
Women and Children First
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 $27.36
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
By:
-
Alina Grabowski
About this listen
“I am a big fan of Women and Children First . . . Alina Grabowski is an astute and limber narrative artist and I could read her prose all day long and never grow weary.”—Lorrie Moore, author of A Gate at the Stairs
A gripping literary puzzle that unwinds the private lives of ten women as they confront tragedy in a small Massachusetts town.
Nashquitten, MA, is a decaying coastal enclave that not even tourist season can revive, full of locals who have run the town’s industries for generations. When a young woman dies at a house party, the circumstances around her death suspiciously unclear, the tight-knit community is shaken. As a mother grieves her daughter, a teacher her student, a best friend her confidante, the events around the tragedy become a lightning rod: blame is cast, secrets are buried deeper. Some are left to pick up the pieces, while others turn their backs, and all the while, a truth about that dreadful night begins to emerge.
Told through the eyes of ten local women, Grabowski’s Women and Children First is an exquisite portrait of grief and a powerful reminder of life’s interconnectedness. Touching on womanhood, class, and sexuality, ambition, disappointment, and tragedy, this novel is a stunning rendering of love and loss, and a bracing lesson from a phenomenal new literary talent that no one walks this earth alone.
©2024 Alina Grabowski (P)2024 SJP LitListeners also enjoyed...
-
Choice
- A Novel
- By: Neel Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Sofia Engstrand, Antonio Aakeel, Shaheen Khan
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"How ought one to live?" This is the question that obsesses London-based publisher Ayush, driving him to question every act of consumption. He embarks on a radical experiment in his own life and the lives of those connected to him: his practical economist husband; their twins; and even the authors he edits and publishes.
-
-
Three Disparate Takes
- By David on 06-01-24
By: Neel Mukherjee
-
Swift River
- By: Essie Chambers
- Narrated by: Shayna Small, Janina Edwards, Robin Miles
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s the summer of 1987 in Swift River, and Diamond Newberry is learning how to drive. Ever since her Pop disappeared seven years ago, she and her mother hitchhike everywhere they go. But that’s not the only reason Diamond stands out: she’s teased relentlessly about her weight, and since Pop’s been gone, she is the only Black person in all of Swift River. This summer, Ma is determined to declare Pop legally dead so that they can collect his life insurance money, get their house back from the bank, and finally move on.
-
-
Boring
- By Foxm004 on 05-14-25
By: Essie Chambers
-
The Death of Us
- A Novel
- By: Abigail Dean
- Narrated by: Claire Skinner, John Hopkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Together, Edward and Isabel move to London. They are young and in love, occupied by friends, work and fun. But late on a spring evening when they are thirty years old, their home is invaded by a serial killer. In the wake of this violation, each tries to come to terms with a night that changed everything—and their marriage begins to crumble. Twenty-five years later, their tormentor is caught, and Edward and Isabel reunite for his sentencing. Isabel has waited years for the man who nearly ended her life to be brought to justice. Edward has tried to think about anything else.
-
-
Not as good as her other books
- By Ron Rude on 05-18-25
By: Abigail Dean
-
Whale Fall
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth O'Connor
- Narrated by: Dyfrig Morris, Gabrielle Glaister, Gwyneth Keyworth, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1938, a dead whale washes up on the shores of remote Welsh island. For Manod, who has spent her whole life on the island, it feels like both a portent of doom and a symbol of what may lie beyond the island's shores. A young woman living with her father and her sister (to whom she has reluctantly but devotedly become a mother following the death of their own mother years prior), Manod can't shake her welling desire to explore life beyond the beautiful yet blisteringly harsh islands that her hardscrabble family has called home for generations.
-
-
Excellent book for audible
- By Lilly on 01-01-25
-
Brooklyn
- A Novel
- By: Colm Toibin
- Narrated by: Saoirse Ronan
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“One of the most unforgettable characters in contemporary literature” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the hard years following World War Two. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis in America, she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind. Eilis finds work in a department store on Fulton Street, and when she least expects it, finds love. Tony, who loves the Dodgers and his big Italian family, slowly wins her over with patient charm.
