Edwina Wren has narrated 19 audiobooks on Listento.it by 14 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 76 ratings. The most-rated is People of the Book.
People of the Book
Summary
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March, the journey of a rare illuminated prayer book through centuries of war, destruction, theft, loss, and love. Inspired by a true story, People of the Book is a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotional intensity by an acclaimed and beloved author. Called "a tour de force"by the San Francisco Chronicle, this ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in 15th-century Spain. When it falls to Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, to conserve this priceless work, the series of tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding - an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair - only begin to unlock its deep mysteries and unexpectedly plunges Hanna into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics.
©2008 Geraldine Brooks (P)2008 Penguin Audio
King Lear
Summary
This shattering drama of isolation and loss is one of the greatest tragedies in world literature. King Lear of Britain has three daughters: the hard-hearted Goneril and Regan, and the good and gentle Cordelia. He determines to divide his kingdom between them, giving the largest share to she who can say she loves him the best. Lear's tragic lack of judgment and self-knowledge is paralleled by the blindness of the loyal Gloucester who is persuaded to reject his virtuous son, Edgar, in favor of the villainous Edmund. Lear is played by Trevor Peacock and Gloucester by Clive Merrison. Penny Downie is Goneril, Samantha Bond is Regan, and Julia Ford is Cordelia. Edgar is played by David Tennant, Edmund by Gerard Murphy, and the Fool by John Rogan.
Public Domain (P)2014 Blackstone Audiobooks
The Next Pandemic
Summary
An inside account of the fight to contain the world's deadliest diseases - and the panic and corruption that make them worse. Throughout history, humankind's biggest killers have been infectious diseases: the Black Death, the Spanish Flu, and AIDS alone account for over 100 million deaths. We ignore this reality most of the time, but when a new threat - Ebola, SARS, Zika - seems imminent, we send our best and bravest doctors to contain it. People like Dr. Ali S. Khan. In his long career as a public health first responder - protected by a thin mask from infected patients, napping under nets to keep out scorpions, making life-and-death decisions on limited, suspect information - Khan has found that rogue microbes will always be a problem, but outbreaks are often caused by people. We make mistakes, politicize emergencies, and, too often, fail to imagine the consequences of our actions. The Next Pandemic is a firsthand account of disasters like anthrax, bird flu, and others - and how we could do more to prevent their return. It is both a gripping story of our brushes with fate and an urgent lesson on how we can keep ourselves safe from the inevitable next pandemic.
©2016 Ali Khan (P)2017 Hachette Audio
A Mother's Gift
Summary
For Leah Otto, marrying Jude Shetler is a long-held dream come true. As a young girl, she was captivated by his good looks and talent as an auctioneer. When Jude, now a widower with three children, begins to court her, Leah doesn't hesitate. Other men may not appreciate her tomboy ways, but Jude values Leah's practical nature and her skill with the animals she tends, and both enter the marriage with joy and optimism. Three months later, Leah feels as if her world is coming down around her. Her twin teenage step-daughters, Alice and Adeline, are pushing boundaries and taking far too many risks, while five-year-old Stevie deeply misses his mother. Leah, more at ease in a barn tending her goats and chickens than in a kitchen, struggles with her housekeeping duties. Then a baby is abandoned on their doorstep, and Leah must search her soul. Caring for little Betsy fills her with renewed purpose and the strength to begin pulling her family together. With Jude's steadfast support, Leah finds that what she once thought of as a happy ending may be something even better - the beginning of a life rich in love, faith, and unexpected blessings.
©2018 Charlotte Hubbard (P)2018 Tantor
Her Mother's Secret
Summary
England, 1918. Armistice Day should bring peace into Leonora's life. Rather than secretly making cosmetics in her father's chemist shop to sell to army nurses such as Joan, her adventurous Australian friend, Leo hopes to now display her wares openly. Instead, Spanish flu arrives in the village, claiming her father's life. Determined to start over, she boards a ship to New York City. On the way she meets debonair department store heir Everett Forsyth.... In Manhattan, Leo works hard to make her cosmetics dream come true, but she's a woman alone with a small salary and a society that deems make-up scandalous. New York City, 1949. Everett's daughter, Alice, a promising ballerina, receives a mysterious letter inviting her to star in a series of advertisements for a cosmetics line. If she accepts she will be immortalized like dancers such as Zelda Fitzgerald, Josephine Baker and Ginger Rogers. Why, then, are her parents so quick to forbid it? Her Mother's Secret is the story of a brave young woman chasing a dream in the face of society's disapproval.
