
Wickett's Remedy
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $17.98
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Myla Goldberg
-
By:
-
Myla Goldberg
About this listen
The triumphant follow-up to the best-selling Bee Season, Wickett’s Remedy is an epic but intimate novel about a young Irish-American woman facing down tragedy during the Great Flu epidemic of 1918.
Wickett’s Remedy leads us back to Boston in the early part of the 20th century and into the world of Lydia, an Irish-American shop girl yearning for a grander world than the cramped confines of South Boston. She seems to be well on her way to the life she has dreamed of when she marries Henry Wickett, a shy medical student and the scion of a Boston Brahmin family. Soon after their wedding, however, Henry shocks Lydia by quitting medical school and creating a mail-order patent medicine called Wickett’s Remedy. And then just as the enterprise is getting off the ground, the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918 begins its deadly sweep across the world, drastically changing their lives.In a world turned almost unrecognizable by swift and sudden tragedy, Lydia finds herself working as a nurse in an experimental ward dedicated to understanding the raging epidemic—through the use of human subjects.
Meanwhile, we follow the fate of Henry’s beloved Wickett’s Remedy as his one-time business partner steals the recipe and transforms it into QD Soda, a wildly popular soft drink.
Based on years of research and evoking actual events, Wickett’s Remedy perfectly captures the texture of the times and brings a colourful cast of characters vividly to life, including a sad and funny chorus of the dead. With wit and dexterity, Goldberg has fashioned a novel that is both charming and grand. Wickett’s Remedy announces her arrival as a major novelist.
"South Boston belonged to Lydia as profoundly and wordlessly as her thimble finger. Her knowledge of its streets was more complete than any atlas, her mental maps reflecting changes that occurred from season to season, day to day, and hour to hour. Each time she left 28 D Street—one among a row of identical triple-decker houses, the tenements lining the street like so many stained teeth—her route reflected this internal almanac....
For ten years this was enough. Then in fifth grade, Lydia saw a city map and realized her entire world was a mitten dangling from Boston’s sleeve. Across the bridge lay Washington Street—the longest street in all New England—which began like any other but then continued north, a single determined thread of cobblestone that wove itself through every town from Boston to Providence. Once Lydia saw Washington Street she knew she could not allow it to exist without her."—excerpt from Wickett's Remedy
©2005 Myla Goldberg (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Handmaid's Tale: Special Edition
- By: Margaret Atwood, Valerie Martin - essay
- Narrated by: Claire Danes, full cast, Margaret Atwood, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After a violent coup in the United States overthrows the Constitution and ushers in a new government regime, the Republic of Gilead imposes subservient roles on all women. Offred, now a Handmaid tasked with the singular role of procreation in the childless household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife, can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost everything, even her own name.
-
-
Wait! It Mightn't Be What You Think--
- By Gillian on 04-05-17
By: Margaret Atwood, and others
-
The Husband's Secret
- By: Liane Moriarty
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret - something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive....
-
-
Soap Opera Digest
- By FanB14 on 02-06-14
By: Liane Moriarty
-
Cutting for Stone
- A Novel
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
- Length: 23 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution.
-
-
An Epic Medical Novel
- By Audiophile on 07-11-09
By: Abraham Verghese
-
The Secret Keeper
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England, 1959: Laurel Nicolson is 16 years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.
-
-
Kate Morton (and Caroline Lee) does it again!
- By Maria on 10-20-12
By: Kate Morton
-
The Forgotten Garden
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 20 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirty-eight year old Cassandra is lost, alone, and grieving. Her much loved grandmother, Nell, has just died and Cassandra, her life already shaken by a tragic accident 10 years ago, feels like she has lost everything known and dear to her.
-
-
Enchanting, intriguing, mysterious, and beautiful
- By Joseph on 12-10-08
By: Kate Morton
-
Girls on the Line
- A Novel
- By: Aimie K. Runyan
- Narrated by: Kathleen Gati
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
December 1917. As World War I rages in Europe, 24-year-old Ruby Wagner, the jewel in a prominent Philadelphia family, prepares for her upcoming wedding to a society scion. Like her life so far, it’s all been carefully arranged. But when her beloved older brother is killed in combat, Ruby follows her heart and answers the Army Signal Corps’ call for women operators to help overseas. As one of the trailblazing “Hello Girls” deployed to war-torn France, Ruby must find her place in the military strata, fight for authority and respect, and work to secure a victory for the cause.
