
- Biographical (1,606)
- Mystery (4,364)

New to Audible?
Editors' picks
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The Miniaturist
- By: Jessie Burton
- Narrated by: Jessie Burton
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed...On an autumn day in 1686, eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman knocks at the door of a grand house in the wealthiest quarter of Amsterdam. She has come from the country to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt, but instead she is met by his sharp-tongued sister, Marin. Only later does Johannes appear and present her with an extraordinary wedding gift.
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I'm still waiting for something to happen.....
- By Fiona Keates on 28-02-16
The Miniaturist
This has been on my list for a while. I've heard it described as 'historical, literary thriller': a combination of genres that often translates as ‘long-winded and weighed down by its own sense of importance’. I finally got round to listening and it was an absolute joy. The characters are intricately flawed, heartfelt humans, and the prose is just gorgeous. It manages to be poetic and expansive but never self-indulgent, and always gripping. You are flung into the stinking, bustling, sometimes terrifying heart of medieval Amsterdam: sugar is a rare and expensive commodity, homosexuality is an abomination, reality and magic are blurred, bullies and oppressors operate under the cloak of piety and religion. A breathless listen that I binged through in three days.
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China Dolls
- By: Lisa See
- Narrated by: Jodi Long
- Length: 15 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
It’s 1938 in San Francisco: Grace, Helen, and Ruby, three young women from very different backgrounds, meet by chance at the exclusive and glamorous Forbidden City nightclub. Grace Lee, an American-born Chinese girl, has fled the Midwest with nothing but heartache, talent, and a pair of dancing shoes. Helen Fong lives with her extended family in Chinatown, where her traditional parents insist that she guard her reputation like a piece of jade. The stunning Ruby Tom challenges the boundaries of convention at every turn.
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A great story, a little drawn out
- By Louise Philpott on 01-02-20
China Dolls
Lisa See's China Dolls is an accessible and arresting story of three young women in San Francisco before the outbreak of WW2. As someone who would usually find less likable protagonists wearing, the fraught relationships in the book did not put me off, and instead I was drawn into their world.
I was first recommended this book when I finished university and had read non-fiction solidly for three years. It turned out to be the perfect story to race through and remind me what's great about fiction.
Award-winning Historical Fiction
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Wolf Hall
- By: Hilary Mantel
- Narrated by: Simon Slater
- Length: 24 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need, comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolsey's clerk, and later his successor.
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Mannered style. Dreary reading. Left me cold.
- By Amazon Customer on 14-06-18
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Lincoln in the Bardo
- By: George Saunders
- Narrated by: Nick Offerman, David Sedaris, George Saunders, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Unfolding in a graveyard over the course of a single night, narrated by a dazzling chorus of voices, Lincoln in the Bardo is a literary experience unlike any other, for no one but Saunders could conceive it. February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln's beloved 11-year-old son, Willie, dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery.
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Not for me
- By Kirsty on 11-01-18
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A Brief History of Seven Killings
- By: Marlon James
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean, Cherise Boothe, Dwight Bacquie, and others
- Length: 26 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On 3 December 1976, just weeks before Bob Marley was to play the Smile Jamaica Concert to ease political tensions, seven gunmen from West Kingston stormed his house. Marley survived and went on to perform at the free concert. Not a lot was recorded about the fate of the seven gunmen, but much has been said, whispered and sung about in the streets of West Kingston.
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Hope it wins Booker.
- By Musicista on 30-09-15
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The Narrow Road to the Deep North
- By: Richard Flanagan
- Narrated by: Richard Flanagan
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
August, 1943. In the despair of a Japanese POW camp on the Thai-Burma death railway, Australian surgeon Dorrigo Evans is haunted by his love affair with his uncle's young wife two years earlier. Struggling to save the men under his command from starvation, from cholera, from beatings, he receives a letter that will change his life forever. This savagely beautiful novel is a story about the many forms of love and death, of war and truth, as one man comes of age, prospers, only to discover all that he has lost.
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Annoying voice
- By Nev W Gilllett on 25-11-14
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The Luminaries
- By: Eleanor Catton
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 29 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
It is 1866 and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of 12 local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a whore has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely patterned as the night sky.
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Beautifully written, but slower than a snail
- By Avril Lamb on 02-11-13
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Bring Up the Bodies
- By: Hilary Mantel
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
By 1535 Thomas Cromwell, the blacksmith's son, is far from his humble origins. Chief Minister to Henry VIII, his fortunes have risen with those of Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife, for whose sake Henry has broken with Rome and created his own church. In Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel explores one of the most mystifying and frightening episodes in English history: the destruction of Anne Boleyn.