©2017 Natasha Lester (P)2017 Audible, Ltd
Fault Lines
Summary
Sol is a gifted but also terrifying six year old; his mother believes he is destined for greatness. He has a birthmark, like his dad, his grandmother and great-grandmother. But when they all make an unexpected trip to Germany, terrible secrets emerge about their family's story during World War II. Perhaps birthmarks are not all that has been passed down through this family. With its domestic focus but epic scope, Fault Lines is a compelling, touching and often funny novel about four generations of children and their parents. From California to New York, from Haifa to Toronto and Munich, the secrets unwind back through time, the present haunted by the past, until the devastating truth is reached.
©2007 Nancy Huston (P)2009 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
The Road to Gundagai
Summary
A heartwarming family saga set in the Snowy Mountains during the Depression in the 1930s Blue Laurence has escaped the prison of her aunt's mansion to join the Magnifico Family Circus, a travelling troupe that brings glamour and laughter to country towns gripped by the Depression. Blue hides her crippled legs and scars behind the sparkle of a mermaid's costume; but she's not the only member of the circus hiding a dark secret. The unquenchable Madame Zlosky creates as well as foresees futures. The bearded lady is a young man with laughing eyes. A headless skeleton dangles in the House of Horrors. And somewhere a murderer is waiting...to strike again. This third book in the Waltz for Matilda saga is set in 1932, at the height of the Depression. Miss Matilda is still running Drinkwater Station, but has put aside her own tragedy to help those suffering in tough economic times and Joey, from The Girl from Snowy River, uses his new medical skills to solve a mystery.
©2020 Jackie French (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
The Last Dingo Summer
Summary
A body has been found in the burned-out wreckage of the church at Gibber's Creek - with older skeletons lying beneath it. The corpse is identified as that of Ignatius Mervyn, the man who attempted to kill Jed Kelly and her unborn child. Newcomer Fish Johnstone is drawn into the murder investigation, convinced that the local police are on the wrong track with their enquiries. But as she digs beneath the warm and welcoming surface of the Gibber's Creek community, more secrets emerge. And Fish must also face her own mystery - the sudden appearance and then disappearance of her father, a Vietnamese refugee she never knew. Set during the Indigenous rights and "boat people" controversies of the late 1970s, this haunting story shows how love and kindness can create the courage to face the past.
©2018 Jackie French (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
Facing the Flame
Summary
There have been fires before, but not like this. In 1978, as the hot wind howls and the grass dries, all who live at Gibber's Creek know their land can burn. But when you love your land, you fight for it. For Jed Kelly, an even more menacing danger looms: a man from her past determined to destroy her. Finding herself alone, trapped, and desperate to save her unborn child, Jed's only choice is to flee - into the flames. Heartbreaking and powerful, Facing the Flame celebrates the triumph of courage and community and a love for the land so deep that not even bushfire can erode it. Praise: "The perfect read for anyone who loves immersing themselves in Australian fiction. Gripping, emotional, and moving, Facing the Flame is a great book to curl up with on a warm spring night." (New Idea)
©2017 Jackie French (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
The Ghost by the Billabong
Summary
The fifth title in the sweeping Matilda Saga. Hippies wear beads, demonstrators march against the Vietnam War, and the world waits to see the first human steps on the moon's surface. But at Gibbers Creek, Jed Kelly sees ghosts, from the past and future, at the Drinkwater billabong where long ago the swaggie leaped to his defiant death. But is 17-year-old Jed a con artist or a survivor? When she turns up at Drinkwater Station claiming to be the great-granddaughter of Matilda Thompson's dying husband, Jed clearly has secrets. As does a veteran called Nicholas, who was badly wounded in the Vietnam War and now must try to create a life he truly wants to live, despite the ghosts that haunt him, too. Set during the turbulence of the late 1960s, this was a time when brilliant and little-known endeavors saw Australia play a vital role in Neil Armstrong's "one giant leap for mankind" on that first unforgettable moon walk. The fifth title in the highly acclaimed Matilda Saga, The Ghost by the Billabong is a story of deep conflicts and enduring passions - for other people, for the land, and for the future of humanity.
