The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Gabra Zackman
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Lynda Cohen Loigman
About this listen
"Gabra Zackman gloriously performs this charming dual-timeline audiobook." —AudioFile on The Matchmaker's Gift
This program features an author's note read by the author.
It's never too late for new beginnings.
On the cusp of turning eighty, newly retired pharmacist Augusta Stern is adrift. When she relocates to Rallentando Springs—an active senior community in southern Florida—she unexpectedly crosses paths with Irving Rivkin, the delivery boy from her father’s old pharmacy—and the man who broke her heart sixty years earlier.
As a teenager growing up in 1920’s Brooklyn, Augusta’s role model was her father, Solomon Stern, the trusted owner of the local pharmacy and the neighborhood expert on every ailment. But when Augusta’s mother dies and Great Aunt Esther moves in, Augusta can’t help but be drawn to Esther’s curious methods. As a healer herself, Esther offers Solomon’s customers her own advice—unconventional remedies ranging from homemade chicken soup to a mysterious array of powders and potions.
As Augusta prepares for pharmacy college, she is torn between loyalty to her father and fascination with her great aunt, all while navigating a budding but complicated relationship with Irving. Desperate for clarity, she impulsively uses Esther’s most potent elixir with disastrous consequences. Disillusioned and alone, Augusta vows to reject Esther’s enchantments forever.
Sixty years later, confronted with Irving, Augusta is still haunted by the mistakes of her past. What happened all those years ago and how did her plan go so spectacularly wrong? Did Irving ever truly love her or was he simply playing a part? And can Augusta reclaim the magic of her youth before it’s too late?
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.
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Critic reviews
"Loigman presents two fully realized time lines, each full of Jewish cultural touchstones, in this charming love story that proves it's never too late for a second chance." —Booklist
"In this poignant tale of late-in-life love, Loigman showcases her talent for transporting readers into recent history through lovingly researched details and a touch of magical whimsy...This is a charmer." —Publishers Weekly
"Mix equal parts humor, heart, and hope and you’ll get The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern, a sparkling ode to second chances. I adored Augusta on both of the book’s timelines, delighting in both her razor-sharp wit as a present-day Floridian retiree and her unrelenting curiosity as a grieving motherless child, in Brooklyn, whose life is upended by an aunt who appears to have spiritual healing powers. Lynda Cohen Loigman’s latest is a must-read that will leave you believing in the power of believing." —Shelby Van Pelt, New York Times bestselling author of Remarkably Bright Creatures
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Story
After a long career as one of DC’s most powerful litigators, Rob Jacobson is faced with the case of a lifetime: the former President of the United States—his childhood best friend—has been accused of murdering his mistress. Rob knows he’s the only one who can prove his friend’s innocence, but he is soon overwhelmed as he attempts to devise a strategy to defend an authoritative man with a taste for infidelity, serious anger issues, and unconventional sexual appetites.
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Loved the ending, poor narration
- By Molly B on 10-11-24
By: Lawrence Robbins
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The Booklover's Library
- By: Madeline Martin
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In Nottingham, England, widow Emma Taylor finds herself in desperate need of a job. She and her beloved daughter Olivia have always managed just fine on their own, but with the legal restrictions prohibiting widows with children from most employment opportunities, she’s left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots’ Booklover’s Library to take a chance on her with a job.
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A testament to community
- By Nina Maria Willis on 11-24-24
By: Madeline Martin
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The Storm We Made
- A Novel
- By: Vanessa Chan
- Narrated by: Samantha Tan
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Malaya, 1945. Cecily Alcantara’s family is in terrible danger: her fifteen-year-old son, Abel, has disappeared, and her youngest daughter, Jasmin, is confined in a basement to prevent being pressed into service at the comfort stations. Her eldest daughter Jujube, who works at a tea house frequented by drunk Japanese soldiers, becomes angrier by the day.
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Confusing
- By Brev on 04-25-24
By: Vanessa Chan
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Behind Every Good Man
- A Novel
- By: Sara Goodman Confino
- Narrated by: Helen Laser
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s a doozy of a bad day for Beverly Diamond when she catches her husband, Larry, in a compromising position with his secretary. What’s a DC suburban wife to do with a soon-to-be ex, two young kids, and no degree or financial support in 1962? Beat the louse at his own game, that’s what.
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So entertaining
- By Compute on 09-16-24
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A Song to Drown Rivers
- A Novel
- By: Ann Liang
- Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Xishi’s beauty is seen as a blessing to the villagers of Yue—convinced that the best fate for a girl is to marry well and support her family. When Xishi draws the attention of the famous young military advisor, Fanli, he presents her with a rare opportunity: to use her beauty as a weapon. One that could topple the rival neighboring kingdom of Wu, improve the lives of her people, and avenge her sister’s murder. All she has to do is infiltrate the enemy palace as a spy, seduce their immoral king, and weaken them from within.
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Impactful story
- By Survivor T on 10-26-24
By: Ann Liang
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Madwoman
- By: Chelsea Bieker
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Clove has gone to extremes to keep her past a secret. Thanks to her lies, she’s landed the life of her dreams, complete with a safe husband and two adoring children who will never know the terror that was routine in her own childhood. If her buried anxiety threatens to breach the surface, Clove (if that is really her name) focuses on finding the right supplement, the right gratitude meditation. But when she receives a letter from a women’s prison in California, her past comes screeching into the present, entangling her in a dangerous game with memory and the people she thought she had outrun.
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Relevent
- By Medusa on 10-10-24
By: Chelsea Bieker
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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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Fascinating Middle Eastern History
- By J. Bishop on 09-11-24
By: Elif Shafak
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The Lost Story
- A Novel
- By: Meg Shaffer
- Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived. Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.