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Worthy sequel to Wolf Hall
- By catsatcastle on 14-11-12
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Wolf Hall
- By: Hilary Mantel
- Narrated by: Simon Slater
- Length: 24 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need, comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolsey's clerk, and later his successor.
-
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Mannered style. Dreary reading. Left me cold.
- By Amazon Customer on 14-06-18
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Lincoln in the Bardo
- By: George Saunders
- Narrated by: Nick Offerman, David Sedaris, George Saunders, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Unfolding in a graveyard over the course of a single night, narrated by a dazzling chorus of voices, Lincoln in the Bardo is a literary experience unlike any other, for no one but Saunders could conceive it. February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln's beloved 11-year-old son, Willie, dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery.
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Not for me
- By Kirsty on 11-01-18
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A Brief History of Seven Killings
- By: Marlon James
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean, Cherise Boothe, Dwight Bacquie, and others
- Length: 26 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On 3 December 1976, just weeks before Bob Marley was to play the Smile Jamaica Concert to ease political tensions, seven gunmen from West Kingston stormed his house. Marley survived and went on to perform at the free concert. Not a lot was recorded about the fate of the seven gunmen, but much has been said, whispered and sung about in the streets of West Kingston.
-
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Hope it wins Booker.
- By Musicista on 30-09-15
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The Narrow Road to the Deep North
- By: Richard Flanagan
- Narrated by: Richard Flanagan
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
August, 1943. In the despair of a Japanese POW camp on the Thai-Burma death railway, Australian surgeon Dorrigo Evans is haunted by his love affair with his uncle's young wife two years earlier. Struggling to save the men under his command from starvation, from cholera, from beatings, he receives a letter that will change his life forever. This savagely beautiful novel is a story about the many forms of love and death, of war and truth, as one man comes of age, prospers, only to discover all that he has lost.
-
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Annoying voice
- By Nev W Gilllett on 25-11-14
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The Luminaries
- By: Eleanor Catton
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 29 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1866 and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of 12 local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a whore has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely patterned as the night sky.
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Beautifully written, but slower than a snail
- By Avril Lamb on 02-11-13
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Bring Up the Bodies
- By: Hilary Mantel
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By 1535 Thomas Cromwell, the blacksmith's son, is far from his humble origins. Chief Minister to Henry VIII, his fortunes have risen with those of Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife, for whose sake Henry has broken with Rome and created his own church. In Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel explores one of the most mystifying and frightening episodes in English history: the destruction of Anne Boleyn.
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Worthy sequel to Wolf Hall
- By catsatcastle on 14-11-12
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The Inheritance of Loss
- By: Kiran Desai
- Narrated by: Tania Rodrigues
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
At the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas, lives an embittered old judge who wants nothing more than to retire in peace. But this is far from easy with the arrival of his orphaned granddaughter Sai, come to live with him and his chatty cook.
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The tragic consequences of colonialism and class
- By Suswati on 15-01-17
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The Blind Assassin
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Lorelei King
- Length: 18 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Even now, at the age of 82, Iris lives in the shadow cast by her younger sister Laura. Now poor and trying to cope with a failing body, Iris reflects on her far from exemplary life, in particular the events surrounding her sister's tragic death.
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Beautifully brutal
- By JC Niala on 02-02-16
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The God of Small Things
- By: Arundhati Roy
- Narrated by: Aysha Kala
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Set against a background of political turbulence in Kerala, Southern India, The God of Small Things tells the story of twins Esthappen and Rahel. Amongst the vats of banana jam and heaps of peppercorns in their grandmother's factory, they try to craft a childhood for themselves amidst what constitutes their family - their lonely, lovely mother; their beloved uncle Chacko (pickle baron, radical Marxist and bottom pincher); and their avowed enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grand-aunt).
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Captivating, magical
- By Rochelle on 28-01-17
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Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
- By: Roddy Doyle
- Narrated by: Aidan Gillen
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Paddy Clarke is ten years old. Paddy Clarke lights fires. Paddy Clarke's name is written in wet cement all over Barrytown, north Dublin. Paddy Clarke's heroes are Father Damien (and the lepers), Geronimo and George Best. Paddy Clarke has a brother called Francis, but Paddy calls him Sinbad and hates him because that's the rule. Paddy Clarke knows the exact moment to knock a dead scab from his knee.
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Great book
- By Michael Hurley on 20-11-19
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Sacred Hunger
- By: Barry Unsworth
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 22 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
1752, the Liverpool Merchant sets sail from Merseyside. A slaver, she is bound for Africa to buy men and transport them in chains across the Atlantic. But aboard ship disease thrives in the cramped hold, killing men and eating into profit. Captain Thurso insists on throwing the sick overboard, to the horror of Matthew Paris, ship's surgeon, who determines to prevent such barbarity. Meanwhile, back home, Erasmus Kemp, cousin of Paris and son of the Liverpool Merchant's owner, finds his fortune hanging in the balance: dependent on the success or failure of a single voyage....
