
The Sandcastle Girls
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Cassandra Campbell
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Alison Fraser
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By:
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Chris Bohjalian
About this listen
Over the course of his career, New York Times best-selling novelist Chris Bohjalian has taken readers on a spectacular array of journeys. Midwives brought us to an isolated Vermont farmhouse on an icy winter's night and a home birth gone tragically wrong. The Double Bind perfectly conjured the Roaring 20s on Long Island - and a young social worker's descent into madness. And Skeletons at the Feast chronicled the last six months of World War Two in Poland and Germany with nail-biting authenticity. As The Washington Post Book World has noted, Bohjalian writes "the sorts of books people stay awake all night to finish."
In his 15th book, The Sandcastle Girls, he brings us on a very different kind of journey. This spellbinding tale travels between Aleppo, Syria, in 1915 and Bronxville, New York, in 2012 - a sweeping historical love story steeped in the author's Armenian heritage, making it his most personal novel to date.
When Elizabeth Endicott arrives in Syria, she has a diploma from Mount Holyoke College, a crash course in nursing, and only the most basic grasp of the Armenian language. The First World War is spreading across Europe, and she has volunteered on behalf of the Boston-based Friends of Armenia to deliver food and medical aid to refugees of the Armenian genocide. There, Elizabeth becomes friendly with Armen, a young Armenian engineer who has already lost his wife and infant daughter. When Armen leaves Aleppo to join the British Army in Egypt, he begins to write Elizabeth letters, and comes to realize that he has fallen in love with the wealthy, young American woman who is so different from the wife he lost.
Flash forward to the present, where we meet Laura Petrosian, a novelist living in suburban New York. Although her grandparents' ornate Pelham home was affectionately nicknamed the "Ottoman Annex", Laura has never really given her Armenian heritage much thought. But when an old friend calls, claiming to have seen a newspaper photo of Laura's grandmother promoting an exhibit at a Boston museum, Laura embarks on a journey back through her family's history that reveals love, loss - and a wrenching secret that has been buried for generations.
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Critic reviews
;In his latest novel, master storyteller Chris Bohjalian explores the ways in which our ancestral past informs our contemporary lives--in ways we understand and ways that remain mysteriously out of reach.
The Sandcastle Girls is deft, layered, eye-opening, and riveting. I was deeply moved." (Wally Lamb)
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Story
Crissy Dowling has created a world that suits her perfectly. She passes her days by the pool in a private cabana, she splurges on ice cream but never gains an ounce, and each evening she transforms into a Princess, performing her musical cabaret inspired by the life of the late Diana Spencer. Some might find her strange or even delusional, an American speaking with a British accent, hair feathered into a style thirty years old, living and working in a casino that has become a dated trash heap.
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Cheap movie ticket
- By april on 03-25-24
By: Chris Bohjalian
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The Light in the Ruins
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Mark Bramhall
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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It is 1943: Tucked away in the idyllic hills south of Florence, the Rosatis, an Italian family of noble lineage, believe that the walls of their ancient villa will keep them safe from the war raging across Europe. Eighteen-year-old Cristina spends her days swimming in the pool, playing with her young niece and nephew, and wandering aimlessly amid the estate's gardens and olive groves. But when two soldiers, a German and an Italian, arrive at the villa asking to see an ancient Etruscan burial site, the Rosatis' bucolic tranquility is shattered.
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Breathes new life
- By B. Siemens on 08-16-13
By: Chris Bohjalian
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The Night Strangers
- A Novel
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Alison Fraser, Mark Bramhall
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In a dusty corner of a basement in a rambling Victorian house in northern New Hampshire, a door has long been sealed shut with 39 six-inch-long carriage bolts. The home's new owners are Chip and Emily Linton and their twin ten-year-old daughters. Together they hope to rebuild their lives there after Chip, an airline pilot, has to ditch his 70-seat regional jet in Lake Champlain after double engine failure.
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...and just in time for Halloween!
- By Pamela Harvey on 10-19-11
By: Chris Bohjalian
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The Guest Room
- A Novel
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò, Grace Experience
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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When Kristin Chapman agrees to let her husband, Richard, host his brother's bachelor party, she expects a certain amount of debauchery. She brings their young daughter to Manhattan for the evening, leaving her Westchester home to the men and their hired entertainment. What she does not expect is this: bacchanalian drunkenness, her husband sharing a dangerously intimate moment in the guest room, and two women stabbing and killing their Russian bodyguards before driving off into the night.
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Blah, Blah, Blah
- By Julie on 01-07-16
By: Chris Bohjalian
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Before You Know Kindness
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Susan Denaker
- Length: 17 hrs
- Unabridged
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For 10 summers, the Seton family - all three generations - met at their country home in New England to spend a week together playing tennis, badminton, and golf, and savoring gin and tonics on the wraparound porch to celebrate the end of the season. In the 11th summer, everything changed. A hunting rifle with a single cartridge left in the chamber wound up in exactly the wrong hands at exactly the wrong time, and led to a nightmarish accident that put to the test the values that unite the family - and the convictions that just may pull it apart.
