The Strongman and the Mermaid
The Donora Story Collection, Book 2
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Narrated by:
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Anna Czarska
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By:
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Kathleen Shoop
About this listen
2019: Donora, Pennsylvania
Ninety-one-year-old Patryk Rusek hides in his attic, hoping the searchers think he’s escaped. When Lucy finally bursts in, she discovers her beloved grandfather clutching a fat, hand-drawn, antique book. In it is the story of Donora, the town that shaped America, its people, and Patryk himself. Before long, Lucy and her son Owen lose track of their goal to get Grandpa Patryk somewhere “safe” as they’re drawn into the book, back in time, into stories that read like real-life fairytales born of purpose, hard-work, and chance.
1910: Donora, Pennsylvania
In the early dawn of Donora, Pennsylvania, the mills make and shape the steel that builds America. Mary Lancos lives in a home on the hill overlooking town and its mighty Monongahela River. That tiny house bursts with her siblings and boarders. Wind whipping through the walls and windows makes Mary determined to marry well and create a better life.
Shy Pole Lukasz Musial arrives in Donora seeking the clear blue skies, green lawns, and better life he’d seen pictured on a postcard. Settled in Donora’s Polish community, Lukasz secures a coveted job in the wire mill. Life is set on course to achieve the American Dream. All he needs is a wife who believes in him, in his mighty, quiet, strength.
After a series of casual, friendly meetings, fate brings Mary and Lukasz to the river under a snowy, pink moonlit sky and everything changes. Their attraction is sudden and consuming, turning the pair onto an unexpected path. With mounting disapproval from Mary’s parents, she and Lukasz must decide if love is enough to risk losing everything else that matters.
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All Judith Fischer ever wanted is to marry within her community and raise a family. She longs for the day when her parents will allow Levi Plank to officially court her. But on the day Judith suspects Levi will ask her parent's permission, her younger brother Samuel has an accident under her charge. Rushing to Samuel's aid, Judith spies a strange man helping him: a man she later believes was an angel. When she shares her conviction with her family and close friends, she is shocked to find that no one believes her, including Levi.
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beautiful
- By Karen Thomas on 06-23-20
By: Ruth Reid
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What Once Was Lost
- By: Kim Vogel Sawyer
- Narrated by: Pilar Witherspoon
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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The practice of ministering to the widows and orphans is reflected in this story of Christina Willems, a young woman from Kansas, in 1884, who is determined to reopen the poor farm she manages after a fire devastates the property. She finds opposition from many surprising corners but an unlikely ally in a lumber mill owner who wants nothing more than to hold himself aloof from the world and its troubles. Levi Jonnson agrees to take care of one of the poor farm residents, a young blind boy - and in doing so opens himself up to Christina's world in ways he wouldn't have imagined.
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Wonderful Listen!
- By Carrie Fancett Pagels on 02-09-14
By: Kim Vogel Sawyer
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The Last Carolina Girl
- By: Meagan Church
- Narrated by: Susan Bennett
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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For fourteen-year-old Leah Payne, life in her beloved coastal Carolina town is worlds away from the harsh realities of the day. Loyal to her lumberjack father, she knows only of the familiarity of her small community, the magic of the natural world, and the creative intuition that prompts her to march to the beat of her own drum. But when an accident takes her father's life, leaving her an orphan, Leah finds herself cast into a family of strangers whose welcoming façade hides a terrible secret.
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WOW
- By Savannah Brown on 06-10-23
By: Meagan Church
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The Road to Paradise
- A Vintage National Parks Novel
- By: Karen Barnett
- Narrated by: Ann Richardson
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s 1927, and the National Park Service is in its youth when Margie, an avid naturalist, lands a coveted position alongside the park rangers living and working in the unrivaled splendor of Mount Rainier’s long shadow. But Chief Ranger Ford Brayden is still haunted by his father’s death on the mountain, and the ranger takes his work managing the park and its crowd of visitors seriously. The job of watching over an idealistic senator’s daughter with few practical survival skills seems a waste of resources.
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Mount Rainier 1927
- By Debbie on 09-19-19
By: Karen Barnett
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Maggie-Now
- A Novel
- By: Betty Smith
- Narrated by: Nicola Barber
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In Brooklyn's unforgiving urban jungle, Maggie Moore is torn between answering her own needs and catering to the desirous men who dominate her life. Confronted by her quarrelsome Irish immigrant father, the feckless lover who may become her husband, and others, Maggie must learn to navigate a cycle of loss, separation, and hope as she forges her own path toward happiness.
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no unabridged
- By sally on 08-03-21
By: Betty Smith
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I Couldn't Love You More
- A Novel
- By: Esther Freud
- Narrated by: Niamh Cusack
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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A sweeping story of three generations of women, crossing from London to Ireland and back again, and the enduring effort to retrieve the secrets of the past.
By: Esther Freud
What listeners say about The Strongman and the Mermaid
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jori Schellenberger
- 05-30-23
Interesting but frustrating
While the overall story line was good, the story unfolded very slowly, the romance of the main characters was maddeningly slow to happen even though the author made it obvious it would happen eventually. Then it went from ‘zero to 60’ in no time at all, with Mary, who was seemingly too naive to know that the boarder was making sexually suggestive advances at her, then seducing Wucosh and stripping naked in front of him and having sex with him. It was completely out of character and unrealistic to make such a leap in the matter of a few hours. Their courtship also seemed slow to progress, yet they were evidently having sex often. Then, when the story finally gets to the marriage and you are expecting to hear more about their son and grandson, since it’s narrated from the grown grandson’s perspective, the story ends abruptly. It was disappointing. But by far the most frustrating part was the mispronunciation of common words all through the book, by the voice actress who read the book for Audible, as well as her lack of voice inflection where there should have been some. Her voice was mostly monotone and emotionless, and when there was inflection, it was usually at the end of words, phrases, or sentences. The use of the word coax is abundant in this book, and she pronounced it co-axe every time, for one example. She sounded like she had an American accent, but didn’t have a sufficient understanding of the correct pronunciation of many, many American words. I was not super impressed with this book or it’s Audible narration, though the author has great potential. 73 chapters is far too long for this story.
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