
The Fountains of Silence
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By:
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Ruta Sepetys
About this listen
From the number-one New York Times best-selling author of Salt to the Sea and Between Shades of Gray comes a gripping, extraordinary portrait of love, silence, and secrets under a Spanish dictatorship.
Madrid, 1957. Under the fascist dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, Spain is hiding a dark secret. Meanwhile, tourists and foreign businessmen flood into Spain under the welcoming promise of sunshine and wine. Among them is 18-year-old Daniel Matheson, the son of an oil tycoon, who arrives in Madrid with his parents hoping to connect with the country of his mother's birth through the lens of his camera. Photography - and fate - introduce him to Ana, whose family's interweaving obstacles reveal the lingering grasp of the Spanish Civil War - as well as chilling definitions of fortune and fear. Daniel's photographs leave him with uncomfortable questions amidst shadows of danger. He is backed into a corner of difficult decisions to protect those he loves. Lives and hearts collide, revealing an incredibly dark side to the sunny Spanish city.
Master storyteller Ruta Sepetys once again shines light into one of history's darkest corners in this epic, heart-wrenching novel about identity, unforgettable love, repercussions of war, and the hidden violence of silence - inspired by the true postwar struggles of Spain. Includes vintage media reports, oral history commentary, photos, and more.
Read by Maite Jáuregui, with Richard Ferrone, Neil Hellegers, Joshua Kane, Liza Kaplan, and Oliver Wyman, and with an author’s note read by the author.
©2019 Ruta Sepetys (P)2019 Listening LibraryListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"[Sepetys] tells a moving story made even more powerful by its placement in a lesser-known historical moment. Captivating, deft, and illuminating historical fiction." (Booklist starred review)
"A stunning novel that exposes modern fascism and elevates human resilience." (Kirkus starred review)
"This gripping, often haunting historical novel offers a memorable portrait of fascist Spain." (Publishers Weekly starred review)
"Spain under Francisco Franco is as dystopian a setting as Margaret Atwood’s Gilead in Ruta Sepetys’ suspenseful, romantic and timely new work of historical fiction.... Like [Shakespeare's family romances], The Fountains of Silence speaks truth to power, persuading future rulers to avoid repeating the crimes of the past." (The New York Times Book Review)
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Story
Romania, 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams of becoming a writer, but Romanians aren’t free to dream; they are bound by rules and force. Amidst the tyrannical dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu in a country governed by isolation and fear, Cristian is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer. He’s left with only two choices: betray everyone and everything he loves—or use his position to creatively undermine the most notoriously evil dictator in Eastern Europe.
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Brilliant, dramatic, heartbreaking
- By Victor @ theAudiobookBlog dot com on 02-04-22
By: Ruta Sepetys
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The Bletchley Riddle
- By: Ruta Sepetys, Steve Sheinkin
- Narrated by: Louis Hill, Georgina Jane, Ruta Sepetys, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Summer, 1940. Nineteen-year-old Jakob Novis and his quirky younger sister Lizzie share a love of riddles and puzzles. And now they’re living inside of one. The quarrelsome siblings find themselves amidst one of the greatest secrets of World War II—Britain’s eccentric codebreaking factory at Bletchley Park. As Jakob joins Bletchley’s top minds to crack the Nazi's Enigma cipher, fourteen-year-old Lizzie embarks on a mission to solve the mysterious disappearance of their mother.
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A war novel that champions the contributions of intellectuals and respects the children's experiences
- By Carolyn M Robinson on 03-15-25
By: Ruta Sepetys, and others
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You: The Story
- A Writer's Guide to Craft Through Memory
- By: Ruta Sepetys
- Narrated by: Ruta Sepetys
- Length: 4 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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#1 New York Times bestselling author Ruta Sepetys is known for creating vivid characters and harrowing plots. After five award-winning works of historical fiction and countless hours of meticulous research, she can affirm that the secret to strong writing is embedded within your life experience. You: The Story is a powerful how-to book for aspiring writers that encourages you to look inward and excavate your own memories in order to discover the authentic voices and compelling details that are waiting to be put on the page.
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The magical manner in which Ruta shared her life experiences was a joy. It warmed and melted my heart. Thank you.
- By Anonymous User on 11-09-24
By: Ruta Sepetys
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Minor Detail
- By: Adania Shibli, Elisabeth Jaquette - translator
- Narrated by: Siiri Scott
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Minor Detail begins during the summer of 1949, one year after the war that the Palestinians mourn as the Nakba - the catastrophe that led to the displacement and exile of some 700,000 people - and the Israelis celebrate as the War of Independence. Israeli soldiers murder an encampment of Bedouin in the Negev desert, and among their victims, they capture a Palestinian teenager, and they rape her, kill her, and bury her in the sand. Many years later, in the near-present day, a young woman in Ramallah tries to uncover some of the details surrounding this particular rape and murder.
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Very powerful
- By Phillip Straghalis on 04-09-21
By: Adania Shibli, and others
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Cathedral of the Sea
- By: Ildefonso Falcones
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 22 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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At last: The international best seller - which has already sold nearly 2 million copies worldwide - comes to America! Cathedral of the Sea follows the fortunes of the Estanyol family, from their peasant roots to a son, Arnau, who flees the land only to realize spectacular wealth and devastating problems.
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Very good historical novel.
