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The Swan's Nest
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Nicola F. Delgado
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
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Publisher's summary
A tender and engrossing historical novel about the unlikely love affair between two great 19th-century poets, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett.
On a bleak January day in 1845, a poet who had been confined to her room for four years by recurrent illness received a letter from a writer she secretly idolized but had never seen. “I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett,” Robert Browning wrote, “and I love you too.”
Elizabeth Barrett was ecstatic. She was famous for her poetry but completely cut off from the kind of international travel that Browning used to fuel his obscure, unsuccessful, innovative poems, one of which was written from a murderer’s point of view. They began an affectionate correspondence, but Elizabeth kept delaying a visit. What would happen when he saw her in person? What was Robert really like? Could she persuade her father and brothers that he was honorable, even though she had never met his family? And what would happen if she gave in to Robert’s wild proposal that they go to Italy and see if the sun could cure her?
McNeal brilliantly tells the story of how Robert and Elizabeth fell in love with each other’s words and shocked her conservative, close-knit family and the literary world. Sensitively and lyrically written, as rich as the lovers' own poetry, The Swan's Nest will sweep up listeners in the triumphant story of two people forced to choose between a safe, stable life and the love they felt for each other.
Critic reviews
“Let me count the ways I love The Swan’s Nest: as a transporting romance, as a meticulous recreation of history, as a compelling examination of social hierarchies, and as an expose of the evil that can lurk behind fortunes. It’s a bold feat to enter the minds of geniuses, but Barrett and Browning, as well as the wonderful cast of supporting characters, are as believable as they are beautifully written. Laura McNeal has constructed a gorgeous, faithful, and gripping rendering of poetry’s most enduring love story.”—Nina de Gramont, author of international bestseller The Christie Affair
“What a lovely, lyrical novel this is! Tender in its sympathies, meticulous in its research, and mercifully attentive to the fraught conditions of love, loneliness, and loss, it seems like an antidote to so much contemporary fiction. The restorative romance and marriage of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning is familiar to many readers of British poetry, but Laura McNeal has made it feel so new and fresh and nourishing, like a sea breeze from the West Indies cleansing away the soot and smoke of 19th century London."—Ron Hansen, author of The Kid
"Laura McNeal is one of my favorite writers and The Swan’s Nest is a stunning accomplishment. Assiduously researched, gorgeously brought to life, this literary love story will keep you up all night.”—Lily King, author of Five Tuesdays in Winter
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Joy Okafor is overwhelmed. Recently divorced, a life coach whose phone won’t stop ringing, and ever the dutiful Nigerian daughter, Joy has planned every aspect of her mother’s seventieth birthday weekend on her own. As the Okafors slowly begin to arrive, Mama Mary goes to take a nap. But when the grandkids go to wake her, they find that she isn’t sleeping after all. Refusing to believe that her sister is gone-gone, Auntie Nancy declares that she has had a premonition that Mama Mary will rise again like Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday.
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A dysfunctional family.
- By Carol on 03-31-24
By: Louisa Onomé
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The Inheritance
- A Novel
- By: Joanna Goodman
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Arden Moore enjoyed an affluent life thanks to her husband’s high-paying job. But a year after his death, the 36-year-old is a grieving single mother deeply in debt and living paycheck to paycheck with her three children. Then an unexpected call from a well-known estate lawyer in New York offers a glimmer of hope. It is the beginning of a complex legal journey that could mean the difference between a life of abject poverty and unthinkable wealth thanks to her father, deceased billionaire Wallace Barclay.
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Tell me more
- By kmusser on 04-23-24
By: Joanna Goodman
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Becoming Madam Secretary
- By: Stephanie Dray
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Raised on tales of her revolutionary ancestors, Frances Perkins arrives in New York City at the turn of the century, armed with her trusty parasol and an unyielding determination to make a difference. When she’s not working with children in the crowded tenements in Hell’s Kitchen, Frances throws herself into the social scene in Greenwich Village, befriending an eclectic group of politicians, artists, and activists.
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Excellent historical novel about an incredible woman!
- By Ally P. on 05-08-24
By: Stephanie Dray
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The Other Mother
- By: Miranda Rijks
- Narrated by: Nicola F. Delgado, Lorna Bennett, Emma Fenney
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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When Jane is asked to pick up her friend’s daughter, Florrie, from school, she can’t imagine the horror that will unfold. Because someone pretending to be Jane has already collected Florrie. And now the little four-year-old is missing... Things don’t get any easier when Jane starts receiving anonymous letters that include intimate details about her life. As a psychologist and agony aunt, she's used to getting letters asking for advice, but these are different. Are they somehow connected to the missing child?
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Twisted!
- By KKEC Reads on 01-19-24
By: Miranda Rijks
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One Moment
- By: Becky Hunter
- Narrated by: Heather Long
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The day Scarlett dies, her hopes and dreams for the future die with her…or so she thinks. Because she’s still here—wherever here is—watching the ripple effect of her death on the lives of those she loved the most. She’d do anything to go back and join the living, especially Evie, her best friend who needs her now more than ever.
By: Becky Hunter
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Watch It Burn
- By: Kristen Bird
- Narrated by: Megan Tusing, Hillary Huber, Jennifer Sun Bell, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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After elementary school teacher Nichole Miller discovers the woman's body, she makes two phone calls: first to the police, who call Beverly's death a slip and fall, and second to her best friend, journalist Jenny Martin. Jenny is attempting to revive her flailing marriage and her all-but-DOA career, and she knows foul play when she sees it. The two women enlist the help of Beverly’s daughter-in-law, Robin, who’s eager to expose the truth.
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Intriguing
- By elyssa alvarado on 04-15-24
By: Kristen Bird
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The Beautiful People
- By: Michelle Gable
- Narrated by: Eleanor Caudill
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s 1961, and for Margo Hightower, everything is about to change. True, her engagement is off, her family has fallen in scandal, and she's completely broke. But she’s just been hired as assistant to photographer Slim Aarons—famous for his vibrant pictures of high society, royalty, and Hollywood stars—and she knows this opportunity is her ticket to something better. From the bright beaches of Acapulco to glitzy parties in New York, Margo is thrown headfirst into the glamorous jet-set world she so covets, observing its ways from behind the camera as Slim’s sidekick.
By: Michelle Gable
What listeners say about The Swan's Nest
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- westernMA
- 03-28-24
The most enchanting interlude
Nothing compares to the sensations of time travel, and McNeal constructs the world of the Barrett-Brownings so completely, spins a web for the reader with such gorgeous detail, that you are wholly transported. I feel I've been to these times and places, not just heard about them. The intimacy of the love story, and the tides of family and the politics of the time that surround it, are beautifully balanced in such a way that I could not put it down. Narration is expert and added a lovely layer to the experience of the book.
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