
The Nature of Fragile Things
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Narrated by:
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Alana Kerr Collins
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Jason Culp
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By:
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Susan Meissner
About this listen
April 18, 1906: A massive earthquake rocks San Francisco just before daybreak, igniting a devouring inferno. Lives are lost, lives are shattered, but some rise from the ashes forever changed.
Sophie Whalen is a young Irish immigrant so desperate to get out of a New York tenement that she answers a mail-order bride ad and agrees to marry a man she knows nothing about. San Francisco widower Martin Hocking proves to be as aloof as he is mesmerizingly handsome. Sophie quickly develops deep affection for Kat, Martin's silent five-year-old daughter, but Martin's odd behavior leaves her with the uneasy feeling that something about her newfound situation isn't right.
Then one early-spring evening, a stranger at the door sets in motion a transforming chain of events. Sophie discovers hidden ties to two other women. The first, pretty and pregnant, is standing on her doorstep. The second is hundreds of miles away in the American Southwest, grieving the loss of everything she once loved.
The fates of these three women intertwine on the eve of the devastating earthquake, thrusting them onto a perilous journey that will test their resiliency and resolve and, ultimately, their belief that love can overcome fear.
From the acclaimed author of The Last Year of the War and As Bright as Heaven comes a gripping novel about the bonds of friendship and mother love, and the power of female solidarity.
Praise for The Nature of Fragile Things
“A mysterious web of lies, love, and loss that accelerates toward the inevitable: the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906." (Kristin Harmel, author of The Book of Lost Names)
“A riveting tale set in 1906 San Francisco. These fascinating characters' hidden pasts and dark secrets collide, entwine, and explode - and that's before the earthquake hits." (Greer Macallister, author of The Magician's Lie and The Arctic Fury)
“In the ashes of San Francisco's greatest tragedy, one remarkable woman finds love, friendship, and the means to rebuild. Historical fiction that reads with the urgency and suspense of a thriller.” (Lauren Willig, New York Times best-selling author of The Summer Country)
“Driven by the unstoppable force of the three intriguing women at its heart, this is a novel to savor, and one to share with all the women in your life whom you admire." (Hazel Gaynor, New York Times best-selling author of When We Were Young & Brave)
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Critic reviews
“Meissner spins an exceptional story.... Unexpected and masterfully crafted twists and turns abound.... Ingeniously plotted and perfectly structured, this captivates from beginning to end.” (Publisher's Weekly, starred review)
“A terrific tale that takes us on a harrowing cable-car ride through early 20th-century San Francisco, where dark secrets - like the city itself - crack wide open, forcing our world-weary heroine to confront the devastation done by the lies she's been told and by the lies she's still telling.” (Stephanie Dray, author of America’s First Daughter and The Women of Chateau Lafayette)
“A brilliant story of resilience and the power of female friendship." (Marie Benedict, New York Times best-selling author of The Mystery of Mrs. Christie)
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On one extraordinary day in 1940, Miriam Talan’s comfortable life is shattered. While she gives birth to her second child, a son she and her husband, Max, name Monya, the Soviets invade the Baltic state of Latvia and occupy the capital city of Riga, her home. Because the Talans are Jewish, the Soviets confiscate Max’s business and the family’s house and bank accounts, leaving them with nothing.
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It never ceases to break my heart …
- By Sherry M. Bianchi-Knod on 05-23-22
By: Shelly Sanders
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You Belong Here Now
- A Novel
- By: Dianna Rostad
- Narrated by: Courtney Patterson
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Montana 1925: Three brave kids from New York board the orphan train headed west. An Irish boy who lost his whole family to Spanish flu, a tiny girl who won’t talk, and a volatile young man who desperately needs to escape Hell’s Kitchen. They are paraded on platforms across the Midwest to work-worn folks and journey countless miles, racing the sun westward. Before they reach the last rejection and stop, the kids come up with a daring plan, and they set off toward the Yellowstone River and grassy mountains where the wild horses roam.
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Disappointed with the language
- By Clara Jennings on 09-15-21
By: Dianna Rostad
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The Mayfair Bookshop
- A Novel of Nancy Mitford and the Pursuit of Happiness
- By: Eliza Knight
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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1938: She was one of the six sparkling Mitford sisters, known for her stinging quips, stylish dress, and bright green eyes. But Nancy Mitford’s seemingly dazzling life was really one of turmoil: with a perpetually unfaithful and broke husband, two Nazi sympathizer sisters, and her hopes of motherhood dashed forever. With war imminent, Nancy finds respite by taking a job at the Heywood Hill Bookshop in Mayfair, hoping to make ends meet, and discovers a new life.