- By Joseph on 01-31-10
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The Queen’s Vow
- A Novel of Isabella of Castile
- By: C. W. Gortner
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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“No one believed I was destined for greatness.” So begins Isabella’s story, in this evocative, vividly imagined novel about one of history’s most famous and controversial queens - the warrior who united a fractured country, the champion of the faith whose reign gave rise to the Inquisition, and the visionary who sent Columbus to discover a new world. Acclaimed author C. W. Gortner envisages the turbulent early years of a woman whose mythic rise to power would go on to transform a monarchy, a nation, and the world.
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Excellent historical fiction!
- By nursebettyknitting on 07-30-12
By: C. W. Gortner
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The Good Dream
- By: Donna VanLiere
- Narrated by: Donna VanLiere
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Tennessee, 1950: a time and place that straddles the past and present. Ivorie Walker is considered an old maid by the town (though she’s only in her early 30s), and she takes that label with good humor and a grain of salt. Ever since her parents passed away, she has hidden her loneliness behind a fierce independence and a claim of not needing anyone. But when she realizes that someone has been stealing vegetables from her garden - a feral, dirty-faced boy who disappears into the hills - something about him haunts Ivorie.
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Authentic Southern Jewel that will Surprise You
- By Debbie on 05-17-13
By: Donna VanLiere
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Winter in Madrid
- By: C. J. Sansom
- Narrated by: Gordon Gordon
- Length: 21 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Winter in Madrid is set just after the bloody Spanish Civil War, with World War II looming over Europe. Reluctantly, Harry Brett looks for an old schoolmate who's become a person of interest for British intelligence.
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realistic characters in historical context
- By Annie on 10-04-09
By: C. J. Sansom
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The Downstairs Girl
- By: Stacey Lee
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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By day, 17-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady's maid for the cruel daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for the genteel Southern lady, "Dear Miss Sweetie". When her column becomes wildly popular, she uses the power of the pen to address some of society's ills, but she's not prepared for the backlash that follows when her column challenges fixed ideas about race and gender.
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inaccurate historic details
- By kmh on 12-31-19
By: Stacey Lee
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Lovely War
- By: Julie Berry
- Narrated by: Jayne Entwistle, Allan Corduner, Julie Berry, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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They are Hazel, James, Aubrey, and Colette. A classical pianist from London, a British would-be architect turned soldier, a Harlem-born ragtime genius in the US Army, and a Belgian orphan with a gorgeous voice and a devastating past. Their story, as told by goddess Aphrodite, who must spin the tale or face judgment on Mount Olympus, is filled with hope and heartbreak, prejudice and passion, and reveals that, though war is a formidable force, it's no match for the transcendent power of love.
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Wonderful WW1 Book
- By Jennifer on 05-11-19
By: Julie Berry
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Pachinko
- By: Min Jin Lee
- Narrated by: Sandra Oh, Min Jin Lee
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger. When she discovers she is pregnant–and that her lover is married–she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations. Profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty.
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Interesting history but no connection
- By Julia McBride on 11-30-24
By: Min Jin Lee
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They Went Left
- By: Monica Hesse
- Narrated by: Caitlin Davies
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Germany, 1945. The soldiers who liberated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp said the war was over, but nothing feels over to 18-year-old Zofia Lederman. Her body has barely begun to heal; her mind feels broken. And her life is completely shattered: Three years ago, she and her younger brother, Abek, were the only members of their family to be sent to the right, away from the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Everyone else—her parents, her grandmother, radiant Aunt Maja—they went left.
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Heartbreakingly Beautiful
- By Willow Star Serenity on 04-10-20
By: Monica Hesse
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Love and Ruin
- A Novel
- By: Paula McLain
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1937, 28-year-old Martha Gellhorn travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in the devastating conflict. It's the adventure she's been looking for and her chance to prove herself a worthy journalist in a field dominated by men. But she also finds herself unexpectedly - and uncontrollably - falling in love with Hemingway, a man on his way to becoming a legend. In the shadow of the impending Second World War, Martha and Ernest's relationship and their professional careers ignite.
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Over-dramatic lamenting
- By Liz on 08-17-18
By: Paula McLain
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Brown Girl Dreaming
- By: Jacqueline Woodson
- Narrated by: Jacqueline Woodson
- Length: 3 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child's soul as she searches for her place in the world.
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Memoir of a childhood, in verse.
- By Adam Shields on 02-18-19
Historical Fiction. Great Storytelling.
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of the characters are both heart warming and heart breaking. It’s a book that makes you think and captures you early on.
A must read
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Review
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Amazing book
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Human complex story intertwines in history
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Human tragedy in Spain's history
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Great Historical Fiction of Spain's Franco era
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One story line was predictable but then there were a few surprises thrown in there that I did not see coming and that even had me gasping. So again, good story telling.
Ruta Sepetys is one of my favorite authors of HF and she did not disappoint in this one.
Narration...the reason I took away the one star...I found it a little annoying in that some pronunciations of English words were off...when not part of dialogue. Examples were for dynasty it was pronounced deen-a-stee. And contributes was pronounced con-tra-butes. I would have thought that would have been caught in editing. That said, what I really liked about the narration was how they did the "new reel" feel of the excerpts being read from previous state records or broadcasts. That was WELL done.
Overall 4 stars. Narration was bothersome
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A mixture of emotion and history!
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Long, yes, but worth the time
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