Harriet Wolf's Seventh Book of Wonders

A Novel

By: Julianna Baggott

Narrated by: Jodi Carlisle, Christine Lakin, Katie Koster, Susan Silo

The reclusive Harriet Wolf, revered author and family matriarch, has a final confession - a love story. Years after her death, as her family comes together one last time, the mystery of Harriet's life hangs in the balance. Does the truth lie in the rumored final book of the series that made Harriet a world-famous writer, or will her final confession be lost forever?

Harriet Wolf's Seventh Book of Wonders tells the moving story of the unforgettable Wolf women in four distinct voices: the mysterious Harriet, who, until now, has never revealed the secrets of her past; her fiery, overprotective daughter, Eleanor; and her two grown granddaughters - Tilton, the fragile yet exuberant younger sister who's become a housebound hermit, and Ruth, the older sister who ran away at 16 and never looked back. When Eleanor is hospitalized, Ruth decides it's time to do right by a pact she made with Tilton long ago: to return home and save her sister. Meanwhile Harriet whispers her true-life story to the listener. It's a story that spans the entire 20th century and is filled with mobsters, outcasts, a lonesome lion, and a home for wayward women. It's also a tribute to her lifelong love of the boy she met at the Maryland School for Feeble-Minded Children.

Harriet Wolf's Seventh Book of Wonders, Julianna Baggott's most sweeping and mesmerizing novel yet, offers a profound meditation on motherhood and sisterhood as well as on the central importance of stories. It is a novel that affords its characters that rare chance we all long for - the chance to reimagine the stories of our lives while there's still time.

©2015 Julianna Baggott (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"A mesmerizing tale of star-crossed love and of the dark secrets in a fracturing family.... This novel is so full of wonders that it leaves you haunted, amazed, and, like every great read, irrevocably changed." (Caroline Leavitt, New York Times best-selling author of Pictures of You)

"Susan Silo is outstanding as she rasps and whispers her droll asides, skewering characters with choice observations. Part romance, part mystery, this completely engaging and wondrous tale is an audiobook listeners will want to hear again ASAP." (AudioFile)

Nice story

Nice story that rolls back on itself, spanning generations of lovers, fathers, mothers, and sisters. I loved it.

Loved it!

From the voices, to the storyline, I couldn't wait to finish it. Sad it's over!

Interesting Story

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the use of the different narrators to tell the story. I would have loved to read this book, the narrators detracted from the story.

What didn’t you like about the narrators’s performance?

I found almost all the narrators voices annoying. It seemed to be more a dramatization than a narration at points.

Perfect from beginning to end!

I loved this book! Harriet, Eleanor, Ruth, and Tilton each tell their own story, all the while intensifying the curiosity the reader has for Harriet and her story. The novel manages to stay realistic fiction, while having the magical quality of a fairy tale. There are good guys and bad guys, complex and thorny mother/daughter relationships, a romance of the epic love story type, as well as a couple of mundane marriages, and even a lion! It all works, and the ending (something which has been such a letdown in so many books I've been reading lately) was perfect.

Disappointing

I was intrigued by the mother-daughter-sister-grandmother theme, and hoped for a good read, but the book was flat and sluggish, the characters mostly unrelatable, the plot tricked out with awful gimmicks like a motorcycle-riding lion. That Harriet could have written 6 highly-acclaimed novels that were the subject of scholarly attention before becoming a recluse lacked all credibility, and despite good parts in the beginning (at the Home and the asylum), I found that the book lacked texture or movement -- perhaps because all the characters except Tilton were mired in past grievances.
As for the narration, whoever voiced Harriet had an annoying wheedly voice, and was completely out of her depth when required to speak in a man's voice. Terrible. I wanted to rip the headphones off. The others were fine.

Truely wonderful story

what a great story from start to finish. the type of story that makes it impossible to stop listening.

Love!

Such a beautifully written story! It captures your heart and makes you love the characters. The narration is exceptional.

Might be good, but couldn't stand the narrators!

Only made it to the second chapter. I'm interested in the story, but can't get past the horrible narrators. Returning for something else...