Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Twelve Moons

  • A Year Under a Shared Sky
  • By: Caro Giles
  • Narrated by: Caro Giles
  • Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (18 ratings)
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.
Twelve Moons cover art

Twelve Moons

By: Caro Giles
Narrated by: Caro Giles
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
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...

Hermit cover art
If Women Rose Rooted cover art
The Instant cover art
Hagitude cover art
The Flow cover art
Windswept cover art
The Outrun cover art
When God Was a Rabbit cover art
The Butterfly Garden cover art
The First Wife cover art
I Found My Tribe cover art
Devorgilla Days cover art

Summary

TWELVE MOONS follows a year spent caught between the wild sea and the changing moon of the wide Northumberland skies.

Caro Giles lives on the far edge of the country, with her tribe of daughters: The Mermaid, The Whirlwind, The Caulbearer and The Littlest One. She is at once alone and yet surrounded. Bound by circumstance, financial constraints, illness and the challenges of single motherhood, she has nowhere to go but the fierce landscape that surrounds her.

Over the course of the year, the moon becomes her fellow traveller through dark times, and companion through joyful ones – and even when the sky is wreathed in cloud, the moon is still felt in the pull of the tides.

TWELVE MOONS follows the lunar calendar, each chapter sharing a month and a moon, and shows the simmering power that lies in our often hidden daily lives. A dazzlingly honest memoir that while never turning away from the awkward truths of life, also shows how love will flourish if we can only find a space for ourselves.

Set against windswept beaches and ancient hills, this is a story steeped in nature and landscape. Since our earliest days, mankind has looked up at the moon and seen a story reflected back. Twelve Moons is one of those stories – a book about finding yourself, your voice and a sense that even in the dark of the night, we are never truly alone.

©2023 Caro Giles (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"She writes of the everyday act of mothering – of caring & advocating for her children / with such unassuming, humble, raw grace. This is wild mothering like I’ve been longing to read : female identity , how we make our own community, the work still left to do so mothers of all shapes can mother how they see fit. The sea, the city, heartache, sorrow, exuberant joy, birds – and the moon – always the moon – lighting the path ahead. A gorgeous, touching telling of a year of wild mothering – at the edge of place and time – but written straight from the very heart of its author." (Kerri ní Dochartaigh author of Thin Places)

"In this raw, fiercely honest memoir Caro Giles illuminates the madness, magic and mess of motherhood. It is a love letter to the wilds of Northumberland, a song to the pull of the sea and a heartful exploration of what it means to be broken and to fight to piece yourself back together." (Lulah Ellender)

"A hypnotic memoir of motherhood, moving on and making space for the extraordinary magic of every day. Twelve Moons is an exploration of the annihilation and reclaiming of self that so many readers will recognise and return to. Caro Giles' writing exerts a gravitational pull, and her story of entanglement and enchantment, loneliness and love is a gift for these times." (Rebecca Schiller)

What listeners say about Twelve Moons

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    12
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    14
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    12
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

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

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Intimate, raw and deeply moving

This is an intimate, raw and ultimately inspiring account of the experience of single parenting 4 young daughters. The rhythm of the 12 moon cycles is the backdrop to this moving account of the challenges facing this courageous Mother. The descriptive writing and honest insights make it both disturbing and humbling. Beautifully written and read. A wonderful gift to her children.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful

This is a beautifully written memoir, told over 12 months in the life of a mother raising 4 girls on the stunning shores of Northumberland. The author brings this wonderful - and often harsh - landscape to life with great skill, and weaves the ups and downs of life through lockdown and post-lockdown, and the isolation and stress that brought, with tenderness and empathy. An excellent debut from a writer with much promise.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Captivating

Absolutely loved this book. I listened to it over two days and was sad when it finished. Loved the descriptions of the natural landscape and the important focus on stories under told (single parenting, neurodivergence, everyday courage). A particular encouragement to me having a neurodivergent child. Looking forward to future writing.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Moving and hopeful

Wonderfully written. I loved Caro’s style and honesty. I cannot wait to read more and more of her work

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

really enjoyed

thank you for your brave words and bringing moments of solidarity as I listened and empathised and identified with your experiences

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A beautifully written and beautifully read book

I was immediately captivated, and the sign of a good book, I did not want it to end. The heartfelt and sincere memoirs really touched me on a personal level. I found the reading by the author to be gentle and warm. I will be purchasing a paper copy of this to be treasured alongside my other books.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Lunar Perfection

I read/listen to a lot of memoirs and this is by far the best I’ve read this year - in fact the best in a long time. I’d compare it to Amy Liptrots book in terms of beauty and skill but this is Giles’s first book. It’s a beautifully unflinching and honest tale of divorce, grief and lone motherhood, and it raises women’s work with such tenderness and authenticity. It immerses you in the minutiae of the authors life mothering four daughters - especially poignant during the moments ‘the mermaid’ is described. You begin to truly get a feel for what it’s like raising a neurodiverse child.. It hits the mark. It’s not only a startlingly brilliant debut but is full of humility feels very real and relatable. The moon motif creates a sustained melancholy and deeply feminine atmosphere to the voice and narration. I just loved it.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Special, Stunning.

This is a gorgeous book. I have both the audiobook and the print, as it's one of those beautiful reads that you just want to absorb into yourself in every possible medium. Caro's style and voice are so evocative and expressive, its a book you don't want to put down. So real, raw, tender, emotional. I have so many different emotional responses to it that it's actually difficult to unpick.. empathy for the author's struggles, understanding as a fellow mother of four , a shared love of wild places; her descriptions are utterly magical. It also lead to the uncomfortable realisation that I compare my own mothering with others far more than I should, my own always coming up short. Inwardly tearing myself down even as I'm feeling solidarity and awe for another woman's strength and resilience. What strange creatures we are.
I LOVED this book and will be recommending it to every woman I'm close to. I can't wait to read this author's future work.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A whole-hearted memoir

Beautifully written and told - full of poetic resonance yet grounded in the detail of everyday life, with all its challenges and joys.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!