The Mere Wife
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Susan Bennett
About this listen
"Susan Bennett masterfully narrates a stunning retelling of Beowulf that confronts all manner of monsters...Powerful, upsetting, and unforgettable, Bennett's narration is staggeringly potent." — AudioFile Magazine
New York Times bestselling author Maria Dahvana Headley presents a modern retelling of the literary classic Beowulf, set in American suburbia as two mothers—a housewife and a battle-hardened veteran—fight to protect those they love in The Mere Wife.
From the perspective of those who live in Herot Hall, the suburb is a paradise. Picket fences divide buildings—high and gabled—and the community is entirely self-sustaining. Each house has its own fireplace, each fireplace is fitted with a container of lighter fluid, and outside—in lawns and on playgrounds—wildflowers seed themselves in neat rows. But for those who live surreptitiously along Herot Hall’s periphery, the subdivision is a fortress guarded by an intense network of gates, surveillance cameras, and motion-activated lights.
For Willa, the wife of Roger Herot (heir of Herot Hall), life moves at a charmingly slow pace. She flits between mommy groups, playdates, cocktail hour, and dinner parties, always with her son, Dylan, in tow. Meanwhile, in a cave in the mountains just beyond the limits of Herot Hall lives Gren, short for Grendel, as well as his mother, Dana, a former soldier who gave birth as if by chance. Dana didn’t want Gren, didn’t plan Gren, and doesn’t know how she got Gren, but when she returned from war, there he was. When Gren, unaware of the borders erected to keep him at bay, ventures into Herot Hall and runs off with Dylan, Dana’s and Willa’s worlds collide.
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Critic reviews
Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year - Longlisted, 2018
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World Fantasy Award - Finalist, 2019
"Susan Bennett masterfully narrates a stunning retelling of BEOWULF that confronts all manner of monsters....Powerful, upsetting, and unforgettable, Bennet's narration is staggeringly potent." -AudioFile, Earphones Award Winner
"Susan Bennett’s sweetly polished voice wonderfully evokes the barely suppressed rage of Willa...listening to the book seems more appropriate than reading it. Inspired by an epic which was more likely to be declaimed rather than read, the musical prose of the novel heavily references an oral tradition, exhorting us to “Hark!” and “Sing!”" -Locus Magazine
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Three years ago, Madison Culver disappeared when her family was choosing a Christmas tree in Oregon's Skookum National Forest. She would be eight years old now - if she has survived. Desperate to find their beloved daughter, certain someone took her, the Culvers turn to Naomi, a private investigator with an uncanny talent for locating the lost and missing. Known to the police and a select group of parents as "the Child Finder", Naomi is their last hope.
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One Dimensional
- By Sara on 10-04-17
By: Rene Denfeld
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Above Us Only Sky
- By: Michele Young-Stone
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Prudence Eleanor Vilkas was born with a pair of wings molded to her back. Considered a birth defect, her wings were surgically removed, leaving only the ghost of them behind. Growing up in Los Vientos, Florida, Prudence meets her long-estranged Lithuanian grandfather and discovers a miraculous lineage beating and pulsing with past Lithuanian bird-women.
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I'm So Glad I Listened to It!
- By Elizabeth on 08-22-16
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Priestdaddy
- A Memoir
- By: Patricia Lockwood
- Narrated by: Patricia Lockwood
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Father Greg Lockwood is unlike any Catholic priest you have ever met - a man who lounges in boxer shorts, who loves action movies, and whose constant jamming on the guitar reverberates "like a whole band dying in a plane crash in 1972". His daughter is an irreverent poet who long ago left the church's country. When an unexpected crisis leads her and her husband to move back into her parents' rectory, their two worlds collide.
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Terrible narration--read, don't listen
- By Penelope on 08-06-17
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Trigger Warning
- Short Fictions and Disturbances
- By: Neil Gaiman
- Narrated by: Neil Gaiman
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In this new anthology, Neil Gaiman pierces the veil of reality to reveal the enigmatic, shadowy world that lies beneath. Trigger Warning includes previously published pieces of short fiction--stories, verse, and a very special Doctor Who story that was written for the fiftieth anniversary of the beloved series in 2013--as well as "Black Dog", a new tale that revisits the world of American Gods, exclusive to this collection.
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It Triggered Me to Stay Up Late and Listen
- By Jan on 02-10-15
By: Neil Gaiman
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The Iron Hunt
- By: Marjorie M. Liu
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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By day, her tattoos are her armor. By night, they unwind from her body to take on forms of their own. Demons of the flesh, turned into flesh. This is the only family demon hunter Maxine Kiss has ever known. The only way to live---and the very way she'll die. For one day, her demons will abandon her for her daughter to ensure their own survival---leaving Maxine helpless against her enemies.
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most pointless hero ever.
- By Robby on 06-06-09
By: Marjorie M. Liu
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Hark! The Herald Angels Scream
- By: Christopher Golden - editor, Joe R. Lansdale, Scott Smith, and others
- Narrated by: Charles Constant, Teri Schnaubelt
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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That there is darkness at the heart of the Yuletide season should not surprise. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is filled with scenes that are unsettling. The hideous children - Want and Ignorance - beneath the robe of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. In the finest versions of this story, the best parts are the terrifying parts. Best-selling author and editor Christopher Golden shares his love for Christmas horror stories with this anthology of all-new short fiction from some of the most talented and original writers of horror today.
