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  The Midwife - A Hauntingly...

  Tricia Cresswell

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  This audiobook includes a touching acknowledgements chapter read by the author, Tricia Cresswell.A haunting and moving historical fiction, The Midwife by Tricia Cresswell is perfect for fans of The Familiars and The Binding.1838. After a violent storm, a woman is found alone, naked and near death, on the Northumberland moors. She has no memory of who she is or how she got there. But she can remember how to help a woman in labour and how to expertly dress a wound, and can speak fluent French. With the odds against her, a penniless single woman, she starts to build her life from scratch, using her skills to help other women around her. She finds a happy place in the world. Until tragedy strikes, and she must run for her life . . .In London, Dr Borthwick lives a solitary life working as an accoucheur dealing with mothers and babies in the elegant homes of high society together with his midwife, and volunteering in the slums of the Devil’s Acre alongside a young widow, Eleanor Johnson. His professional reputation is spotless and he keeps his private life just as clean, isolating himself from any new acquaintances. But he is harbouring a dark secret from his past – one that threatens to spill over everything.

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  A Life Full of Holes - A Novel

  Driss Ben Hamed Charhadi

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  One of the most unusual literary innovations ever produced, A Life Full of Holes is the result of a singular collaboration between two remarkable individuals: Driss ben Hamed Charhadi, an illiterate North African servant and street vendor, and legendary American novelist and essayist Paul Bowles. The powerful story of a shepherd and petty trafficker struggling to maintain hope as he wrestles with the grim realities of daily life, it is the first novel ever written in the Arabic dialect Moghrebi, faithfully recorded and translated into English by Bowles. Straightforward yet rich in complex emotions, it is a fascinating inside look at an unfamiliar culture—harsh and startling, yet interwoven with a poignant, poetic beauty.

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  Soldier Girl

  Annie Murray

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  Soldier Girl is a sequel to A Hopscotch Summer, and is followed by All the Days of Our Lives in Annie Murray's epic saga of friendship and heartbreak, read by Penelope Freeman.Molly Fox has grown up in the back streets of Birmingham at the mercy of her cruel grandfather and her drunken mother. Though she has grown into a tall, beautiful woman, Molly is haunted by terrible family secrets. When she is found lying drunk in a gutter, Molly reaches a turning point. She decides to escape by joining the army as an ATS girl.At first her new start seems fated to be a disaster but the army gives her the encouragement she hungers for and soon her life is flourishing. But war brings tragedy as well as triumph, and when Molly receives news from home, it becomes clear that she can't escape her past so easily . . .

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  The Paris Secret - An epic and...

  Lily Graham

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  The last time Valerie was in Paris, she was three years old, running from the Nazis, away from the only home she had ever known.Now as a young woman all alone in the world, Valerie must return to Paris, to the bookshop and her sole surviving relative, her grandfather Vincent, the only person who knows the truth about what happened to her parents. As she gets to know grumpy, taciturn Vincent again, she hears a tragic story of Nazi–occupied Paris, a doomed love affair, and a mother willing to sacrifice everything for her beloved daughter.Can Valerie and Vincent help each other to mend the wounds of the past? Valerie isn't after a fairytale ending, she only wants the truth. But what is the one devastating secret that Vincent is determined to keep from his granddaughter?

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  Stealing Heaven - The Love Story...

  Marion Meade

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  Based on the true story of tragic love in twelfth-century France, this “garrulous, bustling” novel offers “the grand old tale, updated for feminist focus” (Kirkus Reviews). In twelfth century France, two of Europe’s greatest minds met and fell in love. It was a love forbidden by the world around them and eventually they were torn apart from each other. But the spark of it remained smoldering inside the lovers until their death and beyond. Heloise and her tutor, Peter Abelard, share a devotion passionate in its depth and beautiful in its thoughtfulness. They marry, and Heloise bears a son whom she names Astrolabe. However, all of this must be done in secret, for Abelard is forbidden to wed by the church, which considers him a cleric. When the truth of their relationship is exposed, they are separated and punished both in body and soul. Marion Meade weaves history and fiction together in Stealing Heaven, an epic story of one of history’s most tragic love affairs. With facts pulled from Heloise’s actual love letters, Meade creates a poetic and sensual tapestry of France in the twelfth century. Heloise and Abelard lived beyond their punishment in quiet contemplation of life and God—Abelard as a monk and Heloise as a nun and the founder of a convent. Her story is one of a brilliant woman, trapped within the confines of her society. But it is also the story of an inspiring love that has lived on throughout history.

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  The Spanish Bow - A Novel

  Andromeda Romano-Lax

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  A “riveting historical page-turner” about a cellist caught up in the tumult and passions of early twentieth-century Spain (Booklist).   A Library Journal Best Book of the Year  I was almost born Happy . . .    So begins The Spanish Bow and the remarkable history of Feliu Delargo, who just misses being “Feliz” by a misunderstanding at his birth—which he barely survives.   The bequest of a cello bow sets Feliu on the course of becoming a musician, an unlikely destiny given his beginnings in a dusty village in Catalonia. When he is compelled to flee to anarchist Barcelona, his education in music, life, and politics begins. But it isn’t until he arrives at the court of the embattled monarchy in Madrid that passion enters the composition, thanks to Aviva, a virtuoso violinist with a haunted past.   As Feliu embarks on affairs, friendships, and rivalries, forces propelling the world toward a catastrophic crescendo sweep Feliu along in their wake—in this haunting fugue of music, politics, and passion set against a half century of Spanish history, from the tail end of the nineteenth century through the Spanish Civil War and World War II, by the acclaimed author of Behave and Plum Rains.   “Expertly woven throughout the book are cameo appearances by Pablo Picasso, Adolf Hitler, Francisco Franco, Bertolt Brecht, and others, but it is the fictional Feliu, Justo, and Aviva who will keep you mesmerized to the last page.” —The Christian Science Monitor   “An impressive and richly atmospheric debut.” —The New York Times Book Review

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