The Soldier's Return
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The Soldier's Return
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Narrated by:
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Julian Elfer
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By:
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Melvyn Bragg
About this listen
In the spring of 1946, ex-corporal Sam Richardson returns home from the "forgotten war" in Burma to his hometown of Wigton in Cumbria, England, to the joyful relief of his young wife, Ellen. He finds a town in which, seemingly, little has changed: the same twisting alleys, weavers' cottages, and medieval archways and the same lack of prospects for an uneducated, working-class man like himself.
Sam, however, has changed. The war has not only left him with traumatic memories, which he tries to suppress, but also given him greater self-confidence and broadened his horizons. From her wartime jobs, Ellen too has gained a sense of independence she does not want to give up. And then there's six-year-old Joe, a baby when Sam volunteered, who can scarcely remember his father. As all three strive to adjust, the bonds of love and loyalty become stretched to the breaking point.
With this absorbing story of one family, Melvyn Bragg conveys the experience of millions in the aftermath of the Second World War. The Soldier's Return is a taut, profoundly moving novel by a writer at the height of his powers.
©1999, 2011 Melvyn Bragg (P)2015 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Story4 out of 5 stars 77
Ralph and Anna Eldred are an exemplary couple, devoting themselves to doing good. 30 years ago as missionaries in Africa, the worst that could happen did. Shattered by their encounter with inexplicable evil, they returned to England, never to speak of it again. But when Ralph falls into an affair, Anna finds no forgiveness in her heart, and 30 years of repressed rage and grief explode, destroying not only a marriage but also their love, their faith, and everything they thought they were.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Beautifully written
- By Patricia S. on 10-11-15
By: Hilary Mantel
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Named of the Dragon
- By: Susanna Kearsley
- Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 793
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 725
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Story4 out of 5 stars 717
The charm of spending the Christmas holidays in South Wales, with its crumbling castles and ancient myths, seems the perfect distraction from the nightmares that have plagued literary agent Lyn Ravenshaw since the loss of her baby five years ago. Instead she meets an emotionally fragile young widow who's convinced that Lyn's recurring dreams have drawn her to Castle Farm for an important purpose - and she's running out of time.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Not Kearsley's best
- By Sindy on 06-27-16
By: Susanna Kearsley
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The Invisible Wall
- A Love Story That Broke Barriers
- By: Harry Bernstein
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 421
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 243
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 245
This enchanting true story, written when the author was 93, is a moving tale of working-class life, the social divide, and forbidden love on the eve of the first World War. The narrow street on which Harry grew up appeared identical to countless other working-class English neighborhoods, except for the invisible wall that ran down the center of the street, dividing the Jewish families on one side from the Christians on the other.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Powerful Tale
- By Sara on 11-29-13
By: Harry Bernstein
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Call the Midwife
- A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times
- By: Jennifer Worth
- Narrated by: Nicola Barber
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 9,423
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 8,490
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 8,464
At the age of 22, Jennifer Worth left her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife in postwar London’s East End slums. The colorful characters she met while delivering babies all over London - from the plucky, warm-hearted nuns with whom she lived to the woman with 24 children who couldn't speak English to the prostitutes and dockers of the city’s seedier side - illuminate a fascinating time in history.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The best book I've listened to this year
- By Richard on 06-12-13
By: Jennifer Worth
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Elmet
- By: Fiona Mozley
- Narrated by: Gareth Bennett Ryan
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 538
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 500
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Story4 out of 5 stars 499
In this atmospheric and profoundly moving debut, Cathy and Daniel live with their father, John, in the remote woods of Yorkshire, in a house the three of them built themselves. John is a gentle brute of a man, a former enforcer who fights for money when he has to, but who otherwise just wants to be left alone to raise his children. When a local landowner shows up on their doorstep, their precarious existence is threatened, and a series of actions is set in motion that can only end in violence.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Strains credibility
- By DM on 01-06-18
By: Fiona Mozley
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South Riding
- By: Winifred Holtby
- Narrated by: Carole Boyd
- Length: 19 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 68
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 55
In this rich and memorable evocation of the fictional South Riding of Yorkshire are the lives, loves and sorrows of the central characters. There is Sarah Burton, fiery young headmistress; Robert Carne of Maythorpe Hall, a councillor tormented by his own disastrous marriage; Jo Astell, a socialist fighting poverty and his own illness; and Mrs Beddows, the first woman Alderman of the district (like Winifred's own mother).
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4 out of 5 stars
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Worth Revisiting
- By Ilana on 11-04-12
By: Winifred Holtby
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Secrets of Nanreath Hall
- A Novel
- By: Alix Rickloff
- Narrated by: Lauren Irwin, Laura Waddell
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 66
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 57
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Story4 out of 5 stars 55
Cornwall, 1940. Back in England after the harrowing evacuation at Dunkirk, WWII Red Cross nurse Anna Trenowyth is shocked to learn her adoptive parents, Graham and Prue Handley, have been killed in an air raid. She desperately needs their advice, as she's been assigned to the military hospital that has set up camp inside her biological mother's childhood home - Nanreath Hall. Anna was just six years old when her mother, Lady Katherine Trenowyth, died. All she has left are vague memories that tease her with clues she can't unravel.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Well done both narrators and Author !
