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Crusoe's Daughter

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Crusoe's Daughter

By: Jane Gardam
Narrated by: Jilly Bond
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About this listen

In 1904, when she was six, Polly Flint went to live with her two holy aunts at the yellow house by the marsh - so close to the sea that it seemed to toss like a ship, so isolated that she might have been marooned on an island. And there she stayed for 81 years, while the century raged around her, while lamplight and Victorian order became chaos and nuclear dread. Crusoe's Daughter, ambitious, moving and wholly original, is her story.

©2012 Jenny Gardam (P)2014 Audible Studios Historical Fiction Fiction
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I loved the way the narrator brought Jane Gardam's story alive - brilliant voices , excellent timing and pauses with superb cadences. The story was a magnificent blend of joy, tragedy and detailed vibrant reality

Crusoe's Daughter

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It is a long time since I read Crusoe's Daughter, so I did not remember the details well. I really enjoyed this reading, although at first I was not sure of the narrator - she does a fair job of conveying Polly's changing age, but seems rather more comfortable in the middle years. This is not a book for those who want a galloping plot, with rapid action and cliff hanging moments - this is the evocation of a life rooted in a particular place, of a child gradually understanding the world around her, of an early love that colours the decades to come... The marsh, the Yellow House, the curiously distant and unknowable adults, the shining wonder of first love are all vividly conveyed. I will be downloading more Jane Gardam!

Thoroughly enjoyed it

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I’d never heard of Jane Gardam until listening to the New York Times Book Review podcast a couple of weeks ago. The contributor’s enthusiasm for this work whetted my appetite; and I have just loved this book. The ability of the author to draw us into Polly Flint’s life with such sensibility, humour and narrative expertise is stunning. I shall read this again and seek out more works by Jane Gardam.

A unique novel

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This was a very quirky but extremely good read.I thoroughly enjoyed it. The reader is excellent.

quirky

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The spoken accents were appalling and distracting. The little girl voice used throughout was annoying.

The depth of author’s knowledge and erudition

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