Ever since her first novel, "A Woman of Substance," was published in 1979, British novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford has been captivating audiences worldwide. Her heroes and heroines are inspiring and unforgettable, her plots complex and catapulting, her locales transforming familiar places into adventures and bringing exotic places into places as familiar as the ones next door.
Bradford's 27th novel, "Letter from a Stranger," published in the fall of 2011, is available in audiobook format, as are most of her novels.
In the "Letter from a Stranger" audiobook, documentary filmmaker Justine Nolan opens a letter intended for her estranged mother, Deborah, only to encounter a revelation that Deborah has told Justine and her twin, Richard, an egregious lie, the outcome of which guarantees to turn all of their lives upside down, and one which must be resolved immediately.
To further complicate the matter, the letter arrives with no return address, from far away Istanbul. Futile attempts to locate its sender or to gain more knowledge of its contents mandate a journey into Turkey in search of a long-dead, much-beloved family member in effort to reclaim, if at all possible, ten precious years of their past and, more importantly, to secure the futures of the entire family and their loved ones.
There is no time to waste.
"Letter from a Stranger" is filled with natural beauty, splendid detail and visits to exotic places. The rivers and markets of Istanbul come to life for listeners of this audiobook, whether they be on their morning commute, in their armchairs or on a walk through a local park.
Bradford takes readers into lavishly rich places in both present-day America and Turkey, but as herd fans expect, she sends them on a roller-coaster ride that transports them to some of the most heart-wrenching events in world history, creating experiences so vivid that those experiencing Justine Nolan's story come away as seasoned travelers, sojourners in time as well as in space.
The result is an immensely satisfying 13 hours plus spent with narrator Nicola Barber as she takes the listener through Bradford's "Letter from a Stranger" audiobook.
"I thought this was a very good book. I think you might like it, Lisa. About a family torn apart - the mother telling her twin son and daughter upon their graduation from college that their beloved grandmother had died in a plane crash. Ten years later the mother receives a letter that the daughter opens saying she should contact the grandmother. Unfortunately there is no return address on the envelope, but the daughter remembers the person that wrote the letter was a very close friend of her grandmother's and that she lived in Istanbul. So she goes to Istanbul to see if she can find her grandmother that she thought to be dead all these years. Some very interesting family secrets are discovered - mostly concerning Berln during WWII."
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Toby (4 out of 5 stars)