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Excellent story, superb narration.
- By fenella on 05-12-15
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The Line of Beauty
- By: Alan Hollinghurst
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings
- Length: 17 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the summer of 1983, 23-year-old Nick Guest moves into an attic room in the Notting Hill home of the wealthy Feddens: Gerald, an ambitious Tory MP, his wife, Rachel, and their children, Toby and Catherine. Innocent of politics and money, Nick is swept up into the Feddens' world and an era of endless possibility, all the while pursuing his own private obsession with beauty.
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Obvious and lusty
- By DAVID on 09-10-18
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Possession
- A Romance
- By: A. S. Byatt
- Narrated by: Samuel West
- Length: 21 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once a literary detective novel and a triumphant love story. It is the tale of a pair of young scholars investigating the lives of two Victorian poets. Following a trail of letters, journals and poems they uncover a web of passion, deceit and tragedy, and their quest becomes a battle against time.
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Great book made greater by superb performance
- By Falluntilyoufly on 19-04-19
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The Remains of the Day
- By: Kazuo Ishiguro
- Narrated by: Dominic West
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A contemporary classic, The Remains of the Day is Kazuo Ishiguro's beautiful and haunting evocation of life between the wars in a Great English House. In the summer of 1956, Stevens, the ageing butler of Darlington Hall, embarks on a leisurely holiday that will take him deep into the countryside – and into his past.
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Nostalgia for a time that has so much to teach us
- By David Rogers on 20-07-15
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American Pastoral
- By: Philip Roth
- Narrated by: Ron Silver
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Philip Roth presents a vivid portrait of an innocent man being swept away by a current of conflict and violence in his own backyard - a story that is as much about loving America as it is hating it. Seymour "Swede" Levov, a legendary high school athlete, a devoted family man, a hard worker, and the prosperous heir of his father's Newark glove factory comes of age in thriving, triumphant postwar America. But everything he loves is lost when the country begins to run amok in the turbulent 1960s. Not even a most private, well-intentioned citizen, it seems, gets to sidestep the sweep of history. American Pastoral is the story of a fortunate American's rise and fall ... a strong, confident man, a master of social equilibrium, overwhelmed by the forces of social disorder. For the Swede is not allowed to stay forever blissful living out life in rural Old Rimrock in his 170 year-old stone farmhouse with his pretty wife (his college sweetheart and Miss New Jersey of 1949) and his lively albeit precocious daughter, the apple of his eye ... that is until she grows up to become a revolutionary terrorist.
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Mature, complex, meditative.
- By J. Neal on 02-12-15
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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 26 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
It's 1939, in New York City. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdiniesque escape, has just pulled off his greatest feat: smuggling himself out of Hitler's Prague. He's looking to make big money, fast, so that he can bring his family to freedom. His cousin, Brooklyn's own Sammy Clay, is looking for a partner in creating the heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit the American dreamscape: the comic book. Inspired by their own fantasies, fears, and dreams, they create the Escapist.
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Entertaining and deeply moving
- By Karen on 13-04-13
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Manhattan Beach
- By: Jennifer Egan
- Narrated by: Heather Lind, Norbert Leo Butz, Vincent Piazza
- Length: 15 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Anna Kerrigan, nearly 12 years old, accompanies her father to the house of a man who, she gleans, is crucial to the survival of her father and her family. Anna observes the uniformed servants, the lavishing of toys on the children and some secret pact between her father and Dexter Styles. Years later her father has disappeared, and the country is at war. Anna works at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where women are allowed to hold jobs that had always belonged to men.
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It could have been great but somehow it wasn't.
- By bookylady on 22-04-18
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All the Light We Cannot See
- By: Anthony Doerr
- Narrated by: Julie Teal
- Length: 17 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks (there are thousands of locks in the museum). When she is six, she goes blind, and her father builds her a model of their neighbourhood, every house, every manhole, so she can memorise it with her fingers and navigate the real streets with her feet and cane. When the Germans occupy Paris, father and daughter flee to Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast, where Marie-Laure's agoraphobic great uncle lives in a tall, narrow house by the sea wall.
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Despite the narrator
- By JF7588 on 06-02-15
New & Notable Historical Fiction
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The Binding
- By: Bridget Collins
- Narrated by: Carl Prekopp
- Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a letter arrives summoning him to begin an apprenticeship. He will work for a Bookbinder, a vocation that arouses fear, superstition and prejudice - but one neither he nor his parents can afford to refuse. He will learn to handcraft beautiful volumes, and within each he will capture something unique and extraordinary: a memory. If there’s something you want to forget, he can help. If there’s something you need to erase, he can assist. Your past will be stored safely in a book and you will never remember your secret, however terrible.
