White Oleander - Janet Fitch Audiobook

Written by Janet Fitch
Read by Alyssa Bresnahan
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 96 Kbps
Unabridged

Length: 16:25hrs
Publisher: Recorded Books
Release date: 1999

Astrid is the only child of a single mother, Ingrid, a brilliant, obsessed poet who wields her luminous beauty to intimidate and manipulate men. Astrid worships her mother and cherishes their private world full of ritual and mystery - but their idyll is shattered when Astrid’s mother falls apart over a lover. Deranged by rejection, Ingrid murders the man, using White Oleander, and is sentenced to life in prison.

White Oleander is the story of Astrid’s journey through a series of foster homes and her efforts to find a place for herself in impossible circumstances. Each home is its own universe, with a new set of laws and lessons to be learned. With determination and humor, Astrid confronts the challenges of loneliness and poverty, tragedy and strives to learn who a motherless child in an indifferent world can become. Oprah Winfrey enjoyed this gripping first novel so much that she not only made it her book club pick, she wanted to narrate the audio release, she did do a 6hr abridged version.

“Narrator Alyssa Bresnahan has a young voice, yet her clipped, precise account keeps the reader utterly absorbed. Bresnahan boldly distinguishes among a diverse cast of characters. Thanks to Bresnahan’s powerful recording, we surrender to the novel’s intensity–willing this young woman’s survival with all our hearts so that she can use, reshape and finally own the weighty baggage she brings to adulthood.”— AudioFile,

This is my rip from CD in 2015. It was a library discard and disk 14 was flawed so there are some rough patches in the last chapters. Chapter 31 has some missing words when Astrid confronts her mother about her father. It is re-tagged.

I no longer have the CD’s and it is now impossible to get.