The Gravity of Birds
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Cassandra Campbell
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By:
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Tracy Guzeman
About this listen
How do you find someone who wants to be lost?
Sisters Natalie and Alice Kessler were close, until adolescence wrenched them apart. Natalie is headstrong, manipulative - and beautiful; Alice is a dreamer who loves books and birds. During their family's summer holiday at the lake, Alice falls under the thrall of a struggling young painter, Thomas Bayber, in whom she finds a kindred spirit. Natalie, however, remains strangely unmoved, sitting for a family portrait with surprising indifference. But by the end of the summer, three lives are shattered.
Decades later, Bayber, now a reclusive, world-renowned artist, unveils a never-before-seen work, Kessler Sisters - a provocative painting depicting the young Thomas, Natalie, and Alice. Bayber asks Dennis Finch, an art history professor, and Stephen Jameson, an eccentric young art authenticator, to sell the painting for him. That task becomes more complicated when the artist requires that they first locate Natalie and Alice, who seem to have vanished. And Finch finds himself wondering why Thomas is suddenly so intent on resurrecting the past.
In The Gravity of Birds histories and memories refuse to stay buried; in the end only the excavation of the past will enable its survivors to love again.
©2013 Tracy Guzeman (P)2013 Simon & SchusterListeners also enjoyed...
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- Narrated by: Karissa Vacker
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Eight months since losing her mother in the Spanish flu outbreak of 1919, 21-year-old Lillian Carter's life has completely fallen apart. For the past six years, under the moniker Angelica, Lillian was one of the most sought-after artists' models in New York City, with statues based on her figure gracing landmarks from the Plaza Hotel to the Brooklyn Bridge
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This isn't my favorite but entertaining
- By Linda on 02-01-22
By: Fiona Davis
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Black & White
- By: Dani Shapiro
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Clara Brodeur has spent her entire adult life pulling herself away from her famous mother, the renowned and controversial photographer Ruth Dunne, whose towering reputation rests on the unsettling nude portraits she took of her young daughter from the ages of three to 14. As Clara charts a path connecting her childhood with her adult life, Shapiro's novel weaves together past and present in images as stark and intense as the photographs that tore the Dunnes apart.
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It was okay
- By Lucy7 on 02-13-19
By: Dani Shapiro
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The Secret Keeper
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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England, 1959: Laurel Nicolson is 16 years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.
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Kate Morton (and Caroline Lee) does it again!
- By Maria on 10-20-12
By: Kate Morton
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Evergreen Falls
- By: Kimberley Freeman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Vuletic
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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A long-forgotten secret, a scandalous attraction and a place where two women's lives are changed forever. 1926: Violet Armstrong is one of the few remaining members of staff working at the grand Evergreen Spa Hotel as it closes down over winter. Only a handful of guests are left, including the heir to a rich grazing family, his sister and her suave suitor. When a snowstorm moves in, the hotel is cut off and they are all trapped. No-one could have predicted what would unfold.
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Soooo Boring
- By Merford on 10-09-19
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Diamond Head
- A Novel
- By: Cecily Wong
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu, Samantha Chen, Angela Lin, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Told through the eyes of the Leongs' secret-keeping daughters and wives and spanning the Boxer Rebellion to Pearl Harbor to 1960s Hawaii, Diamond Head is a breathtakingly powerful tale of tragic love, shocking lies, poignant compromise, aching loss, heroic acts of sacrifice, and miraculous hope.
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- By Gina on 09-06-15
By: Cecily Wong
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Russian Winter
- A Novel
- By: Daphne Kalotay
- Narrated by: Kathleen Gati
- Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In Russian Winter, the beautiful debut novel by critically acclaimed writer Daphne Kalotay, a famed ballerina’s jewelry auction in Boston reveals long-held secrets of love and family, friendship and rivalry, harkening back to Stalinist Russia. Called “tender, passionate, and moving” by Jenna Blum, the New York Times bestselling author of Those Who Save Us, Russian Winter is a perfect choice for fans of the novels of Debra Dean (The Madonnas of Leningrad), Ann Patchett (Bel Canto), and Ian McEwan (Atonement).
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Read this review; Sophisticated and wonderful!
- By Cookie on 01-15-12
By: Daphne Kalotay
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A Doubter's Almanac
- A Novel
- By: Ethan Canin
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Milo Andret is born with an unusual mind. A lonely child growing up in the woods of Northern Michigan in the 1950s, he gives little thought to his own talent. But with his acceptance at UC Berkeley, he realizes the extent - and the risks - of his singular gifts. California in the '70s is a seduction, opening Milo's eyes to the allure of both ambition and indulgence. The research he begins there will make him a legend; the woman he meets there - and the rival he meets alongside her - will haunt him for the rest of his life.
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The curse of genius?
- By Bonny on 03-03-16
By: Ethan Canin
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The Red Address Book
- By: Sofia Lundberg, Alice Menzies - translator
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The global fiction sensation - published in 32 countries around the world: Meet Doris, a 96-year-old woman living alone in her Stockholm apartment. She has few visitors, but her weekly Skype calls with Jenny - her American grandniece, and her only relative - give her great joy and remind her of her own youth. In writing down the stories of her colorful past - working as a maid in Sweden, modelling in Paris during the '30s, fleeing to Manhattan at the dawn of the Second World War - she may help Jenny, haunted by a difficult childhood, unlock the secrets of their family....