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Magical
- By Orsolya Gyorfi on 19-01-19
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Musashi
- By: Eiji Yoshikawa, Charles S. Terry - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 53 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman. Miyamoto Musashi becomes a reluctant hero to a host of people whose lives he has touched and by whom he has been touched. Inevitably, he has to pit his skill against the naked blade of his greatest rival.
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Wonderful and engaging story
- By Amazon Customer on 16-01-19
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The Familiars
- By: Stacey Halls
- Narrated by: Katy Sobey
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Fleetwood Shuttleworth is 17 years old, married and pregnant for the fourth time. But as the mistress at Gawthorpe Hall, she still has no living child, and her husband, Richard, is anxious for an heir. When Fleetwood finds a letter she isn't supposed to read from the doctor who delivered her third stillbirth, she is dealt the crushing blow that she will not survive another pregnancy. Then she crosses paths by chance with Alice Gray, a young midwife. Alice promises to help her give birth to a healthy baby and to prove the physician wrong.
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Wonderful book and beautifully read!
- By Rebecca on 07-08-19
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Blackberry and Wild Rose
- By: Sonia Velton
- Narrated by: Heather Long, Beth Eyre
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Esther Thorel, the wife of a Huguenot silk weaver, rescues Sara Kemp from a brothel she thinks she is doing God's will. Sara is not convinced being a maid is better than being a whore, but the chance to escape her grasping madam is too good to refuse. Inside the Thorels' tall house in Spitalfields, where the strange cadence of the looms fills the attic, the two women forge an uneasy relationship.
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Captivating
- By Mrs. M. Morrison on 23-04-19
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Once Upon a River
- By: Diane Setterfield
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A dark midwinter’s night in an ancient inn on the Thames. The regulars are entertaining themselves by telling stories when the door bursts open on an injured stranger. In his arms is the drowned corpse of a little child. Hours later the dead girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can it be explained by science? An exquisitely crafted multilayered mystery brimming with folklore, suspense and romance as well as with the urgent scientific curiosity of the Darwinian age, Once Upon a River is as richly atmospheric as Setterfield’s best seller The Thirteenth Tale.
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Delightful!
- By C. Long on 13-11-19
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The Glovemaker's Daughter
- By: Leah Fleming
- Narrated by: Anne Dover
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
From the acclaimed author of The Last Pearl and Dancing at the Victory Cafe, this is a beautiful novel about dark family secrets, betrayal, love and redemption. 1666. A child is born in the farmhouse at Windebank, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Named Rejoice (Joy) by her dying father, Joy grows up witness to the persecution of the farming community for following a banned faith. Defying the authority of the local priest, she joins a group of Yorkshire pioneers travelling to the New World to form a colony close to Philadelphia - a passionate, rebellious and courageous woman fighting against the constraints of the time. Will she find peace and love?
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Wow
- By helenelakin on 07-12-20
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The Binding
- By: Bridget Collins
- Narrated by: Carl Prekopp
- Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a letter arrives summoning him to begin an apprenticeship. He will work for a Bookbinder, a vocation that arouses fear, superstition and prejudice - but one neither he nor his parents can afford to refuse. He will learn to handcraft beautiful volumes, and within each he will capture something unique and extraordinary: a memory. If there’s something you want to forget, he can help. If there’s something you need to erase, he can assist. Your past will be stored safely in a book and you will never remember your secret, however terrible.
-
-
Magical
- By Orsolya Gyorfi on 19-01-19
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Musashi
- By: Eiji Yoshikawa, Charles S. Terry - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 53 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman. Miyamoto Musashi becomes a reluctant hero to a host of people whose lives he has touched and by whom he has been touched. Inevitably, he has to pit his skill against the naked blade of his greatest rival.
-
-
Wonderful and engaging story
- By Amazon Customer on 16-01-19
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The Familiars
- By: Stacey Halls
- Narrated by: Katy Sobey
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fleetwood Shuttleworth is 17 years old, married and pregnant for the fourth time. But as the mistress at Gawthorpe Hall, she still has no living child, and her husband, Richard, is anxious for an heir. When Fleetwood finds a letter she isn't supposed to read from the doctor who delivered her third stillbirth, she is dealt the crushing blow that she will not survive another pregnancy. Then she crosses paths by chance with Alice Gray, a young midwife. Alice promises to help her give birth to a healthy baby and to prove the physician wrong.
-
-
Wonderful book and beautifully read!