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Awesome Read
- By Pamela Harvey on 10-30-04
By: Chris Bohjalian
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The Red Lotus
- A Novel
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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From the New York Times best-selling author of The Flight Attendant comes a twisting story of love and deceit: An American man vanishes on a rural road in Vietnam, and his girlfriend follows a path that leads her home to the very hospital where they met.
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Wait till COVID19 has passed to read this one!
- By Taryn on 03-29-20
By: Chris Bohjalian
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The Premonition
- A Short Story Prequel to The Sleepwalker
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Cady McClain
- Length: 1 hr and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Lianna Ahlberg is 17 when a thunderstorm snaps a power line to the earth, electrifying the ground, the rain spreading the current like wildfire across the wet grass. Two horses are killed in the nearby field, unnerving the neighbors, upsetting the peculiar boy who has just moved in, and filling Lianna with a deep and abiding sense of dread. This is not the first unusual thing to happen that summer - a summer when Lianna's mother begins to sleepwalk in the smallest hours of morning - and it will not be the last.
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Terrible narration....
- By kelly m. leach on 05-03-18
By: Chris Bohjalian
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The Flight Attendant
- A Novel
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Erin Spencer, Grace Experience, Mark Deakins
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Cassandra Bowden is no stranger to hungover mornings. She's a binge drinker, her job with the airline making it easy to find adventure, and the occasional blackouts seem to be inevitable. She lives with them and the accompanying self-loathing. When she awakes in a Dubai hotel room, she tries to piece the previous night back together, counting the minutes until she has to catch her crew shuttle to the airport. She quietly slides out of bed, careful not to aggravate her already pounding head, and looks at the man she spent the night with.
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Good story but 1 reader got on my nerves
- By Bernadette on 04-15-18
By: Chris Bohjalian
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Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands
- A Novel
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Grace Blewer
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands is the story of Emily Shepard, a homeless teen living in an igloo made of ice and trash bags filled with frozen leaves. Half a year earlier, a nuclear plant in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom had experienced a cataclysmic meltdown, and both of Emily's parents were killed. Devastatingly, her father was in charge of the plant, and the meltdown may have been his fault. Was he drunk when it happened?
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Overall a good book, but poorly narrated
- By Cecilia on 09-02-14
By: Chris Bohjalian
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The Wednesday Sisters
- By: Meg Waite Clayton
- Narrated by: Julie Dretzin
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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For 35 years, Frankie, Linda, Kath, Brett, and Ally have met every Wednesday at the park near their homes in Palo Alto, California. Defined when they first meet by what their husbands do, the young homemakers and mothers are far removed from the Summer of Love that has enveloped most of the Bay Area in 1967.
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Loved it!
- By Denise Wallace on 06-26-09
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Trans-Sister Radio
- A Novel
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Judith Ivey
- Length: 5 hrs and 10 mins
- Abridged
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Four people in a small Vermont village are about to have their lives inexorably intertwined by the uncertainties of love . . . and the apparent absolutes of gender. All four characters—Allison, Dana, Carly, and Will—narrate this compelling story, spinning a tale that will keep you turning the pages with the eagerness we usually reserve for thrillers, while nodding in wonder at such a deeply moving and profoundly honest portrayal of longing, love, and desire.
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finely textured, gracefully written
- By YoginiZora on 12-26-05
By: Chris Bohjalian
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The Buffalo Soldier
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Alison Fraser
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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From the best selling and critically acclaimed author of Trans-Sister Radio comes a hauntingly beautiful story of the ties that bind families - and the strains that pull them apart. "Bohjalian writes honestly and often movingly," says Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal calls it "tender...[written] with poetic skill."
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Touching, and Sincere
- By A.W. Nadine on 05-27-03
By: Chris Bohjalian
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Promise
- A Novel
- By: Minrose Gwin
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In the aftermath of a devastating tornado that rips through the town of Tupelo, Mississippi, at the height of the Great Depression, two women worlds apart - one Black, one White; one a great-grandmother, the other a teenager - fight for their families' survival in this lyrical and powerful novel.
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Mostly Disappointing
- By Anjoli on 06-15-19
By: Minrose Gwin
What listeners say about The Sandcastle Girls
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- Carmen C
- 03-19-14
Beautiful Story
What did you love best about The Sandcastle Girls?
The exotic location for the story was so phenomenal and interesting, I loved the multi-generational aspect as well.
What does Cassandra Campbell and Alison Fraser bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
It was great to have two narrators with distinct voices record this story, clever.
Any additional comments?
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction about places you don't usually read about.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Judith
- 11-27-12
I liked it; I didn't love it.
Laura Petrosian, a novelist, begins to research her Armenian heritage and the story takes her back to 1915 when her grandmother, Elizabeth Endicott, traveled with a group of nurses from Boston, Mass. to provide aid to the refugees of Armenian genocide. Amid the horrors of the treatment and deaths of the Armenian women she falls in love with Arman, an engineer who travels to Egypt to join the British army. Amidst the chaos their love is kept alive through letters.
