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Blackbird House

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Blackbird House

By: Alice Hoffman
Narrated by: John Lee, Xe Sands, Amy Rubinate, Richard Powers, Bernadette Dunne, Tavia Gilbert, Cassandra Campbell, Hillary Huber
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About this listen

Hoffman follows her celebrated bestseller The Probable Future with an evocative work that traces the lives of the various occupants of an old Massachusetts house over a span of two hundred years.

In a rare and gorgeous departure, beloved novelist Alice Hoffman weaves a web of tales, all set in Blackbird House. This small farm on the outer reaches of Cape Cod is a place that is as bewitching and alive as the characters we meet: Violet, a brilliant girl who is in love with books and with a man destined to betray her; Lysander Wynn, attacked by a halibut as big as a horse, certain that his life is ruined until a boarder wearing red boots arrives to change everything; Maya Cooper, who does not understand the true meaning of the love between her mother and father until it is nearly too late. From the time of the British occupation of Massachusetts to our own modern world, family after family's lives are inexorably changed, not only by the people they love but by the lives they lead inside Blackbird House.

These interconnected narratives are as intelligent as they are haunting, as luminous as they are unusual. Inside Blackbird House more than a dozen men and women learn how love transforms us and how it is the one lasting element in our lives. The past both dissipates and remains contained inside the rooms of Blackbird House, where there are terrible secrets, inspired beauty, and, above all else, a spirit of coming home.

Narrated by John Lee, Se Sands, Amy Rubinate, Paul Michael Garcia, Bernadette Dunne, Tavia Gilbert, Cassandra Campbell, Hillary Huber, Kirsten Potter, Carrington McDuffie, Kate Reading, and Laura Hicks.

©2004 Alice Hoffman (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Magical Realism Massachusetts
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What listeners say about Blackbird House

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful writing but poor narration

Hoffman's writing is so clever, poignant and original. I stuck with this book if only for that. The narrator's though, especially the first one were awful. Stilted and jarring. I would only recommend this book for actual reading. Very hard to listen through with these narrator's.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting listen

Loved the happy statically element and how the stories linked together. Felt like I wanted more details from some of the stories, like they were cut short and that was a little unsatisfying.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great short stories that are linked. Very evocativ

This is beautifully written and brings to life the inhabitants of a house over a few hundred years. Very enjoyable.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Got me through isolation

I loved this story. Ive been Confined to a room for 10 days with covid. Thank god for audiobooks & their free books

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

enjoyable

Alice Hoffman never fails to bring her stories to life. I liked the way it was all based around the same house but hundreds of years apart.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

unexpected...

I'm not usually drawn towards short stories but gave this book a go as it sounded intriguing.
Wonderful narration and each story drew me in very cleverly.
I loved it.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Unusual and interesting .

a story about the inhabitants of one house throughout changing time periods... all the stories' characters and challenges different but the house and land the main character.. I liked it a lot! ..the only reason I gave a 4 not 5 for the story was I wanted it to be a bit longer .!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Super collection of entwined short stories

Really enjoyed this more than I thought I would. The marmite house that keeps hooking into different Peoples lives.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Unusual book

This was a very different kind of book. It consists of several short stories all about the residents of one house over many years. Although I enjoyed it I did find that sometimes I wanted more information about how a particular character/family fared. Also somethings were not clearly explained. A white blackbird featured in most if not all of the stories yet the significance was never really explained. Was it supposed to be the spirit of the boy who died at the beginning of the story? I didn’t really understand the last chapter either so felt rather underwhelmed with the ending. Still all that being said I’m glad I listened to if

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

brilliant book

The book was great and had a great storyline. It was easy to differentiated between the different story lines due to the change in narrator for each. However, some of the narrators did the story no justice but some were great.

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