- By Rebecca on 07-08-19
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Blackberry and Wild Rose
- By: Sonia Velton
- Narrated by: Heather Long, Beth Eyre
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Esther Thorel, the wife of a Huguenot silk weaver, rescues Sara Kemp from a brothel she thinks she is doing God's will. Sara is not convinced being a maid is better than being a whore, but the chance to escape her grasping madam is too good to refuse. Inside the Thorels' tall house in Spitalfields, where the strange cadence of the looms fills the attic, the two women forge an uneasy relationship.
-
-
Captivating
- By Mrs. M. Morrison on 23-04-19
-
Once Upon a River
- By: Diane Setterfield
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A dark midwinter’s night in an ancient inn on the Thames. The regulars are entertaining themselves by telling stories when the door bursts open on an injured stranger. In his arms is the drowned corpse of a little child. Hours later the dead girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can it be explained by science? An exquisitely crafted multilayered mystery brimming with folklore, suspense and romance as well as with the urgent scientific curiosity of the Darwinian age, Once Upon a River is as richly atmospheric as Setterfield’s best seller The Thirteenth Tale.
-
-
Delightful!
- By C. Long on 13-11-19
-
The Glovemaker's Daughter
- By: Leah Fleming
- Narrated by: Anne Dover
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the acclaimed author of The Last Pearl and Dancing at the Victory Cafe, this is a beautiful novel about dark family secrets, betrayal, love and redemption. 1666. A child is born in the farmhouse at Windebank, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Named Rejoice (Joy) by her dying father, Joy grows up witness to the persecution of the farming community for following a banned faith. Defying the authority of the local priest, she joins a group of Yorkshire pioneers travelling to the New World to form a colony close to Philadelphia - a passionate, rebellious and courageous woman fighting against the constraints of the time. Will she find peace and love?
-
-
Wow
- By helenelakin on 07-12-20
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The Glass Woman
- By: Caroline Lea
- Narrated by: Heiða Reed, Smari Gunn
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Iceland, 1686. The brutal, lava-scarred landscape can swallow a man without so much as a volcanic gasp. Jón Eiríksson has just married his second wife in a year. But Rósa's new home in the windswept village of Stykkishólmur is terrifyingly isolated - the villagers are suspicious of strangers and fearful of something which they will not name. What is Rósa's new husband's secret, and why does the spectre of his first wife Anna haunt them so?
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The Glass Woman
- By Susie on 03-04-19
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The House on Vesper Sands
- By: Paraic O’Donnell
- Narrated by: Charles Armstrong
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
It is the winter of 1893, and in London the snow is falling. It is falling as Gideon Bliss seeks shelter in a Soho church, where he finds Angie Tatton lying before the altar. His onetime love is at death's door, murmuring about brightness and black air and about those she calls the Spiriters. In the morning she is gone. The snow is falling as a seamstress climbs onto a ledge above Mayfair, a mysterious message stitched into her own skin.
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Perfect!
- By MISS E J BIRD on 09-12-18
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The Confessions of Frannie Langton
- By: Sara Collins
- Narrated by: Sara Collins, Roy McMillan
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
They say I must be put to death for what happened to Madame, and they want me to confess. But how can I confess what I don't believe I've done? 1826, and all of London is in a frenzy. Crowds gather at the gates of the Old Bailey to watch as Frannie Langton, maid to Mr and Mrs Benham, goes on trial for their murder. The testimonies against her are damning - slave, whore, seductress. And they may be the truth. But they are not the whole truth. For the first time Frannie must tell her story.
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An astonishing literary debut
- By Cassie Wallis on 01-04-19
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Blood & Sugar
- By: Laura Shepherd-Robinson
- Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
June, 1781. An unidentified body hangs upon a hook at Deptford Dock - horribly tortured and branded with a slaver’s mark. Some days later, Captain Harry Corsham - a war hero embarking upon a promising parliamentary career - is visited by the sister of an old friend. Her brother, passionate abolitionist Tad Archer, had been about to expose a secret that he believed could cause irreparable damage to the British slaving industry. He’d said people were trying to kill him, and now he is missing....
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Blood, sweat, toil, ...
- By Lee on 19-12-19
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The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter
- By: Hazel Gaynor
- Narrated by: Imogen Church
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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1838: when a terrible storm blows up off the Northumberland coast, Grace Darling, the lighthouse keeper’s daughter, knows there is little chance of survival for the passengers on the small ship battling the waves. But her actions set in motion an incredible feat of bravery that echoes down the century. 1938: when 19-year-old Matilda Emmerson sails from across the Atlantic to New England, she faces an uncertain future. Sent away in disgrace, she must stay with her reclusive relative, Harriet Flaherty, a lighthouse keeper on Rhode Island.