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Some good, some clunkers. Some fun, none scary.
- By Max Trivial on 12-24-18
By: Christopher Golden - editor, and others
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The Plague of Doves
- By: Louise Erdrich
- Narrated by: Peter Francis James, Kathleen McInerney
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- 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
- By Andre on 05-16-08
By: Louise Erdrich
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Palimpsest
- By: Catherynne M. Valente
- Narrated by: Aasne Vigesaa
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Between life and death, dreaming and waking, at the train stop beyond the end of the world is the city of Palimpsest. To get there is a miracle, a mystery, a gift, and a curse - a voyage permitted only to those who’ve always believed there’s another world than the one that meets the eye. Those fated to make the passage are marked forever by a map of that wondrous city tattooed on their flesh after a single orgasmic night. To this kingdom of ghost trains, lion-priests, living kanji, and cream-filled canals come four travelers.
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Excellent Prose, but lacks maturity
- By Michael on 08-09-15
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Fruit of the Drunken Tree
- A Novel
- By: Ingrid Rojas Contreras
- Narrated by: Marisol Ramirez, Almarie Guerra, Ingrid Rojas Contreras
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Seven-year-old Chula and her older sister, Cassandra, enjoy carefree lives thanks to their gated community in Bogotá, but the threat of kidnappings, car bombs, and assassinations hover just outside the neighborhood walls, where the godlike drug lord Pablo Escobar continues to elude authorities and capture the attention of the nation. When their mother hires Petrona, a live-in-maid from the city's guerrilla-occupied slum, Chula makes it her mission to understand Petrona's mysterious ways.
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Maybe better to read this book than listen???
- By Amazon Customer on 12-12-18
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The Hawley Book of the Dead
- A Novel
- By: Chrysler Szarlan
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Revelation "Reve" Dyer grew up with her grandmother’s family stories, stretching back centuries to Reve’s ancestors, who founded the town of Hawley Five Corners, Massachusetts. Their history is steeped in secrets, for few outsiders know that an ancient magic runs in the Dyer women’s blood, and that Reve is a magician whose powers are all too real. Reve and her husband are world-famous Las Vegas illusionists. They have three lovely young daughters, a beautiful home, and what seems like a charmed life. But Reve’s world is shattered....
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It sounded like something I could really love.....
- By Andrea on 10-01-14
By: Chrysler Szarlan
What listeners say about The Mere Wife
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Sooj
- 03-19-24
Take an epic & make it even fiercer
I will come back to this one. Love MDH & where she takes us with all things Beowulf, especially after my first listen through this derivative (but NEVER less than) path. All the stars possible. Wow.
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- gattineri
- 09-02-18
A remarkable accomplishment
Uneven, but a remarkable accomplishment nevertheless.A superb addition to the retold Beowulfs, joining John Gardner’s Grendel. Smart, moving, clever.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Susan Chacin
- 03-20-19
Dark modern version of the ancient Beowolf story
I barely liked one character. Very melodramatic though thought provoking. Might make a better neo-classical tragedy play.
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- Tigerlily
- 07-28-23
Worthwhile
A worthwhile listen and a story I won't forget, but in need of editing for length.
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- babylon baroque
- 05-22-19
Mere Wife
Wow, what a wonderful re- contextualizing of a well loved , well known tale . So much to admire about this imaginative narrative , such loss at its conclusion, my solution is to listen once again straight away .
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 03-03-22
Amazing
Taking the story of Beowulf and retelling it in a way that gives voice to those who have been othered in history. What an amazing novel
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mandy Sue
- 05-24-23
Intense and moving novel, perfect narrator
There's a small cast of characters in this novel that echoes Beowulf, but they are fully realized and described with compassion. The story has parallels to the poem, so there's plenty of fighting and struggle. There's also love and devotion. It's an amazing and satisfying experience.
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- Hilary Hontz
- 08-04-18
Excellent!!
This modern day re-telling of Beauwulf was the bomb! I loved the interpretation of each character, the perspectives, the language was like poetry. The narration was spot on! An excellent read!
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3 people found this helpful
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- Laurie M. Ousley
- 11-24-18
Fantastic Retelling
I just finished the book and I'm going to listen again as soon as I'm done typing. I love this clever retelling and its reimagination of the characters and setting. I teach Beowulf every year and was excited about this and it didn't disappoint. This is the second book I've listened to narrated by Susan Bennett, who is a very good reader, absolutely one of the best.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Megan Wahlberg
- 09-16-22
Phenomenal Adaptation
The reader alone is 🔥
She brings the novel to life with her incredible performance. Her subtle intonations help you follow which character is narrating. It is the best one-woman show I’ve ever heard.
The novel itself is superbly written, combining magical realism and mellifluous prose in a story that leaves you feeling boned and gutted, and yet viscerally awake. Grendel’s mother lives within all of us, and her pain mingles with police brutality and the war on terror and all the societal ills from which America is reeling.
Everyone should read this book.
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