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Sign up todayThe Guest Book
A Novel
Narrator
Orlagh Cassidy
This audiobook uses AI narration.
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Length
16 hours 42 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“The Guest Book is an exquisitely written multi-generational novel about the Milton family. They are a family of wealth and privilege. Through the generations, the money dwindles away and the last generation is faced with the only option of selling it. The house sits on its own island and holds many secrets from the past generations. The characters are multi-dimensional and the relationships are complex. The narration of this book is pitch-perfect. The reader has a graceful, soothing voice that carries a tone of good breeding. Although I am glad that I listened to this book, I often found myself wishing that I could highlight some phrases and beautifully constructed sentences. This book was a delight to my ears. Sarah Blake is an extremely gifted writer. I look forward to reading many more of her books in the future. ”
— Melinda • Buttonwood Books and Toys
Bookseller recommendation
“I began The Guest Book expecting an excellent family saga set, in part, on an island in Maine. The magic of the family home is palpable as three generations build loyalty, identity, and memories there. But what I read was far, far more. This is a history of our country’s evolution through matters of race, class, and politics, and it relates compellingly to our current struggles with those topics as the characters grapple with the underpinnings of privilege, familial love, and morality. Sarah Blake has written a stunning and complex novel that lingers in your mind long after the last page.”
— Dana Brigham • Brookline Booksmith
Bookseller recommendation
“Initially this book grabbed me because it takes place in Maine and New York City, two places I love, and it seemed like a good summer read, which it is. It is a great family saga, with classic and unique secret twists, but it also deals with political and racial topics that resonate with us today. ”
— Kate • All Good Books
"Orlagh Cassidy narrates Blake's beautifully written multigenerational story of love and lies with consummate skill. Elegant and clear, distant yet passionate, she helps listeners discover the quirks in characters' personalities and explore their motives, both evident and hidden." — AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner
This program includes a bonus conversation with the author.
The thought-provoking new audiobook by New York Times bestselling author Sarah Blake
A lifetime of secrets. A history untold.
No. It is a simple word, uttered on a summer porch in 1936. And it will haunt Kitty Milton for the rest of her life. Kitty and her husband, Ogden, are both from families considered the backbone of the country. But this refusal will come to be Kitty’s defining moment, and its consequences will ripple through the Milton family for generations. For while they summer on their island in Maine, anchored as they are to the way things have always been, the winds of change are beginning to stir.
In 1959 New York City, two strangers enter the Miltons’ circle. One captures the attention of Kitty’s daughter, while the other makes each of them question what the family stands for. This new generation insists the times are changing. And in one night, everything does.
So much so that in the present day, the third generation of Miltons doesn’t have enough money to keep the island in Maine. Evie Milton’s mother has just died, and as Evie digs into her mother’s and grandparents’ history, what she finds is a story as unsettling as it is inescapable, the story that threatens the foundation of the Milton family myth.
Moving through three generations and back and forth in time, The Guest Book asks how we remember and what we choose to forget. It shows the untold secrets we inherit and pass on, unknowingly echoing our parents and grandparents. Sarah Blake’s triumphant novel tells the story of a family and a country that buries its past in quiet, until the present calls forth a reckoning.
“Sarah Blake is such a beautiful writer she can make any world shimmer." — Paula McLain, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife and Love and Ruin
Sarah Blake is the author of the novels Grange House and the New York Times bestseller The Postmistress. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two sons.
Orlagh Cassidy is the winner of the 2009 Best Voice in Children & Family Listening and the 2008 and 2011 Best Voice in Mystery & Suspense. She’s narrated for Jacqueline Winspear, James Patterson, Erica Spindler, Beth Harbison, and Frank Herbert, among others.
Cassidy’s Broadway credits include Present Laughter with Frank Langella, Our Country's Good, and Suddenly Last Summer. She has appeared Off-Broadway in Bright Ideas and The Field at The Irish Rep (Drama Desk Nomination). She was "Doris Wolfe" on The Guiding Light and her other television appearances include Sex and the City, Law & Order, Law and Order SVU, and Elementary. She also appeared in the films Purple Violets, Young Adult, and Definitely, Maybe.
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