The Engineer's Wife

By: Tracey Enerson Wood

Narrated by: Libby McKnight

She built a monument for all time. Then she was lost in its shadow.

Emily Warren Roebling refuses to live conventionally - she knows who she is and what she wants, and she's determined to make change. But then her husband, Wash, asks the unthinkable: Give up her dreams to make his possible.

Emily's fight for women's suffrage is put on hold and her life transformed when Wash, the chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge, is injured on the job. Untrained for the task, but under his guidance, she assumes his role, despite stern resistance and overwhelming obstacles. Lines blur as Wash's vision becomes her own, and when he is unable to return to the job, Emily is consumed by it. But as the project takes shape under Emily's direction, she wonders whose legacy she is building - hers or her husband's. As the monument rises, Emily's marriage, principles, and identity threaten to collapse. When the bridge finally stands finished, will she recognize the woman who built it?

Based on the true story of the Brooklyn Bridge, The Engineer's Wife delivers an emotional portrait of a woman transformed by a project of unfathomable scale that takes her into the bowels of the East River, suffragette riots, the halls of Manhattan's elite, and the heady, freewheeling temptations of P.T. Barnum. It's the story of a husband and wife determined to build something that lasts - even at the risk of losing each other.

©2020 Tracey Enerson Wood (P)2020 Recorded Books

really good book

the book is true fiction storyline was really good but I love the factual parts the book and the author did keep you entertained through the whole thing enjoyed it actually tremendously would recommend this book

Poor narration

This narrator should not get another job narrating. She miss pronounced so many words… Emphasize instead of empathize, secrete instead of secret, lopped instead of loped. Her errors and and apparent unfamiliarity with common vocabulary Was very distracting. Because she did not seem to know what the words meant her intonations and rhythms did not deliver a smooth reading.
I wonder if near rations are edited and listened to before they are produced? It was distracting and disappointing.

Nearly a perfect read (listen)

Loved the history and story for the most part. Major parts are based on historical fact with some creative licenses being taken. I really enjoyed this book until near the end when out of nowhere, one of the main characters "Wash", short for Washington comes out of nowhere and states that he was gay in earlier years. This had absolutely nothing to do with the story and wasn't based on any historical fact at all. It was obviously added as a "filler" to make some demographic happy. If it wasn't this this blatent stuffing of content, I would have given it 5 stars across the board. There was no reason to add that part to the story, it didn't fit and wasn't called for at all.

It was a good story

I was glad to hear that even in the 1800’s women were doing more than housework and cooking.

Decent story, fair narration

The concept was very interesting, but a bit too exaggerated with the myriad of famous people and inventions the main character interacted with. I wasn't fond of the narration, it was just too morose and drama for me. The ending was very bizarre

Interesting historical theme

This was an interesting fictional story around the actual building of the Brooklyn Bridge. I enjoyed learning more about the difficulties and perils of this undertaking at the time, as well as the limitations of women in this culture. The narrator did a perfectly nice job, bringing life to the story. While the book was well written, I did not think the first-person style worked well here. It made the story seem melodramatic and really diminished my enjoyment of it.

Enjoyable historical fiction

A beautiful story about endurance, patience, and long suffering in marriage. Extremely difficult situations, and real struggles. Great narration.

the determination of Emily and her mission even though her husbands passion to complete the bridge was detained by his illness

I wish the book was factual and there were no embellishments of the characters and events

Worthwhile, very interesting, not amazing

This is a very interesting piece of historical fiction. I was eager to hear more of the story and it held my attention. I also found it very educational and I was frequently googling to learn more about characters, time lines, and the bridge building process. That being said it wasn't the best written book I've read and I actually think it would make a better move than a book. Just the same, I'm so glad I read it.

Also, some reviews are negative about the fiction part of historical fiction and I don't think their criticism is fair at all. The afterword sorts all of the facts from fiction for you. The point of this story is that Emily Roeblings life/ role in the bridge is largely undocumented but universally agreed to be significant. I think it was a good mix of educational facts, and interesting fiction.

Entertaining and enlightening fiction

When first researching this book before choosing to buy it, I read many reviews (as I usually do.) More than one criticized this story for liberties taken with the true events. Having just finished the afterword, I have to say that I am fully satisfied with my purchase. The author achieved her main goal, that of both entertaining and piquing my interest in history that I had not previously encountered. More than once, I found myself turning to Wikipedia and other historical and factual accounts to learn more about caissons, Caisson disease, Sousa marches, engineering, women’s suffrage, bloomers (and Bloomer), PT Barnum, Jumbo, and the past and current treatment of elephants in captivity and in the wild. In this, the author succeeded wildly, costing me several extra hours of sleep as I pursued these questions down multiply-branching rabbit holes. I paid the price willingly in both cash and sleep … and also in my willing suspension of disbelief. I don’t believe any dishonor was done to the memory or the achievements of Emily Roebling, someone I hadn’t heard of at all before picking up this book, and about whom I now have a profound and deep respect. It also feels deeply appropriate that person about whom the author took the most liberties and spun the most fanciful tales is Barnum. I suspect that the “Greatest Showman” himself would have heartily approved of this reimagining of events.

The narrator of this book was competent, but I can’t be more enthusiastic than that. Her many mispronunciations took me out of the story over and over, and her accents and voices were inconsistent. Better than I could do myself, for sure, but still distracting. I might give a 3.5 star rating if that were possible.

All in all, it was a fine read, and definitely worth a solid 4 star rating overall. If you don’t mind a lot of fiction in your historical fiction, and you can tolerate a narrator that (alas) doesn’t rise to the level of a Kate Reading, then I recommend this book to you. If not, well, as Barnum would say, it’s that way to the egress. ;)