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House of Orphans

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House of Orphans

By: Helen Dunmore
Narrated by: Jilly Bond
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About this listen

 Finland, 1901. Eeva, the young orphaned daughter of a revolutionary, is sent from the orphanage to work as housekeeper for Thomas, a widowed country doctor. Her enigmatic presence disturbs Thomas as much as it fascinates him, shattering all the certainties of his life. Eeva longs to be back in Helsinki with the comrades of her childhood, particularly Lauri. But life there is full of danger. The power of the Russian Empire over its subject peoples is growing more oppressive, but resistance to the Tsar's rule is growing too. Some call such resistance terrorism; others call it a fight for freedom. This spellbinding story of love and loneliness is also about the tensions that arise in a country emerging into independence.©2006 Helen Dunmore 20th Century Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Romance

Critic Reviews

"Helen Dunmore writes old-fashioned stories with old-fashioned plots about characters you immediately warm to or distrust but either way want to know what happens to them."( The Guardian)
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This was one of the slowest storylines I've ever read! It didn't even have an ending that answered any of the questions the storyline presented. Did the two main characters find one another again. Towards the end of the book, the main male character was arrested. We don't know how this happened. One minute he was with Ava, the main female character, then he was arrested. It made me feel like the author suddenly realised that she needed to make something actually happen. If you like books where the majority of the writing is about what happens in the character's thought processes, this book is for you. If, like me, this drives you crazy, don't pick this book up!

A story with no point

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