-
-
Incredible story and narration!
- By Cindy Nipper on 03-29-19
By: Aimie K. Runyan
-
The Handmaid's Tale: Special Edition
- By: Margaret Atwood, Valerie Martin - essay
- Narrated by: Claire Danes, full cast, Margaret Atwood, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After a violent coup in the United States overthrows the Constitution and ushers in a new government regime, the Republic of Gilead imposes subservient roles on all women. Offred, now a Handmaid tasked with the singular role of procreation in the childless household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife, can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost everything, even her own name.
-
-
Wait! It Mightn't Be What You Think--
- By Gillian on 04-05-17
By: Margaret Atwood, and others
-
The Husband's Secret
- By: Liane Moriarty
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret - something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive....
-
-
Soap Opera Digest
- By FanB14 on 02-06-14
By: Liane Moriarty
-
Cutting for Stone
- A Novel
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
- Length: 23 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution.
-
-
An Epic Medical Novel
- By Audiophile on 07-11-09
By: Abraham Verghese
-
The Secret Keeper
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England, 1959: Laurel Nicolson is 16 years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.
-
-
Kate Morton (and Caroline Lee) does it again!
- By Maria on 10-20-12
By: Kate Morton
-
The Forgotten Garden
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 20 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirty-eight year old Cassandra is lost, alone, and grieving. Her much loved grandmother, Nell, has just died and Cassandra, her life already shaken by a tragic accident 10 years ago, feels like she has lost everything known and dear to her.
-
-
Enchanting, intriguing, mysterious, and beautiful
- By Joseph on 12-10-08
By: Kate Morton
-
Girls on the Line
- A Novel
- By: Aimie K. Runyan
- Narrated by: Kathleen Gati
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
December 1917. As World War I rages in Europe, 24-year-old Ruby Wagner, the jewel in a prominent Philadelphia family, prepares for her upcoming wedding to a society scion. Like her life so far, it’s all been carefully arranged. But when her beloved older brother is killed in combat, Ruby follows her heart and answers the Army Signal Corps’ call for women operators to help overseas. As one of the trailblazing “Hello Girls” deployed to war-torn France, Ruby must find her place in the military strata, fight for authority and respect, and work to secure a victory for the cause.
-
-
Incredible story and narration!
- By Cindy Nipper on 03-29-19
By: Aimie K. Runyan
-
Into the Water
- A Novel
- By: Paula Hawkins
- Narrated by: Laura Aikman, Daniel Weyman, Imogen Church, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town. Earlier in the summer, a vulnerable teenage girl met the same fate. They are not the first women lost to these dark waters, but their deaths disturb the river and its history, dredging up secrets long submerged. Left behind is a lonely 15-year-old girl. Parentless and friendless, she now finds herself in the care of her mother's sister, a fearful stranger who has been dragged back to the place she deliberately ran from - a place to which she vowed she'd never return.
-
-
Don't Hold Your Breath
- By Mel on 05-07-17
By: Paula Hawkins
-
All the Missing Girls
- A Novel
- By: Megan Miranda
- Narrated by: Rebekkah Ross
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's been 10 years since Nicolette Farrell left her rural hometown after her best friend, Corinne, disappeared from Cooley Ridge without a trace. Back again to tie up loose ends and care for her ailing father, Nic is soon plunged into a shocking drama that reawakens Corinne's case and breaks open old wounds long since stitched. The decade-old investigation focused on Nic; her brother, Daniel; her boyfriend, Tyler; and Corinne's boyfriend, Jackson. Since then only Nic has left Cooley Ridge.
-
-
Stay with it
- By Amber on 07-03-16
By: Megan Miranda
-
The Gilded Hour
- By: Sara Donati
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 31 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year is 1883, and in New York City it's a time of dizzying splendor, crushing poverty, and tremendous change. With the gravity-defying Brooklyn Bridge nearly complete and New York in the grips of antivice crusader Anthony Comstock, Anna Savard and her cousin, Sophie - both graduates of the Woman's Medical School - treat the city's most vulnerable, even if doing so may put everything they've strived for in jeopardy.
-
-
Historical romance, surgical implements too!