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Perfectly Voices, Upliftingly Fun
- By Syd Young on 04-15-22
By: Eliza Knight
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Sisters of the Resistance
- A Novel of Catherine Dior's Paris Spy Network
- By: Christine Wells
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Paris, 1944: The war is nearly over, but for members of the Resistance in occupied France, it is more dangerous than ever before. Twenty-five-year-old Gabby Foucher loathes the Nazis, though as the concierge of 10 rue Royale, she does her best to avoid conflict - unlike her bolder sister Yvette, who finds trouble at every turn.
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NOT about Catherine Dior
- By Amazoncustomer on 08-09-21
By: Christine Wells
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Counting Lost Stars
- A Novel
- By: Kim van Alkemade
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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1960, New York City: College student Rita Klein is a pioneering woman in the new field of computer programming—until she unexpectedly becomes pregnant. At the Hudson Home for Unwed Mothers, social workers pressure her into surrendering her baby for adoption. Rita is struggling to get on with her life when she meets Jacob Nassy, a charming yet troubled man from the Netherlands who is traumatized by his childhood experience of being separated from his mother during the Holocaust.
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My kind of book
- By diane on 01-03-25
By: Kim van Alkemade
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Off the Wild Coast of Brittany
- By: Juliet Blackwell
- Narrated by: Hope Newhouse, Xe Sands
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Natalie Morgen made a name for herself with a memoir about overcoming her harsh childhood after finding a new life in Paris. After falling in love with a classically trained chef, they moved together to his ancestral home, a tiny fishing village off the coast of Brittany. But then Francois-Xavier breaks things off with her without warning, leaving her flat broke and in the middle of renovating the guesthouse they planned to open for business.
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Swept away by this wonderful story
- By pam g on 03-29-21
By: Juliet Blackwell
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The Dictionary of Lost Words
- A Novel
- By: Pip Williams
- Narrated by: Pippa Bennett-Warner
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, an Oxford garden shed in which her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Young Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word bondmaid flutters beneath the table. She rescues the slip and, learning that the word means “slave girl,” begins to collect other words discarded or neglected by the dictionary men.
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Enchanted
- By Lulu Can on 04-07-21
By: Pip Williams
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Dear Edward
- A Novel
- By: Ann Napolitano
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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One summer morning, twelve-year-old Edward Adler, his beloved older brother, his parents, and 183 other passengers board a flight in Newark headed for Los Angeles. Among them are a Wall Street wunderkind, a young woman coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, an injured veteran returning from Afghanistan, a business tycoon, and a free-spirited woman running away from her controlling husband. Halfway across the country, the plane crashes. Edward is the sole survivor.
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Stunning characterization and compelling storytelling!
- By Amazon User on 01-29-20
By: Ann Napolitano
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The Diamond Eye
- A Novel
- By: Kate Quinn
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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In the snowbound city of Kiev, wry and bookish history student Mila Pavlichenko organizes her life around her library job and her young son—but Hitler’s invasion of Russia sends her on a different path. Given a rifle and sent to join the fight, Mila must forge herself from studious girl to deadly sniper—a lethal hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death. When news of her three hundredth kill makes her a national heroine, Mila finds herself torn from the bloody battlefields of the eastern front and sent to America on a goodwill tour.
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Excellent narration!
- By Denise Diener on 04-15-22
By: Kate Quinn
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Surviving Savannah
- By: Patti Callahan
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley, Catherine Taber, Patti Callahan
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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When Savannah history Professor Everly Winthrop is asked to guest-curate a new museum collection focusing on artifacts recovered from the steamship Pulaski, she's shocked. The ship sank after a boiler explosion in 1838, and the wreckage was just discovered, 180 years later. Everly can't resist the opportunity to try to solve some of the mysteries and myths surrounding the devastating night of its sinking. Everly's research leads her to the astounding history of a family of 11 who boarded the Pulaski together, and the extraordinary stories of two women from this family.
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Leave history as it is. Can't be changed.
- By Placeholder on 04-30-21
By: Patti Callahan
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The Underground Library
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Ryan
- Narrated by: Fenella Woolgar
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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When the new deputy librarian, Juliet Lansdown, finds that Bethnal Green Library isn’t the bustling hub she is expecting, she becomes determined to breathe life back into it. But can she show the men in charge that a woman is up to the task of running the library, especially when a confrontation with her past threatens to derail her?
