The Miracle & Tragedy of the Dionne Quintuplets

By: Sarah Miller

Narrated by: Robin Miles

In this riveting, beyond-belief true story from the author of The Borden Murders, meet the five children who captivated the entire world.

When the Dionne Quintuplets were born on May 28, 1934, weighing a grand total of just over 13 pounds, no one expected them to live so much as an hour. Overnight, Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Émilie, and Marie Dionne mesmerized the globe, defying medical history with every breath they took. In an effort to protect them from hucksters and showmen, the Ontario government took custody of the five identical babies, sequestering them in a private, custom-built hospital across the road from their family - and then, in a stunning act of hypocrisy, proceeded to exploit them for the next nine years.

The Dionne Quintuplets became a more popular attraction than Niagara Falls, ogled through one-way screens by sightseers as they splashed in their wading pool at the center of a tourist hotspot known as Quintland. Here, Sarah Miller reconstructs their unprecedented upbringing with fresh depth and subtlety, bringing to new light their resilience and the indelible bond of their unique sisterhood.

©2019 Sarah Miller (P)2019 and On Listening Library

Critic reviews

"[A] thorough, fascinating deep dive into the lives of five girls who captured the attention of millions" (Booklist, starred review)

"Miller demonstrates herself once again to be a dab hand at examining a historic media frenzy and analyzing the legacy of its lore, leaving trails of ill-informed opinion and blame that lingers into the present." (Bulletin, starred review)

“It is impossible not to feel the tragedy of the quintuplets’ lives...eye-opening, thoroughly researched.” (Publishers Weekly)

Fascinating

Anyone who grew up fascinated by the Dionne Quintuplets will appreciate the fairness of this book.

Loved the book!

I was so excited a book was about the Dionne quints. Ever since seeing a movie about them as kids, the quints had amazed me whenever I read or heard anything about them. The story and narrator was excellent. I recommend this book to anyone.

Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Émilie, and marie

the only downside to this great story is that the narrator keeps saying "Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Émilie, and marie" over and over when the quints or the girls could have been said instead. you'll have their names memorized by the end of the book cause it's used over and over. i'd say make a drinking game out of it but you'd be dead within the first hour

loved this!

highly recommend this fair and balanced, well-researched historical biography of the life of the first surviving Quintuplets! it is a story of overcoming neglect and abuse, early childhood fame/popularity, and a coming of age tale. love!!

Dionne Quints

wonderful story. I never knew about them . it is truly a miracle and a tragedy .

Interesting, engaging, and a balanced view

Unlike many biographies of historical figures, this one felt like a balanced account of the lives of the Quints. It didn't shy away from uncomfortable facts, nor did it sensationalize elements that may have sold more books. It was a very interesting and enlightening listen.

Love the Quints!

I have been a collector of Dionne memorabilia since I was about 10. While antiquing with my mom I found sheet music (learned their story-loved how ADORABLE they are) and I was hooked! I’m 50 this week! So-I really DO know the whole story pretty much. I have picked up and read books here and there-but was nice to hear the whole story again. I think? this follows WE WERE FIVE a lot too. I started reading that earlier and then decided to listen to this via Audible-having the hardback book as well. It was just nice to listen to while cleaning.
The only thing that drove me CRAZY was reading their 5 names instead of just saying “The Quints” every. single. time. MAYBE that’s for their sake though-to give each girl their own identity?

Fascinating!

Fascinating! I had never heard of these quintuplets and their sad story. Overall, the story is well written. It did drive me a little nuts that the author listed all five names every time instead of referring to them jointly, but I understand the desire to give them their own identities. One other slight annoyance was the jumping around in the time line. It got a little difficult to keep things straight at points. It was still a very good read though.

So well-written and beautifully read, but so sad!

There are already many good reviews of this book, so I will just mention that I think the author was able to do a great job on this book because she recognized the complexity of the situation for all of the people involved. In a comment at the very end of the book she states that some people gave versions of the story that might not have been true, but that expressed what they wanted to say about the situation. I thought that that was a very insightful comment and very understanding of the people involved.

I absolutely love large families having been the middle child in a large family myself, but I can’t imagine the difficult impact it must have had on the older children having those five celebrity little sisters. Even this book, as well done as it was, barely touches on what life was like for those other children. I don’t know how even the very best parents could manage to care for five newborn babies, whose survival was so unlikely, while also meeting the needs of five other young children. Even with enormous levels of help that were less invasive than the help given to the Dionnes, it would’ve been an incredible disruption to the older kids’ childhoods. But whether we come from a large family or a small family, we are going to have challenges in our lives. Maybe the best we can do is hope that those challenges manage to bring out strengths in us that we might not have discovered otherwise.

Narration elevates the story

2.5 STARS

SPOILERS if you don’t know the story.

I’ve read about and saw documentaries on the Dionne Quintuplets since I was a young girl fascinated by the first surviving identical quintuplets. THE MIRACLE AND TRAGEDY OF THE DIONNE QUINTUPLETS by Sarah Miller covers some new territory, goes deeper into the sexual abuse the girls suffered at the hands of their father and confirms the suicide of one quint.

The story focuses less on the quints and more on the commercialization of the girls from the time they were babies, which was of no interest to me since I already knew those details. I wish Miller had used a more narrative approach to the story, showing instead of telling and giving more of a feel for the quints as individuals. Miller does explore some of the different trajectories the Dionne quintuplets’ lives took as adult, though never to the level of giving the story heart and soul.

Watching a documentary would be more interesting than reading THE MIRACLE AND TRAGEDY OF THE DIONNE QUINTUPLETS.