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Where the Heart Should Be
- Author
- Sarah Crossan
- Narrator
- Sophie Jo Wasson
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date
- 14 March 2024
- Run Time
- 3 hours 56 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
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What to expect
‘A beautiful, perfect, moving read’ – Cecelia Ahern, author of PS, I Love You
The outstanding novel from the Carnegie Medal-winning, former Laureate na nÓg Sarah Crossan; thought-provoking and moving, it explores love and family during The Great Hunger.
Ireland, 1846. Nell is working as a scullery maid in the kitchen of the Big House. Once she loved school and books and dreaming. But there's not much choice of work when the land grows food that rots in the earth. Now she is scrubbing, peeling, washing, sweeping for Sir Philip Wicken, the man who owns her home, her family's land, their crops, everything. His dogs are always well fed, even as famine sets in.
Upstairs in the Big House, where Nell is forbidden to enter, is Johnny Browning, newly arrived from England: the young nephew who will one day inherit it all. And as hunger and disease run rampant all around them, a spark of life and hope catches light when Nell and Johnny find each other.
This is a love story, and the story of a people being torn apart. This is a powerful and unforgettable novel from the phenomenally talented Sarah Crossan.
‘A beautifully written, tightly observed novel’ – The Times
'Unmissable' – Daily Mail
‘Irresistibly emotive’ – The Sunday Times
‘Thrums with longing, beauty, loss and strength’ – Katya Balen, author of October, October
Critics Review
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One of our finest novelists. Where the Heart Should Be is a thing of beauty.
Phil Earle
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Sarah Crossan’s writing is powerful and necessary
Matt Goodfellow
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A tour de force from Sarah Crossan
Patricia Forde, Laureate na nÓg
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Where the Heart Should Be thrums with longing, beauty, loss and strength.
Katya Balen
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A beautifully written, tightly observed novel... completely absorbing.
The Times
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With tenderness and unexpected humour, this story is irresistibly emotive as events unfold with almost unbearable tension, mitigated only by the promise at the beginning that true love wins
Sunday Times
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Outstanding... Crossan's economy of words is no barrier to intense emotional impact in this powerhouse of a novel
Observer
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A beautiful, perfect, moving read
Cecelia Ahern
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Mesmerising, beautiful and full of rage
Holly Bourne
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Unmissable
Daily Mail
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Terrific on every level
Daily Mail
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PRAISE FOR TOFFEE: "Utterly Sublime", - Cecelia Ahern, "Impossible not to read it in a single gulp" - The Times, "Undoubtedly one of the best books of the year" - Irish Times, "Compelling and beautifully wrought" - The Sunday Times, "A book that changes its reader for the better" - The Guardian, "One of our most original writers" - John Boyne
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PRAISE FOR ONE: "The best book I've read in years. It's a spectacular testament to love. It blows your head back" - Katherine Rundell
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Sarah Crossan
- Narrator
- Sophie Jo Wasson
- Duration
- 3 hours 56 minutes
- Release Date
- 14 March 2024
- ISBN
- 9781526666604
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Genre
- Children’s / Teenage fiction: Family and home stories, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Historical fiction
Synopsis
Bloomsbury presents Where the Heart Should Be by Sarah Crossan, read by Sophie Jo Wasson.‘A beautiful, perfect, moving read’ – Cecelia Ahern, author of PS, I Love YouThe outstanding novel from the Carnegie Medal-winning, former Laureate na nÓg Sarah Crossan; thought-provoking and moving, it explores love and family during The Great Hunger.Ireland, 1846. Nell is working as a scullery maid in the kitchen of the Big House. Once she loved school and books and dreaming. But there's not much choice of work when the land grows food that rots in the earth. Now she is scrubbing, peeling, washing, sweeping for Sir Philip Wicken, the man who owns her home, her family's land, their crops, everything. His dogs are always well fed, even as famine sets in.Upstairs in the Big House, where Nell is forbidden to enter, is Johnny Browning, newly arrived from England: the young nephew who will one day inherit it all. And as hunger and disease run rampant all around them, a spark of life and hope catches light when Nell and Johnny find each other. This is a love story, and the story of a people being torn apart. This is a powerful and unforgettable novel from the phenomenally talented Sarah Crossan.‘A beautifully written, tightly observed novel’ – The Times'Unmissable' – Daily Mail‘Irresistibly emotive’ – The Sunday Times‘Thrums with longing, beauty, loss and strength’ – Katya Balen, author of October, October
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