The rapes and starvation of the women are hard to read about and may be depressing for some. I wanted to love this novel like I loved Skeletons at the Feast , my favorite of Bohjalian's novels. I did like it but something was missing. It just did not come together like I think it should have. The story was simple and there was not much plot since it was obvious to me from the start how the story would turn out. Also the transitions from past to present were awkward. I think it would have been a better novel if it had been told totally in the past… but that's just me. The only other novel that I have read about the Armenian genocide was The Gendarme . I enjoyed it more because it was shocking and the story, as horrible as it was, was smoothly written and very believable.
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- LettyB.
- 01-09-17
Powerful!
Very powerful story about the Armenian genocide of 1915, a part of history I did not know much about. It was sad to listen to at times because of the horrific descriptions that I had to take a break for a day or two and then get back to it. Overall, it was well done with a bittersweet ending. The narration of this audio book was excellent.
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- Jessica E. Malcolm
- 10-29-18
heartbreaking and beautiful
I really loved this book. I did not know much about the Armenian genocide and this gives a glimpse into the torture those poor beautiful people endured. the characters come to life and pull at your heartstrings.
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- Pat
- 02-09-13
Wow! I learned so much about an unknown.
Wow! I winced through a part of this story which describes a brutal killing on a train but it just doesn't compare to the overall story of the Armenian Genocide, largely unknown to me. This historical fiction novel is well done and enlightens the reader about the Ottoman Empire's murder of more than 1.5 million Armenians by forcing them to march into the Syrian desert without food and water.
The story is told in two time settings:
A love story unfolds between Elizabeth an American who goes to Syria to provide medical attention to the Armenians. She meets Armen, an Armenian engineer who has lost his wife and child.
The current day Laura, a novelist who comes upon her grandparents letters and diaries in an Armenian History Museum in MA and begins to research the story of her family.
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- barbara b
- 03-01-13
It was not as I expected
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
I would recommend it to someone who likes history
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Sandcastle Girls?
The boldness of Elizabeth in dealing with the thiefs that took the supplies
If this book were a movie would you go see it?
no
Any additional comments?
This has not been one of my favorites.It does not move with a flow that makes you want to stop what you are doing to read it .I did finish it but with great difficulties.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Susan
- 09-10-13
Fabulous Book
A moving story. Two narrators worked very well. Bohjalian captures the broader picture of the extermination or Armenians in the early 20th Century while building a very personal story line. The brutality of governments toward innocent civilians plays out again and again, century after century. The author captures the futility of well meaning foreigner volunteers trying to make a difference. They do, but in small ways, which of course count. I highly recommend the book for the story and an education about the period.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Lisa Jason
- 08-24-16
Historical Fiction at its Best
This is a brilliantly conceived story about "the war no one knows about," also referred to as the Armenian Genocide of 1915. I listened to this book on audio and that made the story even more compelling. While it is about war, injustice and crimes against humanity, it's also about love, secrets and split second decisions that can greatly affect the rest of your life. There is much to be learned from this well crafted tale.
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- J Crocus
- 07-25-16
solid
I've read other books by Chris Bohjalian and enjoyed them. This wasn't much different. I was unaware of the Armenian genocide before picking this book up, and I believe I know a lot more now. My only beef with this book was how old the second narrator sounded. It drove me nuts earlier on in the book when you're seeing her story through the eyes of a teen, but ultimately she is supposed to be a 45 year old woman. I eventually got over it, but it was like nails on a chalkboard at first.
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- DHackney
- 11-12-12
Excellent Historical Story-Fantastic Audio
“The Sandcastle Girls” is the first book I have read by author Christ Bohjalian. This book stunned me in such a way that I can’t get it out of my head. One striking point to make about this book is that it is not a happy story to read. I am glad that I listened to this book as an audible instead of reading it myself. The different readers help separate the past from the present and the change in voice helped me get through the terrible details. I cried quite a bit while listening and would have to stop the audio and walk away to compose myself. The Armenian genocide of 1915 is a part of history that I knew nothing about. This fact shamed me as I love history and thought that I knew a great deal about the historical world that surrounded World War One. This genocide was never in anything I have read. I actually stopped the audio at one point and went on-line to do a little research and study some historical maps of the areas the book describes. What I found absolutely horrified me and broke my heart to read about – once again – humans treating other humans as if they were nothing.
The characters in “The Sandcastle Girls” were so well developed for the reader that one seems to actually know them. The modern story of a woman seeking and finding out about her grandparents past was alive with childhood memories that made me smile. The story of Laura’s grandmother, Elizabeth, broke my heart but also filled me with admiration for her courage and selflessness in a world so foreign to what she was accustomed.
I am giving “The Sandcastle Girls” five stars because I believe that the writing was “beyond” excellent along with the research to be historically accurate. The character creation was just about perfect. I recommend that people read this fictionalized version to open their minds to a real part of history that they may have missed while learning in school. Also, for those us audio books, the production of this book was the best I have listened to thus far. I am going to pick up some other books written by Chris Bohjalian because I am a now a fan of this excellent author.
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5 people found this helpful