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narrator was overwrought
- By Janet L. Hamilton on 02-22-19
By: Sofia Lundberg, and others
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Magnolia Nights
- By: Ashley Farley
- Narrated by: Steven Menasche, Rachel Jacobs, Rebecca Gibel
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Ellie Pringle has spent endless hours and countless dollars working with a therapist to remember the lost years of her childhood. She's baffled and more than a little intrigued when the grandmother she hasn't seen in 34 years dies and leaves her a fortune. The time has come to face her past in person. Still reeling from a recent breakup of a long-term relationship, and with nothing to keep her in San Francisco, Ellie packs her meager belongings and boards a plane for the South Carolina Lowcountry.
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Magnolia Nights
- By Kindle Customer on 01-18-19
By: Ashley Farley
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Burn
- By: Ted Dekker, Erin Healy
- Narrated by: Ann Harrison
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Years ago, the Gypsy Kumpania where Janeal Mikkado lived was attacked by outsiders. With her best friend about to be consumed by a fire, Janeal had two options: try to save her friend—at serious risk to her own life—or disappear with the million dollars that she had just discovered. But the past is quickly coming back to haunt her. Both the best friend and the boyfriend that she was sure were dead have reappeared in her life, as has someone who knows about the money. There's a debt to be paid for the money she found, but there's an even greater debt she must face.
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Riveting
- By Jen on 03-21-18
By: Ted Dekker, and others
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In Malice, Quite Close
- By: Brandi Lynn Ryder
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 16 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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French ex-pat Tristan Mourault is the wealthy, urbane heir to a world-renowned collection of art - and an insatiable voyeur enamored with Karen Miller, a 15-year-old from a working-class family in San Francisco. Deciding he must 'rescue' Karen from her unhappy circumstances, Tristan kidnaps her and stages her death to mask his true crime.
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In malice,Quite close
- By Wendy on 09-06-11
What listeners say about The Gravity of Birds
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kathleen
- 11-20-16
Beginning to end
it captured & held my attention. Hated to turn it off. A must read! Enjoyed it thoroughly!
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- Dina
- 12-12-13
Beautiful Prose With Plot Problems
Guzeman's writing was lyrical, Cassandra Campbell's narration was lovely, and the plot was interesting. But this novel was very depressing...a treatise on how one woman's evil destroyed the lives around her. There was great inconsistency and naivete in the actions of the characters which made the story seem less believable. I think a better editor could have taken this novel to the next level.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Renata Sutton
- 06-05-23
Not for me
I just could not get into this book. I have no idea why, it just wasn’t for me
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- Beth
- 10-21-14
Very Pretty but Left Me Wanting
There was so much I enjoyed about this novel, the prose, the characters, the story concept, the build up. But even though there was obviously a great story to be told, I was left feeling flat. I don't want to give anything away because like I said the concept was excellent but the story in the end just didn't deliver for me. These people did vile, despicable, horrible things to each other but there was not true explanation to the why's and the hows. And the climax of the story? Was completely anticlimactic because for some reason, none of the surviving characters could bring themselves to show they cared one way or the other. I've never met a bigger group of dispassionate people in my life. I suspect the author shied away form the natural intense emotion expected and instead relied on birdwatching archetypes and milquetoast characters.
I mean seriously, there's this BIG, HUGE revelation that should have blown the roof off the entire novel and all of the characters involved are like, "Ho hum, who cares, let's have lunch."
It was a wholly unsatisfying experience. I found that unfortunate because I really, really wanted to like this book.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Lillian M Guajardo
- 09-06-16
One Of Five Best Books Ever
Amazing, heartfelt novel . Love , jealously , loss , revenge & healing . Love this & highly recommend it . Hope it has a sequel .
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- tooonce72
- 08-24-13
Haunting Long After You've Finished.
This is one of those mesmerizing novels that pulls you in from the beginning, leaving you repeatedly dumbstruck throughout asking yourself, “Why isn’t this on every best book list out there?” Tracy Guzeman’s The Gravity of Birds is part mystery, part psychological drama, part coming of age story while telling several love stories. I think at one point in there, there was even a recipe given.
Two adolescent sisters of the 70’s encounter a neighboring artist at the time of their awaking sexuality. This chance exposure has lifelong effects on each of their lives and relationships. Forty-four years later, when an undiscovered portrait of them is unveiled, a cross country journey brings all the pieces and secrets of their journeys together. The ones that at first seem so strong turn out to be the most fragile. There are so many, “Man, I didn’t see that coming” moments in this book and just when you think you have it figured out – there’s one more.
Tracy Guzeman’s debut novel is layered with well-defined characters in a plot so expertly interwoven that frankly I can’t think of a single point where a single thread is out of place. It’s a tight novel lyrically, if not poetically, written. I know in my mind’s eye exactly how each every priceless canvas, figurine and sculpture mention looks through the gracefully descriptive words of the author alone.
Cassandra Campbell never disappoints – always a great narration.
It’s just lovely in every way.
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11 people found this helpful
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- Michelle Katz
- 06-08-18
The best story I’ve ever read!
No joke! I wish they’d make this into a movie! It twist and turns with electric prose that leaves you excited for every chapter! Guzeman is a genius with her misdirection! There’s something in this story for everyone. It’s rich with imagery and just a touch of magical realism but without any hocus pocus.. just the kind that makes the world a small place for each character!
I listened to the audible and now I have to read this in print! Wow!
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- Lisa Ford
- 10-09-13
Thoroughly enjoyed
This is a carefully crafted novel whose plot has been summarized in many reviews on Amazon. The story is compelling and the narrator excellent. Well worth a listen.
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2 people found this helpful
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- cristina
- 12-22-22
Great story
It took me a while to get into the story (why only 4 stars overall), but once I did I loved it. The story and the characters develop layer by layer until fully revealed. Very satisfying.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Sarah
- 05-21-15
Not good
This book promised to be a story of feuding sisters, loss and art. What I got was loose ends and too many useless descriptions. I can see how some people can enjoy this book but I was just not one of them.
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