Start gifting
Libro.fm for Business
Start a membership, get two free audiobooks
Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create account
Limited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks!
Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Sign up today
Gift audiobook credit bundles
You pick the number of credits, your recipient picks the audiobooks, and your local bookstore is supported by your purchase.
Start giftingWe Will Never Forget
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreThese are the observations of war, seen through the eyes of the Observer, a gentle toy, a mascot, who has accompanied determined men and women, old and young, through the bewildering, realistic experiences of war.
The Observer witnesses the lives of ordinary people, their anguish, camaraderie, and hopes. So their sky, flowers, insects, and people are not forgotten but will survive.
Gennie de Lange, being dyslexic, has drawn on the artistic gift she was given. She grew up during WWII in her grandparents’ vast house and forested garden. Being taken to the ballet to see Peter and the Wolf when she was tiny reinforced her beliefs—which many children share—that toys and animals understand everything.
Tales of war from her father were real. He had led a New Zealand dive bomber squadron, from which only half returned. The camaraderie, dare devil escapades, laughter, determination, and sacrifice that everybody was prepared to make and endure were part of life. Her father always felt he was here on borrowed time.
For Gennie, life is a gamble. Being a ceramic artist, every time she puts her work in the kiln is a risk . The glazes that she paints with are all varying shades of powdery grey. After hours in the kiln at very high temperatures, her painted on tiles emerge transformed like stained glass. Her exhibitions sell out. The viewers relate to the subjects personally, being from the dramas of their own lives.
Now in her eighties , she has turned to using her own ceramic paintings as the background. The Observer, who is a worn velvet antique toy, views the devastation of war.