-
-
Saoirse Ronan voice is mesmerizing
- By Amazon Customer on 06-01-25
By: Colm Toibin
-
I'll Come to You
- By: Rebecca Kauffman
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A modern story of family, I’ll Come to You chronicles intersecting lives over the course of one year—1995—anchored by the anticipation and arrival of a child. With empathy, insight, and humor, Rebecca Kauffman explores overlapping narratives involving a couple whose struggle to become pregnant has both softened and hardened them; a woman whose husband of forty years has left her for reasons he’s unwilling to share and the man who is now attempting to woo her; and a couple in denial about a looming health crisis as well as their son who is fumbling toward middle age and can’t stop lying.
-
-
Richly developed Characters
- By QueeneB21 on 01-24-25
By: Rebecca Kauffman
-
Choice
- A Novel
- By: Neel Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Sofia Engstrand, Antonio Aakeel, Shaheen Khan
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"How ought one to live?" This is the question that obsesses London-based publisher Ayush, driving him to question every act of consumption. He embarks on a radical experiment in his own life and the lives of those connected to him: his practical economist husband; their twins; and even the authors he edits and publishes.
-
-
Three Disparate Takes
- By David on 06-01-24
By: Neel Mukherjee
-
Swift River
- By: Essie Chambers
- Narrated by: Shayna Small, Janina Edwards, Robin Miles
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s the summer of 1987 in Swift River, and Diamond Newberry is learning how to drive. Ever since her Pop disappeared seven years ago, she and her mother hitchhike everywhere they go. But that’s not the only reason Diamond stands out: she’s teased relentlessly about her weight, and since Pop’s been gone, she is the only Black person in all of Swift River. This summer, Ma is determined to declare Pop legally dead so that they can collect his life insurance money, get their house back from the bank, and finally move on.
-
-
Boring
- By Foxm004 on 05-14-25
By: Essie Chambers
-
The Death of Us
- A Novel
- By: Abigail Dean
- Narrated by: Claire Skinner, John Hopkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Together, Edward and Isabel move to London. They are young and in love, occupied by friends, work and fun. But late on a spring evening when they are thirty years old, their home is invaded by a serial killer. In the wake of this violation, each tries to come to terms with a night that changed everything—and their marriage begins to crumble. Twenty-five years later, their tormentor is caught, and Edward and Isabel reunite for his sentencing. Isabel has waited years for the man who nearly ended her life to be brought to justice. Edward has tried to think about anything else.
-
-
Not as good as her other books
- By Ron Rude on 05-18-25
By: Abigail Dean
-
Whale Fall
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth O'Connor
- Narrated by: Dyfrig Morris, Gabrielle Glaister, Gwyneth Keyworth, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1938, a dead whale washes up on the shores of remote Welsh island. For Manod, who has spent her whole life on the island, it feels like both a portent of doom and a symbol of what may lie beyond the island's shores. A young woman living with her father and her sister (to whom she has reluctantly but devotedly become a mother following the death of their own mother years prior), Manod can't shake her welling desire to explore life beyond the beautiful yet blisteringly harsh islands that her hardscrabble family has called home for generations.
-
-
Excellent book for audible
- By Lilly on 01-01-25
-
Brooklyn
- A Novel
- By: Colm Toibin
- Narrated by: Saoirse Ronan
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“One of the most unforgettable characters in contemporary literature” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the hard years following World War Two. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis in America, she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind. Eilis finds work in a department store on Fulton Street, and when she least expects it, finds love. Tony, who loves the Dodgers and his big Italian family, slowly wins her over with patient charm.
-
-
Saoirse Ronan voice is mesmerizing
- By Amazon Customer on 06-01-25
By: Colm Toibin
-
I'll Come to You
- By: Rebecca Kauffman
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A modern story of family, I’ll Come to You chronicles intersecting lives over the course of one year—1995—anchored by the anticipation and arrival of a child. With empathy, insight, and humor, Rebecca Kauffman explores overlapping narratives involving a couple whose struggle to become pregnant has both softened and hardened them; a woman whose husband of forty years has left her for reasons he’s unwilling to share and the man who is now attempting to woo her; and a couple in denial about a looming health crisis as well as their son who is fumbling toward middle age and can’t stop lying.
-
-
Richly developed Characters
- By QueeneB21 on 01-24-25
By: Rebecca Kauffman
-
This Strange Eventful History
- By: Claire Messud
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over seven decades, from 1940 to 2010, the pieds-noirs Cassars live in an itinerant state—separated in the chaos of World War II, running from a complicated colonial homeland, and, after Algerian independence, without a homeland at all. This Strange Eventful History, told with historical sweep, is above all a family story: of patriarch Gaston and his wife Lucienne, whose myth of perfect love sustains them and stifles their children; of François and Denise, devoted siblings connected by their family's strangeness; of François's union with Barbara; of Chloe, the result of that union.
-
-
Be Prepared for a Jarring Narration
- By Thomp/Suis on 05-17-24
By: Claire Messud
-
The Extinction of Irena Rey
- By: Jennifer Croft
- Narrated by: Lanessa Tremblett
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eight translators arrive at a house in a primeval Polish forest on the border of Belarus. It belongs to the world-renowned author Irena Rey, and they are there to translate her magnum opus, Gray Eminence. But within days of their arrival, Irena disappears without a trace. The translators, who hail from eight different countries but share the same reverence for their beloved author, begin to investigate where she may have gone while proceeding with work on her masterpiece.
-
-
Unique plot
- By Kinga on 03-30-24
By: Jennifer Croft
-
My Friends
- A Novel
- By: Hisham Matar
- Narrated by: Hisham Matar
- Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One evening, as a young boy growing up in Benghazi, Khaled hears a bizarre short story read aloud on the radio, about a man being eaten alive by a cat, and has the sense that his life has been changed forever. Obsessed by the power of those words—and by their enigmatic author, Hosam Zowa—Khaled eventually embarks on a journey that will take him far from home, to pursue a life of the mind at the University of Edinburgh.
-
-
Beautifully written
- By Anonymous User on 06-24-24
By: Hisham Matar
-
A Family Matter
- A Novel
- By: Claire Lynch
- Narrated by: Miranda Raison
- Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1982. Dawn is a young mother, still adjusting to life with her husband, when Hazel lights up her world like a torch in the dark. Theirs is the kind of connection that’s impossible to resist, and suddenly life is more complicated, and more joyful, than Dawn ever expected. But she has responsibilities and commitments. She has a daughter. 2022. Heron has just received news from his doctor that turns everything upside down. He’s an older man, stuck in the habits of a quiet existence. Telling Maggie, his only child—the person around whom his life has revolved—seems impossible.
-
-
Good story
- By Acosta on 06-05-25
By: Claire Lynch
-
The Anthropologists
- By: Aysegül Savas
- Narrated by: Kathryn Aboya
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Asya and Manu are looking at apartments, envisioning their future in a foreign city. What should their life here look like? What rituals will structure their days? Whom can they consider family? As the young couple dreams about the possibilities of each new listing, Asya, a documentarian, gathers footage from the neighborhood like an anthropologist observing local customs. “Forget about daily life,” chides her grandmother on the phone. “We named you for a whole continent and you’re filming a park.”
-
-
Can't say it's good
- By Moraz on 12-22-24
By: Aysegül Savas
-
Beautyland
- By: Marie-Helene Bertino
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognizes that she's different: she possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of earthlings.
-
-
Unforgettable
- By Amazon Customer on 02-04-24
-
Sugar, Baby
- By: Celine Saintclare
- Narrated by: Sara Novak
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sugar, Baby follows Agnes, a mixed-race 21-year-old whose life seems to be heading nowhere. Still living at home, she works as a cleaner and spends all her money in clubs on the weekends searching for distractions from her mundane life. That is until she meets Emily, daughter of one of her cleaning clients, who lives in London and works as a model...and a sugar baby, dating rich older men for money. Emily’s life is the escape Agnes has been longing for—extravagant tasting menus, champagne on tap, glamorous hotels with unlimited room service, designer gifts from dates who call her beautiful.
-
-
unnervingly realistic & incredible narration
- By mina on 02-13-24
-
Playworld
- A Novel
- By: Adam Ross
- Narrated by: Adam Ross
- Length: 22 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Griffin Hurt is in over his head. Between his role as Peter Proton on the hit TV show The Nuclear Family and the pressure of high school at New York's elite Boyd Prep—along with the increasingly compromising demands of his wrestling coach—he's teetering on the edge of collapse. Then comes Naomi Shah, twenty-two years Griffin’s senior. Unwilling to lay his burdens on his shrink—whom he shares with his father, mother, and younger brother, Oren—Griffin soon finds himself in the back of Naomi’s Mercedes sedan, again and again, confessing all to the one person who might do him the most harm.