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Seriously disappointing gay/bisexual nonsense
- By Ashley Allen on 07-21-24
By: Meg Shaffer
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The Fabled Earth
- By: Kimberly Brock
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Southern mythology and personal reckoning collide in this sweeping story inspired by the little-known history of Cumberland Island when a once-in-a-century storm threatens the natural landscape. Faced with a changing world, two timelines and the perspectives of three women intersect where a folktale meets the truth to reveal what Cumberland Island has hidden all along.
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It was a beautiful story the entire time.
- By Mrs teacher on 12-04-24
By: Kimberly Brock
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The Trade Off
- A Novel
- By: Samantha Greene Woodruff
- Narrated by: Helen Laser
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Bea Abramovitz has a gift for math and numbers. With her father, she studies the burgeoning Wall Street market’s stocks and patterns in the financial pages. After college she’s determined to parlay her talent for the prediction game into personal and professional success. But in the 1920s, in a Lower East Side tenement, opportunities for women don’t just come knocking. Bea will have to create them.
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Loved the historical notes
- By Dena S. Berte on 01-17-25
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The Great Divide
- A Novel
- By: Cristina Henriquez
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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It is said that the canal will be the greatest feat of engineering in history. But first, it must be built. For Francisco, a local fisherman who resents the foreign powers clamoring for a slice of his country, nothing is more upsetting than the decision of his son, Omar, to work as a digger in the excavation zone. But for Omar, whose upbringing was quiet and lonely, this job offers a chance to finally find connection.
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Story went nowhere
- By Michelle Maple on 04-11-24
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The Book of Witching
- By: C. J. Cooke
- Narrated by: Paula Masterton
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Clem gets a call that is every mother’s worst nightmare. Her nineteen-year-old daughter Erin is unconscious in the hospital after a hiking trip with her friends on the remote Orkney Islands that met a horrifying end, leaving her boyfriend dead and her best friend missing. When Erin wakes, she doesn’t recognize her mother. And she doesn’t answer to her name, but insists she is someone named Nyx.
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Bewitched by the story
- By Cynthia Schmidt on 01-14-25
By: C. J. Cooke
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The Seventh Veil of Salome
- By: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- Narrated by: Caitlin Kelly, Atlanta Amado, Victoria Villarreal, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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1950s Hollywood: Every actress wants to play Salome, the star-making role in a big-budget movie about the legendary woman whose story has inspired artists since ancient times. So when the film’s mercurial director casts Vera Larios, an unknown Mexican ingenue, in the lead role, she quickly becomes the talk of the town. Vera also becomes an object of envy for Nancy Hartley, a bit player whose career has stalled, and who will do anything to win the fame she believes she richly deserves.
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Well-told story, fantastic narration
- By A. Hernandez on 09-01-24
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Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop
- By: Hwang Bo-reum, Shanna Tan - translator
- Narrated by: Rosa Escoda
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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Yeongju is burned out. With her high-flying career, demanding marriage, and busy life in Seoul, she knows she should feel successful, but all she feels is drained. Yet an abandoned dream nags at her, and in a leap of faith, she leaves her old life behind. Quitting her job and divorcing her husband, Yeongju moves to a small residential neighborhood outside the city, where she opens the Hyunam-dong Bookshop.
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Really resonated
- By Aebell on 04-18-24
By: Hwang Bo-reum, and others
What listeners say about The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ruth Leick
- 10-30-24
Excellent story!
I am glad I heard this story! It was emmensly enjoyable and certainly held my attention!
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- Kayla Kittleson
- 11-26-24
Excellent read/listen to
I enjoyed this story and highly recommend it. The characters are well developed and interesting.
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- Merissa Osborne
- 10-28-24
character development
What a lovely story!I enjoyed every bit of it! Thank you for your time and creativity!
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- Susan
- 12-12-24
Loved it!
This is a charming book with a pinch of history, a teaspoon of fantasy a heaping tablespoon of romance.
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- Angela
- 12-28-24
Senior adult romance is my new favorite
This book was lovely. I enjoyed the going back and forth between present day and the past. It was very well done and the characters were so full. It combined some New York history and a modern day assisted living in Florida. Great listen.
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- Rita Lynch
- 01-05-25
Nice easy listening story
Lovely story about second chances. Teaches you that long held anger is worthless and sad that so much time is lost unnecessarily, Mist often it is because of misunderstanding, Sometimes the story you are so sure you know is only half the story.
Reader is very easy to listen to and the story never drags. You will enjoy it.
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- Ruth N
- 12-03-24
Heartwarming
This book was a pleasure to read and reminded me of some of my childhood and Jewish food and upbringing. I loved Esther‘s accent which sounded like my parents. It is heartwarming to realize that it’s never too late to find love for those who never found it. Age is just a number and not who you really are inside.
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- Karen S
- 12-06-24
Brilliant
Great story and brilliant narrator—Brava to the author and to Gabra Zackman! Thoroughly loved this book.
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- lorraine clark
- 10-17-24
Captivating!
Interesting story with realistic characters and fascinating Jewish culture. I love learning new words, and concepts.
I found myself googling terms and/or phrases to learn more about them. I always enjoy when a book captures the imagination the way this one did. I have listened to her previous book, 'The Matchmaker's gift,' many times, and I think I will be reading this one again as well. Bravo!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Ofer
- 12-05-24
Amazing story!
Beautiful story! The plot was so interesting and I loved learning about Augusta as a teenager and as a 80 year old. The rich history of NYC 100 years ago really added to the plot and I loved the descriptions of Jewish food and traditions.
I just can't stop listening to the audiobook.
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