The People We Were Before cover art

The People We Were Before

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The People We Were Before

By: Annabelle Thorpe
Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Only £0.99 a month for the first 3 months. Pay £0.99 for the first 3 months, and £8.99/month thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Start my membership

About this listen

If war is madness, how can love survive?

Growing up in the borderlands between Croatia and Serbia, Miro's blissful childhood is shattered when his best friend is horribly wounded by a land mine, a legacy of conflicts gone by.

Moving to the Dalmatian coast, where his parents start a small hotel, he thinks he has left this all behind - he falls in love and starts a family with his childhood sweetheart, Dina. But as his country descends into another devastating war, one split-second decision that causes his daughter's death destroys the life he has managed to build.

Rejected by his grieving wife, Miro takes a job as a cameraman with a news channel and is plunged into the hard-bitten, black-humoured world of the international war reporters. He even finds some solace in an affair with Marian, a BBC journalist, but as he feels the war changing him and his loved ones beyond all recognition, he must struggle to keep his relationship, and his soul, intact.

©2016 Annabelle Thorpe (P)2016 WF Howes Ltd 20th Century Historical Historical Fiction Romance War

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Silence cover art
The Skylark's Secret cover art
When God Was a Rabbit cover art
We Shall Remember cover art
What Tomorrow Brings cover art
The Color of Secrets cover art
Island in the East cover art
In Her Wake cover art
The Reunion cover art
The Forgotten Village cover art
Together cover art
The Woman at 72 Derry Lane cover art
Summer of Secrets cover art
All stars
Most relevant
I read this book before visiting Dubrovnik. I like to read books set in places I travel to.

Enjoyable book, giving insight into the motivation and background of the main characters on different sides of the war.

I read this fictional account at the same time as reading (listening to) Flags to die for by Tim Marshall (factual book). Between the two books, I got an excellent understanding of the history of what was Yugoslavia. This knowledge helped me make the most of my trip.

I lovely way to learn about Croatia

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I was enthralled with this book, perfectly narrated and so sensitively written. I would have happily had the storyline continue for many more hours.

A heart-rending story not to be missed

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.