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The Eights Audiobook, by Joanna Miller Play Audiobook Sample

The Eights Audiobook

The Eights Audiobook, by Joanna Miller Play Audiobook Sample
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Read By: Alix Dunmore Publisher: Penguin Audio Listen Time: at 1.0x Speed 6.83 hours at 1.5x Speed 5.13 hours at 2.0x Speed Release Date: April 2025 Format: Unabridged Audiobook ISBN: 9798217019373

Quick Stats About this Audiobook

Total Audiobook Chapters:

39

Longest Chapter Length:

23:42 minutes

Shortest Chapter Length:

09 seconds

Average Chapter Length:

15:37 minutes

Audiobooks by this Author:

1
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Publisher Description

They knew they were changing history.

They didn’t know they would change each other.

Following the unlikely friendship of four women in the first female class at Oxford, their unshakeable bond in the face of male contempt, and their coming of age in a world forever changed by World War I.

“Entertaining and moving…I came to love these four women as though they were my sisters.”—TRACY CHEVALIER, #1 New York Times bestselling author


Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its one-thousand-year history, Oxford University officially admits female students. Burning with dreams of equality, four young women move into neighboring rooms in Corridor 8. Beatrice, Dora, Marianne, and Otto—collectively known as The Eights—come from all walks of life, each driven by their own motives, each holding tight to their secrets, and are thrown into an unlikely, unshakable friendship.

Dora was never meant to go to university, but, after losing both her brother and her fiancé on the battlefield, has arrived in their place. Politically-minded Beatrice, daughter of a famous suffragette, sees Oxford as a chance to make her own way - and some friends her own age. Otto was a nurse during the war but is excited to return to her socialite lifestyle in Oxford where she hopes to find distraction from the memories that haunt her. And finally Marianne, the quiet, clever daughter of a village pastor, who has a shocking secret she must hide from everyone, even her new friends, if she is to succeed.

Among the historic spires, and in the long shadow of the Great War, the four women must navigate and support one another in a turbulent world in which misogyny is rife, influenza is still a threat, and the ghosts of the Great War don’t always remain dead.

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"I fell in love with this book from the first chapter, what an accomplished debut. Joanna Miller pens a vivid portrait of the lives of young women finding their way in a man's world under the long shadow of the Great War. It’s dripping with historical detail. I could smell and see the cobbled streets of Oxford and feel the chilly disapproval of society towards women attempting to educate themselves. What I adored most though was the life-affirming friendships. It made me want to pick up the phone to my best girlfriends … The true strength of this novel is the realisation of how powerful female solidarity can be. A joyous anthem to friendship. I am going to buy this novel for my closest friends."

— Kate Thompson, author of The Little Wartime Library

Quotes

  • The Eights is an entertaining and moving imagining of four smart women dealing with the engrained misogyny of the time. I came to love and admire the four as if they were my sisters.

    — Tracy Chevalier, author of The Girl with the Pearl Earring
  • The Eights is an entertaining and moving imagining of four smart women dealing with the engrained misogyny of the time. I came to love and admire the four as if they were my sisters.

    — Tracy Chevalier, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Glassmaker
  • A story about women taking their place in a man’s world, The Eights beautifully captures the power of friendship and love in the wake of extraordinary loss. It was a pleasure to read.

    — Pip Williams, New York Times bestselling author of The Dictionary of Lost Words
  • The Eights is my book of the year. What a fantastic read, I adored it!

    — Jill Mansell, Sunday Times bestselling author of Rumor Has It
  • A story about women taking their place in a man’s world, The Eights beautifully captures the power of friendship and love in the wake of extraordinary loss. It was a pleasure to read.

    — Pip Williams, New York Times bestselling author of The Dictionary of Lost Words
  • My book of the year. The writing is wonderful, the subject fascinating and the storylines utterly absorbing. I’m so sad I’ve finished it. I loved everything about this book. I ADORED it.

    — Jill Mansell, Sunday Times bestselling author of Rumor Has It
  • I so enjoyed The Eights and became completely involved in the lives of the four pioneering heroines whose friendship is the beating heart of the book.

    — Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures
  • Witty and charming … an atmospheric testament to the power of friendship and the tenacious young women who led the charge for equality of opportunity.

    — Jessica Bull, author of A Fortune Most Fatal
  • Witty and charming … an atmospheric testament to the power of friendship and the tenacious young women who led the charge for equality of opportunity.

    — Jessica Bull, author of A Fortune Most Fatal
  • I fell in love with this book from the first chapter… A vivid portrait of young women finding their way in a man's world under the long shadow of the Great War. It’s dripping with historical detail...The true strength of this novel is the realisation of how powerful female solidarity can be. A joyous anthem to friendship, it made me want to pick up the phone to my best girlfriends.

    — Kate Thompson, author of The Little Wartime Library
  • A heartfelt, thoughtful and engaging book about the first women students to go to Oxford University - their friendships, their secrets, their ambitions and their opponents - in the tremulous, haunted years immediately after the First World War. Joanna Miller brings 1920s Oxford to life with a vivid immediacy and makes us care deeply about four young women who find themselves pioneers in a strange new world, trying to find a way forward in the aftermath of war. A thoroughly lovely debut that will win many hearts, with its celebration of friendship and the persistence of hope.

