Paul Pen has 4 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 4 narrators, with an average listener rating of 5★ across 1 ratings. The most-rated is Under the Water.
Under the Water
Summary
What does the perfect family have to fear most? The perfect stranger. From the outside, Frank and Grace seem to have the perfect family. He’s a loving husband, she’s a devoted wife, and together they have two happy children. But appearances can be deceiving. A strange series of misfortunes has left them reeling: an unexplained break-in, a catastrophic handgun accident, and a bizarre poisoning that’s left Grace feeling especially unnerved. Packing up their RV for a move across the country, they’re ready for a fresh start, expecting to leave all their problems safely behind. Then one night on the road to their new home, the figure of a young woman emerges from the darkness, causing them to swerve off the road. The injured stranger says her name is Mara. Miles from help, Frank does what any decent man would do. He invites Mara to stay. But Mara is hiding a secret. And she is not the only one. Was it all just another inexplicable accident? Or has Frank opened the door to an escalating family nightmare designed to tear his perfect world apart?
©2019 Paul Pen, Translation © 2019 by Simon Bruni. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved
The Warning
Summary
A strange pattern of death emerges in a small Spanish town in this novel of twisting suspense by international bestselling author Paul Pen. I don’t wish to frighten you, reads the anonymous note introverted and bullied eight-year-old Leo Cruz finds in his backpack. All the sender asks is that he avoid a certain spot on a certain day, or he’ll die. Leo has reason to be afraid. The warning hearkens back to nearly a decade ago - to the same site, where a murder has become local folklore and a favorite campfire tale reinvented year after year by the kids of Arenas, a small Spanish town. Leo’s parents initially suspect the lonely boy’s cruel classmates. The perfect joke to terrorize an impressionable victim. Unless, as they come to believe, it’s Leo himself who is the author of the warning. Is Leo being lured to an unavoidable fate? Is someone taking bullying to a dangerous new level? Or is there something else at work in Arenas, a town with intersecting destinies and a century of secrets?
©2011 by Paul Pen. Translation © 2020 by Simon Bruni. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Desert Flowers
Summary
Rose and Elmer have created an idyllic sanctuary for themselves and their five daughters in Mexico's Baja California desert. Out there in the middle of nowhere, blissfully cut off from the burdens of modern society, they're free to raise their beautiful family...and preserve its secret. And they're never giving it up. Then a young hiker named Rick comes looking for a place to stay. It's just for the night, he says - but long enough for Rose and Elmer to fear they've made a horrible mistake. As the stranger grows more intrusive and more suspicious, the couple know they must do what they can to protect themselves. What they don't know is that Rick has a secret, too. Soon, home and family will prove to be as cold and dark as the desert nights. And even with so many places to run, there's still no escape from the past that binds them.
©2017 Paul Pen. Translation copyright 2017 Simon Bruni. (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
The Light of the Fireflies
Summary
A haunting and hopeful tale of discovering light in even the darkest of places. For his whole life, the boy has lived underground, in a basement with his parents, grandmother, sister, and brother. Before he was born, his family was disfigured by a fire. His sister wears a white mask to cover her burns. He spends his hours with his cactus, reading his book on insects, or touching the one ray of sunlight that filters in through a crack in the ceiling. Ever since his sister had a baby, everyone's been acting very strangely. The boy begins to wonder why they never say who the father is, about what happened before his own birth, about why they're shut away. A few days ago, some fireflies arrived in the basement. His grandma said, There's no creature more amazing than one that can make its own light. That light makes the boy want to escape, to know the outside world. Problem is, all the doors are locked. And he doesn't know how to get out....
©2013 Paul Pen (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Translation © 2016 Simon Bruni.