Showing results by narrator "Rebecca Cooper" in All Categories

In twelve luminous stories set across three centuries, The History of Sound examines the unexpected ways the past returns to us and how love and loss are entwined and transformed over generations. In Ben Shattuck's ingenious collection, each story has a companion story, which contains a revelation about the previous, paired story. Mysteries and murders are revealed, history is refracted, and deep emotional connections are woven through characters and families.

For Willow, the ramshackle café overlooking the beach, together with its warmhearted community, offers friendship as a daily special and always has a hearty welcome on the menu. But when a handsome stranger blows in on a warm spring breeze, Willow soon realises that her quiet country life will be changed forever.

October, 1946. The Red Cross escort a group of child refugees from Europe to England. Among them is Brigitta - a serious, silent figure with worn clothes and a small cardboard suitcase containing a single grey glove. Arriving in London, Brigitta breaks from the group and runs. Brigitta's mission: to reach Summerland Hall and find the one person who can solve a wartime mystery. But Summerland holds secrets and shadows of its own...and perhaps the key to a new life and new beginnings. An extraordinarily rich tale of love, prejudice, truth and forgiveness, inspired by real events.

Violet Strong is strong by name but not by nature, or so she thinks. She listens but never talks about herself. She’s friendly but doesn’t have many real friends. She’s become good at keeping people at a distance ever since she left home at 18 and never looked back. But when Violet is forced to return home to care for her estranged mother, Glenys, she quickly finds out that life as a carer isn’t easy. Feeling overwhelmed, she’s forced to turn to the other local carers, including childhood friend Adam, for help.

Regan is holding a winning lottery ticket. Good-bye to the boyfriend who never had her back, and so long to the job she can’t stand! Except it’s all a bit too good to be true. When Regan gets pranked, she finds herself jobless, homeless and boyfriend-less in one fell swoop. Luckily her friendly seaside community provides a beacon of hope, proving to Regan that sometimes you really can rely on the kindness of others - and one local in particular, a handsome Fireman called Charlie, helps Regan realise that this could be her chance for a fresh start.

Clara and Nancy, two sisters working in Holloway Prison in 1913, find themselves face to face with imprisoned suffragettes: women fighting for the same freedoms they want for themselves. Soon Nancy is drawn to one inmate in particular - the enigmatic 'Duchess' - and decides to follow her into the fight. But Clara is torn by the very laws her sister has chosen to try to change. She's fallen in love, and yet marriage would mean giving up the job she loves and losing her independence forever. How can she possibly choose between the two sides of her heart and not lose a part of herself?

Benno Neuburger, a modest land investor from Munich, and Anna Einstein, daughter of a cattle dealer from Laupheim, marry in 1907. They begin their lives together with great hope. It is a relatively prosperous time and a very optimistic one for German Jews who are enjoying a social renaissance in the industrializing, urbanizing rising star that is Germany. It’s not clear that this good fortune might begin to unravel.