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loved it
- By Kindle Customer on 30-08-19
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We Must Be Brave
- By: Frances Liardet
- Narrated by: Penelope Freeman, Louise Jameson
- Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
December, 1940. As German bombs fall on Southampton, the city’s residents flee to the surrounding villages. In Upton village, amid the chaos, newly married Ellen Parr finds a girl sleeping, unclaimed at the back of an empty bus. Little Pamela, it seems, is entirely alone. Ellen has always believed she does not want children, but when she takes Pamela into her home the child cracks open the past Ellen thought she had escaped and the future she and her husband, Selwyn, had dreamed for themselves. As the war rages on, love grows where it was least expected, surprising them all.
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Must we always be brave?
- By Sigrin on 12-04-20
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The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock
- By: Imogen Hermes Gowar
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 17 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar, read by Juliet Stevenson. This voyage is special. It will change everything.... One September evening in 1785, the merchant Jonah Hancock hears urgent knocking on his front door. One of his captains is waiting eagerly on the step. He has sold Jonah's ship for what appears to be a mermaid.
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Utterly beguiling and brilliantly believable.
- By ms.t.s.hutchings on 20-02-18
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A Respectable Trade
- By: Philippa Gregory
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Bristol in 1787 is booming, from its stinking docks to its elegant new houses. Josiah Cole, a small dockside trader, is prepared to gamble everything to join the big players of the city. But he needs ready cash and a well-connected wife. An arranged marriage to Frances Scott is a mutually convenient solution. Trading her social contacts for Josiah’s protection, Frances enters the world of the Bristol merchants and finds her life and fortune dependent on the respectable trade of sugar, rum and slaves.
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Five star performance
- By Lauren on 27-02-19
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Tidelands
- By: Philippa Gregory
- Narrated by: Louise Brealey
- Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Alinor, a descendant of wise women, crushed by poverty and superstition, waits in the graveyard under the full moon for a ghost who will declare her free from her abusive husband. Instead she meets James, a young man on the run, and shows him the secret ways across the treacherous marsh, not knowing that she is leading disaster into the heart of her life. Suspected of possessing dark secrets in superstitious times, Alinor’s ambition and determination mark her out from her neighbours.
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Engaging story, sadly let down by narration
- By SazMcD on 18-09-19
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Earthly Joys
- By: Philippa Gregory
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 17 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A traveller in a time of discovery, the greatest gardening pioneer of his day, yet a man of humble birth: John Tradescant's story is a mirror to the extraordinary age in which he lives. As gardener and confidant to Sir Robert Cecil, Tradescant is well placed to observe the social and political changes that are about to sweep through the kingdom.
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An engrossing start which sadly got monotonous
- By Annie on 24-09-19
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The Beauty of the Wolf
- By: Wray Delaney
- Narrated by: Rachel Atkins
- Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the age of the Faerie Queene, Elizabeth I, Lord Francis Rodermere starts to lay waste to a forest. Furious, the sorceress who dwells there scrawls a curse into the bark of the first oak he fells: A faerie boy will be born to you whose beauty will be your death. Ten years later, Lord Rodermere’s son, Beau is born - and all who encounter him are struck by his great beauty. Meanwhile, many miles away in a London alchemist’s cellar lives Randa - a beast deemed too monstrous to see the light of day. And so begins a timeless tale of love, tragedy and revenge.
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Magical and poetic retelling of a classic!
- By Elizabeth on 21-02-19
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Everyone Brave Is Forgiven
- By: Chris Cleave
- Narrated by: Luke Thompson
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When war is declared, Mary North leaves finishing school unfinished, goes straight to the War Office, and signs up. Tom Shaw decides to give it a miss - until his flatmate, Alistair, unexpectedly enlists, and the conflict can no longer be avoided. Young, bright and brave, Mary is certain she'd be a marvelous spy. When she is - bewilderingly - made a teacher, she instead finds herself defying prejudice to protect the children her country would rather forget.
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An astonishing blend of laughter and pain.
- By Black Mary on 10-06-16
Only from Audible best sellers
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Legacy of War
- By: Wilbur Smith, David Churchill - contributor
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The war is over; Hitler is dead - and yet his evil legacy lives on. Saffron Courtney and her beloved husband, Gerhard, only just survived the brutal conflict, but Gerhard's Nazi-supporting brother, Konrad, is still free and determined to regain power. As a dangerous game of cat and mouse develops, a plot against the couple begins to stir. One that will have ramifications throughout Europe....
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I Capture the Castle
- By: Dodie Smith
- Narrated by: Jenny Agutter
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
"I write this sitting at the kitchen sink" is the first line of a novel about love, sibling rivalry, and a bohemian existence in a crumbling castle in the middle of nowhere. Cassandra Mortmin's journal records her fadingly glamorous stepmother, her beautiful, wistful older sister, and the man to whom they owe both their isolation and poverty: Father. The author of one experimental novel, and a minor cause celebre, he has since suffered from writer's block and is determined to drag his family down with him.
