
The Music Shop
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Steven Hartley
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By:
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Rachel Joyce
About this listen
A love story and a journey through music, the exquisite and perfectly pitched new novel from the best-selling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy.
It is 1988. On a dead-end street in a run-down suburb there is a music shop that stands small and brightly lit, jam-packed with records of every kind. Like a beacon, the shop attracts the lonely, the sleepless, and the adrift; Frank, the shop's owner, has a way of connecting his customers with just the piece of music they need. Then, one day, into his shop comes a beautiful young woman, Ilse Brauchmann, who asks Frank to teach her about music. Terrified of real closeness, Frank feels compelled to turn and run, yet he is drawn to this strangely still, mysterious woman with eyes as black as vinyl. But Ilse is not what she seems, and Frank has old wounds that threaten to reopen, as well as a past it seems he will never leave behind. Can a man who is so in tune with other people's needs be so incapable of connecting with the one person who might save him? The journey that these two quirky, wonderful characters make in order to overcome their emotional baggage speaks to the healing power of music - and love - in this poignant, ultimately joyful work of fiction.
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Critic reviews
"Captures the sheer, transformative joy of romance." (The Washington Post)
"Love, friendship, and especially the healing powers of music all rise together into a triumphant crescendo. . . . This lovely novel is as satisfying and enlightening as the music that suffuses its every page." (The Boston Globe)
"Magnificent . . . If you love words, if you love music, if you love love, this [novel] will be without question one of the year’s best." (BookPage, Top Pick in Fiction)
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Story
Margery Benson hat einen großen Traum: den goldenen Käfer in Neukaledonien zu finden, den ihr Vater ihr einst in einem Naturkundebuch gezeigt hat. Doch dieser Traum ist über die Jahre hinweg verblasst wie Margery selbst. Bis an einem Londoner Morgen mit einem Schlag alles anders wird. Kurz darauf findet sich Margery auf einem Dampfer nach Australien wieder, an ihrer Seite die junge Enid Pretty. Die plapperhafte Sexbombe ist nicht gerade das, was Margery sich als seriöse Begleitung auf ihrer Expedition vorgestellt hat. Doch auch Enid hat ein Geheimnis und hegt einen Traum.
By: Rachel Joyce
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The Last Garden in England
- By: Julia Kelly
- Narrated by: Shiromi Arserio, Marisa Calin, Danielle Cohen, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Present day: Emma Lovett, who has dedicated her career to breathing new life into long-neglected gardens, has just been given the opportunity of a lifetime: to restore the gardens of the famed Highbury House estate, designed in 1907 by her hero Venetia Smith. But as Emma dives deeper into the gardens’ past, she begins to uncover secrets that have long lain hidden.
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Lovely and slow but warning 1 narrator is horrible
- By E. Read on 06-30-21
By: Julia Kelly
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The Little Paris Bookshop
- A Novel
- By: Nina George
- Narrated by: Steve West, Emma Bering, Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Monsieur Perdu calls himself a literary apothecary. From his floating bookstore in a barge on the Seine, he prescribes novels for the hardships of life. Using his intuitive feel for the exact book a reader needs, Perdu mends broken hearts and souls. The only person he can't seem to heal through literature is himself; he's still haunted by heartbreak after his great love disappeared. She left him with only a letter, which he has never opened.
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Feels like a debut novel
- By Molly-o on 09-25-15
By: Nina George
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The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper
- By: Phaedra Patrick
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Sixty-nine-year-old Arthur Pepper lives a simple life. He gets out of bed at precisely 7:30 a.m., just as he did when his wife, Miriam, was alive. He dresses in the same gray slacks and mustard sweater-vest; waters his fern, Frederica; and heads out to his garden. But on the one-year anniversary of Miriam's death, something changes. Sorting through Miriam's possessions, Arthur finds an exquisite gold charm bracelet he's never seen before.
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Disappointing.
- By BikeVON on 05-17-16
By: Phaedra Patrick
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Miss Morgan's Book Brigade
- A Novel
- By: Janet Skeslien Charles
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland, Sarah Gadon, Jackie Sanders, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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1918: As the Great War rages, Jessie Carson takes a leave of absence from the New York Public Library to work for the American Committee for Devastated France. Founded by millionaire Anne Morgan, this group of international women help rebuild destroyed French communities just miles from the front. Upon arrival, Jessie strives to establish something that the French have never seen—children’s libraries. She turns ambulances into bookmobiles and trains the first French female librarians. Then she disappears.
