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The Beloved Girls
- Narrated by: Siobhan Redmond
- Length: 18 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
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Summary
The outstanding new novel from the Sunday Times Top 10 best-selling author of The Garden of Lost and Found.
'It's a funny old house. They have this ceremony every summer.... There's an old chapel, in the grounds of the house. Half-derelict. The Hunters keep bees in there. Every year, on the same day, the family processes to the chapel. They open the combs, taste the honey. Take it back to the house. 'Half for them' - my father winced, as though he had bitten down on a sore tooth. 'And half for us.'
Catherine, a successful barrister, vanishes from a train station on the eve of her anniversary. Is it because she saw a figure - someone she believed long dead? Or was it a shadow cast by her troubled, fractured mind?
The answer lies buried in the past. It lies in the events of the hot seismic summer of 1989, at Vanes - a mysterious West Country manor house - where a young girl, Jane Lestrange, arrives to stay with the gilded, grand Hunter family, and where a devastating tragedy will unfold. Over the summer, as an ancient family ritual looms closer, Janey falls for each member of the family in turn. She and Kitty, the eldest daughter of the house, will forge a bond that decades later is still shaping the present....
'We need the bees to survive, and they need us to survive. Once you understand that, you understand the history of Vanes, you understand our family.'
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What listeners say about The Beloved Girls
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 07-09-21
A quite different Harriet Evans
I've just finished this with a smile on my face but to be honest it was a long time coming. I definitely think this will be a marmite book if you, like me, are a fan of this author. It was almost like she'd been told to 'uplevel' her writing style and this did distract from the story a little, lots of descriptive language and needless sub plots. All that said I did enjoy it, but for me not one of her best.
2 people found this helpful
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- Bastet Pybus
- 25-08-21
Deeply moving, utterly gripping
I got this as fluffy convalescent reading but was blown away. Harriet Evans has upped her game hugely - this is a world away from her other novels and really quite outstanding. I don’t suppose she will get the full recognition she deserves, now she has been pigeonholed (and of course she is a woman writer!) - but I salute her and am humbled by my own assumptions. It resonated with me particularly as a 50 year old professional woman who experienced some of the traumas and experiences described in the book. So thank you, Harriet Evans, and thanks also to Siobhan Redmond for such a vivid rendering of this surprising, ambitious, passionate and compassionate book.
2 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 29-08-21
Rather disappointing.
The story started for me with such promise and was of great interest as the story was based in the area which I live. Unfortunately my interest waned as I found the tale terribly slow and I struggled to listen to the whole story.
1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 15-07-22
Just ok-wouldn’t recommend
I nearly gave up after a couple of hours but then the story went back in time and picked up a bit. It continued to hold my interest as I wanted to find out what had gone on but it turns out, nothing much! I got through it but I wouldn’t recommend it.
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- val thorpe
- 07-07-22
Fantastically enjoyable
beautifully performed and a twisting, engaged and rich plot. just loved this book - best for a long time
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- Dawn
- 10-10-21
Not for me
I’ve struggled through about a third of this novel but in the end admitted defeat, and returned it. I bought it having enjoyed The Garden of Lost and Found, but this is a different beast altogether. The author is without doubt an extraordinarily talented writer. The plot, characters and the writing itself are complex and cleverly crafted. I can see why it has been described as a ‘stunning’ novel. Yet whilst acknowledging its many merits I found I just couldn’t actually enjoy it. I didn’t find it gripping or absorbing, no momentum driving me on to listen to ‘just one more chapter’. I didn’t find the characters sympathetic enough to continue listening, the many sub-plot tangents and the repeated rhyme I found irritating. Without doubt an exceptional piece of writing, but just not my cup of tea.
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- Miss L Toe
- 03-10-21
A mystery buried in the past
A sweeping epic fabulously and intelligently written. Wonderfully narrated and I was both desperate to reach the end and saddened too that it finished. Brilliant!
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- B Yemm
- 13-09-21
Too Long
Like another listener of this book I thought it started out well and I did enjoy the references to the late 1980's.
Sadly I thought the book was unnecessarily long and found some of the characters were not fully explored or their parts in the book explained sufficiently.
The biggest disappointment however was reaching the end to have no definite conclusion as to what happened to one of the main characters!! I found it hard to believe from the way her character had been portrayed throughout that she would behave the way she did at the end and again no explanation for this.
The narrator's voice for me was a little too posh and mature and not well suited to the two young girl characters she was reading, but thought she read well the parts of two of the older women.
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- Marie Littler
- 05-09-21
Late nights warning!
A fabulous story, hooked from the opening chapter. Great narration. highly recommend to others. kept me up late on several nights .