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funny and well written
- By Patricia on 22-05-06
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Clarissa Oakes
- Aubrey-Maturin Series, Book 15 (Unabridged)
- By: Patrick O'Brian
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Captain Jack Aubrey sails away from the hated Australian prison colonies in his favourite vessel the Surprise, pondering on middle age and sexual frustration. He soon becomes aware that he is out of touch with the mood of his ship: to his astonishment he finds that in spite of a lifetime's experience he does not know what the foremost hands or even his own officers are thinking.
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A weak (ish) link?
- By Mr. N. W. Boothman on 26-08-20
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The Nutmeg of Consolation
- Aubrey-Maturin Series, Book 14
- By: Patrick O'Brian
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Shipwrecked on a remote island in the Dutch East Indies, Captain Aubrey, surgeon and secret intelligence agent Stephen Maturin, and the crew of the Diane fashion a schooner from the wreck. A vicious attack by Malay pirates is repulsed, but the makeshift vessel burns, and they are truly marooned. Their escape from this predicament is one that only the whimsy and ingenuity of Patrick O Brian or Stephen Maturin could devise.
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another cracking read
- By MR DONALD RIFFLART on 06-04-19
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Legacy of War
- By: Wilbur Smith, David Churchill - contributor
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The war is over; Hitler is dead - and yet his evil legacy lives on. Saffron Courtney and her beloved husband, Gerhard, only just survived the brutal conflict, but Gerhard's Nazi-supporting brother, Konrad, is still free and determined to regain power. As a dangerous game of cat and mouse develops, a plot against the couple begins to stir. One that will have ramifications throughout Europe....
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I Capture the Castle
- By: Dodie Smith
- Narrated by: Jenny Agutter
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
"I write this sitting at the kitchen sink" is the first line of a novel about love, sibling rivalry, and a bohemian existence in a crumbling castle in the middle of nowhere. Cassandra Mortmin's journal records her fadingly glamorous stepmother, her beautiful, wistful older sister, and the man to whom they owe both their isolation and poverty: Father. The author of one experimental novel, and a minor cause celebre, he has since suffered from writer's block and is determined to drag his family down with him.
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funny and well written
- By Patricia on 22-05-06
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Clarissa Oakes
- Aubrey-Maturin Series, Book 15 (Unabridged)
- By: Patrick O'Brian
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Captain Jack Aubrey sails away from the hated Australian prison colonies in his favourite vessel the Surprise, pondering on middle age and sexual frustration. He soon becomes aware that he is out of touch with the mood of his ship: to his astonishment he finds that in spite of a lifetime's experience he does not know what the foremost hands or even his own officers are thinking.
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A weak (ish) link?
- By Mr. N. W. Boothman on 26-08-20
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The Nutmeg of Consolation
- Aubrey-Maturin Series, Book 14
- By: Patrick O'Brian
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Shipwrecked on a remote island in the Dutch East Indies, Captain Aubrey, surgeon and secret intelligence agent Stephen Maturin, and the crew of the Diane fashion a schooner from the wreck. A vicious attack by Malay pirates is repulsed, but the makeshift vessel burns, and they are truly marooned. Their escape from this predicament is one that only the whimsy and ingenuity of Patrick O Brian or Stephen Maturin could devise.
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another cracking read
- By MR DONALD RIFFLART on 06-04-19
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H.M.S. Saracen
- By: Douglas Reeman
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Malta 1941. To most people H.M.S. Saracen is just an ugly, obsolete ship with an equally ugly recent history: her last commander is due for court-martial after shelling the troops he was sent to protect. But to Captain Richard Chesnaye she brings back memories - memories of the First World War when he and the old monitor went through the Gallipoli campaign together. It seems that captain and ship are both past their best. But as the war enters a new phase Chesnaye senses the possibility of a fresh, significant role - for him and the Saracen.
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Ripping stuff
- By Ceri on 17-10-12
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Warlock
- Ancient Egypt, Book 3
- By: Wilbur Smith
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 26 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Even before he could move, the full realisation of what confronted him blazed in the Pharaoh's mind. This was the foul and loathsome thing that Taita, with his clairvoyant powers, had smelt in the air. The light was strong enough for him to make out every detail of the enemy he had loved as a friend. The magic of the gods. The treachery of man. In his long life, Taita has gone from slave to warlock, and now his wisdom and abilities are known throughout the kingdom. But even his immense skills cannot protect those close to him from the evil that lurks at the heart of Egypt.
