Western Alliances
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Caroline Hewitt
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By:
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Wilton Barnhardt
About this listen
"Caroline Hewitt narrates this tale of the wealthy Costa family so intimately that listeners will be convinced she has insider status with this dysfunctional group."- AudioFile
From the New York Times-bestselling author of Lookaway, Lookaway, Wilton Barnhardt’s Western Alliances is a vivid portrait of a wealthy family set against the backdrop of the 2008 financial crisis. This laugh-out-loud, darkly funny novel follows the Costa family—whose members are every bit as richly absurd as the characters in HBO’s Succession.
Salvador, the patriarch, runs one of Wall Street’s biggest banks the summer before everything collapses; Roberto and Rachel, his two children, have never worked a day in their lives; and Lena, his ex-wife, is a scheming hypochondriac. Part travelogue, part epic family drama, the novel follows Roberto and Rachel across Europe as the two dilettantes come to terms with their father’s choices and the repercussions of his actions.
Oozing with his signature satire and biting wit, Barnhardt invites listeners on a literary romp from an elegant Paris apartment to a hilariously inept London hotel, ancient churches and crypts to gleaming Mediterranean coasts, hot dog stands in Providence, Rhode Island to the best places in Manhattan, and terrifying encounters in the Serbian countryside to dangerous liaisons in Moscow, as two grown-up rich kids are forced to come of age at last. In Western Alliances Barnhardt delivers a riveting saga examining privilege, loyalty, ambition, and what family members owe to one another.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.
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Story
Writer Karla Cornejo Villavicencio was on DACA when she decided to write about being undocumented for the first time using her own name. It was right after the election of 2016, the day she realized the story she'd tried to steer clear of was the only one she wanted to tell. So she wrote her immigration lawyer's phone number on her hand in Sharpie and embarked on a trip across the country to tell the stories of her fellow undocumented immigrants—and to find the hidden key to her own.
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Raw, heartbreaking - we can do better by others
- By RapaciousReader on 04-11-20
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The Godmothers
- A Novel
- By: Camille Aubray
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan, Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Meet the Godmothers: Filomena is a clever and resourceful war refugee with a childhood secret, who comes to America to wed Mario, the family's favored son. Amie, a beautiful and dreamy French girl from upstate New York, escapes an abusive husband after falling in love with Johnny, the oldest of the brothers. Lucy, a tough-as-nails Irish nurse, ran away from a strict girls' home and marries Frankie, the sensuous middle son. And the glamorous Petrina, the family's only daughter, graduates with honors from Barnard College despite a past trauma that nearly caused a family scandal.
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Easy Enjoyable Read
- By Bunny on 06-23-21
By: Camille Aubray
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The Godmother
- By: Hannelore Cayre, Stephanie Smee - translator
- Narrated by: Julia Franklin
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Meet Patience Portefeux, 53, an underpaid Franco-Arab judicial interpreter for the Ministry of Justice who specialises in telephone tapping. Widowed after the sudden death of her husband, Patience is now wedged between university fees for her two grown-up daughters and nursing home costs for her ageing mother. She’s laboured for 25 years to keep everyone’s heads above water.
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Had me at "my family were crooks."
- By Patricia on 03-04-23
By: Hannelore Cayre, and others
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The Vineyards of Champagne
- By: Juliet Blackwell
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Deep within the labyrinth of caves that lies below the lush, rolling vineyards of the Champagne region, an underground city of women and children hums with life. Forced to take shelter from the unrelenting onslaught of German shellfire above, the bravest and most defiant women venture out to pluck sweet grapes for the harvest. But wine is not the only secret preserved in the cool, dark cellars... In present day, Rosalyn Acosta travels to Champagne to select vintages for her Napa-based employer. Rosalyn doesn't much care for champagne - or France, for that matter.
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Very Depressing
- By Miranda on 03-08-20
By: Juliet Blackwell
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The Inheritance
- A Novel
- By: JoAnn Ross
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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When conflict photographer Jackson Swann dies, he leaves behind a conflict of his own making when his three daughters, each born to a different mother, discover that they’re now responsible for the family’s Oregon vineyard - and for a family they didn’t ask for.
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Great story a few little quirks
- By Dawn Starostka on 09-15-21
By: JoAnn Ross
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Lay Your Sleeping Head
- The Henry Rios Mysteries, Book 1
- By: Michael Nava
- Narrated by: Thom Rivera
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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A completely revised edition of the first Henry Rios mystery, The Little Death, Lay Your Sleeping Head introduces Michael Nava’s singular protagonist, gay Latino criminal defense lawyer Henry Rios. Rios, beset by personal and professional problems, begins a passionate affair with the black sheep heir to a great California fortune who tells Rios an improbable tale of murder and sexual predation in his wealthy family. When the young man is found dead of an apparent drug overdose, Rios begins an investigation that ultimately reveals much more than murder.
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Loved It
- By Leah Brock on 06-20-20
By: Michael Nava
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Death at the Chateau Bremont
- Verlaque and Bonnet Provençal Mystery Series, Book 1
- By: M.L. Longworth
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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When local nobleman Étienne de Bremont falls to his death from the family château, it sets the historic town of Aix-en-Provence abuzz with rumors. The once-idyllic town suddenly seems filled with people who could have benefited from Bremont's death - including his playboy brother, François, who's heavily in debt and mixed up with some unsavory characters. But just as the list of suspects is being narrowed down, another death occurs. And this time, there can be no doubt - it's murder.
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Narrator is awful
- By F. Miller on 05-06-23
By: M.L. Longworth
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Under the Midnight Sun
- A Novel
- By: Keigo Higashino, Alexander O. Smith - translator, Joseph Reeder
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 19 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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In Osaka in 1973, the body of a murdered man is found in an abandoned building. Investigating the crime, Detective Sasagaki is unable to find the killer. Over the next 20 years, through the lens of a succession of characters, Higashino tells the story of two teens, Ryo and Yukiho, whose lives are most affected by the crime, and the obsessed detective, Sasagaki, who continues to investigate the murder, looking for the elusive truth.
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So many subplots and twists
- By Janani Vasudevan on 07-03-20
By: Keigo Higashino, and others