Simon Bruni - translator has 6 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 5 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
Turned to Stone
Summary
Spanish journalist and art historian Jaime Azcárate has always been a magnet for trouble. So when the authorities call on him to help investigate a museum heist while he's enjoying a rare vacation, he is more annoyed than surprised. Jaime brushes off the detectives' pleas to find a missing and reportedly cursed Medusa sculpture, until an attempt on his life pulls him into the investigation. With nowhere else to turn, Jaime reaches out to the only person in the world who can help: Paloma Blasco, the ex-girlfriend with whom he authored an article on the priceless statue. The pair must put their differences aside as they travel from Greece to Sardinia to find the Medusa - before the curse claims another victim.
©2014 Jorge Magano (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Translation copyright © 2015 Simon Bruni.
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.
The Empress
Summary
From a bestselling author in Mexico comes her English-language debut - an enthralling historical novel about the tragic reign of Empress Carlota of Mexico. It’s 1863. Napoleon III has installed a foreign monarch in Mexico to squash the current regime. Maximilian von Habsburg of Austria accepts the emperor’s crown. But it is his wife, the brilliant and ambitious Princess Charlotte, who throws herself passionately into the role. Known to the people as Empress Carlota, she rules deftly from behind the scenes while her husband contents himself with philandering and decorating the palace. But Carlota bears a guilty secret. Trapped in a loveless marriage, she’s thrown herself into a reckless affair. Desire has blinded Carlota to its consequences, for it has left her vulnerable to her sole trusted confidante. Carlota’s devious lady-in-waiting has political beliefs of her own - and they are strong enough to cause her to betray the empress and join a plot to depose her from the throne. As Carlota grows increasingly, maddeningly defenseless, both her own fate and that of the empire are at stake. A sweeping historical novel of forbidden love, dangerous secrets, courtly intrigue, and treachery, The Empress passionately reimagines the tragic romance and ill-fated reign of the most unforgettable royal couple of nineteenth-century Europe during the last throes of the Second Empire.
©2017 by Laura Martínez-Belli. Translation © 2020 by Simon Bruni. (P)2020 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.