©2015 Jackie French (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
To Love a Sunburnt Country
Summary
In war-torn Malaya, Nancy dreams of Australia - and a young man called Michael. The year is 1942 and the world is at war. Nancy Clancy left school at 14 to spend a year droving, just like her grandfather Clancy of the Overflow. Now 16, Nancy's family has sent her to Malaya to bring home her sister-in-law Moira and baby nephew Gavin. Yet despite the threat of Japanese invasion, Moira resists, wanting to stay near her husband Ben. But not even Nancy of the Overflow can stop the fall of Singapore and the capture of so many Australian troops. When their ship is bombed, Nancy, Moira and Gavin are reported missing. Back home at Gibbers Creek, Michael refuses to believe the girl he loves has died. As Darwin, Broome, and even Sydney are bombed, Australians must fight to save their country. But as Michael and the families of Gibbers Creek discover, there are many ways to love your country, and many ways to fight for it. From one of Australia's most-admired storytellers comes a gripping and unforgettable novel based on true events and little-known people. This is a story about ultimate survival and the deepest kinds of love. "A book about a love of country that is heartwarming and heartbreaking, and hard to put down." (Adelaide Advertiser, four stars)
©2014 Jackie French (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
If Blood Should Stain the Wattle
Summary
It's 1972 in Gibber's Creek, and across the nation, the catchcry is "It's time". As political ideals drift from disaster to the dismissal, it's also time for Jed Kelly to choose between past love, Nicholas, the local Labor member, and Sam from the Halfway to Eternity commune. It's time, too, for Matilda Thompson to face her ghosts and the life that took a young girl from the slums of Grinder's Alley to being the formidable matriarch of Gibber's Creek. During this period of extraordinary social change and idealism, modern Australia would be born. And although the nation would dream of a better world, it would continue to struggle with opposing ideas of exactly what that better world might be. Jackie French, author of the best-selling To Love a Sunburnt Country, has woven her own experience of that time into an unforgettable story of a small rural community and a nation swept into the social and political tumult of the early 1970s. A time that would bear witness to some of the most controversial events in Australian history; and for Matilda, a time that would see her vision made real, without blood spilled upon the wattle.
©2016 Jackie French (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
Clancy of the Overflow
Summary
From Australia's best-loved storyteller comes the final title in the best-selling Matilda Saga. This is a love song to our nation, told in a single sweeping story. Jed Kelly has finally persuaded her great-aunt Nancy to tell the story of her grandparents. The tale that unfolds is one of Australia's greatest romances - that of Clancy of the Overflow, who gave up everything for Rose, the woman he adored, and yet still gained all he'd lost and more. But Nancy's story is not the history that Jed expects. More tales lurk behind the folklore that surrounds Clancy - the stories of the women hidden in Australia's long history who forged a nation and whose voices need to be heard. It is also a story of many kinds of love. Clancy's growing passion for the bush, immortalized in Paterson's poem, which speaks to him in the ripple of the river and the song of the stars, and Nancy's need to pass on her deep understanding of her country. But perhaps the most moving love story of all is the one that never happened, between Matilda O'Halloran and Clancy of the Overflow. And as Jed brings all of these stories to life in her book, Matilda and Clancy will once again waltz beside the river and the forgotten will be given a new voice.
©2019 Jackie French (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
Penguin the Magpie
Summary
Penguin the Magpie is an extraordinary true story of recovery, hope, and courage as one injured bird and her human family learn to heal and celebrate life, told in a captivating narrative by New York Times best-selling author of The Blue Day Book, Bradley Trevor Greive. People around the world have fallen in love with Penguin the Magpie, a global social media sensation, and her adventures with her human family. But there is far more to Penguin's story than meets the eye. It all begins when Sam, Cameron Bloom's wife, suffers a near fatal fall that leaves her paralyzed and deeply depressed. One of their three sons, reeling from the tragic accident, discovers an injured magpie chick abandoned after she had fallen from her nest. The boys name the bird Penguin, for her black-and-white plumage. As they nurse Penguin back to health, the incredible joy, playfulness, and strength she exudes fortify the family and especially lift Sam's spirits. Penguin's resilience demonstrates that however bleak things may seem, compassion, friendship, and support can come from unexpected places, ensuring there will always be better days ahead. This plucky little magpie reminds us all that no matter how lost, fragile, or damaged we feel, accepting the love of others and loving them in return will help to make us whole.
