A Terrible Kindness cover art

A Terrible Kindness

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
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.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

A Terrible Kindness

By: Jo Browning Wroe
Narrated by: David Dawson
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £18.99

Buy Now for £18.99

Confirm Purchase
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.
Cancel

About this listen

*INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER*

*AN OBSERVER DEBUT OF 2022*

*AS FEATURED ON FRONT ROW*

When we go through something impossible, someone, or something, will help us, if we let them . . .

It is October 1966 and William Lavery is having the night of his life at his first black-tie do. But, as the evening unfolds, news hits of a landslide at a coal mine. It has buried a school: Aberfan. William decides he must act, so he stands and volunteers to attend. It will be his first job as an embalmer, and it will be one he never forgets. His work that night will force him to think about the little boy he was, and the losses he has worked so hard to forget. But compassion can have surprising consequences, because - as William discovers - giving so much to others can sometimes help us heal ourselves.

Biography: Jo Browning Wroe grew up in a crematorium in Birmingham. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and is now Creative Writing Supervisor at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. Her debut novel, A Terrible Kindness, was shortlisted for the Bridport Peggy Chapman-Andrews award. She has two adult daughters and lives with her husband in Cambridge.

©2022 Jo Browning Wroe (P)2022 Faber Audio Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Romance Tear-jerking Heartfelt

Listeners also enjoyed...

 If I Let You Go cover art
When God Was a Rabbit cover art
There's Something I Have to Tell You cover art
The Woman with the Map cover art
The Midwives' War cover art
Her Daughter’s Secret cover art
An Invisible Thread cover art
The Vanishing of Margaret Small cover art
When I First Held You cover art
Something Quite Beautiful cover art
The Forgotten Locket cover art
The Lies We Hide: An Absolutely Gripping and Darkly Compelling Novel cover art
The Other Woman cover art
The Women of Waterloo Bridge cover art
An Ordinary Life cover art
Good Girls cover art

Critic reviews

"It's a long time since I've read a debut novel that moved me so much." (Rachel Joyce)

"Extraordinary." (Sophie Hannah)

"A brave and tender novel." (Joanna Glen)
All stars
Most relevant  
I’m quite picky, but this fitted the bill. Every now and again I choose a book that isn’t in my usual genre of Crime and thrillers. This was a good choice with an intriguing story and believable characters. Very touching and enjoyable listen .

A touching yet unsentimental story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Don’t be put off by the subject matter. This novel is a little gem. Covers many topics - family disagreements, love, death, ptsd, grief, homelessness, and how with kindness some people make this world a better place.

What a superb book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Such a compelling story of human tragedy, with integrity and told with hope. Heartbreaking, good humoured and moving, all in equal measure

Heartbreakingly moving

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved this story about the complexities of life and death.
Laughed and cried.
Well read.

Beautiful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An incredibly moving and powerful story. I grew up in Sutton Coldfield and moved to Cambridge so for me it was enjoyable to hear of the wel trodden paths too. Such a delicate story telling of a most terrible and unimaginable event.

Beautiful and moving

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Amazing book and story loved every word, deeply moving would highly recommend, you will be thinking about this long after you finish it!

Absolutely brilliant story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Not the type of book I’d normally listen to but I absolutely loved it. Recommended!

Brilliant story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An absorbing tale - a mixture of fact and fiction reflecting the awful tragedy that happened in Aberfan in 1996. I was drawn in by the descriptions of the event itself and the long-term effects on those caught up in it.

Touching Story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
devoured this book in a couple of days .. highly recommend - David Dawson nailed every accent perfectly .. a truly epic tale so beautifully told .. love love love

Fantastic !! I

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Not a content to jump at. Rather harrowing at first but such an interesting and well narrated story.

Unusual but fascinating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews