, and silently urging them on as they struggled. Kudos to Yoerg for a well written novel.

Enjoyed Listening

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

It started a little slow, but as things picked up and the depth and personalities of the characters started to come through, I was hooked. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Wonderful!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Very original, but not a whole lot to feel good about. I still gave it 5 stars because the author is talented and can tell a good story, I just kept dreading going back to it. I would not read it again. I read to get away from the problems of the world, not deep dive into them. Narrator was great.

Depressing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews