
The Paper Palace
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $22.50
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Nan McNamara
About this listen
Reese's Book Club Pick
“A magnificent page-turner...as intoxicating as a summer night by the sea.” (Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, New York Times best-selling author of Good Company)
"It's been ages since I was so absorbed in a contemporary novel. I loved it." (Nick Hornby, New York Times best-selling author of Just Like You)
"A soulful debut that plumbs the depths of a midlife Sophie’s Choice." (People)
A story of summer, secrets, love, and lies: in the course of a singular day on Cape Cod, one woman must make a life-changing decision that has been brewing for decades.
“This house, this place, knows all my secrets.”
It is a perfect July morning, and Elle, a 50-year-old happily married mother of three, awakens at “The Paper Palace” - the family summer place which she has visited every summer of her life. But this morning is different: Last night Elle and her oldest friend, Jonas, crept out the back door into the darkness and had sex with each other for the first time, all while their spouses chatted away inside. Now, over the next 24 hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas, if a tragic event hadn’t forever changed the course of their lives. As Heller colors in the experiences that have led Elle to this day, we arrive at her ultimate decision with all its complexity. Tender yet devastating, The Paper Palace considers the tensions between desire and dignity, the legacies of abuse, and the crimes and misdemeanors of families.
©2021 Miranda Cowley Heller (P)2021 Penguin AudioCritic reviews
"Captivating debut...full of lush atmospheric details. This will keep the reader guessing all the way to the end.” (Publishers Weekly)
“The moody and atmospheric setting of the shadowy paths and ponds of the Back Woods is described in lush detail that makes a sharp contrast to the colder, sharper elements of Elle’s story.... From the first pages of her debut novel, Heller pulls no punches. Some of them just sneak up on you later on.” (Kirkus)
"Tightly woven and immediate, The Paper Palace takes us deep into a vivid summer landscape, a family, and a private, longstanding love story, and holds us there from start to finish." (Meg Wolitzer, New York Times best-selling author of The Interestings and The Female Persuasion)
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Most Fun We Ever Had
- A Novel
- By: Claire Lombardo
- Narrated by: Emily Rankin
- Length: 20 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this “rich, complex family saga” (USA Today) full of long-buried family secrets, Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s, blithely ignorant of all that awaits them. By 2016, they have four radically different daughters, each in a state of unrest.
-
-
Wonderful book
- By Kaysi12 on 07-08-19
By: Claire Lombardo
-
In Five Years
- A Novel
- By: Rebecca Serle
- Narrated by: Megan Hilty
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dannie Kohan lives her life by the numbers. She is nothing like her lifelong best friend - the wild, whimsical, believes-in-fate Bella. Her meticulous planning seems to have paid off after she nails the most important job interview of her career and accepts her boyfriend’s marriage proposal in one fell swoop, falling asleep completely content. But when she awakens, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man.
-
-
If you want a happy story, try another book
- By Mel on 03-23-20
By: Rebecca Serle
-
The Book of Lost Friends
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Wingate
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss, Sullivan Jones, Robin Miles, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the best-selling author of Before We Were Yours comes a dramatic historical novel of three young women searching for family amid the destruction of the post-Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who learns of their story and its vital connection to her students’ lives.
-
-
I want more!!!
- By Mrstlg on 04-11-20
By: Lisa Wingate
-
The Last Thing He Told Me
- A Novel
- By: Laura Dave
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before Owen Michaels disappears, he smuggles a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers—Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother. As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss, as a US marshal and federal agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was.
-
-
The worst book I have ever heard
- By Amazon Customer on 05-14-21
By: Laura Dave
-
The Love of My Life
- A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel)
- By: Rosie Walsh
- Narrated by: Imogen Church, Theo Solomon
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Emma loves her husband Leo and their young daughter Ruby: she’d do anything for them. But almost everything she's told them about herself is a lie. And she might just have got away with it, if it weren’t for her husband’s job. Leo is an obituary writer; Emma a well-known marine biologist. When she suffers a serious illness, Leo copes by doing what he knows best – researching and writing about his wife’s life. But as he starts to unravel the truth, he discovers the woman he loves doesn’t really exist. Even her name isn’t real.
-
-
My preference
- By Avid series reader on 03-03-22
By: Rosie Walsh
-
The House in the Pines
- A Novel
- By: Ana Reyes
- Narrated by: Marisol Ramirez
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Maya was a high school senior when her best friend, Aubrey, dropped dead in front of the enigmatic man named Frank whom they’d been spending time with all summer. Seven years later, Maya lives in Boston with a loving boyfriend and is kicking the secret addiction that has allowed her to cope with what happened years ago, the gaps in her memories, and the lost time that she can’t account for. But her past comes rushing back when she comes across a recent YouTube video in which a young woman suddenly keels over and dies in a diner while sitting across from none other than Frank.
-
-
Boring
- By LunyMist46324 on 01-11-23
By: Ana Reyes
-
The Most Fun We Ever Had
- A Novel
- By: Claire Lombardo
- Narrated by: Emily Rankin
- Length: 20 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this “rich, complex family saga” (USA Today) full of long-buried family secrets, Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s, blithely ignorant of all that awaits them. By 2016, they have four radically different daughters, each in a state of unrest.
-
-
Wonderful book
- By Kaysi12 on 07-08-19
By: Claire Lombardo
-
In Five Years
- A Novel
- By: Rebecca Serle
- Narrated by: Megan Hilty
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dannie Kohan lives her life by the numbers. She is nothing like her lifelong best friend - the wild, whimsical, believes-in-fate Bella. Her meticulous planning seems to have paid off after she nails the most important job interview of her career and accepts her boyfriend’s marriage proposal in one fell swoop, falling asleep completely content. But when she awakens, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man.
-
-
If you want a happy story, try another book
- By Mel on 03-23-20
By: Rebecca Serle
-
The Book of Lost Friends
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Wingate
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss, Sullivan Jones, Robin Miles, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the best-selling author of Before We Were Yours comes a dramatic historical novel of three young women searching for family amid the destruction of the post-Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who learns of their story and its vital connection to her students’ lives.
-
-
I want more!!!
- By Mrstlg on 04-11-20
By: Lisa Wingate
-
The Last Thing He Told Me
- A Novel
- By: Laura Dave
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before Owen Michaels disappears, he smuggles a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers—Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother. As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss, as a US marshal and federal agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was.
-
-
The worst book I have ever heard
- By Amazon Customer on 05-14-21
By: Laura Dave
-
The Love of My Life
- A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel)
- By: Rosie Walsh
- Narrated by: Imogen Church, Theo Solomon
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Emma loves her husband Leo and their young daughter Ruby: she’d do anything for them. But almost everything she's told them about herself is a lie. And she might just have got away with it, if it weren’t for her husband’s job. Leo is an obituary writer; Emma a well-known marine biologist. When she suffers a serious illness, Leo copes by doing what he knows best – researching and writing about his wife’s life. But as he starts to unravel the truth, he discovers the woman he loves doesn’t really exist. Even her name isn’t real.
-
-
My preference
- By Avid series reader on 03-03-22
By: Rosie Walsh
-
The House in the Pines
- A Novel
- By: Ana Reyes
- Narrated by: Marisol Ramirez
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Maya was a high school senior when her best friend, Aubrey, dropped dead in front of the enigmatic man named Frank whom they’d been spending time with all summer. Seven years later, Maya lives in Boston with a loving boyfriend and is kicking the secret addiction that has allowed her to cope with what happened years ago, the gaps in her memories, and the lost time that she can’t account for. But her past comes rushing back when she comes across a recent YouTube video in which a young woman suddenly keels over and dies in a diner while sitting across from none other than Frank.
-
-
Boring
- By LunyMist46324 on 01-11-23
By: Ana Reyes
-
The Lost Bookshop
- By: Evie Woods
- Narrated by: Avena Mansergh-Wallace, Olivia Mace, Nick Biadon
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives. But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder…where nothing is as it seems.
-
-
Incredible history book story
- By Elisabeth on 10-25-23
By: Evie Woods
-
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
- Reese's Book Club (A Novel)
- By: Gail Honeyman
- Narrated by: Cathleen McCarron
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office.
-
-
Please be warned
- By N. Thompson on 06-20-17
By: Gail Honeyman
-
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some information about the audiobook, but in this case we think that would spoil the listening. We think it's important that you start to listen without knowing what it is about.
-
-
Absolutely Phenomenal!!!
- By Jensophie on 05-04-09
By: John Boyne
-
Hello Beautiful
- A Novel
- By: Ann Napolitano
- Narrated by: Maura Tierney
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it’s as if the world has lit up around him. With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable: Sylvie, the family’s dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all.
-
-
Book was great, performance terrible
- By Amazon Customer on 03-17-23
By: Ann Napolitano
-
The Keeper of Happy Endings
- By: Barbara Davis
- Narrated by: Robin Siegerman, Hope Newhouse
- Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Soline Roussel is well schooled in the business of happy endings. For generations her family has kept an exclusive bridal salon in Paris, where magic is worked with needle and thread. It’s said that the bride who wears a Roussel gown is guaranteed a lifetime of joy. But devastating losses during World War II leave Soline’s world and heart in ruins and her faith in love shaken. She boxes up her memories, stowing them away, along with her broken dreams, determined to forget.
-
-
French accent
- By Lilya on 10-22-21
By: Barbara Davis
-
Broken Country
- By: Clare Leslie Hall
- Narrated by: Hattie Morahan
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.
-
-
Excellent book!
- By Kayce Turner on 03-14-25
-
Something in the Water
- A Novel
- By: Catherine Steadman
- Narrated by: Catherine Steadman
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Erin is a documentary filmmaker on the brink of a professional breakthrough, Mark a handsome investment banker with big plans. Passionately in love, they embark on a dream honeymoon to the tropical island of Bora Bora, where they enjoy the sun, the sand, and each other. Then, while scuba diving in the crystal blue sea, they find something in the water....
-
-
No Thrill Here
- By Sara on 06-08-18
-
We Were Never Here
- A Novel
- By: Andrea Bartz
- Narrated by: Becca Tobin
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Emily is having the time of her life - she’s in the mountains of Chile with her best friend, Kristen, on their annual reunion trip, and the women are feeling closer than ever. But on the last night of the trip, Emily enters their hotel suite to find blood and broken glass on the floor. Kristen says the cute backpacker she brought back to their room attacked her, and she had no choice but to kill him in self-defense.
-
-
Holy hell!
- By Britt Nia on 08-06-21
By: Andrea Bartz
-
The Cliffs: Reese's Book Club
- A Novel
- By: J. Courtney Sullivan
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr, Tanis Parenteau, Emily Lawrence, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a secluded bluff overlooking the ocean sits a Victorian house, lavender with gingerbread trim, a home that contains a century’s worth of secrets. By the time Jane Flanagan discovers the house as a teenager, it has long been abandoned. The place is an irresistible mystery to Jane. There are still clothes in the closets, marbles rolling across the floors, and dishes in the cupboards, even though no one has set foot there in decades. The house becomes a hideaway for Jane, a place to escape her volatile mother.
-
-
Reese Witherspoon choice
- By L. T. Gerhardt on 07-06-24
-
Trust (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- By: Hernan Diaz
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Jonathan Davis, Mozhan Marnò, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.
-
-
Before Purchasing
- By JLDLOfficial on 08-13-22
By: Hernan Diaz
-
When the Jessamine Grows
- By: Donna Everhart
- Narrated by: Tiffany Morgan
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Talk of impending war is a steady drumbeat throughout North Carolina, though Joetta McBride pays it little heed. She and her husband, Ennis, have built a modest but happy life for themselves, raising two sons, fifteen-year-old Henry, and eleven-year-old Robert, on their small subsistence farm. They do not support the Confederacy's position on slavery, but Joetta considers her family to be neutral, believing this is simply not their fight. Her opinion is not favored by many in their community, including Joetta's own father-in-law, Rudean.
-
-
Fabulous Civil War era story
- By George P. on 01-28-24
By: Donna Everhart
-
Where the Forest Meets the Stars
- By: Glendy Vanderah
- Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the loss of her mother and her own battle with breast cancer, Joanna Teale returns to her graduate research on nesting birds in rural Illinois, determined to prove that her recent hardships have not broken her. She throws herself into her work from dusk to dawn, until her solitary routine is disrupted by the appearance of a mysterious child who shows up at her cabin barefoot and covered in bruises. The girl calls herself Ursa, and she claims to have been sent from the stars to witness five miracles.
-
-
Enjoyable. Which "story" version is true...
- By Christina on 03-16-19
By: Glendy Vanderah
Excellent
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Wouldn’t recommend
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The graphic sexual language was an absolute turn off, and I am no prude at all. I just found her way of describing sexual acts so repulsive!
Split decision
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Creative, but dark
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Horrible Ending!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I enjoyed the different Generations, the staggere.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved this book!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautiful
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really good!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Narration was perfect. Just the right amount of kindness, fun sarcasm when called for, and pensiveness when calls for.
Really looking forward to her next book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.