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The Godmother

By: Hannelore Cayre, Stephanie Smee - translator
Narrated by: Julia Franklin
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Publisher's summary

A taut and darkly funny account of an unusual woman and her voyage into the underground ecosystem of crime and justice in contemporary France.

Meet Patience Portefeux, 53, an underpaid Franco-Arab judicial interpreter for the Ministry of Justice who specialises in telephone tapping.

Widowed after the sudden death of her husband, Patience is now wedged between university fees for her two grown-up daughters and nursing home costs for her ageing mother. She’s laboured for 25 years to keep everyone’s heads above water.

Happening upon an especially revealing set of police wiretaps ahead of all other authorities, Patience makes a life-altering decision that sees her intervening in - and infiltrating - the machinations of a massive drug deal.

She thus embarks on an entirely new career path: Patience becomes The Godmother

This is not life in the French idyll of postcards and stock photos. With a gallery of traffickers, dealers, police officers and politicians who are more real than life itself, a sharp and amusing gaze on everyday survival in contemporary France and an unforgettable woman at its centre, Hannelore Cayre’s best-selling novel shines a torchlight on a European criminal underground that has rarely been seen.

©2019 Hannelore Cayre (P)2019 Bolinda Publishing
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What listeners say about The Godmother

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Unexpectedly enthralling

I did not suspect most of the turns in this amusing, twisted story of a French translator’s windfall. While she goes about her day to day routine of work then visiting her thankless mother in the nursing home she realizes she that bit by bit she’d come upon information that can totally change her life.

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Had me at "my family were crooks."

This is a brilliant, and brilliantly read, wild ride along with a woman who seized the opportunity to radically change her life - albeit criminally. I highly recommend it in general, and in particular to anyone who has dealt, or is dealing, with past loss and present frustration with the elder-care system. If you like it you may wish to find the French movie "Paulette" which has a similar theme.

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Good book

Reader is just right and draws you into the story. Set in France but open our eyes to life of immigrants and aging.

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