- By Annie M. on 09-06-15
By: Sara Donati
-
A Fall of Marigolds
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries...and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions she's made. Will what she learns devastate her or free her?
-
-
Beautiful!
- By R. Burnham on 03-29-15
By: Susan Meissner
-
The Magician's Assistant
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Karen Ziemba
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a gay Los Angeles magician named Parsifal dies suddenly, he leaves behind his heartbroken assistant, Sabine, and a secret past that leads her to Nebraska and a father she never knew he had.
-
-
Patchett Has It
- By Pamela Harvey on 06-10-08
By: Ann Patchett
-
War Brides
- By: Helen Bryan
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As war moves ever closer, the sleepy English village of Crowmarsh Priors settles into a new sort of normal: Evacuees from London are billeted in local homes. The nightly German air raids become grimly mundane. Rationing curtails every comfort. Men leave to fight and die. And five women forge a bond of friendship that will change their lives forever in this engrossing novel of loyalty, loss, and love in the shadow of World War II.With the hardships of war intensifying every day, the women band together to defeat formidable enemies and find remarkable strength within themselves to help one another. It is a war-forged loyalty certain to endure years and distance. When four of the women return for a celebration fifty years later, their mission is not simply to commemorate or remember. They’ve returned to confront a traitor whose actions cost countless lives — and to avenge one of their own at last.
-
-
Ruined by Narration
- By Sara on 08-28-14
By: Helen Bryan
-
Friends Forever
- A Novel
- By: Danielle Steel
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Five children meet on the first day of kindergarten. In the years that follow, they become friends and more than friends. Together, they will find strength, meet challenges, face life’s adventures, endure loss, face stark realities, and open their hearts. In this moving novel, number one New York Times best-selling author Danielle Steel traces their unforgettable journey - full of tests and trials - as three boys and two girls discover the vital bonds that will last a lifetime.
-
-
Disappointed for the last time.
- By CCB on 07-28-12
By: Danielle Steel
-
The Summer Queen
- Eleanor of Aquitaine Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Elizabeth Chadwick
- Narrated by: Katie Scarfe
- Length: 18 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eleanor of Aquitaine's story is legendary. She is an icon who has fascinated readers for over 800 years. But the real Eleanor remains elusive - until now. Based on the most up-to-date research, best-selling novelist Elizabeth Chadwick brings Eleanor's magnificent story to life, as never before. Young, vibrant, privileged, Eleanor's future is golden as the heiress to wealthy Aquitaine. But when her beloved father dies suddenly in the summer of 1137, her childhood ends abruptly.
-
-
The Romance Runs Strong in This One
- By Sara on 10-04-14
-
Domina
- By: Barbara Wood
- Narrated by: Marion Castle
- Length: 20 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beautiful and courageous, Samantha Hargrave dares to dream that she will become one of the first female doctors - and surgeons - in America. Born in the slums of London and possessing a special gift for healing, Samantha struggles to enter the all-male medical profession. When her ambition encounters hostile rejection in England, she sails to America, where she meets an eccentric doctor who takes her on as an apprentice.
-
-
Really bad.
- By Anonymous User on 12-29-17
By: Barbara Wood
-
After the War Is Over
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Robson
- Narrated by: Lucy Rayner
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After four years as a military nurse, Charlotte Brown is ready to leave behind the devastation of the Great War. The daughter of a vicar, she has always been determined to dedicate her life to helping others. Moving to busy Liverpool, she throws herself into her work with those most in need, only tearing herself away for the lively dinners she enjoys with the women at her boardinghouse.
-
-
More romance than history
- By RueRue on 08-17-16
By: Jennifer Robson
-
Everything We Keep
- A Novel (Everything, Book 1)
- By: Kerry Lonsdale
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sous chef Aimee Tierney has the perfect recipe for the perfect life: marry her childhood sweetheart, raise a family, and buy out her parents’ restaurant. But when her fiancé, James Donato, vanishes in a boating accident, her well-baked future is swept out to sea. Instead of walking down the aisle on their wedding day, Aimee is at James’s funeral - a funeral that leaves her more unsettled than at peace.
