AuthorMaggie Hartley
NarratorPenny Macdonald
Duration6h 44m
CategoriesAdult Fiction, Novels
PublisherOrion
VersionUnabridged
Ruth was a ghost of a girl when she arrived into foster mother Maggie Hartley's care. Pale, frail and withdrawn, it was clear to Maggie that Ruth had seen and experienced things that no 11-year-old should have to, that she had been conditioned to 'see no evil, speak no evil'. Ruth is in desperate need of help, but can Maggie get through to her and unlock the harrowing secret she carries? Through love, reassurance and patience, Maggie starts to unravel Ruth's painful past - a past defined by cruelty and abuse by the very people who should have protected her. Raised by a cruel stepmother and her father after her own mum abandoned her, Ruth was abused, underfed and ignored while her half siblings lived a life of luxury. It's up to Maggie to help Ruth find her voice - to be a ghost no more and bring those who have harmed her to justice.
Author: Jane Fallon
Author Jane Fallon
Narrator Jo Joyner
Duration 10h 8m
Brought to you by Penguin. Welcome to The Close - a beautiful street of mansions, where gorgeous Stella is the indisputable Queen Bee . . . It is here that Laura, seeking peace and privacy after her marriage falls apart, rents a tiny studio. Unfortunately, her arrival upsets suspicious Stella - who fears Laura has designs on her fiance, Al. When La...
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Author: Tsitsi Dangarembga
Author Tsitsi Dangarembga
Narrator Adenrele Ojo
Duration 11h 32m
Anxious about her prospects after leaving a stagnant job, Tambudzai finds herself living in a run-down youth hostel in downtown Harare. For reasons that include her grim financial prospects and her age, she moves to a widow's boarding house and eventually finds work as a biology teacher. But at every turn in her attempt to make a life for herself,...
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Author: Maggie Hartley
Author Maggie Hartley
Narrator Penny Mcdonald
Duration 5h 57m
After a horrific car crash, thirteen-year-old Louisa is left fighting for her life in hospital. She wakes to find that her loving, happy family has been shattered overnight, with both of her parents now dead. With no one to care for her, Louisa is entirely alone. Britain's most-loved foster carer Maggie Hartley is called in to help Louisa cope with...
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Author: Douglas Stuart
Author Douglas Stuart
Narrator Angus King
Duration 17h 41m
This is the unforgettable story of young Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in run-down public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Thatcher's policies have put husbands and sons out of work, and the city's notorious drugs epidemic is waiting in the wings. Shuggie's mother Agnes walks a wayward path: she is Shuggie'...
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Author: Maggie Hartley
Author Maggie Hartley
Narrator Penelope MacDonald
Duration 5h 16m
When newborn baby Felix is found abandoned at a train station, the police launch a desperate search for his mum. It doesn't take long for their inquiries to lead them to Emily. While baby Felix is placed in Maggie's care, the police and Social Services try and work out why Emily, a single mum, who has gone through fertility treatment to get pregnan...
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Author: Curtis Sittenfield
Author Curtis Sittenfield
Narrator Carrington Macduffie
Duration 13h 58m
'Awfully opinionated for a girl' is what they call Hillary as she grows up in her Chicago suburb. Smart, diligent, and a bit plain, that's the general consensus. Then Hillary goes to college, and her star rises. At Yale Law School, she continues to be a leader- and catches the eye of driven, handsome and charismatic Bill. But when he asks her to ma...
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Author: Maggie Hartley
Author Maggie Hartley
Narrator Penny Macdonald
Duration 7h 7m
Evie and Elliot are scrawny, filthy and wide-eyed with fear when they turn up on foster carer Maggie Hartley's doorstep. Aged just two and three years old, this brother and sister have hardly set foot outside their own home. They have been prisoners, locked in a terrifying world of abuse, violence and neglect. Maggie soon realises that Evie and El...
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Author: Dawn O'Porter
Author Dawn O'Porter
Narrator Dawn O'Porter
Duration 9h 19m
Is anyone's life.... Beth shows that women really can have it all. Ruby lives life by her own rules. And then there's Lauren, living the dream. As perfect as it looks? Beth hasn't had sex in a year. Ruby feels like she's failing. Lauren's happiness is fake news. And it just takes one shocking event to make the truth come tumbling out...
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Author: Maggie Hartley
Author Maggie Hartley
Narrator Penelope McDonald
Duration 5h 29m
When three brothers come to live with Maggie, she knows that it's going to be challenging. They are all already struggling with rejection after their dad abandoned them, their mum having died several years before. While four-year-old Billy is a delight, eleven-year-old Keegan is quiet and withdrawn, and teenager Cooper is a whirlwind of destruction...
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Author: Celeste Ng
Author Celeste Ng
Narrator Cassandra Campbell
Duration 10h 8m
Lydia is the favourite child of Marilyn and James Lee; a girl who inherited her mother's bright blue eyes and her father's jet-black hair. When Lydia's body is found in the local lake, James is consumed by guilt, and Marilyn, devastated and vengeful, is determined to hold someone accountable. But it's the youngest in the family - Hannah - who may b...
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