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The Hummingbird: A Novel Audiobook
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Publisher Description
From the author of the acclaimed The Curiosity comes a compelling and moving story of compassion, courage, and redemption.
Deborah Birch is a seasoned hospice nurse whose daily work requires courage and compassion. But her skills and experience are tested in new and dramatic ways when her easygoing husband, Michael, returns from his third deployment to Iraq haunted by nightmares, anxiety, and rage. She is determined to help him heal, and to restore the tender, loving marriage they once had.
At the same time, Deborah’s primary patient is Barclay Reed, a retired history professor and expert in the Pacific Theater of World War II whose career ended in academic scandal. Alone in the world, the embittered professor is dying. As Barclay begrudgingly comes to trust Deborah, he tells her stories from that long-ago war, which help her find a way to help her husband battle his demons.
Told with piercing empathy and heartbreaking realism, The Hummingbird is a masterful story of loving commitment, service to country, and absolution through wisdom and forgiveness.
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“Narrators Elyse Mirto and John H. Mayer add liveliness to Kiernan’s moving story about healing and redemption…Though the story is told from Deborah’s perspective, Mirto’s sensitive performance allows each character to grow in the listener’s imagination. Her low, almost husky voice reveals a wide range of feeling, from competence to desperation, from passion to fear. At the end of each chapter, Mayer enters to narrate a second, related story. While the connection takes a few chapters to become clear, once it does, Mayer’s baritone is a welcome addition.”
— AudioFile
Quotes
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“Stephen Kiernan writes with surefooted mastery and patience.”
— Peter Heller, New York Times bestselling author -
“Kiernan’s second novel is a remarkably touching, insightful and timely revelation. His straightforward and incredibly resourceful heroine bridges several powerful stories of life and death that explore the cost of courage and the true meaning of heroism. Without downplaying or trivializing the heart-rending subject matter, or pandering to maudlin sentiments, this novel manages to maintain a tone that is illuminating, uplifting, and ultimately redemptive.”
— RT Book Reviews (4½ stars) -
“This many-faceted, thought-provoking story prompts soul-searching about life, war, and death.”
— Booklist -
“[An] ambitious second novel…[especially] the compelling excerpts of Reed’s manuscript about Japanese pilot Ichiro Soga’s mission over Oregon and his subsequent peacetime visits. Readers with an interest in World War II would find this content thought provoking.”
— Library Journal -
“The Hummingbird is a novel that shares its unexpected gifts and teaches us that surrender is a part of love and that giving away our weapons is the first step to peace.”
— Mary Morris, author of The Jazz Palace
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About Stephen P. Kiernan
Stephen P. Kiernan is an author of fiction and nonfiction. Over his twenty-plus years as a journalist, he has won numerous awards, including the Brechner Center’s Freedom of Information Award, the Scripps Howard Award for Distinguished Service to the First Amendment, and a George Polk Award. He is a graduate of Middlebury College, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop
About Elyse Mirto
John H. Mayer, author and Earphones Award–winning narrator, is a character actor whose voice has been heard on numerous commercials, animated programs, audiobooks, and narrations including E! Entertainment’s Celebrity Profiles. He was a five-year member of the Groundlings comedy theater company in Los Angeles. He is also the co-author of Radio Rocket Boy, an award-winning short film.