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The Teacher's Lie

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The Teacher's Lie

By: Brid Cummings
Narrated by: Mia Wasikowska
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About this listen

There are some secrets you just can’t bury.

A gripping Audible Original for fans of Jane Harper’s The Dry and Sarah Pearse’s The Sanatorium, The Teacher’s Lie is a psychological thriller set on the harsh and rugged South Australian coast, performed by Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland, The Kids Are All Right).

It’s been two years since Anna Cartwright’s life fell apart. During her first school trip as a young teacher, a student went missing and was never found. Not only was her career ruined, she was also accused of having an affair with fellow teacher and prime suspect Graham. Facing questions from journalists, police and family, Anna said she didn’t know what happened. She was lying.

Now, Anna has returned to Australia. Her only hope is Land’s End Area School, an isolated concrete wasteland perched on the cliffs. The failing institution is so understaffed that it is the one place her history might remain hidden. But while the eccentric Headmistress seems welcoming, deputy-head Miss Baxter seems determined to expose her secrets.

With new lies spinning out of control, how long can Anna keep her secret hidden? And is she being haunted by her guilt or by something far more sinister?

©2024 Brid Cummings (P)2024 Audible Ltd. Psychological Thriller & Suspense

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About the Creator

Brid Cummings is a writer living in South Australia whose stories veer towards the darker side of fiction. Her love of nature and wild places often provide inspiration for her stories, as does her curiosity about all things mysterious. Brid’s short stories have been published in a range of magazines and anthologies. She was the winner of the inaugural Glencairn Crime Short Story Competition and a winner of The Ghost Story Screw Turn Competition. When not writing fiction, Brid can be found hiking the beautiful trails around South Australia with her independently minded kelpie.

About the Performer

Mia Wasikowska recently starred in Jessica Hausner’s thriller Club Zero, which premiered in competition at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
Her recent credits include Mia Hansen-Love’s Bergman Island, which had its World Premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, Robert Connolly’s Blueback based on the Tim Winton novel of the same name, Roger Michell’s Blackbird alongside Kate Winslet, Sam Neill and Susan Sarandon, the Netflix feature The Devil All the Time alongside Chris Evans, Robert Pattinson and Tom Holland, and Mirrah Foulkes’ debut feature Judy and Punch, which had its World Premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, and earned her a Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Actress.
Mia gained international recognition as the title character in Tim Burton’s 2010 retelling of the Lewis Carrol novel Alice in Wonderland, alongside Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter. Her performance earned her the AFI Award for Best International Actress. In 2015, she reprised the role in James Bobin’s sequel, Alice Through the Looking Glass.
Her other credits include Nicolas Pesce’s Piercing, which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, David Zellner’s Damsel, Cedric Jimenez’ The Man with the Iron Heart, Guillermo Del Toro’s period thriller Crimson Peak, Sophie Barthes’ Madame Bovary, David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars, Richard Ayoade’s The Double, John Curran’s Tracks, Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, Chan-wook Park’s Stoker, John Hillcoat’s Lawless, Rodrigo Garcia’s Albert Nobbs, Cary Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre, Gus Van Sant’s Restless, Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right, Scott Teems’ That Evening Sun, Peter Carstairs’ September, Greg McLean’s Rogue and Paul Goldman’s Suburban Mayhem. Mia also featured in the first season of the acclaimed HBO series In Treatment.
Mia made her directorial debut with Long, Clear View, a segment of The Turning anthology film, based on Tim Winton’s novel, which was nominated for an AACTA Award in 2013. She followed this with Afterbirth, a segment of Madly, an international anthology of short films featuring innovative love stories, which premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.
In 2019, Mia made her main stage theatre debut as Ralph in the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Lord of the Flies, directed by Kip Williams.
Mia has also received the Hollywood Breakthrough Actress of the Year Award and the Australians in Film Breakthrough Award.
Photographed by Almin Zrno.

All stars
Most relevant
By chapter 9 I could go on no longer- the mystery, the misery, the environment, depression completely overcame me. I read all the time- a huge variety of books and thought immediately that the book is well written and evocative- but no spark of relief to keep me going through the gloom and fearful threat.

Relentlessly painful

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Why are there so many alleyways around this school in the middle of nowhere? This is so badly paced. Even when something dramatic happens it takes forever because the description is so laborious. All the characters talk like NPCs from a video game and miss off possessive pronouns when they speak to the point that it gets irritating. Weird ending as well. I never thought I would come across a worse book than The Cone Gatherers, but here we are.

Long boring nonsense

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I really enjoyed the whole book. There were some excellent characters and a nice twisty storyline. Because I’m an old softy, I’d like a little bit more in the postscript.

Excellent characters with a deep secret

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This wasn’t what I expecting from the write up. It’s a strange supernatural sort of thing which really isn’t my bag - made infinitely worse by the droning narration. I had to keep re-listening to parts of it as my mind kept wandering off … I’ve never had that happen whilst listening to a book before! The story wasn’t really there … nothing actually happened … and I can’t, for the life in me, fathom out what the story was actually supposed to be. Pretty ridiculous.

Far fetched and just … weird

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The story had potential but the whole background story is dragged on for way too long and most events happening don't really add anything more. I was very bored throughout. The reader was very talented at making different voices and setting the scenes everytime. Would not recommend.

very slow story...

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