    — Joanna Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Whalebone Theatre
  • A heartfelt, thoughtful and engaging book about the first women students to go to Oxford University - their friendships, their secrets, their ambitions and their opponents - in the tremulous, haunted years immediately after the First World War. Joanna Miller brings 1920s Oxford to life with a vivid immediacy and makes us care deeply about four young women who find themselves pioneers in a strange new world, trying to find a way forward in the aftermath of war. A thoroughly lovely debut that will win many hearts, with its celebration of friendship and the persistence of hope.

    — Joanna Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Whalebone Theatre
  • A story about women taking their place in a man’s world, The Eights beautifully captures the power of friendship and love in the wake of extraordinary loss. It was a pleasure to read.

    — Pip Williams, New York Times bestselling author of The Dictionary of Lost Words
  • Miller’s engrossing debut follows the first women undergraduates eligible to earn degrees at Oxford University… It’s a memorable tale of a fast-changing world.

    — Publishers Weekly
  • A heartfelt, thoughtful and engaging book about the first women students to go to Oxford University - their friendships, their secrets, their ambitions and their opponents - in the tremulous, haunted years immediately after the First World War. Joanna Miller brings 1920s Oxford to life with a vivid immediacy and makes us care deeply about four young women who find themselves pioneers in a strange new world, trying to find a way forward in the aftermath of war. A thoroughly lovely debut that will win many hearts, with its celebration of friendship and the persistence of hope.

    — Joanna Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Whalebone Theatre
  • My book of the year. The writing is wonderful, the subject fascinating and the storylines utterly absorbing. I’m so sad I’ve finished it. I loved everything about this book. I ADORED it.

    — Jill Mansell, Sunday Times bestselling author of Rumor Has It
  • I so enjoyed The Eights and became completely involved in the lives of the four pioneering heroines whose friendship is the beating heart of the book.

    — Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures
  • I fell in love with this book from the first chapter… A vivid portrait of young women finding their way in a man's world under the long shadow of the Great War. It’s dripping with historical detail...The true strength of this novel is the realisation of how powerful female solidarity can be. A joyous anthem to friendship, it made me want to pick up the phone to my best girlfriends.

    — Kate Thompson, author of The Little Wartime Library
  • Miller’s engrossing debut follows the first women undergraduates eligible to earn degrees at Oxford University. The four students, housed together in Corridor Eight at St. Hugh’s College in 1920, take to calling themselves the Eights. They’re unlikely allies, a novelistic trope that Miller transcends through insightful and surprising characterizations…. Miller supplements her nuanced group portrait with bracing depictions of lingering WWI trauma. It’s a memorable tale of a fast-changing world.

    — Publishers Weekly
  • Miller’s engrossing debut follows the first women undergraduates eligible to earn degrees at Oxford University. …. They’re unlikely allies, a novelistic trope that Miller transcends through insightful and surprising characterizations…. It’s a memorable tale of a fast-changing world.

    — Publishers Weekly
  • Witty and charming … an atmospheric testament to the power of friendship and the tenacious young women who led the charge for equality of opportunity.

    — Jessica Bull, author of A Fortune Most Fatal
  • Readers will root for the well-written characters and share in their trials. Recommended for readers who enjoy historical fiction as well as women’s fiction.

    — Library Journal
  • The Eights is an entertaining and moving imagining of four smart women dealing with the engrained misogyny of the time. I came to love these four women as though they were my sisters.

    — Tracy Chevalier, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Glassmaker
  • A Goodreads Most Anticipated Book of Spring A Book Riot Best Historical Fiction of AprilA Brit & Co. New April Book to Add to Your Calendar STATA Christian Science Monitor Best Read of April

  • The Eights is an entertaining and moving imagining of four smart women dealing with the engrained misogyny of the time. I came to love these four women as though they were my sisters.

    — Tracy Chevalier, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Glassmaker
  • Author Joanna Miller's latest offers a refreshing, gripping portrait of Oxford in an era of great change. Four women — the school's first female students — forge unexpected friendships, confront rife misogyny, cling tightly to their secrets, and attempt escaping the ghosts of World War I.

    — Entertainment Weekly
  • Heartfelt and engaging…

    — Woman’s World
  • Miller’s engrossing debut follows the first women undergraduates eligible to earn degrees at Oxford University. …. They’re unlikely allies, a novelistic trope that Miller transcends through insightful and surprising characterizations…. It’s a memorable tale of a fast-changing world.

    — Publishers Weekly
  • Miller describes campus life in vivid detail, and her protagonists are complex, with hidden motivations and insecurities that are gradually revealed as their friendships develop. This pairs well with Helen Simonson's The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club and Kate Quinn's The Briar Club.

    — Booklist
  • The past feels aston­ishingly present in Joanna Miller’s debut…Rigorously researched, The Eights bril­liantly synthesizes fact and fiction, and the trials and triumphs of the quartet are deeply relatable. [Surrounding a] debate about whether women have any business being at Oxford ... The Eights is a rewarding read for anyone who enjoys emotional, character-driven narra­tives and for anyone who celebrates impeccable writing. But most of all, it’s for anyone who has ever been told they couldn’t do something but did it anyway.

    — BookPage
  • Impeccably researched and eloquently told, The Eights is steeped in rich history and brings to light a very important time in history. Highly recommended.

    — Fresh Fiction
  • Readers will root for the well-written characters and share in their trials. Recommended for readers who enjoy historical fiction as well as women’s fiction.

    — Library Journal
  • Historical fiction fans will want to flag this buzzy debut, which tells the story of four of the first-ever women to earn degrees at Oxford University.

    — Goodreads

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About Alix Dunmore

Alix Dunmore is a voice talent and audiobook narrator.