-
-
Is it over yet?
- By Brady9876543 on 01-14-25
By: Adam Ross
-
Fire Exit
- By: Morgan Talty
- Narrated by: Darrell Dennis
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the porch of his home, Charles Lamosway has watched the life he might have had unfold across the river on Maine’s Penobscot Reservation. On the far bank, he caught brief moments of Roger and Mary raising their only child, Elizabeth from the day she came home from the hospital to her early twenties. But there’s always been something deeper and more dangerous than the river that divides him from this family and the rest of the tribal community. It’s the secret that Elizabeth is his daughter, a secret Charles is no longer willing to keep.
-
-
Wonderful story about love, family , truth and deception and identity
- By ReallyNelie on 06-23-24
By: Morgan Talty
-
The Unwedding
- Reese's Book Club Pick (A Novel)
- By: Ally Condie
- Narrated by: Christine Lakin
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The White Lotus meets Agatha Christie in this bold novel from a #1 New York Times bestselling author: a recent divorcee's exclusive Big Sur resort vacation unravels when she discovers a dead body on the day of a wedding.
-
-
A whole lot of okay
- By AmyH on 06-07-24
By: Ally Condie
-
Soldier Sailor
- A Novel
- By: Claire Kilroy
- Narrated by: Simone Collins
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Claire Kilroy takes listeners deep inside the early days of motherhood. Exploring the clash of fierce love with a seismic shift in identity, Kilroy conjures the raw, tumultuous emotions of a new mother, as her marriage strains and she struggles with questions of equality, autonomy, and creativity.
-
-
Favorite book of 2024!
- By Ana on 04-09-25
By: Claire Kilroy
-
Come and Get It
- By: Kiley Reid
- Narrated by: Nicole Lewis
- Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 2017 at the University of Arkansas. Millie Cousins, a senior resident assistant, wants to graduate, get a job, and buy a house. So when Agatha Paul, a visiting professor and writer, offers Millie an easy yet unusual opportunity, she jumps at the chance. But Millie's starry-eyed hustle becomes jeopardized by odd new friends, vengeful dorm pranks, and illicit intrigue.
-
-
LGBT Propaganda on Overdrive
- By Gretchen on 02-16-24
By: Kiley Reid
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Story of the Forest
- By: Linda Grant
- Narrated by: Anna Cordell
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1913 when Mina, the young and carefree daughter of a Jewish merchant, roams into a forest on the edge of the Baltic Sea looking for mushrooms. Instead, she encounters a gang of unruly, charismatic Bolsheviks—an adventure that will become the stuff of familial lore for generations to come. Intending to save her from further corruption, and in an act that forever changes the trajectory of their family’s life, Mina and her eldest brother, Jossel, board a ship to England.
-
-
Beautiful story connecting to Jewish History.
- By kathy lipchutz on 11-17-24
By: Linda Grant
-
The Foundling
- A Novel
- By: Ann Leary
- Narrated by: Laura Benanti
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1927, and 18-year-old Mary Engle is hired to work as a secretary at a remote but scenic institution for mentally disabled women called the Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. Soon after she’s hired, Mary learns that a girl from her childhood orphanage is one of the inmates. Mary remembers Lillian as a beautiful free spirit with a sometimes-tempestuous side. Could she be mentally disabled? When Lillian begs Mary to help her escape, Mary is faced with a terrible choice.
-
-
Interesting subject, but poor execution
- By PhotoSports on 08-16-22
By: Ann Leary
-
Bear
- A Novel
- By: Julia Phillips
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sam and Elena dream of another life. On the island off the coast of Washington where they were born and raised, they and their mother struggle to survive. Sam works on the ferry that delivers wealthy mainlanders to their vacation homes while Elena bartends at the local golf club, but even together they can’t earn enough to get by, stirring their frustration about the limits that shape their existence.
-
-
Depressing drudgery
- By Catherine on 08-09-24
By: Julia Phillips
-
The Cemetery of Untold Stories
- By: Julia Alvarez
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alma Cruz, the celebrated writer at the heart of The Cemetery of Untold Stories, doesn’t want to end up like her friend, a novelist who fought so long and hard to finish a book that it threatened her sanity. So when Alma inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic, her homeland, she has the beautiful idea of turning it into a place to bury her untold stories—literally. She creates a graveyard for the manuscript drafts and revisions, and the characters whose lives she tried and failed to bring to life and who still haunt her.
