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A Home for Friendless Women: A Novel Audiobook
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In Victorian-era Louisville, the Home for Friendless Women is run by benevolent benefactors with one mission: to reform the fallen women who live there into pious mothers and wives through religious lessons and hard work.
For Ruth, a college student who’s expelled after a campus sexual assault, the Home is a purgatory to endure before she can get her life back. For Belle, a queer sex worker who exchanged her bed at a brothel for one in the Home, it’s a safe place to rest her feet until she can track down her missing lover. And for Minnie, the daughter of the religious couple who founded the charity, the Home is her mother’s idea of a cautionary tale.
But as Minnie prepares for the Home’s silver anniversary party, she finds herself questioning the true cost of good intentions—and grappling with a terrible secret that has the power to unravel the Home entirely.
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"Founded in 1876, the Home for Friendless Women in Louisville offered refuge to “fallen” women—those who were pregnant and had no other options. Intrigued by the cryptic historical records, debut author Hill creates a story spanning from 1877 to 1901 and imagines the personalities and circumstances of several of the mothers (“inmates”), such as bluestocking Rose and queer, worldly-wise sex worker Belle, as they pass through the Home. . . . The memorable characters who emerge from the pages leave little doubt in the reader’s mind that while they may be oppressed, they aren’t fools. . . . Share this with those seeking historical novels that focus on women’s lives and social inequity."
— Booklist
Quotes
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Hill is deliciously unsentimental and humanist in her rendering of these women and their world, resulting in a historical novel that feels both accurate and strikingly modern. A delight from start to finish.
— Rufi Thorpe, author of The Knockout Queen, a PEN/Faulkner finalist -
Hill is deliciously unsentimental and humanist in her rendering of these women and their world, resulting in a historical novel that feels both accurate and strikingly modern. A delight from start to finish.
— Rufi Thorpe, author of The Knockout Queen, a PEN/Faulkner finalist -
With meticulous research and concise writing, Kelly Hill draws us into a world where—as is so often the case—good intentions belie painful shortcomings on both the individual and societal levels. Realized deftly and with an unflinching hand, her character studies entertain and enlighten. A great read on so many levels.
— David Dominé, author of A Dark Room in Glitter Ball City -
With meticulous research and concise writing, Kelly Hill draws us into a world where—as is so often the case—good intentions belie painful shortcomings on both the individual and societal levels. Realized deftly and with an unflinching hand, her character studies entertain and enlighten. A great read on so many levels.
— David Dominé, author of A Dark Room in Glitter Ball City
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About the Narrators
Amy Landon, Earphones Award–winning narrator, is a voice artist and classically trained actress with numerous film, television, and off-Broadway stage credits. Her voice can also be heard on many television and radio commercials. She has an easy facility with dialects, which she also coaches and teaches, and she is happy to find her lifelong obsession with books pairing up with her acting and vocal work. Her narration of Texts from Jane Eyre placed as a finalist for the Audie Award for Best Humor Narration in 2016.
Gabra Zackman is an actress, author, and narrator who has won several AudioFile Earphones Awards. She was educated at Northwestern University. A classically trained actress, she has appeared in theaters all over the country as well as on film and television.
Born in the United States and based in France, Hope Newhouse comes from a stage background ranging from medieval farce to contemporary drama to children’s theater. Now more often found behind a microphone, her warm and engaging voice has been heard on commercials, video games, e-learning programs, institutional films, and audiobooks.