-
-
Narrator Issues
- By R. Graham on 09-12-16
By: Kerry Lonsdale
-
Lady of Ashes
- Lady of Ashes Series, Book 1
- By: Christine Trent
- Narrated by: Polly Lee
- Length: 15 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Only a woman with an iron backbone could succeed as an undertaker in Victorian England, but Violet Morgan takes great pride in her trade. While her husband, Graham, is preoccupied with elevating their station in society, Violet is cultivating a sterling reputation for Morgan Undertaking.
-
-
A lot of information!
- By JessN on 02-26-24
By: Christine Trent
Critic reviews
“With this second voyage out, Goldberg demonstrates her versatility, mixing research with whimsy, sensitivity with humour, satire with romance.” —The Gazette (Montreal)
“Goldberg displays a fresh, distinctive, totally winning voice.” —Publishers Weekly
“A rich historical re-creation whose energy and ingenuity evoke memories of EL Doctorow’s classic Ragtime, Stephen Milhauser’s Pulitzer Prize winner Martin Dressler and Thomas McMahon’s forgotten picturesque mini masterpiece McKay’s Bees. A fine novel …. And a quantum leap forward for the gifted Goldberg.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred)
What listeners say about Wickett's Remedy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Patricia B Tripoli
- 12-30-06
An Odd Little Tale
This really was an odd little tale. Enjoyable, but odd. The central theme of the flu epidemic during 1918 takes a young woman to a marriage, to becoming a widow, to a career of fighting that epidemic. Sprinkled in and out are spots for a soft drink the widow's husband had created.
The characters get confusing as the settings are so diverse. The soda pop vignettes are a bit distracting as they lend little to the main theme.
Overall, this was a pleasant listen. Don't expect much and you won't be dissappointed. but it is nice enough.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Susan
- 11-02-05
hard to finish
I enjoyed Bee Season and was looking forward to Myla Goldberg's next book, but I did not enjoy this story. I found it quite boring and I still don't understand what the plot was supposed to be. As an audible book I found the parts of the story that were interviews, tours or newsclippings very confusing when they disgressed from the main story. I forced myself to finish the book, but was disappointed that it never seemed to amount to anything.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Kim Meseck
- 02-27-07
Wickett's Remedy
I am sad to say that I really did not enjoy this book very much. The audio clips of the news reels were funny and well done; but the story was just bland and not very interesting to me.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Nicole H
- 09-20-07
confusing to hear
I think this book has an interesting storyline but it got confusing to listen to it. There wasn't enough information to let you know "when" each chapter was taking place. I got a little bored with it and feel I missed the sense of the plot and where she was intending to go with it...and it's un-abridged!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
- Kathleen
- 01-29-08
Confusing
Seems like Myla may be trying to be all things to all people? The story lines and timeframe changes interlaced with voices of the dead is hard to follow and then just annoying. Wonder how it translates in print...by the end she really hasn't said much which is a shame because it starts with some promise and clearly the author has done research. Too bad...was just glad to be done with it!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Daved Baker
- 01-14-06
Better as an audiobook
I haven't seen the printed version, but the unique way the audible reading is structured (as well as the competence of the orator) surely makes the listening experience superior to reading it. Though the story changes directions midway through and seems to get lost at the end, listening to it was a pleasure.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tess_W
- 03-21-21
too much junk detracts from story
comments from the dead, not even relevant to the story in the margins? Advertisements and diary entries for QD soda? not relevant! word to the author: FOCUS
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Howzer
- 07-10-22
Remake this audiobook! Narration is AWFUL!
I love Myla Goldberg’s writing. Wickett’s Remedy is one of my favorite books of all time. BUT the narration of this book is AWFUL! Myla’s voice is exactly like Lisa Simpson’s. So listening to this high pitched cartoony voice took away so much of the power and drama of this story. I was severely disappointed.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- bee geek
- 12-17-05
A great listen!
I started reading this book in paper format while wandering around B&N one day, and realized about 1/4 through that it would make an awesome audiobook if done well. And what a success! Myla's reading, the hushed asides, the sound effects, and the dramatizations all make this a highly entertaining read. I found it not at all difficult to follow or understand. Ms. Goldberg's writing is divinely descriptive, and her premise is one of the most usual and creative I've yet encountered. Please give this a try! :)
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
- Jen
- 01-12-06
Disappointing
I loved Bee Season and looked forward to this book, but it was uninteresting, loosely pulled together, and had an unsatifying end. Come to think of it, there were lots of unsatisfying ends. This book was just way too rambling for my tastes.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!