-
-
Not good for audiobook
- By Dana on 06-17-24
By: Julia Alvarez
-
These Days
- By: Lucy Caldwell
- Narrated by: Lisa Dwyer Hogg
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
April 1941: Belfast has escaped the worst of the Second World War—so far. Over the next two months, it will be so destroyed from above that people will say, in horror, “My God, Belfast is finished.” Many won’t make it through, and those who do will be forever changed. Living amid the rubble are sisters Emma and Audrey. One is engaged to be married; the other is in a secret relationship with another woman.
-
-
Somewhat boring
- By CJ on 05-26-25
By: Lucy Caldwell
-
The Light We Left Behind
- By: Tessa Harris
- Narrated by: Tor Leijten
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England: 1944. When psychologist Maddie Gresham is sent a mysterious message telling her to report to Trent Park mansion, she wonders how she will be helping the war effort from a stately home. Having signed the official secrets act, she soon finds captured Nazi generals are being detained at the house. Bugged with listening devices in every room, it’s up to Maddie to gain the Nazis’ trust and coax them into giving up information. When Max Weitzler, a Jewish refugee, also arrives at Trent Park with the same mission, Maddie finds herself trapped in a dangerous game of chess.
-
-
Great, easy read
- By Rachel B on 11-15-24
By: Tessa Harris
-
The Story of the Forest
- By: Linda Grant
- Narrated by: Anna Cordell
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1913 when Mina, the young and carefree daughter of a Jewish merchant, roams into a forest on the edge of the Baltic Sea looking for mushrooms. Instead, she encounters a gang of unruly, charismatic Bolsheviks—an adventure that will become the stuff of familial lore for generations to come. Intending to save her from further corruption, and in an act that forever changes the trajectory of their family’s life, Mina and her eldest brother, Jossel, board a ship to England.
-
-
Beautiful story connecting to Jewish History.
- By kathy lipchutz on 11-17-24
By: Linda Grant
-
The Foundling
- A Novel
- By: Ann Leary
- Narrated by: Laura Benanti
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1927, and 18-year-old Mary Engle is hired to work as a secretary at a remote but scenic institution for mentally disabled women called the Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. Soon after she’s hired, Mary learns that a girl from her childhood orphanage is one of the inmates. Mary remembers Lillian as a beautiful free spirit with a sometimes-tempestuous side. Could she be mentally disabled? When Lillian begs Mary to help her escape, Mary is faced with a terrible choice.
-
-
Interesting subject, but poor execution
- By PhotoSports on 08-16-22
By: Ann Leary
-
Bear
- A Novel
- By: Julia Phillips
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sam and Elena dream of another life. On the island off the coast of Washington where they were born and raised, they and their mother struggle to survive. Sam works on the ferry that delivers wealthy mainlanders to their vacation homes while Elena bartends at the local golf club, but even together they can’t earn enough to get by, stirring their frustration about the limits that shape their existence.
-
-
Depressing drudgery
- By Catherine on 08-09-24
By: Julia Phillips
-
The Cemetery of Untold Stories
- By: Julia Alvarez
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alma Cruz, the celebrated writer at the heart of The Cemetery of Untold Stories, doesn’t want to end up like her friend, a novelist who fought so long and hard to finish a book that it threatened her sanity. So when Alma inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic, her homeland, she has the beautiful idea of turning it into a place to bury her untold stories—literally. She creates a graveyard for the manuscript drafts and revisions, and the characters whose lives she tried and failed to bring to life and who still haunt her.
-
-
Not good for audiobook
- By Dana on 06-17-24
By: Julia Alvarez
-
These Days
- By: Lucy Caldwell
- Narrated by: Lisa Dwyer Hogg
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
April 1941: Belfast has escaped the worst of the Second World War—so far. Over the next two months, it will be so destroyed from above that people will say, in horror, “My God, Belfast is finished.” Many won’t make it through, and those who do will be forever changed. Living amid the rubble are sisters Emma and Audrey. One is engaged to be married; the other is in a secret relationship with another woman.