©2017 Cameron Bloom (P)2017 Simon & Schuster Audio
A Waltz for Matilda
Summary
The story behind Banjo Paterson's iconic Australian song. "Once a jolly swagman camped by a Billabong Under the shade of a Coolibah tree And he sang as he watched and waited till his Billy boiled You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me...." In 1894, 12-year-old Matilda flees the city slums to find her unknown father and his farm. But drought grips the land, and the shearers are on strike. Her father has turned swaggie, and he's wanted by the troopers. In front of his terrified daughter, he makes a stand against them, defiant to the last. "You'll never catch me alive," said he.... Set against a backdrop of bushfire, flood, war, and jubilation, this is the story of one girl's journey toward independence. It is also the story of others who had no vote and very little but their dreams. Drawing on the well-known poem by A.B. Paterson and from events rooted in actual history, this is the untold story behind Australia's early years as an emerging nation. Praise: "Jackie French has a passion for history, and an enviable ability to weave the fascinating minutiae of everyday life into a good story." (Magpies Magazine)
©2010 Jackie French (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
The Twins
Summary
International best seller published in 21 countries. More than 1 million copies sold. Feature film was an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Film 2005. One of the Sunday Times '100 Best Books of the Year' and No. 1 in The Independent's '50 Best Books of the Summer 2005'. Originally published in the Netherlands in 1993, De Loo's first novel to be translated into English explores the enmity that existed between Germans and the rest of Europe after World War II. This moving tale addresses notions of guilt and responsibility in a sensitive, thought-provoking manner, without exonerating or condemning. Twins Anna and Lotte Bamberg are born in Cologne but orphaned and separated when they are five. While Lotte is taken in by Dutch relatives, Anna is raised by her grandfather in rural poverty. With the advent of war, their lives take very different turns: Lotte!s family hides an assortment of refugees, while Anna finds love with a soldier of the Reich. Besides two unsuccessful brief meetings, they have no contact until a chance encounter in the Belgian resort town of Spa about 40 years after the war. Anna is eager to reestablish their relationship, yet Lotte is more reluctant. As she gradually comes to understand that not all is black and white, she is able to find her sister again. While some may sense (and resent) an apologist tone to the novel, readers are asked to look deeply into themselves and others before making blanket judgments.
©2008 Tessa de Loo (P)2008 Bolinda Publishing
The Scholl Case
Summary
Brigitte Scholl disappeared on 29 December 2011, the day after her 47th wedding anniversary. The flowers her husband had given her - red roses - were still on the living room table; in the corner stood the Christmas tree, straight as a die and lavishly decorated. Everything had to be just so. It was to be perfect right up to the end. A woman is brutally murdered and buried in the woods. Suspicion falls on her husband - the former mayor of a small town south of Berlin. They had been married almost 50 years and were considered the perfect couple. Award-winning journalist Anja Reich-Osang covered the trial. She spoke with relatives and friends of the victim and the accused - and with the former mayor himself, who denies his guilt to this day. But there is more to this story than the question of innocence or guilt. The Scholl Case is about a marriage, about a small town, about sex and politics. It is a psychological profile of a man driven to succeed - a man who started with nothing, conquered the world, and then lost all he had gained.
©2016 Anja Reich-Osang (P)2016 Bolinda Publishing
The Girl from Snowy River
Summary
In the tradition of The Man from Snowy River comes a gripping and courageous sequel to A Waltz for Matilda The year is 1919. Thirty years have passed since the man from Snowy River made his famous ride. But World War I still casts its shadow across a valley in the heart of Australia, particularly for orphaned 16-year-old Flinty McAlpine, who lost a brother when the Snowy River men marched away to war. Why has the man Flinty loves returned from the war so changed and distant? Why has her brother Andy "gone with cattle", leaving Flinty in charge of their younger brother and sister and with the threat of eviction from the farm she loves so dearly? A brumby muster held under the watchful eye of the legendary Clancy of the Overflow offers hope. Now Flinty must ride to save her farm, her family, and the valley she loves. Set among the landscapes of the great poems of Australia, this book is a love song to the Snowy Mountains and a tribute to Australia's poets who immortalised so much of our land. The Girl from Snowy River combines passion, heartbreak, history, and an enduring love and rich understanding of Australia.
©2012 Jackie French (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
The Performance
Summary
A novel about three women at turning points in their lives, and the one night that changes everything. One night, three women go to the theater to see a play. Wildfires are burning in the hills outside, but inside the theater it is time for the performance to take over. Margot is a successful, flinty professor on the cusp of retirement, distracted by her fraught relationship with her adult son and her ailing husband. After a traumatic past, Ivy is is now a philanthropist with a seemingly perfect life. Summer is a young drama student, an usher at the theater, and frantically worried for her girlfriend whose parents live in the fire zone. While the performance unfolds on stage, so does the compelling trajectory that will bring these three women together, changing them all. Deliciously intimate and yet emotionally wide-ranging, The Performance is a novel that both explores the inner lives of women as it underscores the power of art and memory to transform us.
©2021 Claire Thomas (P)2021 Penguin Audio