- By Andover Meadow on 09-17-16
By: Alix Rickloff
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My Dear I Wanted to Tell You
- A Novel
- By: Louisa Young
- Narrated by: Dan Stevens
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 238
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 224
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 221
The lives of two very different couples - an officer and his aristocratic wife, and a young soldier and his childhood sweetheart - are irrevocably intertwined and forever changed in this stunning World War I epic of love and war. Moving among Ypres, London, and Paris, this emotionally rich and evocative novel is both a powerful exploration of the lasting effects of war on those who fight - and those who don't - and a poignant testament to the enduring power of love.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Just read it!! Or rather, listen!
- By Annie M. on 08-31-14
By: Louisa Young
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The Women in the Castle
- By: Jessica Shattuck
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 4,102
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,697
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Story4 out of 5 stars 3,691
Set at the end of World War II, in a crumbling Bavarian castle that once played host to all of German high society, a powerful and propulsive story of three widows whose lives and fates become intertwined - an affecting, shocking, and ultimately redemptive novel from the author of the New York Times notable book The Hazards of Good Breeding.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Skating On The Thin Ice Of Life
- By Sara on 04-29-17
By: Jessica Shattuck
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The Road Back
- A Novel
- By: Erich Maria Remarque
- Narrated by: Graham Halstead
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 130
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 119
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 119
After four grueling years, the Great War has finally ended. Now Ernst and the few men left from his company cannot help wondering what will become of them. The town they departed as eager young men seems colder, their homes smaller, the reasons their comrades had to die even more inexplicable. For Ernst and his friends, the road back to peace is more treacherous than they ever imagined. Suffering food shortages, political unrest, and a broken heart, Ernst undergoes a crisis that teaches him what there is to live for - and what he has that no one can ever take away.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Successor to All Quiet on the Western Front
- By BARRY on 02-20-19
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Now and in the Hour of Our Death
- By: Patrick Taylor
- Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Length: 17 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 40
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Story5 out of 5 stars 41
Patrick Taylor’s first novel of the Irish Troubles, Pray for Us Sinners, introduced us to Provisional IRA bombmaker Davy MacCutcheon and the love of his life, Fiona Kavanagh. Davy planned to leave the Provos after one final mission. But the deadly mission backfired, and Davy ended up in prison. Six years later, in Now and in the Hour of Our Death, Fiona Kavanagh has found sanctuary in Vancouver, Canada. But news of a breakout at the Maze prison brings back memories she thought she’d left behind.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Perfect End of a Great Epic
- By J. Lindsey on 03-01-15
By: Patrick Taylor
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Behind the Scenes at the Museum
- A Novel
- By: Kate Atkinson
- Narrated by: Pearl Hewitt
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 475
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 416
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 415
Ruby Lennox begins narrating her life at the moment of conception, and from there takes us on a whirlwind tour of the 20th century as seen through the eyes of an English girl determined to learn about her family and its secrets.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Another Kate Atkinson multi-generational story
- By Satisfied Customer on 11-08-18
By: Kate Atkinson
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The Postcard
- By: Leah Fleming
- Narrated by: Elaine Claxton
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 172
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 156
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Story4 out of 5 stars 160
2002, Australia. When Melissa discovers a postcard addressed to 'Desmond' among her recently deceased father's effects, she is determined to discover this person's identity and his relationship to her father. She soon embarks on a journey that will take her across oceans and into the past...
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3 out of 5 stars
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Meh
- By Summer Layne on 03-06-15
By: Leah Fleming
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Honor
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marno, Piter Marik
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 117
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 101
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 98
An honor killing shatters and transforms the lives of Turkish immigrants in 1970s London. Internationally best-selling Turkish author Elif Shafak’s new novel is a dramatic tale of families, love, and misunderstandings that follows the destinies of twin sisters born in a Kurdish village. While Jamila stays to become a midwife, Pembe follows her Turkish husband, Adem, to London, where they hope to make new lives for themselves and their children. In London, they face a choice: stay loyal to the old traditions or try their best to fit in.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Complex but Compelling
- By Cariola on 04-14-13
By: Elif Shafak
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East of the Sun
- By: Julia Gregson
- Narrated by: Tania Rodrigues
- Length: 19 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 161
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 112
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Story4 out of 5 stars 113
Autumn 1928. Three young women are on their way to India, each with a new life in mind. Rose, a beautiful but naive bride-to-be, is anxious about leaving her family and marrying a man she hardly knows. Victoria, her bridesmaid couldn't be happier to get away from her overbearing mother, and is determined to find herself a husband. And Viva, their inexperienced chaperone, is in search of the India of her childhood, ghosts from the past and freedom.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Indian history takes a back seat to 3 young women
- By Richard on 05-24-16
By: Julia Gregson
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There'll Be Blue Skies
- By: Ellie Dean
- Narrated by: Annie Aldington
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 60
When sixteen-year-old Sally is evacuated to the English south coast, she is terrified by what lies ahead of her. All she knows are the sights and sounds of London's East End – but Sally swallows her tears as they leave the familiar landmarks behind, knowing that she has to be a Grown-Up Girl and play mother to her six-year-old brother Ernie. Playing mother is nothing new for Sally – their real mother Florrie, a good-time girl, hasn't even come to the station to wave them off and Ernie, crippled at an early age by polio, is used to depending on his older sister.
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2 out of 5 stars
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The audible reading was poor
- By Connie Palla on 03-02-19
By: Ellie Dean
What listeners say about The Soldier's Return
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Tamara
- 04-13-23
Couldn’t finish
I found this a dull slog. Not enough plot. Just what you’d expect of a soldier returned home with stress/PTSD. Nothing really new or engaging. Maybe it was better back in the 1990’s when it first came out.
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