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This is what defines great historical fiction
- By Hall Ways on 08-11-24
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The Little Wartime Library
- By: Kate Thompson
- Narrated by: Sarah Durham
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Clara Button is no ordinary librarian. While war ravages the city above her, Clara has risked everything she holds dear to turn the Bethnal Green tube station into the country’s only underground library. Down here, a secret community thrives with thousands of bunk beds, a nursery, a café, and a theater—offering shelter, solace, and escape from the bombs that fall upon their city. Along with her glamorous best friend and assistant Ruby Munroe, Clara ensures the library is the beating heart of life underground. As the war drags on, the women's determination is tested to the limits.
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I learned so much
- By candi hurst on 06-15-23
By: Kate Thompson
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The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett
- A Novel
- By: Annie Lyons
- Narrated by: Nicolette McKenzie
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Eudora Honeysett is done with this noisy, moronic world - all of it. She has witnessed the indignities and suffering of old age and has lived a full life. At 85, she isn’t going to leave things to chance. Her end will be on her terms. With one call to a clinic in Switzerland, a plan is set in motion. Then she meets 10-year-old Rose Trewidney, a whirling, pint-sized rainbow of sparkling cheer. All Eudora wants is to be left alone to set her affairs in order.
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Just what I Needed
- By Angela Adams on 02-04-21
By: Annie Lyons
Great idea and great characters...pretty good narration except he didnt understand the Hallelujah Chorus so it took away from that scene...in a book about music having unbelievably powerful magic that made a difference! I REALLY liked this story a lot...I would say 4.5s if I could...but 5 stars are stories I listen to a second time with my husband and I dont know if I can handle all the angst a second time!
An Ode to Living Music
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Music Heals and Unites
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So original
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Loved this Book!
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That being said, it was an unusual love story with a happy ending.
What I took away was that true love never dies and love in its many varied forms conquers all.
Very Unusual Love Story
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Awesome book!
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Heart stopping
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sweet tender story
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What made the experience of listening to The Music Shop the most enjoyable?
WHILE OTHER MOTHER'S NURTURED, READ TO, PLAYED WITH AND PREPARED MEALS FOR THEIR CHILDREN, FRANK'S OTHERWISE DYSFUNCTIONAL MOTHER TOLD HIM FANTASTIC STORIES ABOUT MUSIC. THESE STORIES CREATED IN FRANK, A PASSION FOR MUSIC THAT EVENTUALLY LED HIM TO A ONE OF A KIND CAREER AS WELL AS A UNIQUE WAY OF HELPING OTHER PEOPLE.What other book might you compare The Music Shop to and why?
MAYBE MATHEW QUICK'S, "THE GOOD LUCK OF RIGHT NOW," OR "SPOON BENDERS," BY DARYL GREGORY. THESE BOOKS WERE TREMENDOUSLY FUN, BUT ALSO MADE ME CARE ABOUT THE CHARACTERS.What does Steven Hartley bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
HIS VOICE WAS HALF THE FUN! HIS NARRATION MADE THE DIFFERENT CHARACTERS VIVID. HE SANG SOME OF THE SONGS AND HE WASN'T THAT GOOD OF A SINGER, BUT THAT ONLY ADDED TO THE FUN OF THE BOOK!Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! I LAUGHED OUT LOUD! I LEARNED SO MUCH ABOUT THE DIFFERENT MUSICIANS. NOW I WANT TO GO BACK AND LISTEN AGAIN AND STOP EACH TIME EITHER FRANK OR HIS MOTHER TALK ABOUT A PIECE OF MUSIC, THEN GO LISTEN TO THAT MUSIC WITH NEW EARS (ON VINYL OF COURSE!).Any additional comments?
THE STORY WAS BRILLIANT AND REFRESHING. IF YOU ARE TIRED OF, "SAME OL',SAME OL'," TRY THE MUSIC SHOP!AWARD WORTHY!!!
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The only thing that was disappointing to me was the profanity used throughout the book-otherwise a must read !!!
Excellent Read!!
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