Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • The Ripping Tree

  • By: Nikki Gemmell
  • Narrated by: Abbe Holmes
  • Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
  • 3.0 out of 5 stars (1 rating)
Get this deal Try for £0.00
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Ripping Tree cover art

The Ripping Tree

By: Nikki Gemmell
Narrated by: Abbe Holmes
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £13.00

Buy Now for £13.00

Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Love Song cover art
The Lightkeeper cover art
City of Ruin cover art
A Clash of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix cover art
The Light on Farallon Island cover art
Skylarking cover art
The Whisperling cover art
Extasia cover art
Spinning the Moon cover art
The House of Closed Doors cover art
Lighthouse Bay cover art
Penhaligon's Attic cover art
Summer of Secrets cover art
The Path of Thorns cover art
The Last Summer cover art
The Hiding Places cover art

Summary

Get out. Before they save you. 

Early 1800s. Thomasina Trelora is on her way to the colonies. Her fate: to be married to a clergyman she's never met. As the Australian coastline comes into view a storm wrecks the ship and leaves her lying on the rocks, near death. She's saved by an Aboriginal man who carries her to the door of a grand European house, Willowbrae.

Tom is now free to be whoever she wants to be, and a whole new life opens up to her. But as she's drawn deeper into the intriguing life of this grand estate, she discovers that things aren't quite as they seem. She stumbles across a horrifying secret at the heart of this world of colonial decorum—and realises she may have exchanged one kind of prison for another.

The Ripping Tree is an intense, sharp shiver of a novel, which brings to mind such diverse influences as The Turn of the Screw, Rebecca and the film Get Out as much as it evokes The Secret River. A powerful and gripping tale of survival written in Nikki Gemmell's signature lyrical and evocative prose, it examines the darkness at the heart of early colonisation. Unsettling, audacious, thrilling and unstoppable.
©2021 Nikki Gemmell (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Women's Fiction United States Historical
Show More Show Less

Critic reviews

"You are likely to be so distracted by [the beauty of the writing] that you realise you have missed the story...and the only thing to do is go back and start all over again. If ever a book deserved to become a classic, The Ripping Tree does." (The Canberra Times)

"An immersive tale of intrigue, friendship and female independence. Think Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled meets Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock." (Sydney Morning Herald)

"A beautifully descriptive yet unsettling tale of survival." (Herald Sun)

More from the same

Author

Narrator

What listeners say about The Ripping Tree

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 2 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.co.uk reviews

Amazon reviews
Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Aisling McWilliam

Beautifully written but ruined by the ending!

The language, the story, the suspense, all fabulous but the abrupt falling off a cliff ending was really disappointing…

Report this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!