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Storytelling excellence and historical facts wrapped into one.
- By Robin Goldin on 03-30-24
By: Jennifer Ryan
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Falling Home
- A Falling Home Novel
- By: Karen White
- Narrated by: Lyssa Browne
- Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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At 20, Cassie Madison left her hometown of Walton, Georgia, for New York City, where she has reinvented herself - from losing herself in her career to squashing her accent. But one night a single phone call brings back everything she's tried to forget. She hasn't spoken to her sister since Harriet stole Cassie's fiancé and married him. But now Harriet's on the line with news that their father is dying. As she makes the trip back, the only thing that frightens Cassie more than losing her father is seeing Harriet and the family that should have been hers.
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Another great book by Karen White
- By Kindle Customer on 02-01-21
By: Karen White
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Not a Happy Family
- A Novel
- By: Shari Lapena
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Brecken Hill in upstate New York is an expensive place to live. You have to be rich to have a house there, and Fred and Sheila Merton certainly are rich. But even all their money can't protect them when a killer comes to call. The Mertons are brutally murdered after a fraught Easter dinner with their three adult kids. Who, of course, are devastated.
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Liked the story, didn't like narration
- By SB on 07-29-21
By: Shari Lapena
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Three Wishes
- A Novel
- By: Liane Moriarty
- Narrated by: Heather Wilds
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Lyn, Cat, and Gemma Kettle, beautiful 33-year-old triplets, seem to attract attention everywhere they go. Together, laughter, drama, and mayhem follow them, but apart, each is dealing with her own share of ups and downs. Lyn has organized her life into one big checklist, Cat has just learned a startling secret about her marriage, and Gemma, who bolts every time a relationship hits the six-month mark, holds out hope for lasting love.
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Can’t listen due to narrator
- By Nina on 03-29-19
By: Liane Moriarty
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Our Woman in Moscow
- A Novel
- By: Beatriz Williams
- Narrated by: Nicola Barber, Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In the autumn of 1948, Iris Digby vanishes from her London home with her American diplomat husband and their two children. The world is shocked by the family’s sensational disappearance. Were they eliminated by the Soviet intelligence service? Or have the Digbys defected to Moscow with a trove of the West’s most vital secrets?
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Wonderful Listen
- By Terry on 09-29-21
By: Beatriz Williams
What listeners say about The Nature of Fragile Things
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- JennyR
- 02-09-21
Fantastic Book
This was one of those, " I could not put it down" books. I read the book first, and immediately ordered the Audible version to listen to. The narrator was perfect! I was able to catch things I had missed. on the second time thru. The Earthquake made such an incredible background for the rest of the story to unfold.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Darla
- 02-03-21
Another well done book
Wonderfully written and narrated. Such a great, unpredictable story line that wraps everything up well.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Suzanne
- 03-17-22
Interesting story and historical settings
I knew almost nothing about the “Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906” so this setting was interesting to me. The story was also interesting and brought me into the culture and events of that era. The narration was excellent. I really enjoyed this book.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Julie Maria Goggins
- 02-24-21
Highly recommend
Meissner tells a good story, and this doesn't disappoint. Well written and easy on ear narration, highly recommend using a credit!
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- Dallas
- 06-14-21
A Must Read
When I first heard about this book, I thought it was going to focus solely on the events of the San Francisco earthquake in 1906 and the days following. However the earthquake has a minor role in a much larger story that leaves you questioning if you really know a person. Can't say too much without giving the story away, but I highly recommend you devour this book whether by words or by audio.
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- Linn S. Faler
- 06-13-21
Couldn’t put it down!
I was so mesmerized by this book that I listened to it from start to finish with only the interruption of sleep.
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- Laurie
- 03-31-21
Listenable
The story was OK. It was a little overdone at times and the pace was a bit slow. Overall it was absorbing. You quickly identified with the main character and wanted to see the story through to the end.
The performance was good and professional. I heard the lilt or upswing in the narrator’s voice that others have complained of, but it was not very extreme and did not detract from the narration. You have to hand it to anyone who can keep up an accent for over 10 hours of reading.
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- Melissa P
- 01-10-22
DEFINITELY WORTH IT
I don't usually leave reviews but both story and the narrator were A-MA-ZING!! I couldn't put it down!
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- Bob
- 06-26-21
Captivating
I love history and mystery. This book kept my attention 100%. Well written and well read.
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- JH
- 02-10-22
A story of intrigue and devastation
Loved the time period and the author did a wonderful job of creating a story line that was intriguing. I never realized how devastating the earthquake was in 1906.
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