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Excellent listen
- By Karl on 23-07-19
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The Thirteen-Gun Salute
- Aubrey-Maturin Series, Book 13
- By: Patrick O'Brian
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Jack Aubrey and his old friend Dr Maturin are sailing on a secret mission with a hand-picked crew, most of them shipmates from the adventures and lucrative voyages of earlier years.
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A break in the action
- By Turquelblue on 02-01-21
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The Seventh Scroll
- Ancient Egypt, Book 2
- By: Wilbur Smith
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 24 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Royan Al Simma is the victim of a vicious attack that leaves her husband dead, her only thought is that she must continue their joint work: to use the secrets of the seventh scroll to find the hidden tomb of Pharaoh Mamose and its untold trove of lost Egyptian riches. To do so, she must bury her grief and partner with the eccentric aristocrat Nicholas Quenton-Harper, a man who shares her passion for the ancient world. But the men who killed her husband are not yet finished.
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Swashbuckling Indiana Jones Treasure Hunt
- By NJD on 03-12-20
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Saturnalia
- Marcus Didius Falco, Book 18
- By: Lindsey Davis
- Narrated by: Christian Rhodska
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
It is the Roman holiday of Saturnalia. The days are short, the nights are for wild parties. A general has captured a famous enemy of Rome, and brings her home to adorn his Triumph as a ritual sacrifice. But the logistics go wrong.
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SATURNALIA & AUDIBLE, A GREAT MIX
- By B. A. Chapman on 10-03-09
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The Quest
- Ancient Egypt, Book 4
- By: Wilbur Smith
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 26 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
She is omnivorous. No matter age or appearance, physical frailty or imperfection. It is not their flesh that feeds her appetites, but their souls. She devours young and old, men and women. She leaves only a desiccated husk. An unspeakable evil. An impossible gift. Renowned magus Taita is now over 100 years old and has ascended to a new level of wisdom and understanding about his world. But he must prepare himself for the biggest threat Egypt has ever faced: the great plagues and the failure of the Nile, brought about by the fire witch Eos, an ancient force of sheer evil.
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ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO READ!!
- By Tracy Foster on 30-07-19
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The Rabbit Girls
- Audible’s Debut of the Year 2019
- By: Anna Ellory
- Narrated by: Gemma Arterton, Simon Callow
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Berlin, 1989. As the wall between East and West falls, Miriam Winter cares for her dying father, Henryk. When he cries out for someone named Frieda - and Miriam discovers an Auschwitz tattoo hidden under his watch strap - Henryk’s secret history begins to unravel. Searching for more clues of her father’s past, Miriam finds an inmate uniform from the Ravensbrück women’s camp concealed among her mother’s things. Within its seams are dozens of letters to Henryk written by Frieda.
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Fantastic
- By Jo on 13-09-19
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A Falcon Flies
- The Ballantyne Series, Book 1
- By: Wilbur Smith
- Narrated by: Elliot Chapman
- Length: 21 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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A Falcon Flies is the first best-selling novel in Wilbur Smith's epic tale of Africa, The Ballantyne Novels. In search of a father they barely remember, Zouga and Dr Robyn Ballantyne board Mungo St John's magnificent clipper to speed them to Africa. But long before they sight that mighty continent, Robyn knows that she and Mungo will battle with all the fury of natural enemies - and love with all the desperation of those unable to evade the commands of fate.
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fantastic book well worth the money
- By stuart on 06-06-19
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Lieutenant Hornblower
- By: C. S. Forester
- Narrated by: Christian Rodska
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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In this new adventure, Hornblower is overjoyed to discover his next task is to serve aboard the mighty HMS Renown. After witnessing some unsettling scenes however, he soon finds himself struggling to serve under the captain, James Sawyer, whose unsound mind leads him to treat his crew with extreme suspicion and contempt.
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Loved this!
- By RMWK on 26-02-18
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The Moon And Sixpence
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Robert Hardy
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Charles Strickland, a conventional stockbroker, abandons his wife and children for Paris and Tahiti, to live his life as a painter. While his betrayal of family, duty and honour gives him the freedom to achieve greatness, his decision leads to an obsession which carries severe implications.
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Not great, apart from the Reader.
- By David on 11-06-11
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Master and Commander
- Aubrey-Maturin Series, Book 1
- By: Patrick O'Brian
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 15 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Master and Commander is the first of Patrick O’Brian’s now famous Aubrey-Maturin novels, regarded by many as the greatest series of historical novels ever written. It establishes the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey RN and Stephen Maturin, who becomes his secretive ship’s surgeon and an intelligence agent. It displays the qualities which have put O’Brian far ahead of any of his competitors.
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At last, unabridged and well read...it begins.
- By John on 19-01-12