-
-
Somewhat boring
- By CJ on 05-26-25
By: Lucy Caldwell
-
The Light We Left Behind
- By: Tessa Harris
- Narrated by: Tor Leijten
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England: 1944. When psychologist Maddie Gresham is sent a mysterious message telling her to report to Trent Park mansion, she wonders how she will be helping the war effort from a stately home. Having signed the official secrets act, she soon finds captured Nazi generals are being detained at the house. Bugged with listening devices in every room, it’s up to Maddie to gain the Nazis’ trust and coax them into giving up information. When Max Weitzler, a Jewish refugee, also arrives at Trent Park with the same mission, Maddie finds herself trapped in a dangerous game of chess.
-
-
Great, easy read
- By Rachel B on 11-15-24
By: Tessa Harris
-
Real Americans
- A Novel
- By: Rachel Khong
- Narrated by: Louisa Zhu, Eric Yang, Eunice Wong
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn't be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love.
-
-
STELLAR STORYTELLING
- By Brenda C. on 05-02-24
By: Rachel Khong
-
A Letter to the Luminous Deep
- By: Sylvie Cathrall
- Narrated by: Claire Morgan, Joshua Riley, Justin Avoth, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A beautiful discovery outside the window of her underwater home prompts the reclusive E. to begin a correspondence with renowned scholar Henerey Clel. The letters they share are filled with passion, at first for their mutual interests, and then, inevitably, for each other. Together, they uncover a mystery from the unknown depths, destined to transform the underwater world they both equally fear and love. But by no mere coincidence, a seaquake destroys E.'s home, and she and Henerey vanish.
-
-
Heavy handed and boring
- By Carson on 05-23-24
By: Sylvie Cathrall
-
We Solve Murders
- A Novel
- By: Richard Osman
- Narrated by: Nicola Walker
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He still does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him at home. His days of adventure are over. Adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s job now. Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. Working in private security, every day is dangerous. She’s currently on a remote island protecting mega-bestselling author Rosie D’Antonio, until a dead body and a bag of money mean trouble in paradise. So she sends an SOS to the only person she trusts . . .
-
-
Who are you?
- By Karen A. on 09-24-24
By: Richard Osman
-
Mothers and Sons
- A Novel
- By: Adam Haslett
- Narrated by: Andrew Gibson, Janet Metzger
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At forty, Peter, an asylum lawyer in New York City, is overworked and isolated. He spends his days immersed in the struggles of immigrants only to return to an empty apartment and occasional hook-ups with a man who wants more than Peter can give. But when the asylum case of a young gay man pierces Peter's numbness, the event that he has avoided for twenty years returns to haunt him. Ann, his mother, who runs a women's retreat center she founded after leaving his father, is wounded by the estrangement from Peter but cherishes the world she has built.
-
-
Good multiple narrators. Tiresome characters.
- By CoastalReader on 02-20-25
By: Adam Haslett
-
Shred Sisters
- A Novel
- By: Betsy Lerner
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is said that when one person in a family is unstable, the whole family is destabilized. Meet the Shreds. Olivia is the sister in the spotlight until her stunning confidence becomes erratic and unpredictable, a hurricane leaving people wrecked in her wake. Younger sister Amy, cautious and studious to the core, believes in facts, proof, and the empirical world. None of that explains what’s happening to Ollie, whose physical beauty and charisma mask the mental illness that will shatter Amy’s carefully constructed life.
-
-
Fairly common storyline
- By Placeholder on 10-22-24
By: Betsy Lerner
-
Martyr!
- A Novel
- By: Kaveh Akbar
- Narrated by: Arian Moayed
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest.
-
-
One of the best novels I have ever read/heard.
- By James on 04-06-24
By: Kaveh Akbar
depressing !!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A little confused
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Interesting structure
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
SJP really built this up… I was disappointed
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Confusing
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Hard to follow as an audio book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Interesting perspective, but confusing
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The Relationships of Mother’s & Daughters!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The writing format is neat and interestingly told mainly by women young and grown, with the chapters named after women. The reader must pay attention to the characters, and chapters as with all good mysteries.
This is a book for anyone; a timeless tale of growth, and moral consciousness.
American literature of our generation speaking of the historical public school age dilemma for males and females now. This is a story of boys, men, women, their son’s and daughter’s and the HS experience. This is not a charming romanticized tale rather it is foggy, dark and mysterious.
Unforgettably chilling
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Poignant; witty; outstanding
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.